I love, love, love to shop online. I can’t believe I used to be wary of it — the sharing of my credit card info, the personal data, the remembering of hundreds of passwords. Now it’s like second nature. Hell, I didn’t earn that lifetime Chapters reward card easily.
Any day now I expect to get some sort of personal thanks from the makers of Etsy, as well.
In all my years of shopping online, I can’t think of a time when I had a problem with my shipment. At times it’s taken a while for delivery, but it always makes it here in the end. This week, however, a problem! I ordered two CDs online from Amazon.ca for my nephew’s birthday like, three weeks ago, and I have to have them by the end of next week in time for our trip down south, and they still aren’t here. Every day I check the mailbox, and every day, the big nuthin’.
I’m getting pretty tense about it.
(Side note to Chapters: I only ordered from Amazon instead of you because one of the CDs is the new Coldplay album, Vida La Something Or Other, and you had two different copies listed, at two different prices, and I could not tell the difference, and I didn’t have a clear understanding of which to order, so I had to turn to Amazon, which only had one friendly little listing so I did not get confused. Please don’t revoke my lifetime rewards card!)
So last night I logged into Amazon and I found, to my dismay, that they had shipped my order last Monday, and the package tracking from Canada Post said it had been delivered to my mailbox last Thursday.
And yet, I have no package.
Sir Monkeypants said, “Just call up Amazon and explain what happened and I’m sure they’ll replace it.” And I said, “No freakin’ way, they did their part by filling my order and getting it in the mail, and it’s Canada Post’s fault for losing it, and we all know how much THEY SUCK, so I guess I’ll just throw in the towel and go buy the CDs at the mall and take the loss.”
But Sir Monkeypants made me call, just in case. Because he is a smart, smart man. Probably the smartest man alive.
I clicked on my Amazon order, and there was a nice big yellow button that said, “Contact us!” So I clicked there, and it asked me if I would like them to contact me By Email! or By Phone! So I clicked By Phone! and I am not kidding, a box popped up and prompted me to enter my phone number so they could call me.
Can you imagine? I didn’t have to enter a 10 digit number, I didn’t have to wade through a mass of phone menus…no. I just entered my number and about a half second later, the phone rang. Five seconds after that, I was talking to a person.
UNBELIEVABLE.
THEN, do you know what happened?
I explained that Canada Post says they delivered my package. Yet I do not have a package. I asked if anything could be done about this.
I expected the nice lady to tell me to piss off.
Instead, she said, “I’ll replace that order for you right away.”
I just about fell out of my chair.
Then she said, “Oh wait, I can’t officially declare it as ‘lost’ in the system until Friday. So I have put a watch on your account, and I will keep track of it personally, and first thing Friday morning I will re-fill it for you. No need to call back.”
And then I proposed to her.
Seriously, have you ever heard of such amazing customer service? I’ve made dozens of orders from Amazon before (Chapters! Cover your ears and sing a song!) and I’ve never had any problems before. And this one time, when I have a problem?
TAKEN CARE OF.
I seriously CANNOT get over it. It’s just so unexpected. Sir Monkeypants is way finished gloating over his smartitude, and really wishes I would shut up about this now, but I just CANNOT. GET. OVER. IT.
Living in a country where at least 90% of my customer service calls are to Bell or Rogers has really, really warped my sense of how a company should take care of its employees.
Amazon, I love you. I’m yours forever, screw my lifetime rewards card!
TurtleHead 
Holy crap! That’s amazing! I’ll spread the word. I’ve always prefered Amazon to Chapters, again because of the easier UI and the service just can’t be beat. But I didn’t know their service had gotten *that* good. Wicked!
I’ve had a couple of problems with Amazon orders over the years too, and I’ve always had good experiences with their customer service. In fact, one was a third-party seller who stiffed me on a return, and they just took care of it no questions asked.
I recently ordered XM satellite radio and was supposed to get a three-month promotional extension to my subscription. A while ago I realized that the extension hadn’t been credited, so I contacted them, and was told that I hadn’t entered a promotional code at the time I signed up, so there was no extension. I complained and they agreed to apply a credit to my account which would apply to the next year’s subscription. However, I told them I wasn’t sure that I’d be renewing my subscription, so they just credited my VISA card with 3 months worth of subscription. I was almost shocked that it was so easy, I actually sent them an email for being so gracious.
I’ve had horror stories too though. I bought a Dell laptop a couple of years ago, and couldn’t get the DVD writer to work. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent on the phone with Dell support before that finally got fixed (my recollection is that I had at least two 3-hour conversations with support, but that seems like it must be an exaggeration). Of course Dell is pretty legendary for that.
I know exactly what you mean about dreading making the call. I’d say more often than not, I’m more frustrated after a call to customer service (or after an email exchange) than before. So many companies just don’t get it at all. Particularly with big companies, it’s just too easy to ignore the customers you have — some fraction of them will leave when they get pissed off, but if your perception is that all the alternatives are equally evil, there’s much less incentive to switch.
Oh ya – Amazon has it all beat hands down over Chapters. I have a buckeload of horror stories about Chapters and their pissy customer service attitude if you’d care to hear them one day. So, will you get the CD on time???
CapnPlanet — I had no idea Dell was so renown for its terrible service. If I’d known that, I definitely would have thought twice before buying the Dell I’m using right now. Luckily I’ve had no problems. And it’s so true that the bigger companies get, the worse their customer service gets. There’s no better example up here than Bell and Rogers, which have such a monopoly on phone/internet/TV they can afford to be total dicks to everyone, because there’s just no where else to go. I’m feeling more than a little bitter today!
XUP – I’d LOVE to hear your Chapters stories sometime! I didn’t know they were also in the crappy service bucket. I have to say, though, upon reflection, that I’m not that surprised. It’s a Canadian company, after all…sometimes I think that our general politeness and (as you recently wrote about!) shyness/unwillingness to complain makes big Canadian corporations take advantage of us. Next time, I’m going to Amazon!
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