"I ordered on December 17 and received items on December 22. The prices were good. I have never had a problem with Amazon, so I have never had to try their customer service department. I just recently went a few rounds with Buy.com. I will not do that again. "
"I have been using Amazon.com for about a year and a half now. All of my packages have normally arrived 1-2 days before Amazon estimated them to. One of my packages was lost in the mail (UPS fault, not Amazon) and I contacted Amazon. The next day, customer service acknowledged that even though UPS showed the package as delivered, they understood that it was lost in the mail and immediately shipped me a replacement package free of charge, no further questions asked. I purchase most everything now off of Amazon after finding what I want/need in brick & mortar stores. Amazon's prices are competitive, while admittedly not the best. I prefer dealing with them because their customer service is excellent, and their policies favor the consumer - those who make them rich. I will continue dealing with them for the forseeable future."
"I have used Amazon many times before, mostly for books, and have been a very happy customer in general. Their web site is fast, and they usually have been pretty pleasant to deal with.
I wanted to buy a new TV for my mom this Christmas who lives in Fresno, and even though my local Fry's had the set I wanted on sale at the same price Amazon did, I didn't want to have to try and pack it into my SUV along with all the other presents and luggage for the trip to Fresno. Plus, as an AMEX customer, I had a 25% off coupon that would work at Amazon.com that would help offset the shipping expense (the amex coupon maxes out at $150, and the shipping was around $130). Though I had never ordered such stuff from amazon.com before, based on my past experience, I decided to go ahead an place an order.
I ordered the Sony KDF-E42A10 from Amazon on the 18th, and the website indicated it shipped on the 20th, not via fedex by via Eagle Global Logistics. Even though Amazon's web site showed the TV shipped on the 20th, the Eagle tracking site didn't show anything other than the fact they'd receieved it.
After 2 days of no activity, and seeing some reviews on Amazon about based experiences with Eagle, I started calling Eagle. They aren't the easiest to deal with. They said that even though there was no tracking info available, sometimes items are shipped in containers where the individual items aren't scanned. I called the Dallas EGL site and they said it wasn't there, but could be on a truck to Sacaramento, or to LAX. After several more days of no activity, and more calls to the various Eagle locations to check status, I finally reached someone who took responsibility and dug into everything. he did dock checks at all the possible facilities, and couldn't find it.
He found out that Amazon generates a tracking number and shipping manifest with them before the actual item shows up on their docks, so he couldn't even tell if it had ever been delivered to them by Amazon. Apparently sometimes things get "lost" between Amazon and the shippers. He said it was unlikely at this point the TV ever was shipped (this is on the 27th, 7 days after the order supposedly shipped).
After sending Amazon a note on this fiasco outlining the fact that we were only here a couple more days and that the whole point was to get the TV here when I could hook it up for her and that they needed to find out what was going on, Amazon responded that the shipper contacted them and said they lost the item, and that Amazon could either cancel the order or expedite a new TV. I tried reaching them on their undocumented 800 number (sounded like it was in India), but all they did was send email to the shipping dept...
Amazon only seems to want to deal with email, and email through their web interface which is very painful and take a long time between responses.
Even though they first said they would expedite shipment of a replacement, now they say it's too big to be shipped by Fedex or UPS so they can't expedite it after all, and they will cancel the order. This is despite the fact that fedex freight can do next day shipment.
Then there is the issue of the AMEX coupon I used. If they are going to cancel it, then I want my coupon back. I have yet to get a response from them on this.
Bottom line, I am very disappointed with Amazon here. It's made worse by the fact that noone there will just pick up the phone and call me (I included my cell phone in my notes), instead causing me to waste a lot of time checking email and trying to figure out what to do next. It could have been handled so quickly.
I have concluded that if you want to buy things like books from Amazon, that works fine, but they aren't set up yet to do a good job on items like TV's and other things they can't ship the way they ship books. Eagle is a terrible shipper, and Amazon's shipment process with them can allow mistakes to not get caught and drag on for days because noone knows where the item could be. Stay away from Amazon for things like TV's and electronics. I will update this when we get this finally resolved."
"Placed an order on Dec 14th. Order was in 'processing' and didn't ship until the 19th. A tad long but can't really complain since I chose Super Saver Shipping. I was pleasantly surprised to find it had been shipped 3 day select. It arrived at my doorstep on the 22nd, in time for Christmas."
