It's even worse than it appears.
Friday September 20, 2019; 9:03 AM EDT
Communicating with Amazon#
  • Most of my orders with Amazon are uneventful. The product arrives when it was supposed to and it works and that's that. But sometimes something goes wrong.#
  • On July 26, I ordered an outdoor thermometer. Not expensive, $10. But it was broken when I opened the package, and I cut my finger, it bled. #
  • I went to the Order page and reported that it arrived broken. I just wanted to throw it out, not wanting to handle the broken glass, possibly injuring myself again, or someone who had to handle it at UPS or at Amazon. That was the right thing to do. The Amazon rep said OK, they would credit me for the thermometer. Honestly I was surprised it was that easy. I ordered another one (which arrived unbroken and I'm using it).#
  • Well, about a week ago, I got an email saying I needed to send the thermometer back or I'd be charged for it. There was no way to respond. I got another notice a few days later saying they had charged me for it. #
  • Okay $10 isn't going to make a difference to me, but it would make even less of a difference to Amazon. And they agreed to the arrangement, and it was the right thing to do. #
  • So I thought I'd write it up here on my blog. Maybe someone in an executive role at Amazon will see it, and will change their system so it's easier for customers to talk to them, and make sure when they agree to something, they stick to it. #

© 1994-2019 Dave Winer.

Last update: Friday September 20, 2019; 10:31 AM EDT.

You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)