agustina prigoshin

I’m in dire need a Flip camera. I’ve never used one and I’m conducting an interview Friday, therefore, I’d like to have the camera for a few days so I can play around with it and be ready for the interview. I searched on jCompare and found a great price! It was with Amazon so I clicked through, went through the usual check out process and selected “One Day Shipping.” I figured the $18 shipping cost was worth it if I would have the camera within 24 hours. I saw a note that read something along the lines of “If you make your purchase within the next 2 hours, you’re product will arrive tomorrow.” I didn’t hesitate.

Today, I took a look at the confirmation email and noticed that the expected delivery date is Friday, February 26 – that’s four days from my purchase date!!

I became more frustrated when it took me a good 14 minutes to find a phone number on Amazon.com. They pretty much tell the consumer to contact them via other mediums BUT a phone call. I don’t want to send Amazon an email. I want to speak to a human on the phone and get my issue resolved immediately.

Eventually, I found their customer service number and my call was answered within two minutes of calling – obviously, my calling resulted in a quicker response.

I told the representative about my paying for one day shipping and finding out I had to wait an extra three days and how unacceptable that was. He pointed me to a sentence beside the product image that read, in green, “In stock but may require an extra 1-2 days to process.” Ok, where did that sentence come from? Why is it green and not red? Why is it next to the product image and not in the section where I choose my method of shipping?

I was very upset and told the representative that I have no choice but to wait to receive my camera, but that camera would be the last purchase I make with the company. He then went on to pitch other in-stock cameras to me! I don’t need to be pitched on something that’s not what I want.

He put me on hold to speak to his supervisor and came back with a solution: they would refund me the amount I paid for one day shipping, but they couldn’t expedite the actual delivery of the camera. I accepted their offer. It only seems fair that I not pay for what I’m not getting. Regardless, I’m going to have to wait to receive my camera.

While I’m not 100% happy with the phone call, I’m glad they took my frustration into consideration and offered some kind of solution.

Amazon, I know how revolutionary you’ve been with your check out process, but it baffles me that you wouldn’t put messages such as “In stock but may require an extra 1-2 days to process” within your “Choose your shipping options” page. I understand that as a consumer I should read everything on the page before purchasing, but a little help from you in repeating an important message like that would be extremely helpful. Also, if it’s important, maybe using red as opposed to green as your font color would be more attention-grabbing.