I’ve been an Amazon.com customer for YEARS – since 2004 and have spent thousands and thousands of dollars there. They are the first place I look for products and one of my main resources for Christmas shopping.
Until now.
Maybe I am over-reacting.
You tell me.
The other day I ordered a $60 Radio Flyer bike for my daughter that was going to be from Santa. Her “big gift” from the big, jolly man. The product page indicated the item would be shipping in its original packaging (I always look for that) and to mark it as a gift if you want it concealed. Cool. I marked it as a gift, and made the purchase.
Yesterday, my kids and I came home from the store and we were half a block away when my son said “Radio Flyer, what’s that?” after spotting the NOT CONCEALED box sitting on our porch. I quickly scrambled and told him to distract Abby so I could put it away, but the problem still remains. My 6 year old is too smart for me to be able to put this under the tree from Santa now.
And I am heartbroken.
I know we can give it to her from us, and she’s too young to know the difference, but I was just excited for it to be from Santa. This isn’t ALL about the kids you know. The parents get into this Santa thing too.
I doubled checked my order in my account and it clearly says it was marked as a gift, so I wrote to Amazon.com explaining the situation and also that the box was damaged and re-taped (I haven’t opened it yet to see if the bike is damaged I wanted to hear back from them first). They wrote back with an apology for the damaged box and a $5 credit to my account for my trouble. They made no mention about the mistake they made about the concealed package.
So I wrote back.
I got yet another apology:
Hello,
I’m sorry for the delay in responding fully to all of your questions in our previous correspondence.
I understand your order didn’t arrive concealed although you marked it as a gift. Unfortunately, on rare occasions, fulfillment centers make a mistake when assembling a package. I’ve forwarded your message to our fulfillment team to make sure they’re aware of this incident.
I realize this is a gift order for a special occasion, and I’m so sorry about the inconvenience.
We’ll consider your feedback as we plan further improvements.
Customer feedback like yours really helps us continue to improve our store and provide better service to our customers.
One of our aims at Amazon.com is to provide a convenient and efficient service; in this case, we haven’t met that standard. I hope you’ll give us another chance to serve you better in the future.
It is our absolute commitment to provide you the best possible customer service. Should you need any further assistance with this order, please click the link below to tell us when and where to get in touch with you, and a dedicated customer service representative will contact you by phone to provide resolution.
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=hawdaudh3238273931&q=sn
Best regards,
Vijay P.
Amazon.com
We’re Building Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company
But I just don’t feel like it is enough.
This was a big deal for me.
What do you think? Am I over-reacting? Should I let it go and just move on with my life? Should I push it further and ask to speak to a customer service rep? If so, what should I even expect them to do to remedy it?
About Kim
I would be furious and they WOULD fix it for me one way or another.Customer service is supposed to be #1 and they failed miserably.Im sorry is just not enough.A $5 credit..please honestly how far does that go for ruining your surprise..if it were me..not far.My husband says Im a b*^*h when it comes to this type of thing but I could care less what anyone thinks.I would give them the riot act..ask for a supervisor and let lose on them..no excuses are good enough.
Oh my. What a mix up. Anyway, I think things like this happen a lot, especially when the holidays are coming up. They probably have a lot of orders to process and unfortunately, your order wasn’t processed properly.
Don’t worry, no matter how the package ‘secretly’ arrived at your home, your daughter will still love it (and it will come from ‘Santa’ of course).
I haven’t read all the responses so I have no idea what others are saying … as for me, I just don’t know what more they could do at this point because the damage is already done. They can’t unring the bell, kwim? Other than issue the apologies, I suppose they could offer to refund your money, but that still isn’t going to fix the Santa problem. I’m so sorry this happened. My daughter once accidentally discovered a Santa gift … I know that kind of disappointment.
That is so lame…ugh.
Wow First let me say that I am sorry this happened, 2nd no your not wrong for being upset. I would be to. Now If it wasn’t the holiday then just maybe I would let it pass but it is and I feel they should have common sense to least put it in another box!
I shop Amazon almost weekly and never had any issues so I cant speak on them in a negative way. Thanks for the post I will make sure I watch my orders so my kids don’t get a christmas gift 2 early! Cause Mine is at they age where they know EVERYTHING LOL.
I would contact them again and have a dedicated customer service representative call you to provide a resolution. Let them know that Christmas was ruined for you with this error and you want resolution. Not a lousy $5.00 credit.
Oh, ugh! I am always so careful about checking that sort of thing too. Is $5 even enough to cover the gift-wrapping you *paid* for? Amazon post-sale service completely stinks. I suppose they think they’re big enough that it won’t matter anyway, but the www is, well, wide. I expect more from them.
I HATE Amazon. I refuse to spend a penny there. I have had nothing but nightmares every time I’ve ordered from there. 2 years ago for Christmas I ordered my sons Santa gift, a Woody doll, on December 2nd. It arrived the day before Xmas. And then when I opened it there was a big green stain on his face from being close to another toy that got too hot and “Bled” onto his face. Amazon totally didn’t get why I was upset. Umm..maybe becuase I ordered this toy a month ago. I was furious. They ended up making it right but not without a ton of headache. Nope, won’t use them.
Sorry this happened.
Lee
awwwww, this is why i hate Amazon almost as much as i hate ebay. I doubt there’s much you can really do about it other than send it back and get her something better elsewhere. I agree with you, “sorry” just doesn’t really cut it.
My take, is there anyways you could sneak other things into the box and act as if something else came in it. And put the actual bike in a different box maybe? I know kids are pretty smart, but maybe it could be pulled off.
Just a suggestion.