Is Amazon's customer service getting worse?

PyeContinental

I've been buying just about everything from Amazon since 2007. Their customer service has always been excellent, and a huge part of their reputation has been built on their renowned customer service experience.

However, I'm wondering if, like many companies who start off with industry leading customer service, they have now decided that it's too costly to provide such a high level of service in this area any more and have decided to make cutbacks here?

Below is the transcript of my conversation with Amazon customer service agent, Arshiť. Before anyone thinks I was being mean to him, just remember I made no comment on his name.

Has anyone else noticed a decline in Amazon's customer service quality?

You're now connected to Amazon from Amazon.co.uk
Me: This CPU, even though sold by Amazon, says it can't be shipped to Ireland. I don't think this is right. Can you investigate please?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00VHKZ6I8
Amazon: Hello, My name is Ar****. I will be happy to help you today.
I am sorry to hear this.
Rest assure I will provide you my best possible service.
Me: I am assured. Please investigate the issue.
Amazon: I'm sure this must be very frustrating for you, and can understand the inconvenience this has caused.
I'm very sorry that we weren't able to meet your expectations this time around.
Rest assure I will escalate this situation with the relevant team so that this will not get repeated in the future.
Amazon.co.uk can dispatch many items to virtually any address in the world. However, we can't send certain products to certain locations for operational and regulatory reasons.
When you shop at Amazon from outside mainland UK, product detail page messaging will let you know whether an item can be delivered to you. To determine your location we’ll use your default 1-Click delivery address when you’re signed in to your account and 1-Click has been set up; otherwise, we’ll use your IP address.
To change your default delivery address, go to ‘Manage Address Book’ in the Your Account section of the website. Scroll down to the address you want to make default and click "Click here to make this your 1-Click default address".
For general information about delivery restrictions please visit our "Delivery Restrictions" help page:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201337930
Additional delivery restrictions might apply to specific items or sub-categories, due to the specific nature of some products. If you're buying on Amazon Marketplace, each individual Seller may have their own delivery restrictions and you'll need to check the Seller Storefront to see these.
Me: Your response is self-contradictory. You said you will escalate this situation with the relevant team so that this will not get repeated in the future, but you also said you can't send certain products to certain locations for operational and regulatory reasons. So is this issue a mistake or intentional?
Amazon: Yes you are right that it can't be deliver to certain location, I will escalate this situation so that the relevant team will start working on this. And improve their service
I make you sure that this issue will be taken very seriously
I realise this incident reflects negatively upon Amazon.co.uk and the feedback you've provided has been passed on to the relevant team and will be used in reviewing the service
provided by Amazon
Me: Your response about certain locations is irrelevant if Ireland is not one of these locations. Can you answer the question: Is this issue a mistake or intentional?
Amazon: No it is not intentional . As Amazon deliver the parcel in most of the part of the world . But sometimes due to the nature of the product it get impossible to deliver the item to some location . It might be due to some carriers who are not ready to deliver these type of carriers in some location.
*product
Me: Have you familiarised yourself with what the product is?
Amazon: Yes I can see it is "Intel Core i3 Processor (3.7 GHz, 3 MB, LGA1150 Socket)"
Me: So you understand that this is not something which has any restrictions on sale or delivery to Ireland?
Amazon: I can understand your point .It might be that manufacturer is not able to provide the product warranty . There can be numbers of reason. And can't tell you the exact one.
Me: So then you don't know if the issue is a mistake or intentional?
Amazon: It is not a issue or the mistake. I want to tell you that as you might have know that we have different partner websites like Amazon.com,etc. You can see this item on their website and I hope you will get the delivery done from their website. Or you can also search the same item on our website with different manufacturer
I hope you get me?
Me: Not at all. You have been extremely unclear and unhelpful throughout this whole conversation. You make vague and ambiguous statements and directly contradict statements you have made previously.
Either this is an unintentional error on the website (a mistake) or it is intentional (there is a reason that Amazon will not sell and deliver this to an address in Ireland).
It can't be both.
If you now think it is intentional, then why would you say you will escalate this to another team so that it can never happen again?
You are talking nonsense,
Amazon: I apologise you . We deliver the product internationally , their are some product which are not deliver internationally due to their nature. That's why I am telling you that I will escalate the issue with the relevant team , So that the orders which are not delivered internationally . Might get deliver in the future.
Me: What's there to escalate if you are saying that this product is intentionally not delivered internationally?
I am wasting my time talking to you though right?
