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I have been a happy Amazon.com customer since November 2009. After a road traffic accident and an injury i started depending on online merchants like Amazon increasingly. Amazon.com was my favourite of them all because of their prompt service, quick resolutions and customer-centric approach.

Quick resolutions and Customer-Centric approach! Please note that, because that is where Amazon India lacks.

I was very excited when they launched Amazon India about 10 months ago, my favourite online store in the world is finally in my home country! So whenever i was looking for something to buy i would first check with Amazon if they had it and went to other e-retailers only if Amazon India didn't carry what i was looking for.

So on March 29th i was looking for a new DSLR camera and i found what i needed at Amazon India. I placed the order the same day with my credit card and was promised an estimated delivery within 2 to 4 business days to my address which is April 2nd. Amazon marked the item as shipped through FedEx by that evening and a tracking number was provided. The origin of the shipment is Bangalore and the Destination is Trivandrum aka Thiruvananthapuram. How long would it take for a parcel to reach from Bangalore to Trivandrum separated by a distance of only 750KMs? I was hoping that the package would reach me before their estimated delivery date of 2nd April!

March 29th Saturday

Purchase made and Amazon marked the order as shipped but Package not yet received at FedEx as per their tracking.

April 1st Tuesday

I logged in to check the shipping status and found that the package was still not picked up by FedEx!

I mailed Amazon CS (customer service) regarding the order and the estimated date of delivery by tomorrow. But i DO NOT get any replies from them till evening. So I decided to contact them via Amazon chat. The CS agent acknowledges the receipt of my mail and says the package was handed over to the courier.

Later that evening the FedEx tracking reads "Picked up"

No worries since the package can still be delivered at Trivandrum if it leaves Bangalore today. I still have hope.

April 2nd Wednesday - The Estimated Delivery Date

FedEx tracking shows the package is still at Bangalore, but all hope is not lost. The package can still make it to Trivandrum in a few hours if its sent via air so i still have a faint hope of same day delivery.

But i decided to contact Amazon India customer care through email to ask them if the package will get delivered today. Surprisingly i get a reply after a few hours and the news is not good. The delivery will not happen today and the order will get delayed by another 2 - 3 days due to some courier issues.

So this means another anticipated wait of 2 to 3 more days. FedEx tracking shows estimated date of delivery as 4th April Friday. I was thinking OK not bad after all i will have the camera by this weekend.

April 4th - Day of second hope

FedEx tracking said the package reached Cochin at 13:59 yesterday was at Cochin and it was showing as still in Cochin today, that doesn't sound very good, but Cochin is only 5 hours away from Trivandrum by road and the package can still make it to my city today.

Since i do not see any movement of the package even by 11:00 in the morning i decided to contact Amazon India CS via chat option. The agent re-iterates what was told before i.e., there was a potential delay of 2 to 3 days for the delivery.

[Ok today is the 2nd potential delay day and tomorrow is the 3rd potential delay date and the package is at Cochin. So the delivery should happen by tomorrow if not today]

I still request the agent to see if it can be delivered today even if its late in the evening. He answers in the affirmative and says he will do his best. He confirms whether my phone number they have is correct, i say yes. I was thinking what a nice guy and we cheered off.

Later that day i saw that the package has reached Trivandrum in the evening! Delivery did not happen today but i was damn certain that the FedEx man will come knocking tomorrow with the camera!

No it doesn't end tomorrow, there is no happy ending but it gets more interesting none the less.

April 5th Saturday - 3rd of the potential delay date and the item is in Trivandrum. What could go wrong?

Everything!

I got through to FedEx local office this morning at 09:39. I didn't wait for them to call me but i called them instead. We re-confirmed the delivery address (which they know very well its a business address and they have been to my office several times) and they say they will try to make the delivery by noon.

Today being a Saturday i don't have to be at my office, but since i was free this morning and because i was expecting the delivery i decided to be there.

