I ordered coffee from the US and they charged me tax. I had to fight them with tax code showing that coffee grounds are exempt from tax. It was annoying. They eventually refunded the tax.
Consumable products considered basic groceries
5. Examples of food and beverages that are zero-rated as basic groceries under section 1 of Part III of Schedule VI include fresh, frozen, canned and vacuum sealed fruits and vegetables, breakfast cereals, most milk products, fresh meat, poultry and fish, eggs and coffee beans.
@looseneck It is absolutely criminal that feminine hygiene products are taxed anywhere.
Canada JUST removed the Goods and Services Tax on them last year. But there are still tariffs that may be applied to them when they are imported into the country, so there is more work to be done.
Ordered a nap mat for the little oppodude. Came today. Noticed that it looked like it had been opened and returned. Checked it out. Had some kids name on it. Luckily guy on phone at Amazon got a “new” one coming to me before we leave on the family trip. Stupid fulfilled by Amazon store. But once again the “oppodude is always right” ethos of Amazon has paid off for me.
@oppodude their CS is really pretty great. I forget the circumstances but they ended up refunding me an overdraft fee my bank charged (worth half the value of the item!) one time for one reason or another. I forget the specifics but it was impressive.
So far this year I’ve had two instances in which I purchased a new item only to have Amazon (yes, they filled/ fulfilled the orders) send me blatantly used or returned items. Sure, Amazon replaced the items, but not without inconveniencing me a great deal.
I’ve also ordered items from their Warehouse and have literally received items thrown into a box, without any effort on their part, to properly pack them for shipping.
I love my Amazon Prime, but they are making it more difficult to overlook their mistakes which seem to be coming in greater frequency.
@haydesigner
Around here (north Texas) i know a few people eho work at the warehouse (starter jobs). They are Amazon employees and get tolerable money. More or less endless overtime and brutal hours.
@f00l It depends on who you actually work for. If you work for Amazon you get paid fairly well considering it’s unskilled labor and treated slightly better than garbage. If you work for SMX, you get paid dirt and are treated as garbage.
@haydesigner
Actually I don’t, but I suspect it begins with the prevailing minimum wage for the State the fulfillment center is in. That said, and I am not being flip or disrespecting your POV, I do think a lot of this is more a reflection of the generations we are from. I’ve had my share of craptastic low-paying jobs that included brutal hours and work conditions. But I didn’t take my dissatisfaction out on the customers for a job I agreed to take on.
But things have changed so my views are probably outmoded now. Thank you (and others) for your comments.
I ordered a bike uniform. i was really impressed with the quality for the price (same quality as items costing 5x more) but they sent the long sleeved version, which will not work in our texas summers. I brought this up with them and they sent OK. they didnt say they would send another or anything like that so im not sure what to do.
@JerseyFrank update: i asked them for a delivery window for the replacements and they said our warehouse is sorry it hasnt arrived. I wish they would answer my simple requests. at best theyll get 4 stars now
I ordered a ton of Christmas presents to be shipped to remote family across the country. About half of the orders never showed up, Amazon said they were just plain out of the items, even though they charged me. Boooooo! I did get my money back, after pestering them for a week or two. I got the distinct impression they would’ve been happy to keep my money and not deliver the orders.
I ordered a big blue Lego jet for my nephew’s Christmas and they shipped it without a box. I mean, the Lego set was in a box, but the box wasn’t in a box. It had shipping labels on it and it was ten kinds of torn up and caved in. I sent them a message basically saying “WTF?”, and they sent another one immediately…but again without a box! Thankfully it was undamaged and I was able to peel off the stickers without any damage, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. On the plus side, they told me to keep the first one. Hard to argue with a free $70 lego jet.
I’ve had all of the first 5 things happen. The one that was the worst to get fixed was when the item was misrepresented, when a listing claims to be a multi pack of something but they only send one.
When I complain about how they were supposed to send me 12 of something but I only got one, they always tell me they are sending it out properly this time, and then it ends up being only 1 again. One time they sent me the single item 3 times before I gave up and took a refund.
Every other one of the problems I can just do their auto fill email complaint and get it fixed the next day, most of the time with out me having to send back anything.
@jbartus Most the time the auto email gets the job done, and it only takes like 5 clicks.
If I need to actually talk to someone the chat allows me to get it done without having to devote my full attention to it, plus I get a transcript of the conversation so if I do need to talk to someone again I can just copy/paste what someone has already told me.
The times that I’ve had to contact customer service more than once it’s pretty much been for things that were clearly listing errors, I know it’s unlikely that I will get 12 of something for the price of 2 or 3. It’s disappointing when only 1 shows up, but not unexpected. The listings usually get pulled to be re-evaluated and properly listed as single units. It’s a bit annoying to have to talk to CS a few times, but I doubt anyone, phone or other wise, would have been able to do anything any different, except maybe move to the refund step earlier.
I ordered a period cup. You know, that goes inside a vagina. It did not come in its original box with the storage bag and instructions. It came inside of a clear plastic mailer bag with a sticker that someone slapped on it that said new. It was also the wrong size.
I raised hell. This came from an actual Amazon warehouse. Why would it of ever not been inside it’s box, in its bag, with the instructions.
I mean, this goes inside my vagina. I want a factory sealed one! It seemed only fair to be pissed.
