Complaint Review: Amazon.com

I ordered an Ashley sofa from Amazon on Sept. 2, and it was supposed to arrive between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Sept. 8. I had to hire someone to help with bringing it into my living room, because it was front porch delivery.

As 8 p.m. got closer, I contacted customer service to confirm it was on the way. I was assured three (3) different times from three (3) different CSRs that they had communicated with the warehouse, and the sofa would arrive that day. 

At some point, 2nd text or the phone call, they were telling me 10 p.m. We waited around, and finally I paid our friend and sent him home. Amazon assured me that due to the inconvenience they would have the sofa delivered to my living room and set up, removing packaging.

The following day the sofa also did not arrive. I tried reaching out to Amazon via X (formerly Twitter), since all I could reach were people outside the US (India) who were helpless to do anything. Although extremely polite, they were not being straight with me. It seemed that "X marked the spot," and although still not connected to a CSR here, I was put in contact with a CSR who profusely apologized and said I would get it ASAP.

Tuesday i checked the order status which showed it was shipping out and would arrive Thursday (today) between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. No couch all day. At 4 p.m. I reached out to customer service again because the package tracking does not show it out for delivery. Got a bot that said it won't be here until next Thursday, September 19. Unacceptable!

They say it's too late to cancel, but we'll just see about that.

Unfortunately, it's likely that they've cost themselves a sale. I would strongly recommend going elsewhere for furniture purchases.

I've been a Prime Member for well over 20 years, and have spent tens of thousands of dollars on merchandise.

Note to Amazon and all companies who "outsource" customer service to foreign countries: don't do it. I am amazed you can't see the pitfalls in this horrible practice. First, you have a language barrier right off the bat. The foreign accents are very hard to understand. The cultural gap is also hampering the situation, and this leads your customers to feel as if they really aren't being understood, much less cared about by the company they are doing business with. People DO have a choice where to spend their money, and eventually someone is going to figure out that having helpful hometown CSRs will result in happier customers and more business.

AI bots are also a terrible way to handle customer service. They are even worse than foreign agents because they are not even human beings. They aren't ready for prime time, as the saying goes. Not one time have I ever had a bot be able to help me. If I have an issue that requires customer service, it is because I was unable to resolve it through normal means - which means it's an unusual situation the bot cannot handle. All bots have managed to do is waste my time and infuriate me.