At 10:58 in the morning on FedEx tracking i saw that the camera was in delivery vehicle, and at 10:59 it was shown as in transit and at 11:00 it was shown as Incorrect address. WTH?! How can it be an incorrect address when i called them up a few hours ago and re-confirmed delivery details.

Contact: FedEx Toll free agent

I try their local office number but this time its continuously busy. So i called the FedEx toll free number and got through to an agent. He says the his records are showing something regarding a sales tax issue and it looks like Sales Tax Officials have seized the package. I tell him that is not the case because i'm seeing incorrect address instead, but he confirms that its not address issue but seems to be a sales tax problem. He asks me how much i paid for the camera? I tell him how much it costs. He asks me to contact the local FedEx office for further details.

[That was strange because courier should have the invoice details with them and it contains how much i paid for it.]

Contact: Amazon Chat

Chatted with an agent regarding this delivery issue and how the tracking says my address is incorrect. I tell her the delivery address is indeed correct and the FedEx is lying and the package is with Sales Tax people as they have seized it.

Contact: FedEx local office, Around 1400

I called FedEx local office and the dude over there tells me that Govt Sales Tax officials have seized aka confiscated the package because of suspicious invoicing. He too asks me how much i paid for the camera? I tell this dude also how much i paid.

[That was strange because courier should have the invoice details with them and it contains how much i paid for it.]

The dude tells me the sales tax has issued a document and i should go to the sales tax office with this document to get the package. I ask them what the document is, he says its a govt document.

[Sales tax have found something wrong with the invoicing of the shipment and so they have seized it, now the FedEx guy wants me to go to the sales tax office pay the penalty and get the package cleared. What? Wait? I didn't sign up for this amigo! I paid for the package to be delivered to me at my address i do not want to deal with sales tax and pay more money.]

Contact: Amazon Phone, Around 1415

Told the CS dude at Amazon India about how things have gone from bad to worse and how the camera i bought was seized from their delivery partner because sales tax found some thing suspicious in the invoicing. I told him that i do not wish to deal with sales tax and its better Amazon or FedEx deal with it. I told him if they can't deliver the already delayed order i wish to cancel the order.

The Amazon CS dude says he will look into it and will cancel the order and a refund will be issued within 5 days.

I was partially relieved because if they process the refund another camera can be bought from a local shop. I quit worrying about this till late that night.

By 22:30 that night i log into Amazon to check up on the order status expecting it to read cancelled. But i still see the order as being shown as in transit.

Contact: Amazon Chat (Sigh), Around 23:15

I ask the Amazon CS agent about the refund status. She says the order will be refunded only when the product is returned. I told her the product is not with me to return it to Amazon and that the FedEx guys told me that it is with sales tax officials.

I told her the deal was for Amazon to deliver the product but they have failed in that and to add to it the package was seized by sales tax officials. I asked her whether i should go to sales tax people? I asked her to return my money as the package was not seized from me but from their delivery partner. I asked why my money is being blocked for a product that Amazon didn't deliver and why i should be kept on wait till they get their product back?

This agent soon leaves the chat without answering any of my questions or without even having the basic courtesy in saying that she would look into it. The name of this unfit agent is Swapna, and she is not fit for being at Amazon who takes pride about their customer-centric approach.

Because of the indifferent approach of the agent who chatted with me and because of her being nonprofessional in handling my queries i had to contact Amazon again and for the second time nearing midnight.

Contact: Amazon Phone, Around midnight

Phone rings, talks to an agent. He says he will look into this personally and get back to me in 24 to 48 hours.

I was tired after a long day with false hopes and expectations and i want to sleep.

April 7 Monday

Contacted Amazon to check whether there is any progress in my case. The Amazon customer care agent tells me that some orders do get delayed and they are sorry for it. I again have to repeat my story and that the package is at sales tax office and that FedEx doesn't have it. He said the case has been already escalated internally.

Anyway nothing came out of this chat. But the person at the other end, Vivek, was a good fellow. He doesn't seem like he was one amongst Amazon's monkey horde.