@metaphore Grocery store/pharmacies. But hey this item is an invasive product you put inside you. Quite different than toilet paper or toiletries. Pretell where do you purchase said items?
@growyoungagain Amazon. And personally, I hold my toothbrush to a higher sanitary standard than my period cup. I get some pee on my tooth brush and it goes in the garbage, period cup gets some pee on it, it just gets washed with soap and water and reused.
@growyoungagain When you need a specific type of period cup, and the manufacturer only sells it through Amazon, I can’t just pick it up at a pharmacy.
And to be fair, the manufacturer/seller was horrified at how Amazon fulfilled the order. They ended up raising a stink and the item was unavailable for a while when it was being researched.
I don’t have a problem buying personal things online as long as they come in the original packaging as they were supposed to. Just like you wouldn’t buy a toothbrush in a Ziploc bag. If it’s sealed, in the original package, who cares if you buy it online or at a pharmacy?
We once ordered a ‘new’ exercise bike. It came in a plain box wrapped in shrink-wrap to cover some punch-throughs as a jumble of parts, missing several, no instructions, no packaging. We eventually got them to send the missing parts and accepted a significant partial refund (and the bike worked fine for a number of years; it was just scuffed up).
I’ve had a few items stay on backorder for more than a year, even though they are still actively selling the item at a higher price than my backorder. If its a really good deal you got you do NOT call to check on it; that seems to raise the odds of them simply canceling it.
@duodec i had a listing mixup/long backorder that didn’t work out from Amazon. They had a fire pit table that was $300 from third parties and $104 from amazon, backordered for a few months. I backordered it and then watched as the listing slowly changed over the next few weeks to a tabletop patio heater. The description changed, then the photos changed. The questions stayed for the table, including questions that said “Is this a fire pit table or a tabletop heater?” that stated the listing was for the table. The third parties were still selling the table, but amazon was selling the heater. When the shipping weight changed from 100+ pounds to 20, I contacted customer service and asked which item I would receive. They told me I must have mistakenly ordered the tabletop heater, and I cancelled and told them to straighten out the listing. I never understood what happened there, and I’m sure their marketplace vendors weren’t happy either.
@blaineg I won’t reveal the item but it is a very high quality item that normally sells for > $2000 on the 'zon. The Amazon pricing algorithm periodically shuffles prices up and down based on sales and other mystery soup, and this one trended down for a few months, then one day dropped to well under $500. I had wanted one so I ordered it, but it went on backorder just as I did.
FWIW it stayed orderable as a backorder for almost a week at the low price before skyrocketing back up to > $2000 in one jump. Some people received their backorders within a few weeks, but a few more (per the forum we frequented) were strung along like me for just over a year. Then one day we all got shipping notices and our items.
OTOH I’ve had smaller items (like a $150 hearing protector that got priced down into the low $20 range. Missed the in-stock, ordered with back-order. A few people reported getting some weeks later, then someone called to check up with Amazon on their order. That seemed to flag things and everyone who was still waiting got cancellation notices (the item was still available at full price from Amazon at the time). The automated systems just do what they do but a ‘customer service’ rep can screw up the whole deal.
So the trick is if you see a stellar deal on Amazon, order it, then be patient and do NOT contact them unless and until there’s a problem with the item they ship.
And always look for sold by or fulfilled by Amazon, not third party, for the best chance at a stellar deal panning out.
Once, I failed to receive a thing which was ordered with other things. I sent an email and they re-sent the entire order. Actually, that’s a happy story. Recently (this year), it happened again, and I received a refund. Also this year, I ordered something from somebody on the marketplace and they missed notification and sold it to somebody else, so I had to get a cancel/refund on that as well.
I posted a negative review, and updated it after finally getting my money back. Got this in response…
“Louis Fishman says:
Greetings we are sorry to hear about your experience. Please note that Genuine Strong Arm Lift Supports are manufactured in the USA. I am sorry to hear that a seller had mislead you by improperly listing their product with this product. If you still need the supports and are looking for Genuine Strong Arm Products please let us know. If you are buying from the seller “Lift Supports Depot” you will get Strong Arm Products made in the USA.”
However, if you examine the listing page, it says specifically “Ships from and sold by Lift Supports Depot.” And Louis Fishman says Lift Supports Depot only sells US made Strong Arm products.
@un4gvn1 the listing pages typically default to the best price from what I’ve seen, so if someone else had a better price listed you’d have purchased it. If you check your order invoice it should list who you purchased it from.
Notably there are two sellers for the listing in question, one with 99% positive reviews, the other with 0%.
@growyoungagain I’ve been an Amazon customer for close to 20 years, and I order a lot. The mistakes are actually rare, and customer service has always promptly replaced items or processed a refund without any proof that the order was defective or had something missing. It’s the main reason I’ve stayed a customer for so long.
I ordered a thing from a third party seller and received a different thing, but the same brand name. So I contacted the seller and they apologized and stated they would send out the correct item and arrange for me to ship back the wrong item.
This is where it gets weird.
The seller sends another email offering to give me a “good deal” on the wrong item if I wanted to keep it. Before I can respond, I get an email from Amazon telling me they were going to ship me the correct item and I could keep or dispose of the incorrect item, at no charge, as they didn’t want me to return it. They also directed me to disregard any further messages from the seller regarding this order.
