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6 Ways Amazon Sucks
First, the Good
Amazon is the biggest threat to online retailers in, well, ever. Amazon’s share of the US ecommerce market hit 49%.
To put things in perspective, this is more than Amazon’s top three competitors combined, with eBay coming in at 6.6%, Apple at 3.9%, and Walmart at 3.7% (source).
Amazon has incredible transaction volume. Shoppers purchased more than 100 million products during the Amazon Prime day in 2018 (CNBC, 2018).
But Amazon’s massive size also means they have vulnerabilities.
What Qualifies Us to Write This Article
We (Frictionless Commerce) specialize in conversion optimization, which means online retailers hire us to understand the behavior of their site visitors to improve online experiences. We do this by paying close attention to online buyer psychology.
We’ve been studying Amazon for years. And while they may look intimidating Amazon has some serious vulnerabilities.
What We’ve Learned Observing Amazon
Reason #1 Why Amazon Sucks
Amazon product page layout sucks. There is one Amazon formula and no matter what product you’re looking at (off-brand $12 baby diapers [link] or a $15,615 bracelet [link]) the experience is the same. In school, I remember reading how in the communist Soviet Union schools didn’t have names. They had numbers, like School 12229. This was done so a school with a catchy name wouldn’t stand out. Amazon is a little bit like that. It’s the communist version of capitalism.
Reason #2
Brand search on Amazon sucks:
Reason #3
Search results on Amazon are all about the lowest prices.
Since you're liking this article on all the ways Amazon sucks you're gonna love the conversion ideas I share in my weekly newsletter. Signup below. If it isn't as good as I'm making it sound unsubscribe with one click.
Reason #4
If you are in research mode Amazon isn’t the best method:
Reason #5
Some of the products on Amazon are extremely low quality. I purchased and then quickly donated a video studio setup built using items from Amazon. They were totally low quality and packing and sending them back would cost more in lost productivity than the items themselves. It was a terrible experience.
Reason #6
One of the biggest benefits of Amazon for buyers was that checkout was easy peasy since all your details were stored. Have you seen the new Google Express checkout experience (link to
What Amazon does great is customer service. But, that pillar has an Achilles heel too because once the market starts putting the squeeze on Amazon their “we’ll take things back no questions asked” policy will change. I know it.
10 years ago Apple customer service was beyond amazing. At the time Apple’s market share was big, but not too big. Their growth rate was healthy and so they had the chance to build their team with quality people. Every person I interacted with at Apple customer service was a genuine fan of Apple products. They would look forward to challenging service calls because they wanted to find a solution. In the last 4 years, every time I call someone at Apple I have had a terrible experience. It’s clear the agent has a quota to fill. Look, I get it. All I’m saying is that Amazon will have the same challenges. Oh, and speaking to crappy customer service, Google has got to be the worst.
Moral of the story? Don’t be intimidated by Amazon or any competitor. When I feel stressed it helps to look at this image:
One More: High Prices
Amazon is a world champ at getting us comfortable with a habit. Let me explain.
I’ve bought my water filter on Amazon 6 times (see red marking screenshot).
When I tried to place my routine order today I noticed the price looked different. 2x different.
I’m so used to the Amazon ecosystem I almost didn’t notice the price. But something was off. The price didn’t seem right.
So I did a few searches and found the exact model on Sears for 50% less (after adding shipping).
Is Amazon the World’s best-priced store? Depends on how you define best.
I posted this on LinkedIn and we had a lively discussion.
Oh, One More Thing
So, this just happened. Made a video:
Interested in a secret that almost no one knows about?
Revealing It All
Now that we’ve covered ways in which Amazon sucks it’s time to share how online retailers should be thinking about marketing. If you are directly related to eCommerce this next set of articles is for you. If you aren’t involved with growing sales for an eCommerce brand please share it with someone in your life who is because it will change the trajectory of their growth.
Why Listen to Us?
We’ve spent the last 15 years in our marketing lab, experimenting on online shoppers. We’ve learned a crap ton and are ready to share those learning.
We want more marketers and CEOs to know about it.
Eventually, we’ll make this into a book. If you want to get an unfair advantage over your competitors now is the time to steal our ideas because once they are published the cat will be out of the bag 👜 for all to see.
Each chapter in our forthcoming book will feed into the next. Click the link that best describes where you want to start the story:
Chapter 1: is all about conversation rate optimization (CRO). It talks about the history of CRO, statistics of CRO, and describes how most agencies do CRO. We need to describe how most are doing it before we reveal our process, which happens in Chapter 4.
Chapter 2: For every 1,000 product pitches encountered the shopper buys one item (and we’re being generous). If you want the consumer to choose your product your need to understand their selection criteria– you need to understand their buyer psychology. Marketers who nail this will always outrun their peers.