I received two emails from Amazon later that day saying that their delivery partner cannot locate my address. Lies Lies Lies. FedEx delivered another order of mine to this address just recently. Look at the pics if you want proof that FedEx knows this address.

April 8 Tuesday

Contacted Amazon to check whether there is any progress in my case. I again have to repeat my story and that the package is at sales tax office and that FedEx doesn't have it. He said the case has been already escalated internally. He asks me if my number is correct. I tell him that its the right number and he can check if he so desires. He tells me that escalation team will contact me and that an agent is personally looking into this. I asked him the name of this agent and he says some random agent will contact me. [What? NO personal agent then!]

I asked him to refund my money and he said Amazon can't issue refund without package is returned. I again have to repeat my story that i don't have the package. I asked him why my money is blocked because Amazon cannot deliver to my address? I asked him if its my mistake whether Amazon can't deliver to my address. To which he answers he doesn't know who's mistake it is. I asked him whether he was implying that it was my mistake was on my part. He asks me to wait for the escalation team to contact me. I asked him to make them contact me now. He can't do that. So i asked him when would the escalation team contact me, he says 24 hours. Another 24 hours wait. Such promises have gone by before with no one from escalation team contacting me.

[Damn it gets tiring speaking with customer service agents with no hopes of direct escalation.]

So this is where it stands now.

It has been 12 days since i placed my order, 10 business days for an estimated 4 business day delivery. Days gone by in anticipation. Because of Amazon i now have no money to buy another camera, they have cheated me, no delivery and no refund.

Meaningless Amazon Emails - Emails from Amazon that mean nothing

Amazon tries to spice things up by sending following meaningless emails in between. I have received 3 to 4 such emails from them asking me to update my shipping address because their incompetent delivery partner couldn't locate my address.

Amazon calls FedEx AFL in their Emails and FedEx FedEx everywhere else like in the tracking information. None of my business, but I think they should update their email templates to be consistent.



Is my address incorrect or untreaceable?

Look at the previous FedEx deliveries made to my address. Now you tell me what FedEx says is true when they say that they can't find my address? All of these orders are addressed to the same building and with same mobile phone number (mine) in address details.

FedEx delivered orders




Address untraceable? Really? Then how did FedEx deliver the above two orders?



FedEx Tracking details. Liars saying that they can't find my address when the truth is they don't have the package to deliver.



Amazon denied me a deal!

Amazon increased the price of the same camera that i bought by Rs.3700/- the very next day after i purchased it! Also note that they still say that they can deliver this camera to my pincode location in 2 to 4 business days.



What about the 100% purchase protection?

Amazon India offers 100% purchase protection, so that means my money should be safe and refunded in the non-delivery of product. As far as i'm concerned it is just a nice "shield" design logo that looks good on their website but offers little or nil protection in case something goes wrong.




I asked Amazon agent is this how their 100% purchase protection works?

02:02 PM IST Me: Is this how100% Purchase Protection works? "We are committed to ensure 100% Purchase Protection for the shopping done on Amazon.in. Our website is designed to help you find & order items easily, protect your data and deliver a great shopping experience, right from choosing your products to receiving them."
02:04 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): That is why we refund our customers payment whenever any error is caused in an order.
As this is matter has been escalated we cannot process or request any refund as of now Sir.
02:05 PM IST Me: This is a gross error - Non delivery of product. Don't you think so?
02:05 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): You can make a complaint regarding the refund delay with the escalation team.
We cannot make any refund request at this time Sir.

Very helpful! They refund whenever any error is caused in an order (whatver that means). But they cannot refund when a product is not delivered by their delivery partner.

Why was the package seized? Was it my mistake?

No. package was seized by the sales tax people because of suspicious invoicing. That is what i was told by FedEx local office from where the package has been seized. I asked the agent if it was my mistake that the package got confiscated by sales tax?

