Juixe Techknow

Very rarely has Amazon ever let me down.  I have always viewed Amazon as an innovator in their industry and ahead of the curve in technology.  But a recent experience made me rethink their customer support. I recently ordered Village Naturals Body Soak blend of bath minerals, salts, and vitamins. The body soak comes in a plastic jar is made of fragrant sea salt sized minerals. When the FedEx delivery person dropped off the package, it was in a plastic bag. I immediately knew something was wrong, why would the delivery service place a Amazon package inside a plastic bag for delivery. I opened the Amazon package and it all became instantly clear as the strong fragrance of the body soak fills the room. The lid from the body soak jar had opened during transport and all the contents had spilled out. The reason FedEx had wrapped the Amazon package in a plastic bag is because the body soak salts and minerals had spilled out of the Amazon box.

Upon receiving the package I opened it, and noticed the damage. I took several pictures of how I have received my items and immediately called customer service. Amazon customer service apparently follows Hollywood’s old adage, “don’t call us, we’ll call you.” You can enter your phone number and they quickly call you back. I spoke with the customer service rep and told him the problem. At first I had difficulty understanding him because he masked his voice in an unnatural way that made him sound like robot, kinda like Calculon. I explain to him that the jar in which the bath salts where packaged in opened during transport and spilling all the salts which leaked out of Amazon box. What struck me was when he asked, “can you use still use it?” I explained that the bath salts also scraped and damaged the front and back of a book I also had purchased.

Half Empty Jar of Fail

The Amazon customer support did refund me for my products and said that I had to mail back the damaged products as soon as possible or else they will charge me for it. I joked that he is getting an empty jar, because all of the bath salts where lost during transport. In fact, I eventually tried to place all the remaining bath salt that were in the Amazon box into the product container and I didn’t even have 20%. After all that was said and done, this is the details that the Amazon customer representative wrote on the return details for the body soak, “the top of the jar is somehow opened. and theres a leak on it. all the content came out.” For damaged book, the description read, “the pebbles soaked the book. and the book is damaged.”

I don’t mind that Amazon, and other companies, outsource customer support functions to other English speaking countries. I am by no means, a xenophobe, especially since I myself can be considered a xeno. But I am a idiotphobe. That said, I dislike how customer support outright lie about their identity. In a fake American accent but with hints of post-colonial Indian accent the customer service agent greats you as, “Hi my name is Steve.” I feel like saying, “Hi Steve, my name is Raja Shankar Ramachandra Maximus Decimus Meridius IV.” Why the false identity? It’s fine that they take “American jobs” which most American’s wont want but do they have to take fake American identities too? Business is usually based on trust, and when your company representatives misrepresent themselves how can customers trust you.

On last customer service pet peeve, the last thing I want to hear from customer support is “how is your day going?” when they are trying to stall for time while they look some information in some screen. Worst still is when they put you on hold for no reason other than they don’t want to have you on the line, like they are uncomfortable by you waiting for them to finish with your request.