Morrus said:
OK, I'm intrigued! How is Amazon dishonest?
I'm not sure if they're doing it knowingly which is why I described it as "incompetence/dishonesty". Whatever the cause, here are my reasons [RANT]
Several times, I've received books from both Amazon.com and .co.uk that were badly damaged from having been dropped on a corner.
Most recently, this happened with the Warhammer FRP books I ordered from Amazon.com. The box in which they arrived and the internal packaging was all in perfect condition so the books must have been damaged when they were sent. I complained by e-mail but told them categorically not to send replacements (I was staying in a hotel in Chicago). They did anyway and threatened to charge me if I didn't return the damaged ones. As I was no longer at the hotel by this time and therefore couldn't receive the books, I was in the situation of having to send back my damaged copies, for which I had paid, to get nothing in return! I complained again. They admitted that they made a mistake and offered to refund me $10 to my credit card. Seven months later and I'm still waiting for that refund. (They got the second set back from the hotel). The link on their site that allows you to contact them about miscellaneous issues is down and has been for at least three months.
At the beginning of this month, I ordered two DVDs from Amazon.com: D&D2 - WotDG and a second one about dragons. The total was over $25 so I qualified for free shipping. At the time, D&D2 had not been released so they said that both would be despatched together as soon as it was. Well the release date came and went and nothing happened. They eventually sent the one about dragons. For a while, D&D2 was listed on their site as "ships in 24 hours". If it ships in 24 hours, why hadn't I received my copy which I had pre-ordered? I get an e-mail from them. It looks like I may not receive it until January or February, i.e. up to 3 months after I placed the order. If it's going to take that long, I'd like to cancel it but I can't because if I do it will take my order total to under $25 so I'll have to pay the P&P for the first DVD. And, as usual, there's no way to contact them about this except by snail mail. Even if I did send them a letter, I'm not sure they care enough to do anything about it. After all, they have, in my experience, a poor track record of handling complaints.
Result? I'll think long and hard before I order from them again. In fact, I'm seriously considering the
Spiderwick Field Guide. If I do get it, it won't be from Amazon - that's for sure.
[/RANT]