Amazon agent has to say this on April 8th:

01:54 PM IST Me: How long should i wait for my refund?
01:56 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): Once the item is returned to us.
01:56 PM IST Me: Is it my mistake that the item is not delivered to me?
01:56 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): It will take 3 to 5 business days for the refund to your account.
01:56 PM IST Me: Is it my mistake that the item is not delivered to me?
01:57 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): It was due to regulatory issue and strict raids which has caused a delay for some of our customers in your region Sir.
01:58 PM IST Me: I'm asking whether it was my mistake or not for aborted delivery?
01:58 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): I am not sure whose mistake it was.
01:59 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): Please wait for the escalation team to contact you for further course of action SIr.
01:59 PM IST Me: So you are suggesting that the mistake would be on my part?
01:59 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): I am not blaming anyone for this Sir.
02:00 PM IST Me: My mistake was when i placed the order with Amazon believing your estimated delivery period.
02:01 PM IST Me: Well i am blaming Amazon for not delivering the product even after 9 business days and not returning my money for an undelivered product.
02:01 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused to you.
I've forwarded your feedback about this issue to our concerned department
02:02 PM IST Amazon(Amazon): You can certainly discuss proper course of action with the escalation team.
Your patience and understanding is highly appreciated in this regard.

I have lost my patience and I have been waiting for the escalation team to contact me since Saturday April 5. They have not contacted me.

Should my money be stuck with Amazon till they get their product back?

No. Non delivery of the product is not my fault, i trusted Amazon with delivery of product within reasonable time and they failed in that. The product never reached me so why should my money be hoarded by Amazon.

Is Amazon "customer-centric as they claim to be?

No. The customer service agents behave like monkeys and they do not treat an Amazon India customer as well as they would treat an Amazon.com customer. There is no promptness or customer-centric approach in their dealings. Some CS agents feel like we are wasting their time. Some hints that the mistake could be on my part for non-delivery.

Will i ever buy from Amazon India again?

LOL after all this? Never. After all this has happened and after having first hand information of how their monkey squad works in resolving a real issue i lost my trust in Amazon. No matter how many times you try you do not get access to their senior guys. You always have to go to monkey squad without a hope of proper resolution to the matter.

If you think that i'm being too harsh on Amazon

This purchase had a significance, the camera should have been with me no less than 5th of April. We had plans for this camera and there is a wedding coming up in the family within a couple of weeks. Instead they do not deliver the camera and is now hoarding my funds for no mistake of mine.

This week is wasted battling the Amazon monkey squad and they do not issue a refund unless the package gets back to them. Once it gets back to them and a refund is initiated a credit reversal takes upto 5 business days to reflect in my account.

Tomorrow, April 10th, is a holiday because of our Geenral Elections. Next week there are 3 bank holidays, April 14th Monday, 15th Tuesday and 18th Friday. April 17th is also a holiday but not a bank holiday. Also there were some plans made for these holidays and now it looks like there won't be a good camera with me during that period neither would I be able to buy another one because of

Below are the list of Amazon India CS agents contacted for my ill fated purchase:

1. Meghana - 1st April, Chat after no response to Email: Carrier did not have the package with them 4 days after purchase. Emailed no response so logged in for chat. After the Chat session tracking was changed "picked up". Tomorrow was Amazon's estimated delivery date.
2. Meghana - 2nd April, Email: Today was estimated delivery date. Package had not moved. FedEx's Estimated delivery was changed to April 4th. Amazon's estimated delivery stood at 2nd April.
3. Jason - 4th April, Chat: Today was FedEx's estimated delivery date and package was not in my city.
4. Anusha - 5th April Mid-day, Chat: Package not delivered, incorrect information in FedEx tracking, shown as incorrect address.
5. Mukesh K - 5th April Mid-day, Phone: FedEx told package was seized by Govt Sales Tax and i need to go to sales tax. I requested cancellation. Mukesh promised cancellation and refund within 5 days. Promised some one from their transportation team would get in touch with me. That didn't happen
6. Swapna - 5th April night, Chat: To check cancellation and refund status. She left conversation without proper answer. Felt insulted.
7. Gautam K - 5th April night, Phone: To check the refund status after not getting answer from previous executive. Promised to get back to 24 to 48 hours.
8. Vivek - 7th April Evening, Chat: To check the current status of the order. This person was nice and considerate.
9. Pavan - 8th April Morning, Chat: To answer an email i received from Amazon saying that their delivery partner cannot find my address. AFL/FedEx was lying when they said they cannot find my address.
10. Jason - 8th April Afternoon, Chat: Says refund can be issued only upon return of the camera. Subtly implies that mistake was on my part for non delivery.

