So, I order some stuff from Amazon on December 6th for Christmas. I though I was doing the right thing, by shopping early. And since I was shopping sooo early, I decided I didn't need the package right away, and choose the Super Saver shipping (free!). All seems to go OK. Amazon says that it shipped on the 8th, says I should get it by the 16th, and I receive a tracking number. After a few days, I check USPS and get the following message:
"Your item was processed and left our FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003 facility on December 13, 2008. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later."
I keep checking, and it doesn't change. Since it's parcel pool, sometimes it takes a while to get to my place, but I've received other parcel pool packages that were shipped after the first one. So today, the 22nd, I email Amazon, wondering if there is anything they can do, since they are gifts. Here is their glorious response:
Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com with your concern.
I'm sorry—it appears that your shipment was lost in transit. I've placed a new order and we'll ship it to the same address as soon as possible.
Here are the order details:
Order Number: xxx
Estimated Delivery Date: December 24, 2008.
There's no charge for this replacement order. I've also upgraded the shipping method to "One Day Shipping" at no additional charge.
Again, I apologize for this situation. I've added some more information below that might help you.
Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com, and best wishes for the holidays.
(they also have instructions if the original package decides to show up sometime)
Bravo Amazon, my wife will be happy and so am I!
Well done, Amazon. Although we'd expect them to replace a package that was lost in transit, upgrading the shipping to one day delivery so it's there in time for Christmas is above and beyond. Also, BOOO, post office.
(Photo: Getty)
]]>As it turned out to be a Christmas present for yours truly, I can but applaud Amazon for going above and beyond.
]]>Last year at Christmas time, I ordered a GPS as a gift for someone. I kept a close eye on the tracking for the package and one day, at work, noticed it had been marked "Delivered" by the USPS. I arrived at my apartment to see no package sitting outside of the door. I called the office, and they had no package for me. All the USPS would do was say that they had indeed delivered the packaged if it was marked delivered.
I called Amazon and let them know that the package was allegedly delivered, but I had not received it. I didn't know what happened to it; if it was left outside my door, a neighbor probably nabbed it. Did Amazon blame me? No. Did they blame the USPS? No. They IMMEDIATELY offered to send me a replacement (we're talking an item around 250 bucks). I received the replacement with no problems and have been grateful to Amazon for saving a special Christmas gift ever since.
]]>5 days later - original order box is on my doorstep (re-taped) - USPS has history of a few wrong deliveries here. I do the honest thing and contact Amazon to ship duplicates back.
My friend wondered why Amazon did not offer a coupon or something as reward for my honesty. Any companies do that?
]]>Amazon did the same for me this Christmas. I was very satisfied with how they handled the package getting lost in the mail.
]]>@deadandy: Is this symptomatic of the recent rush of sellers off of Ebay???
]]>What's worse is that the "main office" can't do anything about the mail in the system other than tell you (sorta) where it is. Makes me glad I usually use UPS/FedEx.
]]>Another similar occurrence. Ordered an Ipig from Amazon on Dec. 6 with super saving shipping. It reached Philadelphia postal station (near me) on Dec. 13 and then for some reason was then shipped onto Pittsburg. I found this out on Dec. 18 when another package I'd ordered from Amazon a week later arrived quite quickly. Amazon told me to check with the post office and call them back the next day if USPS couldn't get me the package within the next coupld of days (Amazon would ship overnight). Tried calling the postal service, but couldn't get a live person, but the next day the package showed up, so crisis dodged. Still, kudos to Amazon for offering overnight shipping if the post office couldn't come through. Looks like Amazon was getting a lot of these calls.
]]>The tracking system showed that the package was delivered at around 1:00 p.m., but no package had come and no USPS delivery person was seen. I contacted Amazon and they immediately shipped us a new set of books via UPS instead of USPS. I thought that was great, considering it was a $120 order and not just one or two books.
]]>So, entirely MY FAULT and they expedited a replacement.
]]>that's an awesome job on amazon's part, and a crappy one on the part of the USPS.
someone seriously needs to start a revolution against the USPS's awful service.
my brother's been in japan for the last six months, and mailed (small) presents to my mother and me for christmas. my mother received one of those forms you're supposed to sign and leave to receive your package on the 22nd, she signed it, and left it out on the 23rd... and they didn't leave her package until the 26th. (she was hugely upset because she had nothing to open christmas morning. i'd given her early presents.)
i still haven't received mine. i don't ever expect to, at this rate.
major BOO to the USPS. amazon, however, DID deliver my gifts to my brother, right on time, too. :)
]]>Both items were sold by Amazon. The tracking just shows:
December 16, 2008 05:51:00 PM NORTH LAS VEGAS NV Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit
What should I do now?
Well I can definitely say your milage may vary.
I ordered 3 book packages from Amazon and all three were 'resellers or Amastores'. 1 package arrived om the 22nd at our business. The other 2 are out in limbo who knows where. Apparently there was a nice email that arrived after my order stating that these folks have until January 5 to get it to me. Thats 3-4 weeks!
Cut to Newegg. I ordered an entire PC in parts. All of it arrives buy the end of the week including a HUGE full tower case. BUT no power supply. They decided to not deliver it Christmas eve and then skip Friday. The lie I was told by the special people on the phone was that only 'AIR FREIGHT' was being delivered and mine would come eventually. I guess 3 days from California is by truck! I could not pick it up because the UPS sites were closed for the holiday on FRIDAY. They got apparently (according to the phone) Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off. We were working and we are on the government holiday schedule.
