Fail fast

I used Amazon SA for the first time 6 weeks ago for a present for my wife. I was happy to pay a premium for the product on the assumption I was dealing with a reputable supplier.

Order placed 20 July, delivery delayed to 2 August, not a good start. Then completely wrong product was delivered. Getting worse … now I am going through the return and refund process = terrible!

What I find most frustrating is that I learnt that Amazon is essentially the same as a Facebook Marketplace. It feels like an online portal to advertise your services, Amazon take no ownership of the supply chain, fingers are pointed at the supplier who fulfilled the order. This is not what I expected. When I phoned to log a complaint when wrong product was delivered, I was told the supplier had elected to manage their own customer service. Next I have to arrange a return delivery to the supplier, at my cost. Failing a satisfactory response from the supplier upon receipt if the goods, I have now started the Amazon A to Z guarantee process …. 7 days on and still investigating. Customer service are professional and apologetic, but unfortunately just talk.

As regular customer of TakeaLot and Sixty60, whose return / refund process is excellent when things rarely go wrong …

Amazon you are going to very quickly learn that based on the standards set by your local competitors, us South Africans are simply not going to support this kind of service.