Amazon Woes: The Saga Continues
This is Part II of my experience of ordering a new handheld from Amazon.com. In Part I, I related my tale of why it was taking over a month to ship me my new handheld of choice, the iPaq rx 1955. After some email exchanges, Amazon upgraded my shipping, and assured me that the order would ship very soon.Imagine my surprise when Amazon, the next day sent me this:
Hello from Amazon.com.
We are sorry to report that we will not be able to obtain the following item from your order:
"HP iPAQ rx1955 Pocket PC"
Though we had expected to be able to send this item to you, we've since found that it is not available from any of our sources at this time. We realize this is disappointing news to hear, and we apologize for the inconvenience we have caused you.
We have cancelled this item from your order.
If appropriate, your gift-certificate account will be credited.
Your order is now closed.
Quite honestly, disappointed was quite the understatement. How can they just cancel my order after a month? It was even more infuriating because I was assured on the day before that I was receiving the order on a priority basis and faster shipping.
I checked on the Amazon website, and found the following. I could still purchase the item from Amazon through a 3rd party supplier, like J&R Music World, or Target. I could no longer purchase the iPaq directly from Amazon. The problems with this purchase from a 3rd party were threefold: full retail price, no free "super saver" shipping, and they wouldn't accept my gift certificates. If I wanted to pay full price, I could just gone to the store, and avoided the wait of Amazon. I was also suspicious that while Amazon had the units in short supply, over at HP.com there was no shortage as they could sell me one directly. Doesn't Amazon deal directly with the manufacturer?
Clearly, a "Plan B" was needed. As I couldn't buy any of the iPaq's from Amazon directly, I decided to go with the Palm T/X. In the end, using my gift certificates was more important than the brand of the handheld.
After I placed the order, I asked Amazon if they could extend me the "priority basis" and "2 day shipping" as previously promised. Amazon agreed to it. I look forward to receiving my new handheld this week.
Was this a satisfying experience? Clearly and definitely not. If it was not for these gift certificates, I would have been far better off just going to the store and purchasing the item directly. Amazon sells themselves on the basis of convenience in our busy world. Assuming I am in receipt of the handheld soon, this still required considerable time and effort. It was anything but convenient in the end. This reinforces to myself why I often shop at ol' fashioned brick & and mortar stores.
Look for an upcoming review of the Palm T/X here at TechNudge Live!
posted by digitaldoc at 10:30 PM
8 Comments:
I look forward to a full review. Use Bill's massive power and influence to get you all sorts of fun accessories for it. :-)
Don't give the kid any ideas....
Father Dale...it's already in the works!
I have been a loyal Amazon customer for many years (since 1998) and have, for the most part, had an excellent relationship with them. However, from time to time, I get wrapped up in similar occurrences that leave me fuming and wishing I could find myself on a plane in first class sitting next to Jeff Bezos so I could explain to him why his company needs to do better.
I have had several experiences similar to Bill's, the most recent is when I attempted to buy a Canon Powershot S60 to replace my S45 which was purchased at Amazon only a couple years ago, sent to my PO Box using SuperSaver shipping. Now, suddenly, Amazon can not ship this new camera to my PO Box so the order will not go through. When I inquired, I was told that this item is "more expensive than most items and can not be shipped to a PO Box for safety reasons." Yeah, like the PO Box is less secure than just leaving an Amazon box outside my front door!
My response? The Canon S45 was twice as expensive as the S60 and they shipped it THAT my PO Box AND I have also purchased several other items that were more expensive so clearly there is no reason they can't ship it. Well, several goings back and forth with the next customer support person always giving a different answer ("Oh, you need to order that from Amazon, not one of our third-party companies because they don't ship to PO Boxes...." Uh, I AM ordering it from Amazon, not J&R or Office Max, etc...) the purchase was eventually killed, I never bought it anywhere else and I am stuck with my aging camera that even Canon will charge more to fix than just buying a new S60 from Amazon!
If it can't be shipped to or won't be shipped to a PO Box, a *valid* reason should be listed on the item's listing. End of story. At least I'd know before I got frustrated and angry.
Lastly, I have also been a victim of the listing stating "Usually ships in 1-2 days" only to find out it's really not in stock and I have to wait, re-order or just forget it and cancel the order. This is especially frustrating when you TELL them the item is not in stock so please update the listing but they never do. If the business case is fueled by computers with a state-of-the-art inventory, ordering, shipping, and tracking system, they certainly ought to be able to provide accurate stock info for every item Amazon carries (not applicable to third-party outlets, of course.)
I could go on but the end result would still be the same: Amazon.com is less and less likely to be my target online shopping mall because they keep giving me reasons to shop elsewhere and they don't listen to their customers' complaints. After 8 years and several thousands of dollars worth of purchases, you would think they'd want to KEEP me as a customer....
Kevin K.
Whoops! I see now that it was Digital Doc who's experience this was, not Bill's. Sorry!
Unfortunately, Kevin, there's another guy in line behind you and 10,000 more behind him.
No problem. Unknown to him, I'm groming Jonas to become interchangeable.
It's ok Kevin, I'll answer to "Bill." Sorry to hear that your experience was similar to mine. I think the item just shipped, so stay tuned.
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