Amazon is great but it can be deaf. I noticed today that it's posting misleading information about the book Beyond Branding. It sells it for £25 claiming this is a 37% discount on the list price of £39.95. But the list price is £25.
So I email them - politely - pointing out this error, only to get a scripted reply that completely ignores my point. They tell me they don't have a price matching policy. But I'm talking about misleading information. I reply to their reply, and what I get back is
We're sorry. You have written to an e-mail address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. This automated response will, however, direct you to the right place on our website where you can find information to help with your query, or make changes to your Amazon.co.uk order.Well, I don't think I can be bothered to unlock the puzzle of how to get a human being to read my email, so instead I am blogging my irritation!
Bookmark: del.icio.us Digg it ma.gnolia Yahoo MyWeb Google StumbleUpon
Permalink
Facebook/Johnnie Moore
Linkedin/Johnnie Moore
Twitter/johnniemoore
Last.fm/johnniemoore
Del.icio.us/johnniemoore
Technorati/johnniemoore
MyBlogLog/JohnnieM
Blog/Johnnie Moore
Comments (1)
... and so you should... having had to deal with Amazon on a professional basis as a publisher... I can vouch for their complete and utter deafness... not only to customers but to their suppliers.
To refer to another Chris Lawer's blog entries: http://chrislawer.blogs.com/chris_lawer/2004/09/the_customercen.html, Amazon is the perfect example of innovative paralysis by analysis. While truly Amazon has innovated many online features for itys customers in an attempt to match or even overtake the experience of a user browsing a bricks and mortar bookstore, they seem to have failed to realise that at some point the customer might want to talk to someone.
In relation to this, I was particularly impressed for example by McAfee's use of Instant Messenger technology to offer one on one (quasi)-instant support. I was stuck on a particular issue but realised that I was too late to make use of their freephone line (out of hours). Doubtfully I signed up to be contacted through an IM interface. This happened 5 minutes later and after a 5 minutes very polite conversation, my proiblem was solved.
Bet you Amazon is not listening though!
September 9, 2004 16:20 Permalink for comment