It was odd, the only conclusion I could come to was the seller broke a rule and Amazon was monitoring our correspondence.
@blaineg It’s a weird proposition for sure. How would they have processed my payment for a thing I already had? If I had taken them up on their offer, which I wouldn’t have, it probably would have led to them wanting a CC number directly. I’m sure Amazon doesn’t want anyone circumventing their payment system or customers sending CC #'s over email to third party sellers.
@fierojo Lasership is crap but at least Amazon stands by their customer. I’ve actually gotten doubles of things at Lasership’s expense because Lasership lies about it being delivered, I call Amazon immediately (it’s what you do) and another is next-dayed. Then Lasership and UPS both deliver the next day.
I ordered a Gold Box deal on June 14th for next day. I am still waiting on it.
They constantly ship late for my orders. Granted, I order about 3 times a week and that gives them ample opportunity to screw up. But when 2 out of 3 are late… I just call and complain.
Yes, I’ll take the free month of Prime. I haven’t paid for Prime in about a year and a half.
It is a tie.
Order something labeled prime that comes from China so it takes 3-6 weeks.
Or
Search for a tablet case by the model number of the tablet you own, order the item in the search results and it does not fit the tablet model you searched. Review your order and it is for a different model. (Amazon search sucks).
@caffeine_dude Yes, the search sucks. Amazon allows sellers to tag their own products, and some sellers realize that dropping 1000 tags on all their products make them show up in search results more often, leading to more sales. They should really have a way to scan for tags and eliminate the taggish laundry lists.
@caffeine_dude so in other words you didn’t carefully read the listing, you just clicked order?
Sorry, I can’t hold Amazon responsible for that. Search engines aren’t magic, they work off what you give them and in my experience people suck at coming up with keywords. Consumers who don’t educate themselves fully on the product they are ordering prior to clicking buy deserve everything they get IMHO.
You’re not one of those people who rates a product 1 star because it shipped slowly or UPS beat it up in transit too are you?
@jbartus It’s Amazon programming their search engine. Way back in the days, small-parts.com had a really focused search. When they were bought by Amazon and turned into Amazon Supply, the search results got less focused and more of the typical Amazon fluff. Now that they’re Amazon Business, I won’t be surprised if it’s even shittier and more regular Amazon-like.
@narfcake even conceding the possibility that the search results are overly broad (which they might well be, more results = more products in front of customer = higher potential sales) it doesn’t excuse the consumer of their responsibility to be well educated on the product they’re buying before clicking buy.
I have had a couple go lost or stolen, a few show up late, a couple show up broken, and a couple come as the wrong item.
In every single case Amazon made it right. Given the volume of items I order online, I really can’t complain.
I’ve only had bad experiences that didn’t get corrected a few times. I no longer buy from those companies.
Recently I ordered a microphone from a third-party seller, and what I received was a worse model in a different color, which was surprising because I expected better from something claiming to be an audio store. I returned that one and gambled on a new third-party seller with zero feedback, who was selling for $5 cheaper, and that worked out fine.
A couple years ago I ordered one of the Star Wars radio dramas, and instead of a disc six I got a second disc five! I don’t think that was the seller’s fault - or at least they were damn good at making the item/wrap look new - but the replacement was fine.
I bought something as new, but it was obviously used. At best it might have been returned. I was very pissed.
(From Amazon itself, not a Marketplace seller.)
We order from Amazon several times a week, downright Amazon addicts. We’ve had packages lost/stolen, items damaged in transport, items damaged before transport, the wrong items shipped, you name it.
Amazon did auto-charge the Prime membership renewal to a random credit card that was on file, which happened to be a work card. They eventually fixed it. We ordered a new cell phone which showed up with someone’s personal information on it but it was needed immediately so there was no time to send it back and wait for another. That was a Marketplace order.
The one that pissed me off the most though was a bark collar that we ordered for one of the dogs. It was supposed to beep, then vibrate, then deliver a little zap as the dog continued to bark. I was in the kitchen and I hear the collar beeping repeatedly in the bedroom. I ran into the room and yanked it off the dog in a frenzy to find it shocking over and over. I was so glad I was home when it happened but you better believe I was irate. I contacted Amazon, fuming, and they pulled the product.
I’ve been having a lot of trouble lately with reordering garments I have ordered before, only to receive useless mis-sized garbage made of different materials than promised. I keep getting shirts that are a full ten inches smaller than my old ones.
The sellers don’t seem to understand why this is a problem. Amazon doesn’t seem to think they should crack down on scammers piggybacking on existing items with high ratings.
The only saving grace is Prime clothing returns, though I’ve had some screwups where I intended to buy a Prime item and mistakenly bought a different, effectively non-returnable one.
When Bezos said (paraphrasing) “any information you give me becomes mine and I’ll do whatever I damned well please with it,” I responded quietly to myself with, “Blow me, Bezos.” So I bet you can guess which answer I chose.
I ordered the complete Babylon 5 series (I make no apologies) from an Amazon Vendor for a really great price. It never showed. The vendor clearly had sold several to build a good rating and then just started to take the cash. Amazon made good on the refund and, as I recall, I found it even cheaper elsewhere (Costco?) All good.
