There are a lot of reasons to like specific retailers. There are a lot of reasons to dislike retailers. Personally, I find the single biggest reason to like or dislike any retailer is … Customer Service. I’ve got lots of horror stories involving companies (mostly tech related) and bad customer service. A single bad incident is enough to make me hate a company, permanently.
This is why I love Amazon. I’ve dealt with their customer service more than a few times — every time I’ve ended up pleased as pie. Amazon does tend to be the cheapest source for everything — but even if they weren’t — I’d still shop from them just as much as I do now. As a great example of their CS: I recently had a pre-order ship while I was out of town. It was “Delivered to back door” according to UPS, even though I don’t have a back door (Apartment and all). I checked with the manager’s office, where packages normally get put — but it wasn’t there — and it wasn’t at my door. I emailed Amazon customer service explaining my situation — within 1 (one) hour they had placed a new order with overnight shipping to me — totally free of charge.
This wasn’t the first time I’ve had shipping problems. But every time I’ve email Amazon they’ve fixed it. If the package is late — they’ll refund the shipping costs (no questions asked). If the package doesn’t show up for ANY REASON — they’ll send a new item. Now I’m sure this gets abused by some — but I don’t abuse the system and so far they’ve treated me well for it. Plus… I shop at Amazon… A lot….
Anyone else have Amazon Customer Service Stories? Good or bad?