Rob's Blog

Amazon Customer support need more training
Dec 29th 2010 05:12

So, one month after I initially complained to Amazon, 21 days since my refund was authorised, 5 phone calls to Amazon, 4 to DHL, one trip to the post office, and countless emails later... I might actually get the money refunded for the Kindle 3.

I'm going to sidestep the fact that Amazon sold it to me at a time when they knew full well that there was a serious problem with "a number of Kindles". (It crashed almost every time it went into standby. When it takes 5 minutes of faffing around to open a book I'd rather carry around a paperback).

Amazon were very quick to agree to a full refund for the Kindle, the case, and the books I had purchased. That was very good of them.

But for once, the issues this Christmas weren't caused by the snow (although DHL failed to pick up the package, or answer their phone for 5 days).

The real problems were caused by a tragic lack of training of Amazon customer support staff.

1. Inconsistent refund times

Let's take, for example, the amount of time it takes for a refund to go through according to their emails. It's most likely one of these three conflicting statements:

a. "These amounts will be returned to your payment methods within 10 business days" - 21/12/2010 @ 09:42 from Amazon

b. "Refunds usually go through within 2 to 3 business days and you will see this amount credited on your next statement" - 21/12/2010 @ 10:57 from Amazon

c. "The refund should go through in 5-7 days from the date of request and appear on your next card statement" - 29/12/2010 @ 10:37 from Amazon

I've been told with great sincerity by Amazon that it's actually option 'b' that is the correct answer. You have to question why I have emails stating options 'a' and 'c'.

2. Gift certificate?

So, after telling me that they would be refunding all payments to the cards from which they were purchased, and me clarifying that I was happy with it being refunded to my wife's debit card (no real reason to object given that it's a joint account) they promptly tried to issue me a refund in the form of a gift certificate... or did they?

a. Yes?

"Your refund is being credited as follows: Gift Card: £149.00" - 21/12/2010 @ 09:42

"DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE! You've received a £149.00 Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate!" - 21/12/2010 @ 09:42

b. No?

"Just emailing to confirm that there is no Gift Certificate issued to either of the following accounts [my wifes email] or [my email]. There is however a refund issued to your wife's account for 149 GBP" - 21/12/2010 @ 10:57 from Amazon

"I have checked your order 202-1215554-[XXXXXXXXXX] and can confirm that a refund of 149.00 GBP was requested on the 21st of December and will be issued to the following Visa card number ending in [XXXX]." - 29/12/2010 @ 10:37 from Amazon

... as it transpired, the correct answer was 'a'. They had indeed issued a refund in the form of a gift certificate. The result of this is that they get to keep hold of my money for a full 14 days longer than they should have done.

It took three phone calls to Amazon to get them to realise their mistake; and even then they missed it during my first phone call to them today.

The conclusion?

All in all, I feel utterly let down by Amazon. They DO have telephone customer support which is fantastic, but what's the point if they don't know what they're talking about?

I still don't have a refund of the money they took, and to be honest I'm not holding my breath for it being in my account on January 4th, after all - I only have the word of Amazon's customer support that it will be, and it's been clear so far that that's not worth very much.