Did you hear MGM has optioned Rising Stars? I’d never gotten around to reading it, so I snagged the 2nd to last copy Amazon had of the Rising Stars Compendium, and it showed up yesterday.
I think I’d been put off by the price, but this crazy thing is over 1.5" thick and it weighs a ton. I’ve never seen a comic book (graphic novel, if you must) like this.
I’m only one section into it, but JMS has me hooked again. Just wish I’d read it years ago.
Order a lot of product (~40 items since 2015), but mostly items I can’t find locally or are priced at a substantial (>30%) additional discount. I think the worst problem I’ve had are USB cables which work for data but not for charging
@SSteve Amazon sends cables in 2 days or less to NJ, for free. To make up for the shipping price of Monoprice, I need to make a large-ish order, and plan well in advance.
See also: Why I’ve paid $15 for a $2 cable at Radio Shack
I ordered a blue snowball microphone and it… didn’t have threads in the hole on the bottom. Just totally smooth. Manufacturing defect. Got it exchanged easily though.
I’ve had a couple of problems with Chinese sellers who just don’t get it. One guy sent me a tea pot for review that was cracked and had no lid, in a smashed box. Obviously a return that got sent out again. Then he sent me a tea that was simply NOT the tea advertised.
i ordered some in ear headphones. not all the ear plugs promisef were sent over. i only got 3 pairs instead of 8. i called them but they could not do anything except to refund because they were selling them not by amazon but now over a third party. now i have perfectly well working earphones for free.
I did order a shirt on shirt.woot (now Amazon) in size men’s XL (I like roomy) and they shipped a size men’s M. To their credit, the clearly smaller shirt did have an XL tag.
I complained and it remains unresolved. Here it is in front of an actual XL shirt:
@PocketBrain I should threaten to put on the smaller shirt and visit their offices. Replacing it with what I ordered would be far less expensive than having to train new employees and pay for the therapy that the old employees will require.
@msklzannie It’s not a women’s cut. And the XL is in block letters, not like the curvy women’s size letters on their letters. Apparently it was a blank out of place and given the wrong tag.
My only serious Amazon screw-up in hundreds and hundreds of orders since my first order of six Star Trek books on Dec 30, 1997 was entirely my fault. I ordered a Tormek sharpener with an accessory kit. I took it out of the shipping box but it was a couple weeks before I could open the product boxes and try it out. When I finally did, I couldn’t find the accessory box. I contacted Amazon and said I couldn’t find the accessory box. They told me to send back the sharpener and they’d resend the original order. While the replacement was on the way, I found the accessory kit hiding on top of something on a shelf. I told them I found it and they told me to refuse shipment on the replacement. I did and when they received it they gave me a refund, less restocking, on the original order. I rationalized keeping the refund by convincing myself that trying to fix it would have too much potential for badness.
tl;dr I got an awesome price on a Tormek sharpener.
I ordered coffee from the US and they charged me tax. I had to fight them with tax code showing that coffee grounds are exempt from tax. It was annoying. They eventually refunded the tax.
@curtise what? so walmart, target, groceries and every other retail store I can think of are all soaking up illegally gathered tax monies for coffee?
@thismyusername he’s canadian
@thismyusername No tax on coffee in NJ - another good thing about living here. No tax on tampons either
@thismyusername Indeed, @jaybird is correct. I am Canadian, and we don’t pay tax on coffee beans, whole or ground.
From the Canada Revenue Agency:
And now you know, and knowing is half the battle!
@looseneck It is absolutely criminal that feminine hygiene products are taxed anywhere.
Canada JUST removed the Goods and Services Tax on them last year. But there are still tariffs that may be applied to them when they are imported into the country, so there is more work to be done.
It was never delivered although the tracking screen showed that it was on the way. I had to get a refund.
Ordered a nap mat for the little oppodude. Came today. Noticed that it looked like it had been opened and returned. Checked it out. Had some kids name on it. Luckily guy on phone at Amazon got a “new” one coming to me before we leave on the family trip. Stupid fulfilled by Amazon store. But once again the “oppodude is always right” ethos of Amazon has paid off for me.
@oppodude their CS is really pretty great. I forget the circumstances but they ended up refunding me an overdraft fee my bank charged (worth half the value of the item!) one time for one reason or another. I forget the specifics but it was impressive.
Amazon has always been great to me. I order from them at least once a week with no issues.
We ordered a safety harness for one of our larger employees. They sent an exercise ball instead that had the wrong ASIN label.
@narfcake
So far this year I’ve had two instances in which I purchased a new item only to have Amazon (yes, they filled/ fulfilled the orders) send me blatantly used or returned items. Sure, Amazon replaced the items, but not without inconveniencing me a great deal.
I’ve also ordered items from their Warehouse and have literally received items thrown into a box, without any effort on their part, to properly pack them for shipping.
I love my Amazon Prime, but they are making it more difficult to overlook their mistakes which seem to be coming in greater frequency.
@Cheddy, you know what they pay their outsourced warehouse employees, right?
@haydesigner
Around here (north Texas) i know a few people eho work at the warehouse (starter jobs). They are Amazon employees and get tolerable money. More or less endless overtime and brutal hours.
Dunno if it’s that way for everyone.