The wait for a resolution continues

The promptness is everything. Like the saying justice delayed is equal to justice denied; a product which doesn't reach in time or a refund not issued in time offers little to no help. Especially when there is an immediate need.

We Indians are suckers! All these guys know that we won't be willing to take the legal route, since it is not going to yield any results - whether it is consumer court or the civil courts. So we have no option but to try other routes

Try to post your ordeal in as many on-line forums and blogs as possible

If your paying by CC, your money is not really stuck with them, right?

Thanks for this thread.
I had bought many things from Amazon.com and like you said they are awesome.
Somehow i have never purchased anything from Amazon.in till now cos most of the times i find a better deal at ebay or flipkart.

A couple of weeks back i bought a 1 Litre spray wax for my car via ebay. It was sent from Chennai with an estimated date of delivery in 5-7 days as its a liquid item, hence can't be send via air. No worries, i waited patiently for it. I stay in NCR.
Mailed the seller and they said it has been shipped but couldn't provide me any tracking number.
When i didn't received the product on last promised date i logged into my account and simply raised a refund claim citing non delivery of product on promised date. Received an email within 2 hours confirming claim has been received. Got a call from ebay CC within 5 hours to confirm if i haven't received the product and upon confirmation was informed they are initiating the refund and will get it within 5 working days.

Luckily i received the product the very next day. So, i again went online and cancelled my refund claim. Within 3 hours got a call from ebay CC to confirm. Kindly note, i didn't called or emailed them even once and they only called and mailed me once i initiated the claim. Now, that"s how customer service should be and this is the same level of service i receive from flipkart. Primary reason why 99% of my purchases are from these 2 sites. was thinking of buying something from amazon just to check but after seeing your experience i will stick with ebay and FK.

Btw, a simple resolution for your ordeal is if you can call your Credit card dept. and issue a request of cancellation of that transaction citing fraud.

All these online sellers do this - pay them in advance, and your delivery takes longer. Refunds take a few days (even 2 weeks) to come back. Thankfully, I've not faced delays beyond 4-5 days for refunds on Amazon and Shopclues personally, but friends have had to wait for upto 2 weeks.
Next time, use the cash-on-delivery option for high-value product purchases. In fact, I exercise the C-O-D option every time it is available, and pay in advance only for low-value items which do not offer the C-O-D option.

The customer who doesn't pay beforehand is always king!

Post this on the Amazon India FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/AmazonIN

It's not just e-retail, every service in India is good only until it works. The moment you have an issue, you're at everyone's mercy even after paying hard-earned cash.

Though I'm not sure it would help (as the transaction can't technically be labelled fraud), try disputing the transaction with your CC provider citing non-delivery after payment.

Nail, meet hammer. Bam!

I've faced a similar problem of delay+address wrong when I purchased from trendin.com and the items were shipped via FedEx. In my case, I had opted for COD (always do).
The package got held up at the local FedEx office, just two kilometres away, and I had to pick em up myself after waiting four days.
At the FedEx office, I met two other guys who faced the same problem.
FedEx is the worst of the couriers, I think. They are too lazy to deliver, at least in the smaller towns like ours.

I have a similiar issue with ebay.in for a refund claim of Rs.338. Item has not been delivered to me and my communication to them is going nowhere.

Weak law and we are taken for a ride:Frustrati

Hi,

If you have paid using Credit card, check with your Credit card company to cancel that transaction.

