I went ballistic on Amazon

Feb 20 I ordered several items from Amazon. 4 days later I got an email that one of the items was out of stock, and they would ship it as soon as possible. 4 days after that I got another email regarding the same item which said it was out of stock and they didn't know when they would ship it.

After that I went briefly insane. I went to Amazon's site and tried to find where to contact them. I was frustrated that it was not easier to directly communicate with them. Every button I clicked on wanted to send me to another generic menu of options instead of someone I could tell my problem to.

So I found what I thought was the right place and wrote a short but honest and scathing email:


I want this order cancelled and would also like a negative report for the company behind
this.

In this day and age, it is absolutely ridiculous that 8 DAYS after the order was placed
it has not been shipped.

I will definitely be doing as much local shopping as possible and using Amazon only as an
absolute last resort to buy items I simply cannot purchase locally.

You can thank whatever crappy little hydro supply shop dropped the ball for your loss of
my business.


After clicking send, I realised it was going to the hydro shop not Amazon. So now I'm really pissed and keep clicking and clicking and eventually find the right place to send that message to Amazon.

I get up today and have like 20 emails from 3 of the 5 companies my items were coming from, as well as Amazon.
Aparrently Amazon has refunded the money from those 3 orders, as well as 2 of the 3 companies are RE-SENDING stuff I already have, one of them via FED-EX! Fucking ididots.

Sounds great huh? I bet this ends up an absolute fucking mess, with them trying to charge me for items and or shipping.
Guess we'll see how it goes.

I had a problem with Amazon once, about 10 years ago. The company I was working with had a CEO that went to school with the CEO of Amazon. He gave me the guy's cell phone number. When my child started crying for the teddy bear I had ordered to replace a lost one, I called the CEO and asked him to calm down my child, since his company hadn't shipped the teddy bear, as ordered and promised. I received that damn bear the next morning, around 10 AM by personal courier.

This doesn't help you at all, but, you can take solace in the fact that, 10 years ago, the CEO of Amazon was awakened by the crying child of a customer.

We should all be looking at local businesses before using big box stores. You are making the right decision Caveman. I made that decision a couple of years ago.

Local businesses accept cash, and don't require personal information for purchase of goods...

Working in IT security, I always shunned online shopping for it's inherent weaknesses, like loss of anonymity, and loss of the ability to just bust the shit outta the support staff when they treat you like you are the third rate help-desk employee...

plan ahead...... ?

I generally make online purchases at least a month before i expect to need the item.

see4 said:

We should all be looking at local businesses before using big box stores.

Click to expand...

If you don't mind paying %40-100 more and not being able to buy Dynagro, 1hp Chillers, Titan Controls, ect...

tibberous said:

If you don't mind paying %40-100 more and not being able to buy Dynagro, 1hp Chillers, Titan Controls, ect...

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I don't like your neck of the woods! My hydro store has it, or will get it, and allow me to maintain my anonymity. And, the prices are comparable. When I questioned them about the price being so high on coco coir, they asked what I was seeing it for, I showed them, and they repriced. I get a discount (normally 10-20%) because I plowed their lot. I did my JOB, and they give me a discount for it. Can't get that with Amazon (or even your local Walmart.)

I think the only things my hydro store doesn't have in stock, and WON'T order are cannabis seeds and mushroom spores.

tibberous said:

If you don't mind paying %40-100 more and not being able to buy Dynagro, 1hp Chillers, Titan Controls, ect...

Click to expand...

well considering i make a ton of money, i don't mind paying more. but regardless of that. you are talking about specific items here. so in your example, i agree, if I cant find a quality 1hp chiller locally for a decent price, i will take it online. but if i find a 1hp chiller for say... $800 online, and there is one locally for $1000, I'd gladly pay the $200 more.

I had a problem with them too, my son ordered a DVD and I ordered a necklace we both live at the same address, they sent his DVD but said they couldn't send my necklace because the address didn't exist.

Heh, there isn't a hydro store within 20 miles of me. So if/when I decide to make that leap (It's really more of a when) then I'll simply have to rely on online stores, but so far all the things I ordered from Amazon came either early or on time and everything was complete. I've heard quite a few horror stories and I'm feeling pretty lucky right about now that none of this crap has happened to me.

But I do think your email was appropriate, in this day and age to not be able to restock and ship within a week is just shameful.

Granny weed said:

I had a problem with them too, my son ordered a DVD and I ordered a necklace we both live at the same address, they sent his DVD but said they couldn't send my necklace because the address didn't exist.

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Easy fix; say you're he. cn

Orithil said:

Heh, there isn't a hydro store within 20 miles of me. So if/when I decide to make that leap (It's really more of a when) then I'll simply have to rely on online stores, but so far all the things I ordered from Amazon came either early or on time and everything was complete. I've heard quite a few horror stories and I'm feeling pretty lucky right about now that none of this crap has happened to me.

But I do think your email was appropriate, in this day and age to not be able to restock and ship within a week is just shameful.

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not within 20 miles? what the hell are you bitchin bout? 9 yrs ago when I started w/ hydro i had to drive almost 200 miles to find a hydro store. Online purchasing wasn't even an option then.

Talk about planning ahead.

I had a fan and carbon filter show up damaged from a seller at amazon. I made a request to return it, and the next day I printed my ups return label. Taped it to the package and dropped it off at ups. A few days later I got a full refund in my account. Amazon has always stood behind their products and the products that are sold by 3rd parties. I would try to contact amazon directly, and calmly explain the situation, and I bet they will make it right for you. It sucks that the 3rd party vendor is an asshat, but you are going to run into that occasionally.

joe macclennan said:

not within 20 miles? what the hell are you bitchin bout? 9 yrs ago when I started w/ hydro i had to drive almost 200 miles to find a hydro store. Online purchasing wasn't even an option then.

Talk about planning ahead.

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Goodie goodie gumdrops for you, some people don't drive. And even when I was driving, I wouldn't have driven 200 miles to find a damned hydro store, I'd have stuck to dirt.

It's all about what you're willing to do, and I'm not willing to travel 200 miles for anything short of moving.

So as you can see, there are people with different priorities....also, I wasn't bitching about anything, I was stating how lucky I was that my online shopping has remained positive.

I left dirt a long, long time ago. you are lucky. Keep shopping online. As far as not driving. Huh?
If you are disabled I apologize. If not.....okie dokie then. I drive more than 700 miles just to go on vacation. I quite enjoy it. Theres' a big world out there. Hope ya get to see it.

joe macclennan said:

I left dirt a long, long time ago. you are lucky. Keep shopping online. As far as not driving. Huh?
If you are disabled I apologize. If not.....okie dokie then. I drive more than 700 miles just to go on vacation. I quite enjoy it. Theres' a big world out there. Hope ya get to see it.

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Due to my conditions I tend to stay high pretty much all the time, and I won't drive high. I take being the controller of a couple thousand pounds of speeding steel too seriously to allow myself behind the wheel with my reaction times off by even a bit.

Orithil said:

Due to my conditions I tend to stay high pretty much all the time, and I won't drive high. I take being the controller of a couple thousand pounds of speeding steel too seriously to allow myself behind the wheel with my reaction times off by even a bit.

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I have no problem w/ that and totally respect your decision. Others could do well by taking your lead.