Amazon is at war with me...

The leviathan that is Amazon appears to be at war with me... In the space of 4 weeks they have lost my custom for hardware items, made me cancel my Prime account & now killed my Lovefilm Subscription and are trying to make me pay £79 for something that used to cost me £59.88..

Where to begin... How about this.. My email to Jeff Bazos:

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Mr Bezos,
I’m told you actually read emails that are sent to this address and as I feel this issue is of concern to your business I’m attempting to bring this to your attention.

I’m a longstanding Amazon customer and prime subscriber. I’ve rarely had any problems with your company and buy most of my non everyday purchases from Amazon. I have trusted them to deliver when they say they would and to be responsive in times when there is a delay…

I’m just a normal working guy, trying to run a small one man IT consultancy and I have often turned to Amazon for products I require..especially when needed at short notice.

Recently (going back a few months) my deliveries have switched to a new service called Amazon Logistics, and this is when the troubles started. Deliveries stopped happening when promised.. this I could tolerate if there were honest excuses..but the problem is that Amazon Logistics began stating that delivery was attempted when it most definitely had not! either me or my wife had waited in for the delivery and no one appeared. Yet the Amazon logistics reports on my amazon acc page always stated the same thing.. that delivery had been attempted.

I reported this to your company and after a couple of chats with representatives I was promised that none of my orders would be sent using Amazon Logistics… and behold.. items began arriving in time again.. very happy allround…. until I needed two Apple Airport routers urgently for an installation. They didn't arrive, so I checked my online account and saw that delivery had been attempted… and that the courier service was Amazon Logistics. I had an online chat with a rep who didn't seem to understand my complaint and just kept stating that delivery would surely happen the following day.. I asked to speak to a manager and after a couple of hours was called back by a manager called Andrew who was very nice and honest. he told me he had looked into this and been told by Amazon Logistics that they could not gain access to my road (it’s a rural lane) but had ‘mistakenly’ entered the issue as attempted delivery… It’s strange that other couriers managed access just fine the same day? Andrew promised that redelivery would be attempted the same day… Nothing happened. I checked online and it stated that redelivery would be today (12th) My wife waited in.. nothing. I waited till 4pm uk time and checked my online account.. Delivery attempted…

I’ll be honest I was very upset now and asked to speak to a manager. I was called back and struggled to make it clear what my issue was… it wasn’t just that the items had not arrived it’s that Amazon logistics are dishonest..at least the driver who handles my area… I asked for a refund and after some polite discussion this was granted.

I have now closed my Prime account as it’s of no value because items never arrive. I dare not buy technology items from Amazon for the same reason. I’m only keeping my amazon account now because I use kindle books, Lovefilm and Audible. While I am a customer lost I felt I should inform you of this as I cannot be alone and the good rep of your company is being diminished by this courier ‘service’ and action needs to be taken imo.. something which I cannot seem to make the Amazon staff understand. They just tell me they’re sorry, a refund has been granted and they hope I will order again soon.

regards,
Alan Bailey.

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Ok so you get the idea... The amazon logistics courier service lied multiple times about the reason for not delivering to me. My guess is the real reason is that the courier operates from Birmingham which is about 90 minutes from me.. They just can't be bothered to find us..

Of course I didn't get a response from Jeff..Didn't expect too.. I did get a reply from one Anthony Bennis who purportes to be a member of Amazon's Executive Relations group.

Here's his reply.. chunks of which I'm sure are copy/pasted into this mail... no one can word something so generically:

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Dear Mr Bailey,

My name is Anthony Bennis and I work within Amazon.co.uk Executive Customer Relations.

Jeff Bezos received your e-mail and asked that I respond on his behalf, taking any action necessary to assist you.

Firstly, please allow me to apologise for this matter as a whole. I can see that this experience has not been a desirable one. We do aim to promptly resolve all queries on the first contact, however, I can see that your particular issue was further exacerbated by the inadequate handling of your deliveries, and for this I do apologise. I have highlighted your case to the relevant senior transport teams for review and for corrective measures to be taken where necessary.

I understand that due to these experiences you do not wish to purchase future items other than digital purchases from the Amazon.co.uk site. If you do change your mind on this I have requested that we make every attempt to select an alternative carrier to ship future orders to your address. However, on some occasions, an alternative carrier may not be available.

Amazon and all of its carrier partners aim to provide the highest level of customer service and we appreciate you taking the time to provide this feedback.

Kind regards,

Anthony Bennis
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk
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So in essence he's sorry I've had problems, but at no point do they say they WILL do anything about this...

So Amazon prime account has been registered as being not renewed when it expires in June 2014, and Amazon are aware I wont be ordering any hardware from them in the future.

Moving onto this week... I'm a Lovefilm Subscriber.. can you guess where this is gonna go?
I get an email from Amazon saying IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR PRIME ACCOUNT!! It basically says (In very positive terms...) that they are cancelling my Lovefilm subscription and because I'M A PRIME MEMBER they are giving me the Amazon Instant service as part of Prime.... So I'm thinking.. But I'm cancelling Prime... Can I just keep my subscription? I email Amazon support to ask if I can just keep my current subscription?... Nothing...
I dig deeper and it appears that the ONLY way to use Amazon Instant (ex Lovefilm) is to be a Prime Member... for a moment I consider reversing my move away from Amazon Prime, but then I see that the Subscription has now gone up to £79.00.. But it's ok you get all the previous benefits of Prime free delivery of your...oh wait a minute... No I don't.

So not only do Amazon annoy me to the extent I cancel my Prime Account and move my (quite substantial for a one man band) business to a competitor, but now they take away my longstanding Instant video subscription and try to get me to pay £20 more a year for it!!

Just remember that these companies don't care about us unless we complain in large numbers... Amazon are not a touchy/feely/friendly company like on the TV adverts, and even though I was going to keep my Amazon Account so that I could keep access to my kindle books I'm now going to kill it and I'll re-buy the books I need on a competitor....