So Newegg is still the king, Amazon DIRECT SALES is great and Fedex pwns UPS and USPS.
]]>Reminds me of another time USPS messed up with me. It was GTA IV Special Edition. They shipped it to a couple places before getting it to Atlanta, GA, but then, I was like, okay, finally, but then, it goes from GA to VA or something like that. Some idiot must have misread the state code. Then it probably went somewhere else before finally coming back to GA. So by the time everyone was sick of hearing about the game, that's when I finally got it. I've had nothing but great experiences with Amazon.com, but USPS hasn't always been that great..
]]>I had a similar issue with Amazon not getting a package to me that I'd order for two-day shipment 10 days before Christmas. The CSR was incredibly rude to me and basically told me to just reject the package when it does come and get a refund. They NEVER offered to rush another shipment out to me. I've sent them a letter and am awaiting a response from them about it.
]]>Borders called me up and replaced it (had to refund my card and recharge me) at the original sale price and shipped it 1 day shipping.
I was very pleased, and somewhat amused with the mental image of some USPS worker seeing the forklift about to run over some packages and time slowing down as they run screaming NOOOOOOOOOOO at the forklift.
]]>Called up Amazon and explained the situation. After going back and forth with the rep for a minute about the delivery time frame (Amazon's site said estimated delivery was the 23rd, it was delivered on the 19th, so I guess she thought USPS was lying, IDK) she offered to deliver it again or just give me a refund.
I took the refund because they couldn't/wouldn't deliver it to a different address. Overall I thought it was good customer service.
]]>My mail delivery engineer apparently thought it was OK to just leave a package of 4 vinyl albums outside of the locked entry door to my building. Right on the sidewalk.
Needless to say the package was stolen, along with another package a couple days later. I didn't even bother dealing with the post office because it's a losing battle. I e-mailed Amazon. It took a couple tries because on their end it showed the package as being delivered. Once I assured them that I wasn't scamming them, they reshipped everything, no problems.
Thus far my experience with Amazon has been nothing but positive (apart from some oddly huge boxes at times).
]]>Its been that way for as long as I can remember with toys at least, it was even worse when Toys R Us was a vendor on Amazon as they would randomly interject their prices onto the front item page and you didn't know the price wasn't the lowest until you went to check out. It took a few refreshes of the page to get it to show the correct Amazon price.
But this is what makes Amazon so successful, they have backup sellers when they are out of stock of an item. If you don't like the inflated prices then just don't buy the item.
]]>Yay Amazon.
]]>The last time I got something it came UPS instead of USPS and I had no way of knowing that until the order was shipped. I called them and they couldn't tell me anything. I called UPS and they said I could leave a note for the driver, so I left one saying 'please put this package by the steps so no one can see it.' The driver did and it was okay. But if that happens again, I'm canceling my order. I HATE the Brown. It's too iffy if I'll get it. I wish they'd just stick to the post office.
]]>They lost of package of mine a couple of months ago. They were all sunshine and roses when I called, assuring they'd send out a replacement, no charge, no problem!
A month later, they charged me anyway.
Took another call and a 40 minute hold while they "consulted" with a supervisor to get the charge removed. They initially wanted to know why I didn't bother to send back the first shipment that they lost (!).
So.. Watch your account.
]]>This seems pretty typical for Amazon. We ordered Harry Potter 7 from Amazon since they guaranteed delivery on the day of its release. The post office, however, decided they weren't going to attempt to deliver all of those books and instead left notices for everyone to pick them up two days later. Even though we still got the book, Amazon refunded the entire amount. It was even a collector's edition!
]]>I kinda wanna call BS on this. Does anyone know if this is actually true?
]]>I love Amazon, I ordered stuff days before christmas, used the super saver and still got it before christmas. Amazon is awesome!
]]>The other thing amazon.com does, it lowers the price for a specific item, just for you! It somehow must track your browsing habits, looks at previous amount spent at the site, and calculates a price that you are willing to pay for an item. It did this with Canon Rebel Xsi, normal price is 635, one day noticed it was 599. I was about to write into slickdeals to tell everyone, but when I went to check again, the price was listed at 635. Im sure it periodically lowers prices to move items, anway, Im a lifelong amazon customer
]]>It's not too bad for them, because they got all the original items back when USPS eventually 'found' the original package a month later (and hopefully got their shipping money back, but the USPS doesn't even guarantee they won't just set your package on fire for laughs so who knows). But it's because of service like this that I ordered ~$500 worth of gifts (and, uh, personal gifts) from Amazon this holiday season.
]]>Back in the day, you mostly knew that Amazon would have prices at or below list price for any given item. This year, many toys I searched for came up at unreasonable prices because they were not strictly being sold and shipped by Amazon. Lego sets were a big offender. Thankfully, I visited a local Toys R Us and found the same sets new for anywhere between 50 and 75% less.
What this means for average shoppers is that they now have to look sharp when searching for items on Amazon. If they are being "sold and shipped" by another vendor, the price may very well not be competitive as people are used to on Amazon.
]]>Because of this, I am now hooked on Amazon.
]]>Wow, great job Amazon!
]]>