@f00l It depends on who you actually work for. If you work for Amazon you get paid fairly well considering it’s unskilled labor and treated slightly better than garbage. If you work for SMX, you get paid dirt and are treated as garbage.
@haydesigner
Actually I don’t, but I suspect it begins with the prevailing minimum wage for the State the fulfillment center is in. That said, and I am not being flip or disrespecting your POV, I do think a lot of this is more a reflection of the generations we are from. I’ve had my share of craptastic low-paying jobs that included brutal hours and work conditions. But I didn’t take my dissatisfaction out on the customers for a job I agreed to take on.
But things have changed so my views are probably outmoded now. Thank you (and others) for your comments.
I ordered a bike uniform. i was really impressed with the quality for the price (same quality as items costing 5x more) but they sent the long sleeved version, which will not work in our texas summers. I brought this up with them and they sent OK. they didnt say they would send another or anything like that so im not sure what to do.
@thomasaelliott I’d write back requesting that they replace it with the short sleeve version.
@thomasaelliott look in your mailbox. You might already have some new scissors in it.
@wishod these are made of special materials for sweat wicking and tight fitting, cutting the sleeves will cause them to unravel and get messy
@thomasaelliott ok, new scissors, a needle, and thread.
@JerseyFrank update: i asked them for a delivery window for the replacements and they said our warehouse is sorry it hasnt arrived. I wish they would answer my simple requests. at best theyll get 4 stars now
I ordered a ton of Christmas presents to be shipped to remote family across the country. About half of the orders never showed up, Amazon said they were just plain out of the items, even though they charged me. Boooooo! I did get my money back, after pestering them for a week or two. I got the distinct impression they would’ve been happy to keep my money and not deliver the orders.
I ordered a big blue Lego jet for my nephew’s Christmas and they shipped it without a box. I mean, the Lego set was in a box, but the box wasn’t in a box. It had shipping labels on it and it was ten kinds of torn up and caved in. I sent them a message basically saying “WTF?”, and they sent another one immediately…but again without a box! Thankfully it was undamaged and I was able to peel off the stickers without any damage, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. On the plus side, they told me to keep the first one. Hard to argue with a free $70 lego jet.
The chocolate… it melted… it melted… the poor chocolate…
/me sniffs
(amazon refunded and told me to keep the melted pile of cocoa butter)
We got an entire order swapped with someone else.
I’ve had all of the first 5 things happen. The one that was the worst to get fixed was when the item was misrepresented, when a listing claims to be a multi pack of something but they only send one.
When I complain about how they were supposed to send me 12 of something but I only got one, they always tell me they are sending it out properly this time, and then it ends up being only 1 again. One time they sent me the single item 3 times before I gave up and took a refund.
Every other one of the problems I can just do their auto fill email complaint and get it fixed the next day, most of the time with out me having to send back anything.
@metaphore oh I always always always call them. Never had any trouble with CS when I get someone on the phone.
@jbartus Most the time the auto email gets the job done, and it only takes like 5 clicks.
If I need to actually talk to someone the chat allows me to get it done without having to devote my full attention to it, plus I get a transcript of the conversation so if I do need to talk to someone again I can just copy/paste what someone has already told me.
The times that I’ve had to contact customer service more than once it’s pretty much been for things that were clearly listing errors, I know it’s unlikely that I will get 12 of something for the price of 2 or 3. It’s disappointing when only 1 shows up, but not unexpected. The listings usually get pulled to be re-evaluated and properly listed as single units. It’s a bit annoying to have to talk to CS a few times, but I doubt anyone, phone or other wise, would have been able to do anything any different, except maybe move to the refund step earlier.
@metaphore
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I was just noting that I 've never had to resort to a second request on the phone. YMMV
I ordered a period cup. You know, that goes inside a vagina. It did not come in its original box with the storage bag and instructions. It came inside of a clear plastic mailer bag with a sticker that someone slapped on it that said new. It was also the wrong size.
I raised hell. This came from an actual Amazon warehouse. Why would it of ever not been inside it’s box, in its bag, with the instructions.
I mean, this goes inside my vagina. I want a factory sealed one! It seemed only fair to be pissed.
@RiotDemon damn, what a troublemaker organ that is!
@RiotDemon umm!! there are pharmacies for these types of things. I would never trust Amazon for such a personal item.
@growyoungagain Which places do you trust for the purchase of other personal items? Like toilet paper and tooth brushes?
@metaphore Grocery store/pharmacies. But hey this item is an invasive product you put inside you. Quite different than toilet paper or toiletries. Pretell where do you purchase said items?
@growyoungagain Amazon. And personally, I hold my toothbrush to a higher sanitary standard than my period cup. I get some pee on my tooth brush and it goes in the garbage, period cup gets some pee on it, it just gets washed with soap and water and reused.
@growyoungagain When you need a specific type of period cup, and the manufacturer only sells it through Amazon, I can’t just pick it up at a pharmacy.
And to be fair, the manufacturer/seller was horrified at how Amazon fulfilled the order. They ended up raising a stink and the item was unavailable for a while when it was being researched.
I don’t have a problem buying personal things online as long as they come in the original packaging as they were supposed to. Just like you wouldn’t buy a toothbrush in a Ziploc bag. If it’s sealed, in the original package, who cares if you buy it online or at a pharmacy?