Chapter 3: Conversion optimization work typically focuses on design and layout changes. We don’t limit ourselves to design and layout. Through extensive experimentation, we realized that the thing that moves the conversion needle 🧭 are the words and ideas being expressed on the page. Therefore, conversion copywriting is where it’s at.
Chapter 4: Marketers make a fatal mistake. They focus on optimizing the whole site. We focus on the tip of the spear. The most important page on your entire site is your product page. To understand why this is, read this post: Product Page Optimization.
About Frictionless Commerce
We only work with technical product DTC brands by improving advertising effectiveness by 20% in 90 days. This is achieved using a buyer psychology conversion copywriting framework. All paid traffic eventually reaches the product page and this is where we strike. Our process.
If you like doing the hard work yourself, our founder Rishi shares conversion ideas on LinkedIn every day. Connect with him here.
If you want to make your life easier and still increase conversions, jump on a call.
Comments 49
People us Amazon and if they like it great. I buy mostly elsewhere online. I still have an account and would use if needed. I enjoy jet/Walmart,newegg thrift books and others with free shipping no prime. If you quite prime Amazon can’t run. Use whatever is best for you it’s America. Amazon could close and I would not care. The others can change or close. Amazon’s has changed.
ReplySteve Salyer
I’m a existing customer at Amazon tried to sign in gave My username and password, they sent me a notification to my old phone number for security reasons, told them multiple times that is my old phone number I can’t receive your notification, they have My new phone number i went to purchase something, went back to my old phone number with a notification now I’m pissed went to sign in as a new customer went through it all they say someone already signed in with that phone number went back to my old phone number again still can’t purchase anything what the fuck
Reply,
Rob
I have so much anger regarding Amazon’s business model.
ReplyI’ve had several fraudulent purchases on my account, but Amazon would never close my account or provide any security after someone purchased a eBike and a metal detector using my name and financial info. eBike $700.00. Metal detector $500.00 Amazon A-Z customer satisfaction? Bullshit., they run you around for months. And then say it’s too late to do anything.
Amazon is all gangster, and they need to be shot like a rabid freaking dog. AI is the Antichrist. And we keep feeding it.
burl rawlins
I tried setting up an account 10 times. Called 5 times with no results.
ReplyMy region in the United States kept changing to India ?????????????
I filled out the business name and address 10 times with the error message “can not verify address” . It has been a company address for 60 years. I went to Walmart and set up an account for the first time. Ordered items cheaper than amazon no problems.
US 30 COUNTRYSIDE ANTIQUES
8049 W US 30
LARWILL, INDIANA 46764——————-NOT INDIA
BURL RAWLINS
CUstomer service–HA! They have no customer service. If there’s a problem with delivery, you’re on your own.
ReplyBrad
It’s even worse for Amazon 3rd party sellers. We sellers call it “Amazon non-seller support” instead of seller support as Amazon calls it.
ReplyJim
I agree on that one. I’m not in total agreement with this article.
ReplyLorr
Absolutely right! There is NO Customer Service at Amazon. Just one recording after another. You cannot talk to anyone. My situation is so simple too, but talking to a machine just isn’t going to solve it.
ReplyMy Amazon 3rd party seller experience starts back on 4-14-2020 when Amazon unexpectedly and without notice, removed my “buy shipping” ability for the US marketplace. Amazon did this to get rid of me as a competitor and cause me great harm because Amazon FBA ran out of inventory and Amazon was busting at the seams to make Prime deliveries. Buyers started buying health & beauty products and household cleaners from me and I got them delivered by USPS faster than Amazon Prime.
Amazon has caused me over $1.5M in financial losses the last 8 months because of their negligence, fraud and anticompetitive behavior. Amazon refuses to admit or accept any liability for their actions. Opened seller support case on April 14, 2020 and it took Amazon 8 weeks to fabricate a fictitious story to me as to why I lost “buy shipping”. This story was fabricated after I escalated the case to Jeff Bezos because I had been waiting for a resolution going on 7 weeks and got sick of being told “please be patient. We are working with the respective internal team to resolve your issue”. This was 100% BS as Amazon was making no effort to resolve my case. It takes any reasonable IT person 5-10 minutes at the most to clear a flag and/or fix a permissions issue. My problem was clearly a permissions issue that should be fixed in less than 2 minutes instead of still not being fixed going on 8 months now. Amazon just ignored me when I repeatedly told seller support this fact while my case was pending resolution.
Amazon wanted me to create a POA to address the buy shipping and tried to get me to admit 100% fault and liability. I refused and they still have not reinstated my buy shipping. Had to lay-off all 7 employees over the last 4 months. Have sent 33 emails to Jeff Bezos to fix my buy shipping and compensate me for damages caused by Amazon’s willful and gross negligence. All the emails have been ignored. Have actively been keeping Lina Khan, the FTC, Congress and the US DOJ updated on my case and they are CC’ed on my emails to Bezos.