The solution is to cancel my order and buy components for a PC elsewhere, isn't it?
Amazon: You have not place the order so why you will cancel it. And yes you can find the order from else where
Me: I have 5 items in my basket, to build a PC from. This CPU would be the 6th item.
I have some advice for you if you continue in your career as a customer service agent.
Amazon: Okay then you can place the 5 item from here. And the 6th item "Intel Core i3 Processor (3.7 GHz, 3 MB, LGA1150 Socket)" you can buy from else where. Because we are not delivering it to your address
Me: If you don't know, it is ok to say so. In fact it is a very good thing. If you try to pretend you understand or know the answer, and give conflicting information, it just makes you look like a liar.
I am amazed that you think I should buy whatever is possible from Amazon and only buy whatever I can't from elsewhere.
Amazon's customer service used to be very good. It's such a shame it has come to this. If you don't understand why your last statement is insulting, you would not be able to understand the explanation.
Amazon: I understand that what you try to say me. And I told you everything with honesty . I didn't lie to you. And there are many reason that the item is not delivered to your address. But I dont know the exact reason. Because there might be several of reason
Amazon service is still the best
Me: You don't know what the cause of the issue is. That is a fact as we speak right now. Your best course of action would have been to say that you don't know, but you will investigate and get back to me when you have definitive information. If you are not capable of understanding why that is what you should have done, then there is no great future for you in customer service.
I was actually trying to do you a genuine favour by giving you that advice. If you don't know, just say so. People appreciate the honesty.
Amazon: I apologise you, and thank you for your feedback ,as it will help me to get better and better in the future.
And I really appreciate your feedback
I loved your honesty
Me: You failed the Turing Test.
Amazon: Okay
Is there anything else I can help with?
Me: Yes, what are your specials today?
Amazon: What specials ?
Me: Can you recommend any good websites other than Amazon?
Amazon: No sir I can't . But you will find the item from other websites. And I want you to know I tried to find the product on another Amazon website, but the item was not available on Amazon. But you can buy the item from another website.
Me: What do you think of scan.co.uk? I think they are pretty good. I might get what I need from there. Dou you agree?
Amazon: I don't know. You can try to buy from their if you want.
Me: What about overclockers.co.uk? Can I try there too?
Amazon: I would like you to look at this link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Core-Processor-LGA1150-Socket/dp/B00LV8TZLU
Me: That's a better attempt at customer service, but it is more than £30 dearer than the product in question
Amazon: I can waive off the delivery charge
If you will place the order
as a one time exception
Me: I would be buying all items sold by Amazon, so there is free delivery anyway.
How about as a one time exception, you go find out what the reason is for the CPU I linked you to having the status that it can't be delivered to Ireland?
Amazon: Okay
Okay
Is there anything else I can help with?
Me: Yes, should I join Amazon Prime?
Amazon: Yes you can'
Me: But should I?
Amazon: Amazon Prime is a membership programme that offers the following great benefits for an annual membership fee of £79:
* Unlimited One-Day Delivery.
* Unlimited Prime Instant Video streaming.
* Prime Music: Access to over one million songs to stream, and download for offline playback, through Prime Music.
* Discounted upgrades to Evening or Express Delivery.
* Exclusive delivery options including Scheduled and No-Rush Delivery.
* Shared delivery benefits, Prime Instant Video streaming and Kindle Owner's Lending Library with the other adult Household member.
* Kindle Owners' Lending Library: Kindle owners can choose from thousands of books to borrow and read at no extra cost, as frequently as a book a month with no due dates.
* Kindle First: Download one of four editors' picks for free each month before the book is officially released.
* Prime Photos: Unlimited photo storage on Cloud Drive.
More information on Amazon Prime is available on our Help pages: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/custom...(See full link)
And before you spend 79£ for the membership , You will get 30 days free trail
Me: A free trail? To where?
Amazon: It is eligible for everyone
Me: But is Amazon Prime something that you yourself, Ar****, personally recommend?
Amazon: Yes, as it gives many benefits .
Me: To you personally?
Amazon: I have a prime membership, So yes it benefits me personally
Me: Excellent. How does the customer service compare with Amazon Prime compared to Amazon not prime?
Amazon: As I share the benefit above , Non prime cannot get those benefits
Like Unlimited One-Day Delivery.
Unlimited Prime Instant Video streaming.
For free
And more
Me: You can tell me more about the instant video streaming later, but getting back to the issue of the customer service specifically, how does it compare between Amazon Prime and Amazon Not-prime?
Amazon: I told you that Amazon Not-prime does not get these benefits
* Unlimited One-Day Delivery.
* Unlimited Prime Instant Video streaming.
* Prime Music: Access to over one million songs to stream, and download for offline playback, through Prime Music.
* Discounted upgrades to Evening or Express Delivery.
* Exclusive delivery options including Scheduled and No-Rush Delivery.