@wishod Agreed!
We once ordered a ‘new’ exercise bike. It came in a plain box wrapped in shrink-wrap to cover some punch-throughs as a jumble of parts, missing several, no instructions, no packaging. We eventually got them to send the missing parts and accepted a significant partial refund (and the bike worked fine for a number of years; it was just scuffed up).
I’ve had a few items stay on backorder for more than a year, even though they are still actively selling the item at a higher price than my backorder. If its a really good deal you got you do NOT call to check on it; that seems to raise the odds of them simply canceling it.
@duodec I did have a book on pre-order for a year and a half; it was very late in publishing.
@PocketBrain was it written by George R. R. Martin?
@duodec Canceling the order is worse that waiting over a year? What was it, a car for $1?
@jbartus That would be more like a 10 year wait.
@duodec i had a listing mixup/long backorder that didn’t work out from Amazon. They had a fire pit table that was $300 from third parties and $104 from amazon, backordered for a few months. I backordered it and then watched as the listing slowly changed over the next few weeks to a tabletop patio heater. The description changed, then the photos changed. The questions stayed for the table, including questions that said “Is this a fire pit table or a tabletop heater?” that stated the listing was for the table. The third parties were still selling the table, but amazon was selling the heater. When the shipping weight changed from 100+ pounds to 20, I contacted customer service and asked which item I would receive. They told me I must have mistakenly ordered the tabletop heater, and I cancelled and told them to straighten out the listing. I never understood what happened there, and I’m sure their marketplace vendors weren’t happy either.
@blaineg I won’t reveal the item but it is a very high quality item that normally sells for > $2000 on the 'zon. The Amazon pricing algorithm periodically shuffles prices up and down based on sales and other mystery soup, and this one trended down for a few months, then one day dropped to well under $500. I had wanted one so I ordered it, but it went on backorder just as I did.
FWIW it stayed orderable as a backorder for almost a week at the low price before skyrocketing back up to > $2000 in one jump. Some people received their backorders within a few weeks, but a few more (per the forum we frequented) were strung along like me for just over a year. Then one day we all got shipping notices and our items.
OTOH I’ve had smaller items (like a $150 hearing protector that got priced down into the low $20 range. Missed the in-stock, ordered with back-order. A few people reported getting some weeks later, then someone called to check up with Amazon on their order. That seemed to flag things and everyone who was still waiting got cancellation notices (the item was still available at full price from Amazon at the time). The automated systems just do what they do but a ‘customer service’ rep can screw up the whole deal.
So the trick is if you see a stellar deal on Amazon, order it, then be patient and do NOT contact them unless and until there’s a problem with the item they ship.
And always look for sold by or fulfilled by Amazon, not third party, for the best chance at a stellar deal panning out.
@duodec
Have had that happen perhaps 2x… When it does i call and demand they fulfill at the discounted price i purchased at. So far they do.
@rockblossom That was the joke.
Once, I failed to receive a thing which was ordered with other things. I sent an email and they re-sent the entire order. Actually, that’s a happy story. Recently (this year), it happened again, and I received a refund. Also this year, I ordered something from somebody on the marketplace and they missed notification and sold it to somebody else, so I had to get a cancel/refund on that as well.
Ordered hatch struts for my Jeep. Listing gave a well-known brand name (Strongarm), specified the struts were US made and even listed the part #.
Long story shorter, when the struts arrived (from China) it was patently obvious they were China-brand knock-offs.
Took several attempts before the seller refunded my money.
To date, the listing still claims to be selling a US made product.
Fraudulent at best.
@un4gvn1 was it a marketplace seller?
@jbartus Yep.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001O13H7W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I posted a negative review, and updated it after finally getting my money back. Got this in response…
“Louis Fishman says:
Greetings we are sorry to hear about your experience. Please note that Genuine Strong Arm Lift Supports are manufactured in the USA. I am sorry to hear that a seller had mislead you by improperly listing their product with this product. If you still need the supports and are looking for Genuine Strong Arm Products please let us know. If you are buying from the seller “Lift Supports Depot” you will get Strong Arm Products made in the USA.”
However, if you examine the listing page, it says specifically “Ships from and sold by Lift Supports Depot.” And Louis Fishman says Lift Supports Depot only sells US made Strong Arm products.
Methinks someone speaks with forked tongue…
@un4gvn1 the listing pages typically default to the best price from what I’ve seen, so if someone else had a better price listed you’d have purchased it. If you check your order invoice it should list who you purchased it from.
Notably there are two sellers for the listing in question, one with 99% positive reviews, the other with 0%.
@jbartus Ok, so I went back & looked at the original order. Seems I bought it from “LL Auto Parts Store”
Their rating?
LL Auto Parts Store storefront
4.5 out of 5 stars86% positive in the last 12 months (725 ratings)
Don’t know how a buyer is supposed to know they’re about to get ripped off…
Ordered a replacement battery for my cell phone, ended up getting two refurbished ink cartridges instead.
The packaging they were wrapped in had both labels on it for some reason.