I am in the process of filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection. Am going to also file a suit, in conjunction with the bankruptcy petition, against Amazon for gross negligence, fraud, unjust enrichment and breach of contract. Our creditors are also going to be plaintiffs in the suit since there is direct causation between Amazon’s fraud and negligence and me currently being insolvent. Amazon’s actions also pass the “but for” test. We are going to ask the court to make Amazon pay all our creditors and compensate me for the financial loses Amazon has intentionally caused me as a seller. Amazon performed a unilateral and intentional breach of contract by removing our “buy shipping”‘ability and we lost our shipment insurance coverage since we are unable to purchase shipping thru Amazon. Yet Amazon has continued to withhold their 20-30% commission for each sale I have made on Amazon. Amazon has been unjustly enriched while harming me as a seller.
All 3rd party Amazon sellers beware, Amazon is not a fairy tale and the honeymoon is short lived so don’t let the addiction of initial sales on the platform keep you blinded. Amazon is very greedy and the only persons Amazon cares about are Jeff Bezos and their shareholders. Sellers are not “partners” with Amazon and sellers are “internal competitors” with Amazon. All the recent online messages, TV ads during NFL games and on other media about how great Amazon is, how Amazon helps their sellers be successful and how Amazon cares about their warehouse workers – DO NOT believe any of the messages as the messages and ads are all “Propaganda” to hopefully “buy” goodwill for Amazon.
ReplyJeremy
I understand. Big business has its perks. Yet know that whatever you can do as a distributor, biusness owner, it will always be about conforming to one man’s plan. Former airgas employee.. big, great, yet come to them with problems and you get loocked at funny. Keep on going😁.
ReplyAmazon customer service isn’t great it sucks. For two weeks now no idiots can fix my trouble of not being able to see my orders at all. They vanished so I don’t know if any orders haven’t came etc. They told me to use email one person other told me use my number. Well my number is associated with an old customer email. So they don’t know how to fix that either. Idiots. Just know I am forever done ordering crap from Amazon. Four times they shipped stuff and never came but I still get charged. All they do is steal your money and make you stress.
ReplyTom
Well I have to agree, customer service sucks. I called and got Alan, did you know Alan lived in the Philippines. He said he lived there all his life I’ve been to the Philippines before and never saw anyone named Alan so that’s bullshit. They don’t care about your feelings or service they only care about their money. I thinkThe world would be a better place without Amazon they suck.
ReplyJenna
Amazon stinks!
ReplyThe Amazon search engine isn’t so great for customers, either. It’s getting harder and harder to find what I want. Amazon substitutes all kinds of products that have nothing to do with the key words or changes the key words to something else. It has a very limited vocabulary. Then there’s the recent obsession with everything vegan or vegetarian. Almost every search includes that crap.
They’re not doing themselves any favors. When you frustrate your customers, they give up or look elsewhere. The problem is that the competition is so suppressed, it’s hard to find anything but the most obvious and basic at other sites.
ReplyRishi Rawat
Hi, Robin. Great observation and sadly, you are 100% right. I find Amazon’s product search almost unusable. Thank you for sharing your feedback.
ReplyCustomer Obsession can’t last??? I can’t image why you would say that! In my experience Amazon’s customer service has sucked for at minimum 5 years. The reps are rarely knowledgeable, they lie to you, they try to tell you for example your account isn’t eligible for a promo when it clearly is, anything to get amazon out of paying anything out to the customer. I hear so many complaints about horrible amazon service, especially the dishonesty.. I sincerely would love to know why you think amazon’s CS hasn’t epic failed already. If you want customer obsession, try Zoro. The customer service at Zoro truly blows me away. They are not paying me to say this nor are they even aware. I will give you my best example: I ordered a Proto master puller set. This is a $1500 tool set. The set arrived missing 2 pieces, out of nearly 100. They told me they would immediately ship a new set. And the old set? They instructed me to dispose, gift or keep it. And this is not the only example. They have done this for me at least 6 other times with items worth $100+ each. Amazon has trouble giving you an additional 5 bucks. HOW DO THESE TWO EVEN COMPARE??? If Amazon is customer obsessed, then by comparison, what does that make Zoro. Is there a strong enough description? I doubt it. Truth is Amazon is not even in the same universe as customer obsession. And graded on a curve (relative to Zoro) they are MAYBE passing with a D- on a good day. On top, I receive 95% of my orders well within 24 hours with free shipping, and I get a 25% off coupon with most of my orders including the $1500 master puller tool set. Amazon doesn’t need to sacrifice CS to keep their bottom line, they just do because they can. They don’t need to placate the customer, because the customer has demonstrated they will always come crawling back to Amazon. Especially since they were stupid enough to pay $120 a year just to buy things. I stopped using Amazon when I noticed their prices went up years ago. Before that happened, the CS was very good. Not as good as Zoro, but that is true customer obsession which is nearly impossible. I have come back now to use a promotion and boy have they gone down hill. I’m so grateful I was smart enough to have never paid for prime in my life. You suck amazon. It will catch up to you. It always does.
