Amazon is purely ripping people off and they do not care at all about doing the right thing. Quite simply, this company has EXTREMELY poor business ethics. Period.
After receiving notification online that Amazon had "charged" my credit card I took a step back and was trying to figure out for what? After all I was under the impression that I was an individual seller NOT a professional lister. Therefore I should have only been charged $1.49 per transaction, instead they charged me $29.99 a month for two months.
This was totally ridiculous because I was trying to sell a $10 textbook (as I am a student). So. I decided to call up customer service to inquire about this obvious error and get it sorted out. Well, it got sorted out alright ... like a slap in my face. Not only did the telephone clerk respond with brain washed, insulting customer service psycho-babble, I too, was blocked from being able to re-phone customer service.
The result is this: I took a loss on the text-book because I am reselling it, plus I take another loss because the "alloted" postage that Amazon charges the buyer because in reality it does not even come close to the real cost of postage. -- I don't get a dime from the sale of the book because Amazon sucks that up on listing service fees that I NEVER signed up for, and then charges me another $45 for being listed on their website. Can this really be true? Well the truth is: YES ... Amazon ripped me off, and I can almost guarantee that I am only one of many that they are doing this to.
So, my advice to you is this: STAY AWAY from Amazon, they will steal money from your credit card when you are not looking and then cut you off from cutomer service when you inquire about getting your money back.
Amazon you should be ASHAMED! I have never in my life been so blatantly mugged and then told well "I am sorry that you feel that way" ... Please do us all a favour and take an ethics course.
ALL STUDENTS STAY AWAY FROM AMAZON if you are trying to re-sell your textbooks! They will rip you off!!!
Dazan
Victoria,#2Author of original report
Thu, June 17, 2010
After the last post ... I believe that is only fair that I give you an update on the last posted situation.
This morning I tracked down a 1 800 number for Amazon and placed another call to continue my fight for reimbursement. After being put through to customer service again, I spoke to an agent and reiterated my position. However, this time the fellow asked to put me on hold while he checked into it.
After a few minutes he returned to the phone and almost assured me that the problem would be dealt with. He could not personally guarantee the outcome as it would be decided by the "leadership" team, however he was fairly confident that it would be worked out.
The question I have is: why did the first customer agent not also realize the simplicity of this matter? I mean, really ... how ridiculous, and what a waste of not only my resources, but also theirs.
I report to you now that they sent me an email a few hours later confirming that they would refund the wrong charges. I was actually quite shocked by this response after my first encounter on the phone with agent #1.
Also, I was personally called this evening by a supervisor to follow up on the situation. Wow, what a turn around.
So in fairness, although I had to do multiple follow ups to finally get something done, Amazon did finally sort it out. It is just sad that I had to go through such lengths to get results. How many people just give up and let it go. For me, it was about ethics not money. So, my advice is: don't give up when you are wronged, pursue, pursue, pursue ... because you just may get results.