Where Does Amazon Find These Customer Service People?

Last month I placed an order on Amazon for the Twelve South HiRise Deluxe for iPhone and when I went to complete the order I opted for next day delivery. Expecting to receive it the following day, I woke up and checked the tracking number only to see that it wasn’t actually going to show up. So what did I do? I waited that day (just in case) and then the following day I emailed Amazon asking for a refund on the shipping (which I did get). Now overall, I was satisfied with the customer service which in the end is all that really matters I guess, but I couldn’t get over the fact that Amazon, a very large public company, isn’t training it’s customer service reps better. And perhaps more importantly isn’t providing them with the necessary scripts/tools to make replying to customers a more consistent experience.

What the hell am I talking about? Let me explain.

So here’s the email I sent to Amazon customer service requesting a refund on the shipping.

Hi, I ordered this on May 5th with one day shipping so I would receive it on May 6th but as you can see from the tracking it isn’t coming until today. I want a refund on the shipping please.

And here’s the response I received (I’ve bolded certain parts for emphasis):

Hello,

Firstly, please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused by this situation. I understand your disappointment, this is definitely not what we want our customer to experience.

I understand your concern that you are waited from so long and you didn’t receive your order yet even you paid extra for shipping. I extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused to you in this regard. If I’m at your place I realize that I feel the same frustration. I hope you will accept my apologizes.

I’ve forwarded your issue to our shipping department.I’m sure that they’ll look into this and will make sure to minimise the chances like these in future.

To make sure I assist you upon checking your order I see that your order is out for delivery and would be reaching you from anytime now.

In this case I request you to please wait till end of Saturday, May 9, 2015, to receive the package before requesting a refund or replacement.

Our carriers are facing a lot of problems with delivery as a huge piles of orders are stacked up with the carrier. So delivery and routing is a major concern for them. Please do bear with us for the delay. I hope you will accept my apologize.

I hope you’ll understand that our fulfilment centres and carriers are working hard to ensure packages are delivered as quickly as possible to meet the estimated delivery date listed in Your Account. Unfortunately, in spite of all of our efforts, there will be some unforeseen delays, and we sympathise with your frustration in this matter.

I can confirm that we still expect to ship your order in time to be delivered to you by Saturday, May 9, 2015.

We will email when your order is shipped with the details so that you can track your package.

You can always check the status of your order in Your Account. Here’s a direct link to the order details:

[link redacted]

To make things right for you, I’ve requested a full refund of $4.34 for the shipping charges. This refund will appear in the next 2-3 business days as a credit on your Original payment method. Once processed, you’ll be able to see the refund here:

[link redacted]

When your order does arrive, there’s no need to contact us. However, if you haven’t received it by Saturday, May 9, 2015, please let us know through the link below and we’ll be happy to get a refund or replacement for you:

http://www.amazon.com/contact-us

Please be rest assured that we are here to make things easier for you and we’ll take every action to prevent you from bearing any loss.

I’m extending the best hand that I could give because I believe that what you say with regards to our service means much to us.

As a customer centric company, we strive for customer happiness.

We value our customers’ trust above all else–it is the foundation upon which Amazon.com was built. I do apologize profusely for all the mistakes and delays which contributed to this very unfortunate series of encounters.

Your patience and understanding is highly appreciated in this regard. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Best regards,

Sudha S

First, that email is much longer than it needs to be. No offense to Sudha, but he/she says the same thing multiple times in multiple different ways. No one wants to read all that. Additionally, the english is terrible as you can see from places I’ve bolded. I understand their customer service reps may not be native english speakers but if that’s the case Amazon should automate more of their responses by providing better canned scripts/speeches.

I’m not impressed at all. Granted this is just one experience I’ve had recently, but I can’t imagine I’m the only one. If you have any Amazon customer service stories let me know in the comments. Also, If you want an example of great customer service check out this article I recently wrote.

Update with a response from Amazon

So it seems Amazon caught wind of my post earlier and someone from their Executive Customer Service team decided to reach out to me. I’m including the email below:

Hi Jeffrey,

I’m Amanda Nix of Amazon.com’s Executive Customer Relations team. Your account was recently brought to my attention, and I appreciate this opportunity to assist you.

I’ve reviewed the email correspondence you received on May 7, 2015 from a member of our customer service team related to Order ID: [redacted]. While our customer service associate was helpful, the way the information was communicated could be improved. I’ve shared your experience with our management team, so we can be sure proper training is provided.

She then went on to inform about how their shipping works. Ok then. I’m just going to leave that part out because it’s really not relevant, but for the record I’m an Amazon Prime customer and I saw the count down in terms of time I had to place my order with next day shipping for it to arrive on May 6th. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter at this point, at least it seems they will be reviewing some of their training and that’s all I can ask for.