ReplyRishi Rawat
Hi, James. Thanks for sharing your Zoro story. To be fair (to Amazon) it’s really hard to have exceptional service when their size is so massive. Zoro, all said and done is only a small fraction the size of Amazon.
Not making an excuse for Amazon but I’ve always had a good experience with their CS. In fact, that’s one detail I appreciate most about them.
But I also respect your personal experience.
ReplyI really appreciate that. Thank you for your comments.
ReplyOne correction: “What Amazon does great is customer service” – nope, no way. In fact, I’ll go as far as saying their customer service is the extreme bottom of the barrel. It’s all outsourced, barely audible, and understandable reps, but worst of all, they rarely solve any issue at all.
You have to be willing to hit the chat and phone calls quite a number of times to see if you get lucky enough to get someone knowledgeable which is an extremely RARE event. The Amazon we once loved is a thing of the past.
ReplyRishi Rawat
Yikes. I’m sorry about your bad customer service experience, Joseph.
ReplyJeff Bezos cashes his shares annually worth more than the company’s earning for a decade. Amazon makes no incomes for past 10 years and its stock keeps going up. Jeff Bezos just wants to turn his customers into Amazon’s stock investors so he can collect more money than a few bucks per share a quarter that his company is earning. People just waste their talent and money to set up a seller account on amazon. Yes you sell your merchandise fast but you make no incomes since you only sell at the lowest price while paying 20-30% selling fees and fulfillment fees. People using amazon’s platform is plainly stupid.
ReplyEmil Mroz
The Amazon retail business is not where the money is. AWS is where the real money is, which is why the head of AWS will be taking over the company. AWS is why AMZN stock keeps going up. I would not be surprised if AMZN divests itself of the online retail business within the next five years.
ReplyAmazon sucks period! As a consumer, not an Amazon shop, I see that Amazon continually allows sellers to lie to its users, use false imagery, false statements, and misleading photos. I know the argument is that Amazon really cracks down on these practices but honestly, I and a whole lot of other customers don’t believe that the end-user is Amazon’s biggest concern.
Replyamazon customer service??? what is that? I’m so sick of the “bait and switch” delivery tactics Amazon uses, it is unbelievable. Had a tracking number for a week showing delivery on a specific date, by 10 pm. That date, at 10:05 pm, the tracking info changed from “out for delivery by 10pm”, to “awaiting fulfillment”. THE MUCKING ORDER WASN”T EVEN FILLED YET! Not sure how they expected it to be delivered that day, (as the tracking number indicated all week)…. Latest one is the listing STILL says delivery the 22nd for prime members, but the one “I” ordered yesterday, says delivery the 24th.. and yes, I’m a prime member, and yes it said the 22nd when I ordered it. Why is it later than expected? They said it was because they “only have 5 left”… I ordered 1. THAT shows their incompetence, and lack of give a fck. Add to that the fact that you cannot find a way to hardly even CONTACT a supposed customer service rep, you instead have to run around in circles trying to use that stupid automated chat bs… I JUST WANT SOMEPLACE TO BE ABLE TO TELL PEOPLE THAT AMAZON WILL CHANGE THE DELIVERY DATE OF YOUR ITEM AFTER YOU PURCHASE IT, IF THEY DECIDE THEY WANT TO, AND THERE’S NOT A DAMN THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT, except stop ordering from amazon. And, since you can’t let it be known that they do this, it will continue unabated. As far as ordering from Amazon, it has become a last resort as of today.
Replydan
Oh, and right or wrong, when something like that happens to me, I’m going to start leaving bad feedback for the seller. It’s the only option they give for feedback. If it was beyond the seller’s control, they better do some bitching to amazon about it, or expect to lose some customers. There are too many online vendors to put up with amazon’s bs.
ReplySign up for a Prime free trial and then cancel immediately – then you get an ‘Are you sure?’ sort of message. Yeah, I’m sure – and then you get an ‘Are you really sure?’ sort of message. Yeah, really – and then you get an ‘Are you absolutely postive?’ sort of message.
ReplyOn the other hand, you still get Prime free for a month even if Amazon’s website is one of the worst there is.
Thank you for have a place to vent. I quarentined, in a rural locale, long before it was popular.
I don’t enjoy finding myself:
in the “it was tracked and delivered” but the item never made it in the box loop;
things “shipped” by creating a label and never shipped;
“” ordered ” through Amazon” (but not….if I knew I would be waiting 3 months to not receive an item with China tracking no.);
Slit bags of dog and people feed scattered inside shipping box;
imperative pieces missing on some assemby required, etc. ad naseum.
The “chat text chain” on my account is way too long… So now they have me return things not worth their cost of shipping and handling just to toss away! But, thats their business plan.
