Monday, January 24, 2005
Frustrations in Book Buying or How not to Order a Book (?)
Wednesday, January 12. I placed an order with Amazon.com for a couple of books. Later that same day I received the shipping notice with a DHL tracking number. Knowing that Amazon.com has a warehouse just outside Reno, and that shipping from there typically took about a day, I went to the DHL web site to start tracking the shipment. I entered the tracking number, the shipping information came up, but there was no status. The online system knew that the shipping order had be made, but couldn't tell me where the book was. So, I called DHL customer service, who told me that they had no record of it being picked up, but that it was supposed to arrive in Salt Lake City that day. The customer service rep found it strange that there was no information on actual pickup. So did I. I decided to contact Amazon.com customer service...or more appropriately, customer disservice.
One way that Amazon.com keeps its costs down is by doing customer service via email. I could not find a single telephone contact number on their web site. Only email. Knowing that Amazon.com is headquartered in Seattle, I looked them up online and found several numbers. The toll-free customer service number had been disconnected. I called the corporate number, but got lost on perma-hold inside their phone system. The last number was a toll call to customer service. I actually to a real person that seemed to speak English as a first language. OK, I thought, after nearly an hour, I'll find out where my package is. Nope. I was informed that DHL had picked up the package, but no more information was available. I should contact DHL. I told the customer disservice rep that I had already done that. I was then told that since the date was still inside the delivery window, I should wait a few days. If the package didn't show up then, I should call back.
Wednesday, January 19. Well, the delivery date came and went. Still no books. DHL gave me the same story about no information and apparently it wasn't picked up. Again back to Amazon.com customer disservice. This time I spoke with someone who was obviously in a call center in India. I wanted to cancel the order and have the charges reversed on my credit card. "I can reorder that for you", I was told. That was ok...only if I could be guaranteed of next day delivery at their expense. "Yes, we can do that for you." Umm...no...they couldn't. They couldn't access my customer records. I was told to call back later. UNACCEPTABLE! I then spoke with a supervisor (another person in India) and told him I wanted the charges reversed. He told me they could do that...and they did.
I decided to try barnesandnoble.com. However, UPS was the only shipping option. I've had nothing but trouble getting packages via UPS for over two years now (since I moved nearly two years ago). I called their customer disservice number and was told that I could ship via a different method. The process was to enter the order online, then call customer disservice and they could change the shipping for me. UNACCEPTABLE!
I decided to try bookpool.com. I placed the order and requested it be sent FedEx, second day.
Then, I got an email from Amazon.com that my order had shipped. I didn't understand that because I told customer disservice to not reship. Apparently they did. A quick check online told that yes, they actually did reorder and shipped it...yup...DHL. However, they didn't charge me for the order. Since I'd reordered from a different supplier, I decided to refuse the shipment.
Friday, January 21. The books from Amazon.com arrive. I set the package aside to ship back on Monday.
Monday, January 24. The package from Bookpool arrives. I open it to find...they wrong books! UNACCEPTABLE! I have emailed Bookpool (they do not provide customer disservice via telephone) to find out how to return the books and reverse charges on my credit card. I decide, relunctanly, to keep the free books from Amazon.com.
So, now I'm down to not ordering again from Amazon.com, not order again from Bookpool, and not ordering from BN.com. If you have an online book seller that you can recommend and allows me to choose my shipping options (not UPS or DHL), let me know.
Update: Tuesday, January 25. A second package arrived from Amazon.com. I won't open it, but assume it's the other order, since I didn't order anything else from them.
One way that Amazon.com keeps its costs down is by doing customer service via email. I could not find a single telephone contact number on their web site. Only email. Knowing that Amazon.com is headquartered in Seattle, I looked them up online and found several numbers. The toll-free customer service number had been disconnected. I called the corporate number, but got lost on perma-hold inside their phone system. The last number was a toll call to customer service. I actually to a real person that seemed to speak English as a first language. OK, I thought, after nearly an hour, I'll find out where my package is. Nope. I was informed that DHL had picked up the package, but no more information was available. I should contact DHL. I told the customer disservice rep that I had already done that. I was then told that since the date was still inside the delivery window, I should wait a few days. If the package didn't show up then, I should call back.
Wednesday, January 19. Well, the delivery date came and went. Still no books. DHL gave me the same story about no information and apparently it wasn't picked up. Again back to Amazon.com customer disservice. This time I spoke with someone who was obviously in a call center in India. I wanted to cancel the order and have the charges reversed on my credit card. "I can reorder that for you", I was told. That was ok...only if I could be guaranteed of next day delivery at their expense. "Yes, we can do that for you." Umm...no...they couldn't. They couldn't access my customer records. I was told to call back later. UNACCEPTABLE! I then spoke with a supervisor (another person in India) and told him I wanted the charges reversed. He told me they could do that...and they did.
I decided to try barnesandnoble.com. However, UPS was the only shipping option. I've had nothing but trouble getting packages via UPS for over two years now (since I moved nearly two years ago). I called their customer disservice number and was told that I could ship via a different method. The process was to enter the order online, then call customer disservice and they could change the shipping for me. UNACCEPTABLE!
I decided to try bookpool.com. I placed the order and requested it be sent FedEx, second day.
Then, I got an email from Amazon.com that my order had shipped. I didn't understand that because I told customer disservice to not reship. Apparently they did. A quick check online told that yes, they actually did reorder and shipped it...yup...DHL. However, they didn't charge me for the order. Since I'd reordered from a different supplier, I decided to refuse the shipment.
Friday, January 21. The books from Amazon.com arrive. I set the package aside to ship back on Monday.
Monday, January 24. The package from Bookpool arrives. I open it to find...they wrong books! UNACCEPTABLE! I have emailed Bookpool (they do not provide customer disservice via telephone) to find out how to return the books and reverse charges on my credit card. I decide, relunctanly, to keep the free books from Amazon.com.
So, now I'm down to not ordering again from Amazon.com, not order again from Bookpool, and not ordering from BN.com. If you have an online book seller that you can recommend and allows me to choose my shipping options (not UPS or DHL), let me know.
Update: Tuesday, January 25. A second package arrived from Amazon.com. I won't open it, but assume it's the other order, since I didn't order anything else from them.
// posted by Craig Berntson @ 10:04:00 AM 
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