Unhappy With Amazon.com

I ordered a home theater through Amazon.com last Wednesday. Before it had even shipped, Amazon.com dropped the price from $349.99 to $299.85, but when I contacted them about the price change, they basically said “too bad for you.”

Don’t most electronic stores have some sort of policy that protects customers when they buy big ticket items that go on sale the next day?

I’d cancel the order but it has actually shipped now and I would have to pay for the shipping back. Amazon.com also said it wouldn’t have anything to do with the return but that I’d have to deal with the distributer THEY ordered it from, who is apparently not the distributer who’s selling it at the lower price.

This is the first time I’ve had this kind of problem with Amazon but I can’t believe how they’re acting. I’ve been a customer practically since they opened, I have an Amazon Prime account, I have their advertising on my websites, and I use their web search tool. I have bought a number of big ticket items through them and spent quite a lot of money through them every year. If it were less than $50 I probably wouldn’t care, but $50 is a big price difference.

However, there are more and more sellers on and off the internet who are quite competitive with Amazon.com’s prices these days. I’ve stuck with them because of loyalty, because I always got good service in the past, and because they were convenient, but I don’t have to stay with them. They aren’t a monopoly after all. I just have to wonder if now that they’re growing and expanding, if they haven’t gotten too big for their britches. Certainly, that’s how Gateway lost me.

Update: So Amazon says I have to get the 3rd party distributer to refund the money; the 3rd party distributer said that since Amazon took the billing info not them that Amazon has to give me the money back. Round and Round.

tags: none

2 comments

1. on December 31, 2005 at 2:55 pm

   Tamara said:

   That stinks. I’m always hesitant to use Amazon IF it is actually brokering a third party. I did it once, for a heart rate monitor, and it was fine, but usually I will avoid it. Sorry to hear they’re giving you the runaround.

   Happy New Year!

2. on January 1, 2006 at 7:39 pm

   Omni said:

   I had a problem with Amazon too

   (Click here to read about it)

   They obviously need to improve their customer service.

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