However:
ReplyUPS sure beats any rural delivery alternative.. just can’t abide route driver for FedEx so no longer buy from Chewy and EBay. Not forum to vent FedEx abuses.
They suck, ordered grow lights plugged in the first one blew my power supply! spent a hour getting in contact with them, took another hour to explain it ended up chatting to some dame monkey who said I could keep my first order and they would replace it , next monkey I talked to just wanted my cred card details so they could send the replacement, checked again later I had to send the first order back then they would send the new one or be charged for the replacement order! Canceled everything including my Amazon account
ReplyAmazon Sucks, Lies and Breaks Promises (how’s that?).
A month ago, I bought/paid for a “Big TV” from Amazon. Delivery scheduled for 3 weeks out, with a 3 hour window of time where I agreed to stay available. On the chosen day, delivery people contacted me, said they had my TV (which turned out to be a lie), but delivery team was understaffed and he needed to reschedule my appointment. So we did.
Delivery date #2 is set, with the sane 3 hour window. The day comes/goes, and nobody even contacts me from Amazon.
I schedule delivery date #3, same 3 hour “be available” window. Ahead of time I contacted Amazon to confirm that “my” TV (that I’d paid for, by then about a month earlier). And yes, I was reassured, you’ll get your TV on 8/4/21.
August 4 came and went, with no delivery, as promised, and not a word from Amazon.
So far, Amazon only seemed inept, not malevolent. Soon, it was clear that both terms applied to Amazon.
And so, I contacted Amazon the evening of the 3d (missed) delivery appointment. I asked about my missing TV. After a bit of a wait, I was bounced to someone who could track shipping. She was actually helpful when I asked her — does Amazon even know where my TV is? No, she admitted, they’d been trying to find my TV. Amazon’s records showed it never left the NJ Facility (they could not find my TV in NJ or in Amazon’s facility in my area — St. Pete, FL). She asked me not to set set a new delivery date.
So, during the evening of 8/4, I learned that at least these two Amazon representatives had been lying to me: (i) the Amazon “delivery man” during the first delivery window, when he said they already had my TV, but they could get it to me that afternoon because were understaffed, and (ii) right before the (failed) third delivery, when an Amazon “chat” representative confirmed my TV was on its way to me, and it would be delivered to me on 8/4. The two liars names could be easily identified if Amazon cared (Hah! maybe Amazon would ID them for a promotion).
And so, I took to the typewriter to contact the actual Seller (who sold Big TV’s through Amazon’s website), and I wrote the delivery company that had lied/fouled things up — Amazon.
The actual Seller politely blew me off, directing me to Amazon — the culprit that had screwed things up pretty badly.
I heard back from Amazon Logistics, and I was naive enough to believe that Amazon Logistics had saved the day. They sent me an email agreeing to a replacement shipment of the TV that I’d ordered/paid for a month earlier if my “lost”. TV didn’t resurface.
And so, a few days, just as requested, I contacted Amazon’s Customer Service, expecting a quick “chat” where we would arrange for shipping of the replacement TV being sent to me, a promised by Amazon Logistic.
Instead, through a 2.5 hour chat, Amazon’s polite chat representative told me that based on circumstances here, Amazon was now cancelling m transaction, and I should be glad they would be happy return my money via a refund.
Wait, I asked her, what about the Amazon Logistics’ email from a few days ago, promising to send me a replacement TV? I sent the four day old email to the chat representative, she read it and showed the email to her “chat manager.” The Amazon Chat Team then reached the decision that the email meant nothing. My only choice, the ‘chat member wrote, was to let then cancel my TV Order, and return the money I paid for the Big TV way back then.
But, I kept writing to the Chat team,, I just wanted the TV that I ordered.
And so, Amazon’s chat team told me to take the refund and reorder the YV. But that was unacceptable, I said, because today, right now, the Big TV that I’d paid for, was now selling for $270 more on Amazon, and ‘right now,” Amazon was advertising, selling, and shipping the exact TV to any new customers willing to pay the higher price.
How can that be right, I asked? Amazon can’t break my deal, just because it can now find brand new customers who are willing to pay a higher price than I paid a month ago. And please, I asked the chat team, by all signs, Amazon decided to break our contract because of that reason. Could somebody please explain how/why this is not what is happening here. And over the next hour, Amazon did not deny that when its prices increased, it decided to just cancel our contract and force us to accept a refund based on the lower price I’d paid, while Amazon focused on selling the same TVs to new customers at the higher prices that Amazon is now charging. .
But Ooooh! That caused the Amazon chat team to huddle up, and still announce that my only option was to accept refund.
