Rants, Raves, and Praise → I "will" be shopping at Amazon.

Since I posted about my experiences with Kohl's, I thought I would also post about my experiences with Amazon.

I have shopped at Amazon for years with nary a problem.

Stellar service and amazing support.

Example: This past month I placed an order for four items that were relatively small, so they were all packaged together in one larger box.

As it turns out, one small, approximately $6.00 item was missing.

I emailed Amazon and within hours I had an email apologizing and letting me know that another item was being shipped immediately.

In fact, it shipped overnight and arrived at my door on a Saturday.

I don't think you can get better service than that.

Amazon has always gone the extra mile, at least with me.

I'm sure some people have horror stories concerning Amazon, but I'm not one of them.

Now if only Kohl's...............................

I have Amazon Prime and had it for years. Overall the service is great, but if a more expensive item goes missing, it takes forever to replace, but that's a rare occurrence.

Now I have to say that their policies are starting to drift towards worse. Used to be prime overnight was 3.99, now it's completely item dependent and can go fairly high. Some items were excluded from overnight completely, they just won't do it.

I actually don't have Amazon Prime and still they shipped the missing item overnight.

As far as expensive items go, about 5 or 6 years ago we purchased a 52" large flat screen TV from Amazon and after having it for a few days noticed something not quite right on the screen, I contacted Amazon and they told me they could have it picked up and a replacement TV delivered at the same time.

As it turned out the problem with the TV went away and we decided to keep it. Still, great service on Amazon's part.

I do most of my shopping on Amazon these days, but there are times that I'll stray, especially if I see a great deal somewhere else.

That doesn't happen too often though.........

Yeah, prime or no prime, when they mess up your order, they will overnight it to you, if not by default, they will at your request. I Love Amazon CS.

And don't forget to use Ebates gateway when shopping at amazon. Get's you an extra 4-8% off. Not off everything, but a sizable amount of things.

I have Amazon Prime and on the one occasion an order was screwed up they overnighted the item.

Well their movie streaming service is no where near Netflix's offering they have enough older flicks and B-movies for me to watch.

As a matter of fact I have an order arriving today that I ordered Sat.

I found out about this last night. I used to overnight printers and other big stuff all day long, but no more - it's simply too expensive. What a shame, it was great while it lasted.

Yep, another good place to shop.

Man, just when I make a comment about how good their customer service is, they screw up.

I ordered 3 gift cards. They ship them and they get delivered. But only 2 of them are in the box along with a receipt showing 3 cards packed.

At the same time of delivery, I get an email stating that they had an issue activating the cards that they sent, and they have been cancelled. New ones are being shipped and will arrive Thursday.

I email them to verify that 3 cards were shipped this time, and Amazon responds about how sorry they are that they incorrectly filled the order and refunded me the amount of the gift card that was not received in the order that has the bad cards in it.

So now I think I am getting 3 gift cards for the price of 2. How do I explain that one to them!! It's confusing enough as it is.

I've had prime now for 2 or 3 years, and I don't remember a time where the overnight upgrade wasn't for each item ordered. If they did change that policy, it was a while ago. Like more than a year ago.

I believe Dodge was referencing Amazon's new pricing structure for Prime:

»www.amazon.com/gp/help/c ··· 01118070

Instead of a fixed $3.99 per item (as it always was), it's now a variable amount starting at $2.99 per item (but usually much higher).

Ok, got it. I guess I haven't noticed it because I haven't been charged more than the minimum per item yet. That is a turn for the worse as far as policies goes.

I hadn't shopped at Amazon in years until Black Friday weekend. I ordered two items. One of them it was stated on the item's web page MUST be shipped separately from any other item. Well, I got a very DAMAGED, EXTREMELY FLIMSY HUGE cardboard box with BOTH items inside. Big gouges in the sides of the box and the box was bent in badly. Besides using way too flimsy cardboard there was one wadded up piece of paper inside which was not nearly enough to keep the heavy smaller box (speakers and subwoofer) from crushing the Talalay latex foam pillow (the item that was specified must ship separately from other items). There was no invoice or anything in the box or on the outside in a plastic packet.

To make matters worse, the speakers appear defective. The pillow looked ok but stank badly. I have had the same pillow for 11 years and it did not stink when new and was made in the same USA factory as this one. I had to air it for four days before I could sleep on it. When I slept on it, I could immediately feel that it was somewhat flattened on the edges right where your neck needs the most support. I woke up with a bit of a stiff neck. I slept on it a second night and woke up with a much worse stiff aching neck. The third night, the stink was back so I couldn't use it. The same pillow I had for 11 years has been the best pillow I have ever had and it is the only pillow that cured my neck pain and that is why I wanted another one. I returned to sleeping on the 11 year old pillow that has never smelled bad and my neck pain went away.

