I have discovered a new way to kill someone.
Try getting a refund from Amazon for a partial
shipment that never arrived. Make that two partial shipments that never
arrived.
Amazon owes me $613.47 and they refuse to refund my
money. It’s a devious, untraceable way to kill a person.
My blood pressure and pulse rate soar every time I open another unhelpful email from their “customer service representatives.” Amazon
is trying to kill me by proxy.
The trouble started in early September when I decided
I would participate in several holiday gift markets, I enthusiastically ordered
a total of 655 copies of my 10 mystery novels.
For my Canadian murder mysteries, Death in the
Vineyards, I ordered 250 copies of CORKED. 200 copies of SMASHED. 150 copies of
CRUSHED. These were given three separate order numbers on my Amazon account.
(You’ll understand later in this article why this is important.)
For my Mexican murder mysteries, Isla Mujeres
Mysteries, I ordered just 55 copies of the seven books because my Canadian fans
prefer the Canadian series. These 55 books were given another order number on
my Amazon account.
The boxes started arriving on September 25th.
Lots of boxes. Many boxes.
My books weigh about one pound, or 455 grams which is
about half a kilo. No sane person would ship an order that weighs 250 pounds in
one box. Which means that the orders arrived in 22 packages. Some boxes
contained 43 books, others 39, or 16, and oddly a few arrived in separate padded
envelopes containing just one book.
And now the trouble began.
A box of 39 copies of CORKED was posted on my account
as ‘Undeliverable.’
Then a box of 43 copies of SMASHED met the same fate. ‘Undeliverable.’
There was no explanation from the delivery company why
the boxes were undeliverable. All of the other packages arrived safely from the
same printing company to my address.
Checking my Amazon account the message said to wait a
few days to claim for the missing merchandise. On October 10th I
tried to do a ‘request for refund’ on my account but discovered I couldn’t
because I didn’t have anything to return.
So, I called the Customer Service line, and the real
fun began.
My first conversation included an interesting bit of
advice: “You have to return the entire shipment if you want a refund for part
of the shipment.”
So, that means that I have to find the people that I
have already sold books to, refund their money, then package up all of the
books, and send them back to Amazon, who will then send them back to the printer.
Then I have to re-order the books from Amazon, and hope that nothing goes
astray this time.
Wow! That is an amazing Amazonian solution. (Not!)
Earlier in this article I said, you'd understand later in the article why the three separate order numbers were important.
And here is the reason: When a Customer Service
Representative receives a request for a refund, the Order Number and the Total
Invoice must match. There is no accommodation for multiple invoices for one
order number. Crazy but true.
Amazon does not know how to process a partial refund.
I have been in contact with Amazon via phone calls or
emails every single day from October 10th until today. Every single communication
said, “I was unable to
find the order you have issues with so I would request you to provide the
following details for better assistance.”
Recently I found the email addresses for several of the
top Amazon executives and tried sending them a letter begging for assistance.
And guess what? They referred me back to the Customer Service Representatives,
and their computer-generated form letters.
I have several times sent detailed letters with
attached supporting documents printed from my Amazon account showing the four
original orders, and the various separate invoices listing the contents of each
box.
No joy there. I still get the standard computer
general replies, “I was
unable to find the order you have issues with so I would request you to provide
the following details for better assistance.”
So, now I am wondering.
Does anyone in this multinational megacorp
actually read letters from their customers?
Does anyone know how to compose a letter without the
assistance of AI bots?
Does any of the upper management know how to solve a simple
problem that is outside the parameters of their accounting system?
I will persist...if they don’t kill me first.
Cheers,
Lynda
2 comments:
Go for it, bureaucracy is a pain. (Glen)
Shame on Amazon. I have had experience with the drivers that just dump parcels at any address with the same house number, doesn't seem to matter that the street doesn't match.
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