Throughout these 2.5 hours, I often asked, what is my next step, when I don’t wish to accept the only, final solution announced by a chat team representative. This is it, she told me; no other levels of communication available, she said. Final, she said
I suggested it doesn’t make sense to back anyone into a corner. I said, look, this not a threat. But please, look up my name on the internet. I am familiar with lawsuits. I suggested — Let’s find another person I can talk with, so that Amazon can take a look at what happened here. [she would have seen that I’ve cobbled together a pretty fair career during my 40 years as a lawyer). Amazon’s management would be embarrassed by what it’s Company has done here — and I asked her, are you really telling me there is no one else with the Company willing to discuss this situation, unless I first file suit against Amazon? The chat representative assured me that that was all true.
Anyway, today I wrote the Seller, told them about what their shippers (Amazon) had decided to do, and that if the Seller did not make things right (maybe using its leverage as one of Amazon’s larger sellers), that I would be forced to act accordingly.
Sorry this is so long. What arrogant people.
Lee
ReplyIda
Omg…..similar happened to me…..product got lost, but found out it NEVER shipped out……and was also much higher priced! Wow…..seems the Attorneys General in each state ought to monitor this bait and switch scheme by Amazon……red flag!
ReplyAnd how about when product never arrives, and you get a message from Amazon if it passes the guaranteed delivery dates, they will reimburse you…..but then….if product does find its way way to you down the road, after being lost…..they will REBILL you….and threatening emails arrive every day….yet chat ppl say to keep product as it was late….they will fix the error threat message …..another red flag. Conflicting info and behavior.
Neighbors package dropped on my porch – not 6 feet from my 4″ house numbers (NOT on the package). Can’t they hire drivers that know their numbers???
I don’t know neighbor. Am 82 years old in slippers & sweats & it’s raining. What am I supposed to do – get dressed & in rain gear – trudge over there – knock on their door – introduce myself & deliver their package???
ReplyAmazon Day? Supposed to make things easy having all your orders delivered on the day of your choice. Saves the planet too by using fewer shipping boxes. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Yeah, right. All setting an Amazon Day does is give Amazon more days to screw up the delivery of your order. You have decided waiting for this bundled shipping is a good thing, surprise! your order is “running late”, and now you wait even longer. Oh! Amazon will gladly cancel the order, which then makes ordering at all pointless.
And save the planet… fewer boxes? I order 3 items with my Amazon Day shipping option? They show up on the same day – in 3 separate shipping boxes. That’s been the rule, not the exception.
Never using the Amazon Day shipping option again.
If it looks like poo and it’s smelling like poo it’s… no wait! It’s Amazon!
ReplyI love how Amazon gifts you $5 for a product mistake or shipping mistake, BUT it can only be used on Amazon product….in other words, going back into their pot. And if that shipping goes awry, you have lost that “gift”…..how about mentioning that it has become like Facebook, where your perfectly good reviews, that DO NOT violate the rules, and in which I experimented at times and copied some verbatim from other reviews allowed, were removed. I was issued comment it violated the rules! Cracks me up…..they are biased against their own sellers really…..and customers. They are self destructive. Well, Walmart sells many of the same, does not give hassle, and believe it or not, can get items delivered faster than Amazon, and no Prime cost.. Also, Vudu free movies. So I am back to using Walmart…..when my Prime runs out, no product ordering on my behalf, but I will watch the lousy Firestick, movies, if it streams at all well, as that is a constant junk format too, which has never been fixed. I believe Besos when he says Amazon will fail…..lol. From within……more than likely! I think disgruntled employees will allow it to fail, and the process began a long time ago.
ReplyI hate Amazon . Used to buy a lot on there then after having an awful experience trying to sell, i no longer purchase and will never purchase again from Amazon. I would rather spend MORE money on something just to not have to purchase from Amazon.
I already am a full time re seller, ive never been kicked off a site till Amazon. Kicked me off bc of ONE damn claim for an item not being legit. Some stupid mens pants. Buyer opened return as didnt fit then later opens claim and they kick me off? Held my funds for almost a year had to bug them so many times to get my money.
I think part of the reason Jeff bezos is so rich is bc of all the sellers they ban and they keep their money.
ReplyAmazon used to have decent customer service but it’s now the worst I’ve seen in my 59 years.
Much of Amazon’s decision making is done via computer algorithm. If you question the algorithm the humans in customer service aren’t able to help the customer and they tell you so. I WAS a big Amazon shopper for over a decade getting packages almost daily. Customer service saw and confirmed my shopping history during my final bad experience with Amazon and were unable to assist.
I’ll now spend more money to avoid Amazon. They are easily replaced. Amazon has gotten too big and arrogant in my opinion.
