My best guess is that everyone who will read this post has made a purchase or two from amazon.com. But I don't guess that everyone who will read this post has had to interact with an employee at amazon.com's call center before.
This is a good thing. I take it to mean that Amazon's website works seamlessly enough so people don't have to call them up with complaints or complications. I did have to call them, but it turned out the problem I faced was entirely my fault.
For my birthday, my sister had given me an electronic gift card to Amazon (such a wonderful wonderful gift), which was easier to apply to my account than I could have imagined. I planned to use it in the near future, but I wasn't sure just then what purchase I would apply it to.
Last night--late--I decided to buy a Logitech mouse with Bluetooth technology for my computer. I'll be doing some large projects on my computer soon and thought having a mouse would be a little more convenient than only using the laptop's track pad. When I went to make my purchase, however, I noticed that the money from the gift card was no longer applied to my account. I could only think to call someone at Amazon to see what they could do, but it was so late, I thought there was no way I could talk to someone and get the problem fixed that night.
Despite my doubts, I did a search for the Amazon's customer service phone number and was impressed to see a button labeled "We'll Call You!" right next to the toll-free number.
So I don't have to make the call and be put on hold? I thought. Someone will actually call me and save me all that time? I was so curious to see if this was too good to be true, I thought it was worth a shot.
Please keep in mind it was nearly 1:00am when I clicked the call button. Within a matter of twenty seconds, I was on the phone with one of the friendliest people I had ever spoken with over the telephone. The gentleman helping me told me that I had set up two Amazon accounts by mistake, and that the money from the gift card was applied to my other account. He logged me in to that account, I made my purchase, and now we're in the process of closing down my unnecessary account.
I just loved the whole experience. I love good customer service and now I've got three companies on my list of Greatest Customer Service Givers. I recommend any of these to you:
Costco
Apple
Amazon
It's nice to know that these people genuinely care--or at lest they make me believe they do time and time again.
I'd love to hear your great customer service experiences. Make some recommendations to the rest of us. If we all band together, none of us will ever have to suffer through Best Buy-esque customer service again.
