Amazon customer service experience

September 4, 2008

business

Do you remember CDNow? They were an online music retailer that was purchased by Amazon in the late 1990s. In that time, when I was getting used to the web, I used CDNow and RadRockers.com (which is still around). The reason all of this is relevant is that today was the first customer service-related encounter that I remember having with Amazon, or CDNow before it.

My wife, as you may know, is a graduate student at Candler School of Theology. She purchased her books for the semester on Amazon (and saved lots of money). One of the packages was supposed to have three books in it, but when it was delivered it only had one.

After a quick search of the website, she found the Contact Us link, and the system allows you to give them your phone number and tell them when you would like to be called. At that time, it calls you and connects you with a customer service rep. Of course, she was able to give information to document the issue, and it was quickly corrected and the missing books will be shipped.

Normally, customer service does not stick out to me for good or bad, but for some reason this strikes me as significant. I’ve never had a customer service experience that was so convenient and easy, presumably on both ends, as that one seemed to be.