ReplyDouglas Rodewoldt
Perhaps 6 reasons why Amazon is great and wonderful should be pondered. Amazon, aside from rent, food, and utilities gets 100% of my available income. Yes 100% because I’m old and disabled…but best of all they deliver, and seldom screw up. If I hear the normal whine of “oooh they’re just too big and powerful…I’ll puke. This 73 year old says power to Amazon. Stay rich Bezos, you earned it. 🙂
ReplyAmazon is not resposible for 3rd party shipping agents. but theywill show u products that might not really ship to where you are whtout exorbitant and arbritary fees. Try to order a phone to most developing countres you will be likely asked to pay 90% in fees, The import tax supposed to be 15%. Customs asked for 30%.. OK whatever.. how do I pay? UPS? teh seller.?. No, it had to be some agent. I get a spanish guy to help me negotiate. Gave up, I complained and left a bad review, about amazon and the seller and UPS for not warning me about 3rd part customs clearing agents, System and seller saying they can ship to here, and not being able to. then Amazon removed my customer experience review , warning other people not to risk losing ALL their money, and get NOTHING , on especially a phone, or pay 90 percent more and still maybe get nothing.
Then i get an arrogant emai with a threaning tone, as a warning I will be kicked off the community forum.. I asked merely for a partial refund from the seller , meaning hte profit. Ill take the loss of the phone. Noone would pay nearly double, is an additional risk, and you can’t send back the phone for sure. Amazon can’t grow internationally. if you want to buy junk and fill your american house with it, its fine. but they cant grow outside the USA. Bloomberg, Wallstret journal , etc will start telling the cencored customer complaints, time to short the stock,. I cancelled prime and will avoid , I think they are done growing now, desperate for growth so getting shady and fraudulent, definitely has peaked and now with Chazzer- like qualities. This is a Yiddish word for, Its a “Pig that don’t fly straight” google that scene in scarface.,its a classic. Its just a phone but obviously a terrible experience, and every dog will have its day….better to buy stuff in person, in shops, if u can.
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Are there any alternatives to Amazon ?? I am thinking of kicking them to the curb because my last 3 orders have never arrived. And they took my money. We set up a special account at our bank for Amazon purchases. So if our account gets hacked they won’t get much money. So before I tell Amazon to shove it up their woohoos I have to go close the account. As of now, they actually owe me about 50 bucks. So where else do I shop ???
ReplyI used to LOVE Amazon. BECAUSE of their customer service. Now they are the. worst. I used to tell an anecdote about the customer service that made me fall in love with them years ago and resulted in my buying almost everything there since but they don’t even deserve to have it repeated here. It was an epiphany at the time into what customer service could and should be.
Fast forward and they are everything they should not be. Bezos doesn’t care he just wants drones and spaceships. And has forgotten what got him here in the first place.
One thing that is almost a constant is the ‘Next Day Delivery’ with Amazon Prime. Now if it said ‘One Day Delivery’ I’d get, from years of ordering online, this meant the day after it ships. Yet that is not the offer: it is NEXT Day Delivery. Clarifying that is the message that says with each item “Order today by ##:## o’clock and receive it by tomorrow, Monty Day, Year”. Invariably it takes 3-4 days. And when i complain I’m invariably told by CS: “It is not next day it is next day after shipping”. I tell them this would be disingenuous if it JUST said “Next Day” but give it specifically tells me the day it will arrive, tomorrow, if I order and pay NOW it is in fact a lie.
I’ve had similar experiences as CS has become yet another off-shore debacle. Which I’m used to with almost every other site but with Amazon the whole REASON I use them is they didn’t dismiss my concerns and service to save a few bucks like every other company.
The worst was recently however; I am taking care of an elderly mother who falls a lot, so I replaced her non-working phone with a 2-handset cordless so she can be reached or reach out from anywhere.
I unpacked, set it all up, programmed the first phone, set up the voice mail message. Only then did I discover they did not pack the second handset’s charging base. Clearly the entire set was ad hoc packed not manufacturer packed.
So I chatted and said please either a) send me the replacement part or b) send me a new set with all the pieces in it. Note in the (distant) past this would happen and they’d send me a new item and not make me bother with return.
This CS rep said please return it. I refused. I said I spent two hours setting it up so my mother has a phone now. I’m not removing her phone, deleting all the #s I entered for security purposes, repacking, taping, getting a return #, walking to UPS, waiting for a refund or exchange while my mother has no phone and her life is in jeaopardy and then resetting up the new phones when I need that time to provide care for my sick mother. Please find and send the part. Or just eat the cost and send a new one, you messed up I did not.
If I were a new customer it would be a no-brainer Customer Service response. However on top of this I am a customer since 2006 and buy almost everything there, from laptops to spices to toilet paper. Almost on a daily basis. I had a cart filled with $700 in items. And, again, was telling them this was a life and death situation
They said this was the ONLY option. I said please escalate to your supervisor. They told me no one else would tell me different and they are the ‘highest level’ of support I’d get and if there was nothing else they could help me with they’d end the chat. I said please do NOT end the chat and please put on your supervisor. So they ended the chat.