"I made a mistake, but they are working with me. Amazon is one of the most reliable online stores. "
"Just wanted to say Amazon.com has always been an excellent product source. I had one mishap on this order where the website actually advertised a price of $35.00 for Angel Season 5 DVD box set and when I went to actually order a different price showed up. I called Amazon web assistance and they confirmed that the website had run an error. I only expected to pay the amount originally advertised. Instead they offered to send the DVD set as a complimentary gift for the error and as a thank you for continued patronage. Now, I felt this was way over and beyond what was necessary but, needless to say Amazon is my first choice in online retail. Other horrible vendors such as Overstock.com could stand to learn a lot from Amazon."
"I purchased items from a combination of amazon.com and one of their affiliates. I just recieved the portion of the order from the affiliate and the portion from amazon.com just came a few days before. Very dissapointed in the turn around on this order, about the worst I've gotten from any on-line retailer and worst ever from amazon. They didn't indicate that anything was out of stock, or i wouldn't have ordered in the first place."
"Products were ordered on December 11. Shortly afterward, my order status said they would be shipping soon.
By 12/21, they still hadn't shipped so I sent an email and they responded that my order would arrive in time for Christmas.
By 12/22 it still hadn't shipped so I called Amazon customer service and they assured me the order would ship. I called again late in the evening on 12/22 and they assured me the order is going onto a truck as we spoke.
On the morning of 12/23, the order still hadn't shipped and they said it wouldn't arrive and there was nothing they could do.
You will not find their customer service phone number ANYWHERE on their site. I was able to find the number elsewhere on the web. Their customer service number is ***-***-****"
"I did get my items, 14 days after placing my order. The thing that makes me furious about Amazon these days is that they lie. They say that items typically ship within 24 hours, but that means NOTHING. It could ship in 24 hours, or, like my recent order, take 7 days for the shipment to be picked up. They blame UPS. I don't care who is to blame. They have just fallen off the earth in the customer service arena. There are way better online stores to buy from. Of course, no one has the selection of Amazon, but I will look seriously elsewhere before purchasing there again"
"I've used Amazon.com for years and have never had a problem before. This time, the Pioneer DVR I ordered was not working on arrival (DVD recording worked, but not the hard drive). Facing a return for the first time ever, I found the procedure very efficient. The online return order form let me generate a postage-paid return label, with multiple shipping options. Although they said it could take several business weeks, I received a refund to my credit card much faster than that.
I will definitely continue to use Amazon.com."
"Ordered four books from amazon one week before xmas (both of which were on sunday), and it said my order would come on friday. I paid the standard shipping fee, not second day or next day. I got two e-mails from them today saying my order had shipped (from separate locations) and the shipping had been upgraded to next day air. Very cool. They kept their word on getting my packages to me on the 23rd. I'm quite impressed.
The only bad part was one of the e-mails incorrectly said that a package wasn't going to make it in time. But after I looked at the tracking information I realized that my packages would get here on time."
"Purchased various items as gift for delivery to florida for retired mother and father. Ordered on 12/16-received email from amazon on 12/21 saying some of the items wont be there until 12/29. Kind of late email and also said in email you cannot change or cancel order. Horrible service "
"The printer I ordered for a Christmas gift was "lost" by Fedex. They showed it delivered to me, which it wasn't. When I got no help from Fedex, I emailed Amazon for help. They immediately shipped another printer at no charge by UPS. I was more than pleased with their customer service."
"It's so FRUSTRATING! Amazon.com stated on their website that they guarantee the orders will be received by December 23 if placed before December 16. I ordered an "In Stock" item from them on Dec 15 and expect it will arrive before Christmas. I constantly check on the status. It was once said my order was ready to ship. All of a sudden when I checked the status last night, it says it's not going to deliver until Dec 27. How disappointing!! I wrote to their customer service twice and they could not honor their guarantee. I really wonder what is the meaning of "Guarantee" to them."
"I have been using Amazon.com for much of my Christmas shopping. My experience has been very good thus far. What others have said is true, however. Be aware that if you use their free super saver shipping, that they will take a long time to actually process the order and get it out of the warehouse. On the other hand, if you get standard or express shipping, the order will be shipped fairly quickly. I was fortunate enough to get a trial period of their Amazon Prime service, and so I have been able to get free 2-day shipping on all my orders. Using this service for Christmas shopping has been very nice, but for myself I would not consider it to be worth whatever it normally costs."