Update: To top off all of this, the package never arrived! After waiting an extra day and no delivery, all the robo-chat could do for me was to give me a refund. I'm done with Amazon.Here's another negative value skew. I know a lot of people love Amazon but my newest experience was the 3rd in a row of utter frustration. I don't use it very much. Mostly to send my mother things in the states. For the last several days I've been trying to get a Mother's Day gift sent to her.
Negative skew #1: I picked out a gift for her last weekend but the shipping was too fast. It would have arrived well before Mother's Day. So, I delayed placing the order. The next day, it was still going to arrive too fast, so I delayed again. I rechecked it today and now the item is no longer available! Not only that, literrally everything else has an arrival time for AFTER Mother's Day.
Negative skew #2: The next product I picked for a gift (that will now be late) is supposed have free shipping. It says it right on the listing:
View attachment 43330
It also says it here:
View attachment 43331
But then, when I actually get to checkout, it shows this:
View attachment 43332
The only way to get free shipping is to join Prime. It doesn't mention that in the free shipping policy. To me, this is a deceitful practice. I know millions love Prime but I rarely order from Amazon and so I don't want to be paying for something that I won't use often. There is a 30 day trial, so I can just cancel it later, but that's a hassle to have to remember to do it. And if I forget, then I'm being charged for something I don't want.
Negative value skew #3: I wanted to call Amazon support to discuss this situation but finding a phone number on their website is next to impossible. I had to google it.
Negative value skew #4: Once I got connected to a real person, I was given absolutely zero satisfaction. There was no explanation for their bait and switch tactics. Nothing was offered to make me feel better about doing business with them.
I realize that it would be a tall order to go up against Amazon, but if someone with money could fix these negative skews; provide better shipping options, not try to deceive your customers, make it easy to get in touch with support and treat your customer like you'd want to be treated, there's a lot of opportunity there.
I went directly to the Godiva website and placed a new order there. One negative skew there was that they required me to create an account. Never do that! You don't want put obstacles in the way of your customer's check out. In my store, accounts are always optional.
On the plus side, they had exactly what I wanted and the shipping options that I needed. (Since it's late, I had it sent 2nd day.) I'll use them again in the future and try to go directly to the source or a smaller retailer with other items I need.
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