Doing that, even sent a mail to Amazon head but i don't think that would yield any result for an Amazon India customer because clearly there is a difference in how they treat their Indian customers.

Not literally but I can't use my credit card to make another purchase until this is cleared. This was an EMI purchase.

I can wait for their refund whenever that happens or i can file a dispute with HDFC. But still it will not serve the purpose of having a camera unless i do a cash purchase which i can't do right now.

I'm glad the it turned out good for you. And good of ebay india in dealing with your issue promptly. Ebay's paisapay payment gateway is more straight forward, if the order doesn't reach within the stipulated time the refund is initiated automatically unless seller requests for extension. Ebay's resolution are much faster.

Yes i prefer COD whenever that is possible. But this was an EMI purchase and COD was not an option. In hindsight I should have bought the camera from local shop, paid using CC and made it an EMI.

I don't think i will ever make an advance payment order again. This has been a good lesson.
I'll do that, even though it might get deleted quickly.

Exactly! The real customer care is when the service doesn't work and when they put their effort in fixing it. Its when things go off routine like this the limitation of the customer service department becomes evident. This is when templates and memorised chants cease to work.

I had better expectations from Amazon's customer-centric approach, but learnt the hard way that it exists only in the footer of every email they send.

Here FedEx is just barely OK, until now i wouldn't say they are bad but they were well below BlueDart delivery standards in our area. But with this incident i would say they do deserve to be on the lower rungs. Especially when they provide misleading details like address wrong when the real issue is something else.

Oh, and i thought ebay customer care was better. it seems all are more or less the same! Weak laws and poor and corrupt implementation.

I'm doing that on Friday if i do not get a reply from Amazon. The bank will take its own time to conduct the investigation, so if I can get Amazon to refund in a few days i will prefer that. Else disputing the claim is the option.

You can borrow my camera. I have a couple of lenses as well, if it offers and consolation :D

Thats why i am old fasioned, no online business.

Pramod

Fed Ex service is hopelessly low ,they are our logistic partner and we have to follow-up on consignments half the time ,i have faced similar issues of false updates on transit even when the local office knows our office location very well and they do pickup and deliver on a daily basis .

I always use COD options for value above 2000 and have cancelled abt 5-7 orders from snapdeal / flipkart due to delay in delivery beyond commited dates.Never shopped at amazon till date and had very high hope abt them , will be more vigilant after your experience.

You could always raise a dispute with your CC bank and cancel your purchase .

I agree to this 100%. This even applies to snapdeal, ebay and flipkart. I got Moto G in 16 hours flat on COD. One eyonee e6 took 6 days when I paid in advance. There are issues regarding to service also in case of mobiles if you buy online. Service centers deny to take the product for service.

Sankar: I am not underplaying your story, and am fully sympathetic with your case. Have you visited the sales tax office?

Please assume that I am talking about some other person 'Rakesh'.

In this case, the other outcome would be - Rakesh would go to the sales tax department and pay up the fine (which would occur if and only if the invoice value would be too less than actual value - for example if a laptop is sold at 10k, and minimum price is assumed to be 20k, then the person is charged 5 times the skipped duty. So if duty on 20k laptop is 2k, and you have shown only 10k as cost of laptop, then you have skipped 1k duty. So your penalty is 5 x 1k = 5k, upon payment of which the laptop is yours.)

Later, Rakesh emails the receipt to Amazon and they refund that much money, which is MUCH less than 30k.

I have done this with pepperfry, where octroi people would charge a lot, and pepperfry would refund it after sending the scanned copy.

Is this the right way? No, of course not. A customer HAS to get a service that he demands. But it sure is an efficient way, where you get your product in hand, you get refund of the tax (I don't think reputed players such as amazon would deny this) and perhaps some coupons if strongly demanded for your visit to Sales tax.

I think you have only 2 outcomes now:
1. Call up CC phonebanking and raise dispute. But this can get messy, as Amazon has sent the package.
2. Call Amazon and ask whether they will be willing to reimburse any penalty that the sales tax people may issue.