Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Hard lesson learned re: Amazon

My husband has surgery earlier this month and was still unable to be left alone for long periods of time. I have shopped on-line before, love having packages just show up on my front porch. When Greg's daughter-in-law sent a list for the grandkids with the suggestion that I shop on Amazon I thought it was a GREAT idea!

I popped over, found the things we wanted and ordered. Voila, done without any hassle. They guaranteed arrival before Christmas, we had 8 full days so there was a fudge factor allowance in case there was a glitch.

One of the books arrived on the 20th. Checked email and found a note saying that they'd split the shipment, the rest would arrive by the 24th. Cutting it close as that's Christmas Eve and that's when the grandkids were coming, but they promised.

On the 22nd I called as it hadn't arrived. On-line tracker showed only that the carrier had been notified to pick up. I was starting to do a mini-panic.

The person I talked to (from India I believe based on accent), was rather abrupt. He said they were getting a lot of calls and that my shipment was like everyone else's and it would arrive by Christmas. The carriers were very busy and they were not all scanning the items thus it was not showing on their tracker that it been picked up but it would arrive. Basically he said I was wasting his time calling. Frustrating as it seemed he didn't even bother to check anything, just spouted his standard lines.

Christmas eve day... no packages. But the mail was running behind, we saw trucks zipping up and down the road delivering packages and knew they worked late to make sure the packages arrived.

The kids came. The kids left. No Christmas presents from Amazon. The grandkids were so good about it (probably because the parents had warned them on the way over that their Christmas presents might not have made it to our doorstep). Disappointed but good. I was so frustrated. We must have sneaked outside 20 times to see if maybe the packages had been delivered.

What a rip. That is the last time I will order presents on-line from Amazon. I know that only allowing a week for delivery at Christmas is a risky proposition. However, I think if when I called their so-called help line someone should have done some cursory checking. It they had followed up, the presents would have been found and delivered. I used to manage an area where we dealt with similar situations. I am well aware of what COULD have been done.

I'm not giving up on ordering on-line. I just won't be shopping Amazon anymore. If it hadn't been for my recovering husband, I wouldn't have allowed Christmas to sneak up so quickly. I'll know in the future to shop earlier...

I sent Amazon an email, not yelling, not nasty, but definitely to the point, regarding the shipment. It's been 12 hours. I haven't heard back from them yet. They're going further and further in the dog house with me.

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