By 
I recently purchased a portable fridge for my dorm room on Amazon. When I received the package, everything worked fine, but there was a very visible dent on the side of the door. Being the picky person I am and wanting my full $200 worth, I asked Amazon for a replacement unit. Amazon kindly agreed to replace the damaged unit and since I was in a rush, they even threw in “One-Day Shipping” through UPS. I placed the original unit at the door for UPS to pickup, and when I got home the original package was taken and the replacement was at the doorstep.
The “new” box looked pretty badly beaten up, smashed, and torn. When I opened the box I was horrified to see the fridge’s front door had a HUGE “bullet-hole” looking crater. The rest of the unit was scratched up, smashed inwards, and bulging out. And to top that, the unit was soaked in some weird liquid. I decided to open the fridge door, to make things even worse, it fell right off its hinges.
I once again called Amazon’s Customer Service, to see if I could get a “working” replacement. Amazon didn’t agree to replace it this time, but offered a full refund and free pickup of the trashed unit. I ended up purchasing the unit at Fry’s Electronics, a bay area computer store, which actually ended up being about $25 cheaper since it was on sale. I constantly order items from Amazon and I have literally never received a damaged product. My guess is that this had something to do with UPS’s deliver guy. There have been videos online of delivery personnel throwing packages across driveways to the door step.
As for Amazon’s Customer Support, it was just AMAZING. With a click of a button on their website, they call you, you don’t have to dial a 1-800 number and go through the standard “press one for blah” options. Their representative already has your order number and just requires verifying some personal information for security. The wait times were just 3-4 minutes each time I contacted them, which is quicker than any other experience I’ve had. In addition their reps actually knew what they were doing, they were knowledgeable, polite, and well trained. Without any screaming or yelling they were able to quickly drive me through the return process. In addition the second time I called to return the replacement, they themselves suggested a full refund. I even began to feel a bit guilty for returning that original fridge since it was only slightly damaged, but then realized this is the way Customer Service should be!
Has anyone else actually had a GOOD experience with any big company’s customer service?
Links: Amazon.com
Heh, I worked at one of the major FedEx Ramps (at an airport) and I promise, you really don’t want to know what happens to those packages. It should suffice to say that if you think you need to write “Fragile” on your package, you need to repack it. And by need, I mean NEED:
Your package will go through 5-6 transitions in each facility. At the ramp I worked at, your package if first yanked around by little “tugs” with about 20 to 40,000 pounds of other freight in large aluminum containers. Then those containers are jolted around and brought to the first belt. The packages are “downloaded” by 5 tired, grumpy and worn-out people and thrown, dropped, kicked or otherwise transitioned to the “belt”. Then your package goes for a 15mph ride where pneumatic diverters on a time delay push your package off the belt and down a 30 degree incline for about 30 feet where it bounces off a “rubber” stop. Then another equally tired, grumpy, and worn out person places (slides, throws or drops and kicks) it on one of 4 belts moving at about 4 miles per hour. These belts take the package to a steel slide much like those at your local playground that spin around a central pole. At the bottom of the slide, the packages encounter another round of sorting where another set of equally grumpy, tired and worn-out people push, slide, throw or otherwise toss your package to the destination container. Here finally, we encounter the last set of tired, grumpy and worn-out people “stacking” (meaning they are likely dropping your package to the ground, building a wall with the big packages, and tossing the rest over the top) your package in the next container destined the next sorting location.
But no need to worry, 98% of all packages are delivered intact, if a bit beaten up and dirty.
Oh, and I promise, UPS is no better, they were across the taxiway from us.
One more thing… did you know you can ship a severed limb for overnight delivery? I only know because sometimes the coolers aren’t taped shut so well, and they don’t take the abuse sometimes…
@sirpuddingfoot
I just shipped an expensive monitor to myself acrooss the country since im moving to college and it was too much to carry. I used fedex and now im pretty worried. do they cover the losss if damaged?
im glad companies like amazon are still out there. if it was someone else they probably would have just said its UPS’s fault and if u called ups they say its the others fault. i had a problem with a macbook pro i bought a year or so ago. it was smashed and amazon took it back and replaced it.!
@ jimmy
Only up to $100 + whatever you paid to ship it. That is unless you declared the value to be greater than $100. Despite being an employee, I got nailed by this when they “lost” a 17″ LCD monitor I had RMA’d. Let’s hope yours arrives (and undamaged)! By the way, Fedex Customer Service was not that helpful and took 3-4 calls for them to fully investigate the loss.
Amazing customer service from Amazon and horrid customer service from UPS – nice of Amazon to cover for them and make it painless for you.
You might try posting on [link removed] – it’s a website where consumers can share their experiences with businesses (good and bad, national and local). This is exactly the sort of review that other consumers would find quite valuable and thought-provoking.
Basically what Sirpuddingfoot said goes for the main hub facility. depending on where your packaage is going, it most likely will go through a smaller terminal where underpaid and poorly trained college students toss your package onto a belt that has twice as many packages that it was designed for, dumps onto another overloaded belt where it goes to a sortation tower. It is then forced down a chute packed to the limits and makes its way to a trailer where it is stuffed into a spot that is usually too small for it. Some of us do our best, but there are too many that don’t care.
I do most of my Christmas shopping on Amazon. I ordered a Nintendo DS for my son and it arrived Friday before Christmas. Thank goodness I opened the box before I wrapped it up. Inside was a Gillette Mens deodorant bar where the DS should have been. I cried. I called customer service and spoke to someone in India, who I could not understand, and who seemed to have no compassion or understanding as to why this was a problem 4 days before CHRIST-mas. I called and spoke to another rep, this time, in the U.S. she gave me full refund and a $20 credit on my next order. This was the best they could do. I was not able to get the DS from amazon as they were sold out by this point. I will shop with them again, but with caution.
I had a similar situation, received something that had been damaged in the mailing process, went to their website, and about 1 minute later I got the call… at first I was thinking “this is gonna suck, they’ll never get back to me… ” but no, fast call, smart rep, fixed the problem right there. I was very impressed. Have ordered tons of stuff from there since without a glitch ever. I highly recommend it. Sometimes more than Ebay, because you have that solid company right there to take care of you. A+