* Shared delivery benefits, Prime Instant Video streaming and Kindle Owner's Lending Library with the other adult Household member.
* Kindle Owners' Lending Library: Kindle owners can choose from thousands of books to borrow and read at no extra cost, as frequently as a book a month with no due dates.
* Kindle First: Download one of four editors' picks for free each month before the book is officially released.
* Prime Photos: Unlimited photo storage on Cloud Drive.
Me: Good, and how do you find the customer service on Amazon Prime?
Amazon: Its the best for all Amazon members.
or customers
Me: And personally, how do you find the customer service?
Amazon: Is there any issueI can help with?
Me: Yes. I might consider purchasing Amazon Prime if this would help reverse the downward trend in Amazon's customer service. Do Amazon have any plans to introduce improved customer service with Amazon Prime compared to Amazon Not-prime?
Amazon: Yes it has. Okay you can start your prime free trail by selecting this link https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/prime/pipel...(See full link)
Me: Excellent. I am genuinely willing to pay more for the previous excellent customer service which Amazon used to provide. Can I get a free trial of the better customer service now?
Amazon: Yes you will surely get
Me: Does my free trial of Amazon better customer service start now or do you only work for Amazon Not-prime customer service?
Amazon: It will start now . As soon as you will select it
Me: It's so tempting. Do you work in Amazon Prime customer service too? Can you give me a free sample of that kind of customer service?
Amazon: Free trail is for free sample.
Me: So I cant get better customer service before I sign up for Amazon Prime?
Amazon: Yes
*No that's not the same, We value our
customer
whether they are non prime or prime
Me: Oh so you are back to the line that the customer service is the same for Amazon Prime and Amazon Not-Prime? So you were in fact just making more contradictory statements when you were telling me that I should sign up to Amazon Prime to get better customer service, right?
Amazon: I assure you that we provide our customer with the best possible service. We always try our best but sometimes we fail to provide better solution top the customer
Amazon is the best customer service site.
You cannot judge the service because of one bad experience
I will request you to please
give us one more chance in the future
I assure you we will not let you down
One of our aims is to provide a convenient and efficient service and I realise that we have not met that standard in this case. Please accept our apologies.
Me: But you assured me at the beginning of this conversation that you would provide the best possible service. I accepted your assurance at the time. Now you are asking me to be assured that you will not let me down in future. Why should I accept yet another assurance from you? What evidence do you have to support your assertion that your service will be better the next time? Are you hoping that I will be talking to a better customer support agent in future? Someone other than Ar****?
Amazon: Look the product you wanted to place was not eligible to get deliver for Ireland due to the nature of the product. You told me that you have 5 item in the basket . I make you assure that if you place that order you will get the best service .
Me: The first statement you have just make is not a fact, that is not something you have verified.
Amazon: I can understand your disappointment. But I am requesting you to not judge the service on the one item
Me: I am judging the customer service based on this interaction with you.
Amazon: I can understand your disapoinment
But trust me you will get the best service. And I will make the note so that in future these mistakes are not repeated
And we provide our customer with the best service
Me: So which is it, a mistake or intentionally not eligible for delivery to Ireland?
Amazon: I thing the manufacturer cannot guarantee the warranty of the item that might be the reason that this product is not eligible for Ireland.
So it is intentionally done. because selling the product internationally is not good service
Me: The same manufacturer, of the more expensive CPU you suggested?
Amazon: No that manufacturer is delivering the item to Ireland. As it depends on the manufacturer
Me: Both are Intel CPUs, manufactured by Intel.
Amazon: They must be in different warehouses .
So distance also places role in this situation
Me: Instead of guessing, why don't you find out for sure if this is intentional, and if so, what the actual reason is?
Amazon: The problem is I can't find the exact reason
And their might be number of reason. So I am assuming the reason
Me: Why assume? Why not escalate to the appropriate team so that you can find out what the actual reason is?
Amazon: I will escalate, and we will get back to you in 24 hours.
Will that be ok?
Me: Good. To summarise, your next step will be to find out first if this is intentional or a mistake with the website. If it is a mistake, escalate to the appropriate team who have responsibility for fixing website errors. If intentional, find out the definitive reason why this is so. On either outcome, you will get back to me within 24 hours. Agreed?
Amazon: Yes I will
surely
Via email
I will get back to you
within 24 hours
Me: Good. That is acceptable, but it would have been better if you would have said this a long time ago.
Amazon: I can understand and I apologise.
Is there anything else I can help with?
Me: Not now. Just do as agreed, and I will be willing to reappraise your customer service depending on your response to me within 24 hours.
Amazon: Yeah sure.
Have a nice evening
Me: And you, Ar****.
Amazon: You are welcome
Me: So are you.
Amazon from Amazon.co.uk has left the conversation.

