There's hardly anything more annoying than emailing with automatic answering machines, isn't it?
Let me tell about my recent adventure with Amazon.co.uk and their automatic reply machines:
I ordered 4 CDs from Amazon.co.uk (indeed straight from them and not from any of their so-called "Market place sellers") on December 6 last year, and was wondering what ever happened to my order, when over two weeks later I received a seriously damaged letter, on top of which was stamped:
"Regrettably, the item was damaged and has therefore been provided with a plastic cover by the Deutcshe Post".
The package I received contained only 2 out of 4 items I had ordered...
Ok, shit happens, and sometimes things get lost in the post, although I wondered why the delivery was posted from UK to German's "Deutsche Post" on its way to Finland, anyway. I decided to contact their customer service to report that I never received 2 out of 4 items ordered.
Now anyone who knows how Amazon or Google or any of the major Internet companies operate, is that they HAVE NO HUMAN CUSTOMER SERVICE available, all they have is Frequently Answered Questions, none of which ever answers to any of your problem, and then another "contact us" email if you are brave enough still to contact them. Just send them an email, and the first 2 or 3 contacts from you are answered by automated standard reply-machines, none of which reply to your original question, but actually just try to get rid of you and your annoying questions... Probably their statistics show that 99,9 % of the annoying customers give up at this stage, and then they only have to answer 0,01 % of the questions!
"We hope that you will allow us another opportunity to prove the quality of our service to you in the future"
Ok, as expected, I received an automated answer to may email (and to prove it was sent by a non-human, it was sent on Xmas Eve 24 December at 1:46 AM), stating:
>Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk and bringing this to our attention. I am sorry to hear that you have received the package in a damaged condition. Please accept our sincere apologies.
>I assume that parcel might have been damaged during transit.
>We take full responsibility for the delivery of our goods from start to finish and take complaints of this nature very seriously. We replace any items lost or damaged during delivery at a cost to ourselves and monitor our carriers very closely.
>>I realise this incident reflects negatively upon Amazon.co.uk and the feedback that you have provided will be used in reviewing the service provided by the carrier.
>I have placed a new order #xxx for "The Poet (Qty. 4)", and it will be dispatched as soon as possible to the same address.
>On the date of dispatch, we will notify you by e-mail at the time the order is sent out to confirm the date, contents and method of delivery.
>When sending a replacement for an damaged item, we usually request that you return the original item to Amazon.co.uk within 30 days of the date on which Amazon.co.uk confirms we will issue a replacement. However, as the cost of returning the package is in this case prohibitively expensive, we ask that you keep the original item with our compliments. Perhaps you would like to donate it to a charity in your area if you feel it would be appropriate to do so. There will of course be no additional charge for the replacement order.
>Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience we have caused you. We hope that you will allow us another opportunity to prove the quality of our service to you in the future.
>Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk.
To put it shortly, they promised to send another delivery and asked me NOT TO RETURN any of the original items, which was probably a logical decision, considering that 2 of them were lost in the post and it might be a bit difficult to return something that you have never received, isn't it???
Ok, the replacement order arrived safely and for a while I thought everything went fine.
Then I received another email from their automated machines, asking me to return the items I did not receive:
>Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.
>We're writing with regard to order #xxx. We hope you're pleased with the replacement order completed on 24-Dec-2009.
>We have not yet received the return of the item(s) in your original delivery and wanted to remind you that you have only 14 more days from the date of this e-mail to return the item(s) we replaced.
Ok, I thought this must be a bad joke, how can I return something they kindly asked me to "keep the original item with our compliments", but which actually had never arrived in the first place???
"We have charged your credit card for the cost of the original item"
Now today, I received the following email from Amazon.co.uk customer service, stating that:
>We're writing in regards to Order #xxx. We hope you're pleased with the replacement order completed on 24-Dec-2009.
>As it has been more than 30 days since we sent your replacement, and we have not yet received the return of the item in your original shipment, we have charged your credit card for the cost of the original item.
So, briefly:- I lost the original order, 2 out of 4 CDs
- they promised to send a replacement order, and especially asked me NOT to return any of the original items, and that "There will of course be no additional charge for the replacement order."
- now they recharged my credit card for the replacement order, since I had not returned the lost CDs!!!
Now just take a look at their website and try to find which of the automated standard help page FAQ's answers to your feedback:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=gw_m_b_he?ie=UTF8&nodeId=471044
Yes, you guessed it right, none. But trying to interact with a machines is really a dead-end, all you get back is standard bullshit answers that reply to average Joe-Dow-questions like "is this CD still available", but if you have some problems with your orders, no one ever reads your emails and answers to them. But you will receive a string of standard answers which make no sense...
I will continue the debate with their machines, and let's see after how many emails a real human person answers to my questions, or what will happen!
- Ismo Tenkanen
No nyt tuli tuorein vastaus:
>This situation was the result of a combination of technical and human errors. We certainly didn't intend for this to happen and I hope you will give us another opportunity to prove the quality of our service to you.
Osuvasti sanottu! Ikävä vain olla itse se ainoa humaani elementti tuossa dialogissa, kun koneet jauhavat emaileja. Eihän kukaan ihminen pyytäisi palauttamaan kadonneita ostoksia! "Human error" taas tuli siitä, että joku ohjasi ostoprosessin "virheellisten toimitusten" joukkoon, josta sitten seurasivat nuo emailit ja kehotukset väärien tuotteiden palauttamiseen.
Kirjoittanut: Ismo | 02/11/2010 klo 10:00 ip.
Aina ei ulkomaan verkkokauppaostokset mene ihan putkeen.
Kirjoittanut: Mikakansikas | 03/23/2010 klo 01:59 ip.