I wrote an email to their executive customer service team and over the course of three days even though I got polite replies was told the same thing by all of them; nothing they can do, please return the item. I said come pick it up and drop off a working one. Not happening. Please just send the part. Not happening. They said there are no more replacements in stock. I said then do what I have to do; go search for 2-handset cordless phone kits and send me one of those. They refused and said return it.
I sent ANOTHER email summarizing (17 year customer, your fulfillment messed up, my mother is ill and it is life and death, etc) and got a reply saying a) your only choice is return it b) we know you are upset) no one will respond or reply further to you.
This is the state of the internet and Amazon was, for a while, exempt from it. There are no Henry Ford’s. No one builds anything. They just rush to get traffic and revenues. Imagine if the people who build Bezos’ rocket ship do their jobs like his fulfillment team and CS do. “Hey guys you didn’t build a return trajectory into the nav computer!”. “Sorry for the inconvenience” “Look put the lead rocket scientist on” “I’m sorry this is what everyone will tell you. Good bye”.
One of the top ten founders, I forget who, said once “If you are not ashamed of your product, you waited too long to launch”. If THAT doesn’t describe the America we’ve become I don’t know what does. I was just hoping for a short period of time Bezos was cut from a different cloth.
ReplyI created an Amazon account today to order something the cost less than 20.00 $. My account immediately got blocked for “suspicious” activities and Amazon wants me to send them a copy of my ID plus proof that I am the owner of my credit card. Found the article I wanted in a web shop and ordered from there…
ReplyGreat custom service? When where? They are terrible and rude. Completely incompetent. After 6 yrs they ask me to pay with debt collection some order doesn’t even exist and a dude in chat ” you owe us money ” hahah. A simple chat customer service employee. They are horrible and at times very fraudulent. Like dude you come to ask me to pay something after 6 yrs? The order is not even in the system. They keep sending just automatic mails and no support. I called the police. No more nerves and I will not order from them again
ReplyAmazon sucks. They are the biggest suckers. Their comment section is below anything. Fake comments, purchased comments – well that’s the market, but I made experiences that can only be explained by the fact, that these people are brainwashed like the North Koreans. Let me make an example (not a real transaction) to explain what I want to say:
You find a comment like: These shoes are terrible. The left shoe is larger than the right one and the light brown is much too dark. 1 star.
Now, this comment appears next to an article, let’s say a washing machine (an Amazon mistake often made). The 1 star is really damaging. So you ask Amazon to take the comment out, because it does not refer to the article you are selling.
When you call the hotline, you meet the most utter stupidity on this planet. They ask you all kinds of questions before they are willing to listen. Only 1 out of 10 clowns understand the question. They might comment: Yes, that this is wrong and a mistake, but they refer you to another department (by e-mail). And there, you find those brainwashed people. They read the comment and find nothing wrong. ‘We value the opinions of our users’. Yes, this comment cannot be critized, it is politically correct and a personal opinion. But the Amazon-dumbo does not get the issue. The comment stands next to a washing machine, but is referring to shoes. THAT is the mistake. No chance to get these people to this step. Like the North Koreans: You ask for the time, and they answer ‘We love our great leader Kim Jong-un’.
These people know only thing: The wording of the comment, not an inch further. If someone complains, that the travel-advisor for Paris did not mention that people there speak only Spanish, they find nothing wrong.
There are not enough words in any language, to describe this idiocy.
ReplyI just want to live long enough to see Amazon file for bankruptcy! America needs to wake up and understand just how horrible this company is. They will file for bankruptcy and then be done screwing all most everyone.
ReplyThey sell knockoffs, they have gotten so large, too large, they don’t know or don’t care some products are fake
ReplyI sure don’t want you to lose your job!
Reply“Add $14.80 to your order for overnight delivery. ” I threw some underwear in the mix to get over the hump. Of the three ordered items, only the dog treats will show up tomorrow. Nixed the add on. Getting fed up with the “dynamic” pricing too…
ReplyThe title of this piece is understated it should read hundreds of reasons why I hate Amazon. Here’s mine but this is just one example… I have hundreds… of Amazon just fucking with people. Couple times a year I order a couple of six packs of fresh mint Mento chewing gum for wife and myself. Love the product now costs around $20 per six pack. I just went to order a couple of six packs and when I opened the page Amazon showed only the option for subscribing to periodic orders which they choose the periodic time frame. Fuck that. I order when I need to order I don’t ask Amazon to automatic place orders on my Prime account with the credit card I use I don’t want an Amazon Prime credit card account… that would basically be turning over my entire financial management to Amazon to do what they fucking please with. Just Fuck You Amazon !!
ReplyMY TWO CENTS
A TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY’S AMAZON BUZZ.. THE INTERNET POLICE!!
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ReplyI canceled Amazon because of how I was treated and I will never buy from them again. When a company puts your account on hold and demands that you give them your credit card statement to continue buying products from them there is a problem. This company has become too powerful and actually acts like a socialist country. They seem to have forgotten that I am the customer.
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