Amazon customer services

GrubbyGirl_2

drjohn67 said:

The cost of living crisis is that I then had to find another £750 because they refused to refund in a timely manner. This at a time when like many my income was frozen and bills rising including winter heating fuel which was 3 times the cost of last year I.e. at a time when many of us can comfortably spare that.

Is it just me or anyone else find this a bit bizarre? You're worried about the cost of living, bills, heating etc etc yet you're buying your son a new iphone and using the cost of living crisis as a reason to complain? You are clearly not struggling if you can afford to do that.

No excuse for what happened and I'd be miffed too, but complaining that the cost of living crisis was the cause of your problems is just not right.  Now if you'd said your grocery shopping wasn't delivered when they claimed it was, and you had to order again so your family could eat and as a result you didn't have enough money to put in the gas meter then I would be extremely sympathetic, but I'm sure your son could have managed without an iphone while you sorted it out

drjohn67

Perhaps the choice of title / wording was suboptimal. I could, and did, afford to pay for an expensive gift as a reward for my son.

However, many people will need to purchase expensive items e.g. phones or computers for self-employed or laptops for school children (in our locality both state schools have expected our kids to have access to their own).

Thought that it was worthwhile highlighting that they might end up out of pocket for a significant period. Experience was that another retailer managed it in 1-2 days when Amazon had 2 successive failed attempts - myself and then my partner (who also had to fight for a refund despite the second courier never actually turning up for her). 

ThumbRemote

Undervalued said:

drjohn67 said:

Amazon. Not marketplace. 

You are correct. I did not need to buy my son a phone. I chose to do so. Again I chose to stretch further to cover the gap. However,  not an unreasonable decision at this time of year. 

The package sent was significantly bigger and heavier than an iPhone. The weight marked was accurate. The packaging was Amazon’s. This supports my opinion that the error was at the warehouse rather than with the courier. 

5weeks to wait for a refund of £750 is a long time. 

I post merely of potential interest for others to decide if such service is acceptable. 

I think not.

So you say, most likely quite truthfully.

However it is not unreasonable for a company to want to investigate in some detail before refunding, particularly when a significant amount is involved, as they are the victim of a crime. 

If they were that bothered they'd investigate quickly. Over five weeks is taking the proverbial. 

p00hsticks

ThumbRemote said:

Undervalued said:

drjohn67 said:

Amazon. Not marketplace. 

You are correct. I did not need to buy my son a phone. I chose to do so. Again I chose to stretch further to cover the gap. However,  not an unreasonable decision at this time of year. 

The package sent was significantly bigger and heavier than an iPhone. The weight marked was accurate. The packaging was Amazon’s. This supports my opinion that the error was at the warehouse rather than with the courier. 

5weeks to wait for a refund of £750 is a long time. 

I post merely of potential interest for others to decide if such service is acceptable. 

I think not.

So you say, most likely quite truthfully.

However it is not unreasonable for a company to want to investigate in some detail before refunding, particularly when a significant amount is involved, as they are the victim of a crime. 

If they were that bothered they'd investigate quickly. Over five weeks is taking the proverbial. 

Unfortunately you only have to look through this and other boards on this forum to see how frequently this scam now seems to be happening.... chances are you are just one in a queue of hundreds (thousands ?) of similar cases

Lavendyr

Honestly why is everyone jumping on the OP for this?!

There were deals on iphones on Amazon the last couple of weeks. It's a horrible situation to be in. The timeframe for the amount of money to be out of pocket is really poor. Maybe the ref to cost of living was inappropriate but that doesn't take away from the underlying issue surely?

MattMattMattUK

Lavendyr said:

Honestly why is everyone jumping on the OP for this?!

Because it is nothing to do with contempt or cost or living. A potential crime has occurred and te supplier is investigating before handing over money. A person has decided to spend money that they now state they are struggling to afford, neither of that in a cost of living crisis or contempt.

Lavendyr said:

There were deals on iphones on Amazon the last couple of weeks. 

OK, not relevant though.

Lavendyr said:

It's a horrible situation to be in. The timeframe for the amount of money to be out of pocket is really poor. 

It is far from ideal, but also understandable. Potentially a crime has occurred, any supplier is going to investigate that rather than just handing over £750, or goods to that value.

Lavendyr said:

Maybe the ref to cost of living was inappropriate but that doesn't take away from the underlying issue surely?

The cost for living crisis was entirely irrelevant and an obvious appeal to emotion, the same with claiming contempt. It is a potentially criminal and customer service issue, however the OP did not ask for advice along those lines, but instead chose to try to sensationalise what was happening, add an appeal to emotions and throw around accusations.

drjohn67

Stepped off the judgement wagon for a number of days. 

Let us just try to imagine that I was referring to other peoples cash flow concerns. 

Well. I worked hard for 30 years including 110 hours a week as a junior doctor. Yes, awake admitting and treating patients non stop from 0800 Fri to 2000 Mon without any sleep. The UK sought exemption from the human rights act to allow it. We were obliged to do it to achieve full registration and the GMC seemingly did not care about the risk to patients as they went along with it. Hence, the rush to judgement does not induce any guilt in me. I earned the right to spend the money on the phone and could afford it.

However, as mentioned other people may have to make expensive purchases to enable self employed business or for children's education. They might struggle with losing the money for 6 weeks.

drjohn67

Finally agreed to a refund today. 

However, the process was painful.

Waited 6 weeks for them to accept that they should have received the package from me (collected by them 6 weeks ago and they claimed not to have opened it yet!)

Call back service was offline again.

The number provided through the Amazon customer services link was dead.

Two online chats were ended mid-call despite me remaining totally polite. 

They then asked me to wait another 30 days which would have taken me past the return date.

They then asked me to raise an incident form - I did this twice one month ago and the promised 2 day responses never materialised and when raised to customer services ignored again.

The final success was achieved after I pointed out that I had taken screenshots of the calls being cut off prematurely - I did that as my recent experience told me that they would likely hang up if they didn’t want the hassle of dealing with a refund.

Now must wait 5 days for it to appear in my account.

I can afford to do so although as mentioned others may struggle.

drjohn67

Regarding the level of customer service - we are all free to reach a conclusion about whether it was helpful or contemptible.

drjohn67

“ A person has decided to spend money that they now state they are struggling to afford,”

Where did I say those words? 

I did not like the effect on my cashflow especially as other bills were coming in. I am fortunate that I could transfer funds to cover it. Others may not.