moc moc a moc

PyeContinental wrote: »

Have a nice evening
Me: And you, Ar****.

Ah here, no need to be swearing at the poor lad

Cuddlesworth

A fair amount of online electronics will not ship to Ireland as they do not want to integrate weee charges in their online store to comply to our stupid tax system.

You didn't get poor customer service by the way, you are just a poor customer.

stefanovich

The agent was copying and pasting templates that contradicted each other. He obviously didn't have a coherent level of English either. OP was being a bit of a prat but the agent was basically incompetent.

moleyv

That transcript makes you look like the one in the wrong.

It was clear as day that he said it was not able to be delivered to Ireland, but would pass on your feedback that so that maybe it would be in the future.

You purposely tried to catch him out a number of times.

I'm not saying amazon customer support is perfect, I had a small issue with a conversation once - I had said something twice before they asked me a question about what I had already told them beforehand.

I think maybe they have more than one conversation open at once. Some of their responses are click a button to insert generic response here to speed up response time.

Orion

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

A fair amount of online electronics will not ship to Ireland as they do not want to integrate weee charges in their online store to comply to our stupid tax system.

You didn't get poor customer service by the way, you are just a poor customer.

weee is european wide - and they do ship some electronics so I don't think that's the reason. I bought two chromebooks recently delivered to Ireland no problem so I can't see why they won't ship a CPU - it has to be a manufacturer restriction.

OP - Cuddlesworth is right in his impression of you by the way. The guy on CS is working from a script and can't change policy. You were being a dick to him for absolutely no reason. That said if you want to get it delivered to Ireland use Parcel Motel and get it shipped to their NI address.

