I think it's fab there are many sites that inform consumers about poor experiences with some companies, but I bemoan the lack of sites that showcase the inverse: great service stories! Point me to one if you know it, but outside of sporadic blog entries or testimonials on a company's own site, I haven't found the equivalent of RetailMeNot for happy transaction tales.
Amazon has given me consistently great service. From the time I failed to receive a package near Christmas to what I'm going to tell you, it's been mostly uphill. The one time I pitched cavil was when my Mechanical Turk account was mistakenly shut down — but after navigating through that specific site's poor usability (in comparison with the main Amazon.com) and suggesting they improve their awkward "can't reply directly to a support email" lack of flow, a self-identified project manager called me to apologize, and that was set right.
Most recently, I made a bungle because of something confusing Amazon allows: you can actually have TWO different accounts that use the SAME email address, which is what you use to login! So how are you supposed to tell they're different? In my case, I used different passwords, but I didn't want to experiment and find out what happened if I reset them to the same. Might have resulted in some horrible multiverse collision.
Anyway, during my mishap, I applied a gift certificate to the wrong account. And wrote to Amazon customer service asking if it could be transferred. After an initial misunderstanding of my situation, I persisted and explained simply. Then, this from Agir:
I understand you'd like to transfer your gift card funds to this account from another account of yours. Unfortunately, once a gift card is redeemed, we are unable to transfer the gift card funds to another account.
However, I would like to make an one time exception to our Standard Policy. So, I would request you to write back to us using the e-mail address that was used at the time of redeeming the gift card, so we can unreedem the gift card funds in that account and you can use the claim code on this account.
Emphasis mine. What a good way to state a policy clearly while being flexible! Protects them from repeat abuse while solving my problem. I wouldn't have made this error if Amazon didn't allow same-username accounts, but since that's likely non-trivial to change for my one-time mishap, they did this instead. Googling for "one time exception to our standard policy" reveals a few other matches.
Thanks Agir and Amazon!
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Well, I'm glad you had good service. I can't even get a reply from them. I have two accounts at Amazon but they have different email because one isn't mine… it is a work account that I have control over. And Amazon WILL NOT LET THEM BE SEPARATE. And yet there are many things a corporate account cannot do… buy used books being one of the most frustrating. But lately I have also found that credit cards can be updated on the personal account but not the business account (they must be deleted and re-entered). But mostly I just find it utterly absurd that the two accounts are joined just because my name is on one and I am the contact for the other. Erm, no, I don't really want recommendations based on what my company buys for their library. Gah. Sorry to hijack your entry. The fact that you get service is really quite amazing.
I personally have had nothing but stunningly wonderful service from Amazon throughout the years. And the guarantees they offer before and after the sail. For example: Kindle eReader: 30-day money-back guarantee (or exchange agin and again as often as necessary – a new 30-days on receipt of each) – no questions asked.
Of course this is Amazon-proper as there are many other resellers who sell through Amazon. But on the pside of that is this: Amazon is the umbrella bounder who makes dure all vendors who resell through them are on the up-and-up and will intervene on your behalf.
There are other companies where I also have received highly pleasurable customer service (Apple, In.c comes to mind) and it is unfortunate that those companies who work so hard to be on the absolute "top-shelf" in terms of customer satisfaction are often hidden in the shadows.
Because it is so easy to shout out to the world when we"ve been wronged there are many of those "shout-out" sites. But when we are surpised in a happy, satisfactory way, we tell our family and freinds, but rarely "shout-out" to the rest of the world in the same way.
The unfortunate thing also is, if there is a "shout-out" that is overwhelmingly positive, others tend to look at it with the proverbial grain of salt, or worse think it to be a hired shill.
Wow the ol' dyslexia is kicking-in good today LOL.
I'll be quiet now.
@Rosmairta Argh, sucks to hear Amazon service has been poor for you. I've noticed inconsistent quirks with some of their properties, like how when I last checked Mechanical Turk, it had many UI flaws.
@Ari Since you've also sold your book through them, I appreciate hearing your unique perspective on this! I wonder if there's some physiological reflex which inhibits positive shoutouts.
We often chalk the quality of service up to specific individual we're dealing with who represents the company. As much training as they get, each person is still different.