I learned the speakers are a non-returnable item so I did a chat and Amazon agreed to give me an address in an email to return them to for a full refund. So, that is good but if Amazon had packed them decently in box that was strong (like what Dell uses) they might have arrived ok. At the time of that chat, I had not even opened the pillow so I had no idea it stinks and is flattened where it should not be. I should be able to return it but I have no box to return it in! The huge box is too damaged and too huge. UGH.

I am really surprised that Amazon appears incapable of shipping items in proper containers and incapable of following their own instructions that the pillow must be shipped separately. Plus, Amazon couldn't even manage to put an invoice in the box.

Most of the time my orders come well boxed. The worst one I've seen, I didn't order.
Camping shovel and other outdoor equipment, nothing packed in paper or pillows and no invoice in the box. Stuff just thrown it. Amazon couldn't identify it, so I couldn't return it. Gave it to a neighbor who does camp.

Adorama or B&H Camera sent a replacement android tablet with no packing in a shipping envelope. It worked, so I kept it, but did let them know about packing.

UPS once threw a telescope on the front porch of the office. Didn't require sig even though ticket said "must be signed for" Scope was well packed, so just box and styrofoam got dinged. Scope didn't.

I think this is the one area where Amazon could improve.

I agree that items aren't always securely packaged or put in the proper boxes. They will replace any item that's not in perfect condition, but that goes without saying and who wants to wait for a replacement item, even if it's over nighted.

I guess I'm lucky, I might have had one or two items not quite right, but Amazon quickly made it right.

I've noticed a lot of companies have this problem with packaging.

Now Dell, you could throw their boxes over a cliff and the contents would probably survive without a scratch.

Like Amazon, I've shopped at Dell for years and never had too many problems with them either. Tech support of course, but not too many actual shipping problems or hardware related issues.

Why pay extra for next day when the free 2 day shipping is going to arrive the next day anyways? I have never paid for next day shipping yet my package always arrives the next day!

I read that Amazon treats its staff very badly. Since then I have always been skeptical about amazon.

This is true in the fulfillment centers.

Awful pay and conditions. Not Walmart bad, but close.

Some of the centers don't even have AC, even in TX or AZ.

I ordered a TV from Amazon recently. It arrived with a cracked screen.

Waiting on replacement to be shipped, and for UPS to come pick up the broken one.

All amazon centers have AC and Heat

chattanooga only has AC in a fraction of the fulfillment center and that's one example

Am I a victim of price discrimination or some other form of harassment?

November 2011 I bought a Kindle for my wife for Christmas. She joined Amazon Prime.

Before I joined Prime whenever I selected an item I was quoted a price for the item and a price for shipping. If I ordered more than $25.00 worth of merchandise I was offered free shipping.

1) Around February or March 2012 I requested pricing on an adapter. I was quoted $5.99 for the adapter and $3.99 for shipping. I actually wanted 5 adapters. I updated quantity and the price for shipping increased to about $4.99 for all 5 adapters.

2) Several months later my wife convinced me to add my name to her Prime account. For several months after that I received free shipping on all orders.

3) About 5 months after I signed up for prime, when I tried to purchase certain items, they were marked Add-in Items and a note stated that I had to purchase $25.00 worth of merchandise to order the add in item. I was not given an option to pay for shipping. When I called customer service to complain the CSR forced the order through the system.

4) After two incidents where I had to contact customer service to purchase an Add-in Item, I discovered that the cost for any item I clicked on the system added the full cost for shipping. Shipping was not free.

5) In one case I used a friend's computer that did not have Prime. The price shown did not include shipping and was much lower than when I checked the price for the same item using my computer. Shipping was an extra cost that was higher for the first item but much lower for each additional item when I used my friends computer.

6) Now if I try to order 5 of the same item Amazon adds the same high shipping fee to each item ordered. If I order one adapter for $4.99 the and cost for shipping is $3.99 for the first adapter the total price is $9.98. Before Prime if I ordered 5 of the same adapter I would be charged $3.99 for shipping the first adapter and $0.25 for shipping each additional adapter for a total of $4.99 for shipping. The total cost for the order would be $29.93. Now Amazon will charge $8.99 for each adapter with free shipping. The total cost for the order will be $45.95.

Am I being screwed by Amazon?

Those are some pretty banged up boxes although you should black out your address label.

You should also go onto your Amazon account/Orders and leave shipping feedback along with those pictures if you have not done so already.

Yes, I left shipping feedback with three photos.