Orion

On the actual topic of the thread I have only used Amazon CS twice. Once was to return one of the two chromebooks for a replacement as it was faulty. Put through the RMA online and got an email 30 mins later that the replacement was ordered up and to print the labels to return the faulty one free through An Post.
Second time was to contact them because of the postal strike - I couldn't guarantee that it would get back to them by the due date. 1 hour later got an email saying the return date was extended by 30 days and to post it whenever the strike ended.

I have to say I couldn't fault the customer service in the slightest. A lot of companies could learn from Amazon imo.

stefanovich

Orion wrote: »

On the actual topic of the thread I have only used Amazon CS twice. Once was to return one of the two chromebooks for a replacement as it was faulty. Put through the RMA online and got an email 30 mins later that the replacement was ordered up and to print the labels to return the faulty one free through An Post.
Second time was to contact them because of the postal strike - I couldn't guarantee that it would get back to them by the due date. 1 hour later got an email saying the return date was extended by 30 days and to post it whenever the strike ended.

I have to say I couldn't fault the customer service in the slightest. A lot of companies could learn from Amazon imo.

The agent in the transcript had very poor English. That should be a minimum requirement.

irishgrover

personally I love amazon. I've been buying stuff off them since 1998. During that time they have consistently provided the best customer support that I have received from any company during that period.
At times it can be a bit messy, dealing with 3rd party sellers, daft unclear restrictions on shipping some electronic items etc etc. But over 17 year period I've been using them, I cannot think of any other organisation that has provided such good support.
I honestly tried, and mentally listed organisations that I deal with, banks, insurance companies, hospitals, government agencies, broadband, mobile phone companies etc and really can't think of any organisation that provides comparable customer service......

ED E

Had in issue with an order from Amazon.de yesterday, opened a ticket, response within 40 minutes and action taken to partially resolve before I'd even had a chance to read it. F'ckin stellar CS. Oh and their German site now has an English beta, lavvv it.

BTW they're hiring a fair few Irish CS reps to handle tickets, all tele-working. Not sure if they're L1 or Amazon are reserving them for cases that the far east can't handle, but its promising that standards will stay high.

Lods1969

Even though we had no deliveries for last Monday , how does it take so long to get to Dublin? will be next Monday at least at the earliest now.


01:10 Latest update: Today

Parcel received by carrier
DUBLIN PARCEL CENTRE
Carrier: An Post, Tracking #: AZ900402613IE


Saturday, 3 Oct
04:05

Parcel has been handed over to the carrier and is in transit
Kingston Park, Peterborough, UK

PyeContinental

The update to this is that the Amazon customer service representative did not get back to me.

I noticed another CPU, the Intel Pentium G3258 was also marked as not available for delivery to Ireland. Checking again just now, that restriction is no longer apparent. Whether this has anything to do with my highlighting the issue I doubt.
I am still none the wiser whether this was indeed a listing error or there were in fact certain "operational reasons".

I don't accept being told two contradictory things as being good customer service. There was no effort made to find out the true cause, and it was clearly a fobbing off attempt. Other people's standards as to what they will accept will of course differ, and I will accept what is acceptable to me.

In the end, I bought the six parts to build a PC from Scan.co.uk. They charged nearly £20 for delivery by DPD courier. However, even including this delivery charge, the total cost of everything was actually about £30 less than it would have been had Amazon actually allowed me to buy from them. The delivery service was excellent too. From the time of ordering to delivery took barely over 24 hours, and there was text delivery notification of when it would be delivered down to a window of an hour.

I've spent tens of thousands through amazon.co.uk since around 2007, and been an evangelist for them which has resulted in spending for a lot of other people. I'll be looking at Scan first when I next need computer parts and will be recommending them to others too.

Tun_80

Bought an xb270h monitor off the warehouse during the week, about €100 less just cos box was damaged, when it arrived there was no power cable or displayport cable, the power cable is just standard cable in most tv's/monitor's so already had 3 or 4, displayport cable cost me €9, customer services gave me back €75 when I rang them, was delighted, 27" 144hz gsync monitor for €425! Couldn't fault them any time I've had a problem!