I don’t order from Amazon because of all the comments that I just read. My STRESS level is already too HIGH!!!:
@growyoungagain I’ve been an Amazon customer for close to 20 years, and I order a lot. The mistakes are actually rare, and customer service has always promptly replaced items or processed a refund without any proof that the order was defective or had something missing. It’s the main reason I’ve stayed a customer for so long.
@growyoungagain Here, try reading these reviews and see if that helps: http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1Q8RI7E9A68SU/
@growyoungagain Don’t order clothes and make sure they haven’t redirected you to the wrong product- you’ll be fine.
I ordered a thing from a third party seller and received a different thing, but the same brand name. So I contacted the seller and they apologized and stated they would send out the correct item and arrange for me to ship back the wrong item.
This is where it gets weird.
The seller sends another email offering to give me a “good deal” on the wrong item if I wanted to keep it. Before I can respond, I get an email from Amazon telling me they were going to ship me the correct item and I could keep or dispose of the incorrect item, at no charge, as they didn’t want me to return it. They also directed me to disregard any further messages from the seller regarding this order.
It was odd, the only conclusion I could come to was the seller broke a rule and Amazon was monitoring our correspondence.
@Robco44 Sounds like he was trying to dodge bad feedback on his account.
@blaineg It’s a weird proposition for sure. How would they have processed my payment for a thing I already had? If I had taken them up on their offer, which I wouldn’t have, it probably would have led to them wanting a CC number directly. I’m sure Amazon doesn’t want anyone circumventing their payment system or customers sending CC #'s over email to third party sellers.
Their last mile delivery service, Lasership, decides they want the package more then I do. Happens about 1 out of 15 times.
@fierojo Lasership is crap but at least Amazon stands by their customer. I’ve actually gotten doubles of things at Lasership’s expense because Lasership lies about it being delivered, I call Amazon immediately (it’s what you do) and another is next-dayed. Then Lasership and UPS both deliver the next day.
#FreeRyobiRechargableBatteries #MoreFreeStuffICantThinkOf
Nothing that I can remember.
Ask me about my worst Woot experience.
I ordered a Gold Box deal on June 14th for next day. I am still waiting on it.
They constantly ship late for my orders. Granted, I order about 3 times a week and that gives them ample opportunity to screw up. But when 2 out of 3 are late… I just call and complain.
Yes, I’ll take the free month of Prime. I haven’t paid for Prime in about a year and a half.
It is a tie.
Order something labeled prime that comes from China so it takes 3-6 weeks.
Or
Search for a tablet case by the model number of the tablet you own, order the item in the search results and it does not fit the tablet model you searched. Review your order and it is for a different model. (Amazon search sucks).
@caffeine_dude Yes, the search sucks. Amazon allows sellers to tag their own products, and some sellers realize that dropping 1000 tags on all their products make them show up in search results more often, leading to more sales. They should really have a way to scan for tags and eliminate the taggish laundry lists.
@caffeine_dude so in other words you didn’t carefully read the listing, you just clicked order?
Sorry, I can’t hold Amazon responsible for that. Search engines aren’t magic, they work off what you give them and in my experience people suck at coming up with keywords. Consumers who don’t educate themselves fully on the product they are ordering prior to clicking buy deserve everything they get IMHO.
You’re not one of those people who rates a product 1 star because it shipped slowly or UPS beat it up in transit too are you?
@jbartus It’s Amazon programming their search engine. Way back in the days, small-parts.com had a really focused search. When they were bought by Amazon and turned into Amazon Supply, the search results got less focused and more of the typical Amazon fluff. Now that they’re Amazon Business, I won’t be surprised if it’s even shittier and more regular Amazon-like.
@narfcake even conceding the possibility that the search results are overly broad (which they might well be, more results = more products in front of customer = higher potential sales) it doesn’t excuse the consumer of their responsibility to be well educated on the product they’re buying before clicking buy.
I have had a couple go lost or stolen, a few show up late, a couple show up broken, and a couple come as the wrong item.
In every single case Amazon made it right. Given the volume of items I order online, I really can’t complain.
I’ve only had bad experiences that didn’t get corrected a few times. I no longer buy from those companies.
@infornography you had experiences on Amazon where nobody made it right in the end?
@jbartus nope, only from a handful of other companies have I had unresolved issues.
@infornography ah, okay. I was going to say Amazon is pretty stellar about that.
I ordered a CD and they sent me two. Not really a problem, actually.
Recently I ordered a microphone from a third-party seller, and what I received was a worse model in a different color, which was surprising because I expected better from something claiming to be an audio store. I returned that one and gambled on a new third-party seller with zero feedback, who was selling for $5 cheaper, and that worked out fine.
A couple years ago I ordered one of the Star Wars radio dramas, and instead of a disc six I got a second disc five! I don’t think that was the seller’s fault - or at least they were damn good at making the item/wrap look new - but the replacement was fine.
I bought something as new, but it was obviously used. At best it might have been returned. I was very pissed.
(From Amazon itself, not a Marketplace seller.)
We order from Amazon several times a week, downright Amazon addicts. We’ve had packages lost/stolen, items damaged in transport, items damaged before transport, the wrong items shipped, you name it.
Amazon did auto-charge the Prime membership renewal to a random credit card that was on file, which happened to be a work card. They eventually fixed it. We ordered a new cell phone which showed up with someone’s personal information on it but it was needed immediately so there was no time to send it back and wait for another. That was a Marketplace order.
