Day After Christmas Twofer... Striking Amazon off the list...

You get a two-fer today. I have a number of blogs, a few that are posted on the Fayette Front Page and the Georgia Front Page. All of my blogs are going to be about shopping on-line with Amazon. I rarely get irritated. There are few things in life that are worth raising your blood pressure over.

I'm irritated.

If it were solely about me, if something I ordered for myself came in late, I'd give it a rest.

This is about two grandchildren who didn't get their Christmas present 'cause Amazon goofed. Can you imagine being 5 years old and 11 years old, watching others open their presents while you had none? From your grandparents much less?

We called when we received a partial shipment from Amazon on the 20th. Waited until the 22nd to call. Got some snippy guy who said all was well, we were worrying for nothing, they were receiving a lot of calls and our shipment would arrive in time for Christmas.

Well, it's the day after Christmas, the kids have come and gone, and we still don't have the presents.

I sent an email complaining (rather nicely, maybe too nicely). Twelve hours later I got a response. Nothing about their snooty customer service, just an apology for delaying the shipment. Guess what? It's coming on the 28th. That's two weeks after we ordered it.

If they'd sent an email and said oops, we're having to back order, we're delayed, etc. I'd have cancelled the order and been able to get to the store to find a gift for the kids to unwrap. Nope, they said it's definitely going to be here before Christmas, don't get excited like all these other people.

The guy didn't even bother to check to see if there was a delay, a problem.

I won't be shopping Amazon anymore. I'll pay more somewhere else rather taking a chance on poor service and disappointed children. They did say that when the order arrived we could return it for a full refund. Whoop-te-doo. What good will that do? We've already told the kids what to expect. Now of course, it's going to cost us money to ship it to them or drive it up. If we want to see their faces as they open their gifts, we'll have to take a trip. I never mind, in fact I love, visiting. However, it's going to be sometime in January before we can travel as the reason we ordered on-line was my husband's surgery.

I realize I'm ranting. But this blog is mine to ramble. The other's will be a little more purposeful and direct.

Amazon stinks. Their response to the problem was slow, didn't address the problem and certainly didn't do anything to make me feel more inclined to shop with them again. My daughter-in-law (the children's parent) has been a heavy shopper at Amazon. Two shoppers down and I bet I can influence a few more in my extremely large extended family.

Anyone asking my advice on shopping on-line will be steered toward any company other than Amazon. I worked in Customer Service for quite some number of years, both in the ranks and in management. Guess what? I know how to handle unhappy customers. I know how much damage one unhappy customer can do. I tried to be decent because I have been on the receiving end in the past. Didn't work. From personal experience, I can tell you that Amazon doesn't get top marks by any means on taking care of unhappy customers. I guess I should have YELLED.