I have to return the pillow and I guess they will have to send me a box for it. I can't use the beat up one.

Chattanooga has AC in the whole building. Get your facts straight before bashing...

It does not. An acquaintance worked the summer in the fulfillment center. Plenty of areas are without AC.

Management also doesn't care whether your working spot is a 15min walk from the break room or 2min.

The metrics they used to track employee efficiency don't take into account every parameter and I think they could be improved.

I see plenty of AC units on the roof if you look at the satellite view. Metrics I am sure is something that can always be improved. Which I am sure can be said for any company. So I can not argue that point.

Indeed. Dell's packaging is frequently annoying (especially the plastic inserts that are sometimes used for Optiplexes) but they are very well designed from a durability perspective. I've noticed that tower shipments from China are unique in that the systems are wrapped in plastic and the handle holes contain plastic inserts to keep out the sea air that I'm sure these boxes encounter during their voyage westward.

No, Amazon would not replace my speakers. They said I could ship them, at my expense and find boxes for them, to a special address and that they would reimburse me the shipping cost after I sent them proof of the cost and they would refund my money for the speakers. They would not, instead, replace the speakers which is what I wanted.

As for the pillow that stinks, I haven't tried yet to return it....in what? I have no box for it as they packed it incorrectly in the big box that was all smashed up. Will they send me a box? (I have tried to contact the pillow's manufacturer to find out why it stinks so badly and does not air out. My first identical pillow 11 years ago didn't stink at all).

Dell didn't always box well. The monitor I still use (Ultrasharp LCD from 2003) Dell had to send 4 of them to finally get me one that worked. They were not packed that well. The fourth one that did work DHL lost it on the mainland and it took THREE WEEKS to get here (was supposed to be second day air).

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No, Amazon would not replace my speakers. They said I could ship them, at my expense and find boxes for them, to a special address and that they would reimburse me the shipping cost after I sent them proof of the cost and they would refund my money for the speakers. They would not, instead, replace the speakers which is what I wanted.

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Wonder why Amazon would not just email you a return label to ship them back for credit? Did you perhaps buy the speakers from a company that just uses Amazon to sell items and not sold by Amazon.com itself?

No, I bought them directly from Amazon. I did a chat and Amazon would not even put the address to return them to in the chat! The CSR said she had to email me the address..weird and she said she could not email it until after our chat was over...I was worried she might have my email address incorrect (it's an alias for dslr mail and Amazon handles that strangely compared to other sites) so I checked email while we chatted and didn't see an email from her so I asked and she said she could not put it in the chat and could not send it until the chat ended. Very odd.

These were my second choice in speakers. I had tried to purchase Logitech 5.1 speakers first (really wanted them) and it was only when I actually put in my credit card info and got to the very final step of checkout that Amazon finally decided to tell me they could not ship those to Hawaii. I asked the CSR why and apparently Homeland Security won't allow it (that's nuts and I think the real reason is because the 5.1 set has a much heavier subwoofer than the Logitech 2.1 set) but I don't see why Amazon didn't say they would have to charge a large amount to ship them here instead of giving an odd security reason - but then NewEgg and BestBuy gave the same reason why they could not ship them here but could ship the 2.1 speakers. BestBuy told me they were also forbidden to carry them in their Oahu store. Flat panel TVs are forbidden for shipment via Amazon, etc.to Hawaii also and you get a NSA/Homeland Security reason if you try to find out why but I think the reason is the cost for shipping such an item. I was able to get my Samsung Smart TV via Sears online with no problem and the shipping was free but Dell also gives the weird security reason for not shipping TVs to Hawaii. But the TV was delivered to the local Sears store and they brought it out and collected the old TV so that sort of shipping is different rules maybe from shipping directly from online store to the customer's hone address.

I need to see about how to return the pillow with no box for it. Well, first since I could not reach customer service at the factory (on their 800 number) that makes the pillow, I will email them and maybe get a response that way because I don't want Amazon to exchange the pillow if the second one stinks also and doesn't air out. An exchange pillow shipped in a proper non-flimsy box by itself should have proper support on the edges which the one I got wedged up in the corner of the box with the speaker box pressed up against it does not have but if the second one also stinks...well, then I would want a refund instead. So, I have tried to reach the manufacturer as the very same pillow manufactured in the same factory 11 years ago that I sleep on every night never had a bad odor. I didn't read the reviews at Amazon on the pillow (because it was supposed to be exactly the same as what I have slept on all these years and been extremely happy with). Wish I had read the reviews before buying because there are a lot of unhappy folks with pillows that stink but many who say it doesn't stink...I'm thinking recent change in something at the factory that is causing the stink now as those saying it stinks badly are all recent reviews.