The one that pissed me off the most though was a bark collar that we ordered for one of the dogs. It was supposed to beep, then vibrate, then deliver a little zap as the dog continued to bark. I was in the kitchen and I hear the collar beeping repeatedly in the bedroom. I ran into the room and yanked it off the dog in a frenzy to find it shocking over and over. I was so glad I was home when it happened but you better believe I was irate. I contacted Amazon, fuming, and they pulled the product.
@dikaryon you reminded me why I got the overdraft back. Prime renewal was charged to a random account they had on file!
Packages lost/stolen and/or damaged in transport aren’t really anything to blame Amazon for…
Ordered a Keurig k50, got a k40, but as far as I can tell there’s no difference… so… meh.
I’ve been having a lot of trouble lately with reordering garments I have ordered before, only to receive useless mis-sized garbage made of different materials than promised. I keep getting shirts that are a full ten inches smaller than my old ones.
The sellers don’t seem to understand why this is a problem. Amazon doesn’t seem to think they should crack down on scammers piggybacking on existing items with high ratings.
The only saving grace is Prime clothing returns, though I’ve had some screwups where I intended to buy a Prime item and mistakenly bought a different, effectively non-returnable one.
When Bezos said (paraphrasing) “any information you give me becomes mine and I’ll do whatever I damned well please with it,” I responded quietly to myself with, “Blow me, Bezos.” So I bet you can guess which answer I chose.
I ordered the complete Babylon 5 series (I make no apologies) from an Amazon Vendor for a really great price. It never showed. The vendor clearly had sold several to build a good rating and then just started to take the cash. Amazon made good on the refund and, as I recall, I found it even cheaper elsewhere (Costco?) All good.
@Boiler3k Why would you apologize for having great taste in science fiction?
@vdeogmer I need more than one star for this!
Did you hear MGM has optioned Rising Stars? I’d never gotten around to reading it, so I snagged the 2nd to last copy Amazon had of the Rising Stars Compendium, and it showed up yesterday.
I think I’d been put off by the price, but this crazy thing is over 1.5" thick and it weighs a ton. I’ve never seen a comic book (graphic novel, if you must) like this.
I’m only one section into it, but JMS has me hooked again. Just wish I’d read it years ago.
Order a lot of product (~40 items since 2015), but mostly items I can’t find locally or are priced at a substantial (>30%) additional discount. I think the worst problem I’ve had are USB cables which work for data but not for charging
@compunaut Buy all cables from Monoprice, nowhere else.
@SSteve Amazon sends cables in 2 days or less to NJ, for free. To make up for the shipping price of Monoprice, I need to make a large-ish order, and plan well in advance.
See also: Why I’ve paid $15 for a $2 cable at Radio Shack
I ordered a blue snowball microphone and it… didn’t have threads in the hole on the bottom. Just totally smooth. Manufacturing defect. Got it exchanged easily though.
Preordered a game for guaranteed release date delivery and sent it to my bro’s address. I got the game on release day, he did not. Boy was he pissed!
I complained and got a full refund! That’ll learn ya, 'zon!
I’ve had a couple of problems with Chinese sellers who just don’t get it. One guy sent me a tea pot for review that was cracked and had no lid, in a smashed box. Obviously a return that got sent out again. Then he sent me a tea that was simply NOT the tea advertised.
i ordered some in ear headphones. not all the ear plugs promisef were sent over. i only got 3 pairs instead of 8. i called them but they could not do anything except to refund because they were selling them not by amazon but now over a third party. now i have perfectly well working earphones for free.
I did order a shirt on shirt.woot (now Amazon) in size men’s XL (I like roomy) and they shipped a size men’s M. To their credit, the clearly smaller shirt did have an XL tag.
I complained and it remains unresolved. Here it is in front of an actual XL shirt:
@PocketBrain I should threaten to put on the smaller shirt and visit their offices. Replacing it with what I ordered would be far less expensive than having to train new employees and pay for the therapy that the old employees will require.
@PocketBrain Could it possibly be a women’s xl? They are about the same as a men’s M.
@msklzannie It’s not a women’s cut. And the XL is in block letters, not like the curvy women’s size letters on their letters. Apparently it was a blank out of place and given the wrong tag.
My worst experience with Amazon …
http://www.threethriftyguys.com/2014/02/kindle-fire-on-the-amazon-how-i-scored-an-upgrade-for-almost-free/
@booboo9000 Cracking good yarn, sir, I do say!
My only serious Amazon screw-up in hundreds and hundreds of orders since my first order of six Star Trek books on Dec 30, 1997 was entirely my fault. I ordered a Tormek sharpener with an accessory kit. I took it out of the shipping box but it was a couple weeks before I could open the product boxes and try it out. When I finally did, I couldn’t find the accessory box. I contacted Amazon and said I couldn’t find the accessory box. They told me to send back the sharpener and they’d resend the original order. While the replacement was on the way, I found the accessory kit hiding on top of something on a shelf. I told them I found it and they told me to refuse shipment on the replacement. I did and when they received it they gave me a refund, less restocking, on the original order. I rationalized keeping the refund by convincing myself that trying to fix it would have too much potential for badness.
tl;dr I got an awesome price on a Tormek sharpener.