I don’t have a ‘story’ per se, but I have been buying from Amazon for nearly 10 years – so they must be doing something right.
I have had occasion to return goods. This proved to be a quite painless process. No problems at all.
I have had stuff on back-order and forward order (i.e. prior to publication) and Amazon have consistently kept me up to date with my order statuses.
They nearly always deliver more quickly than their initial estimates, so they clearly understand the importance of setting expectations.
Their product recommendations, based on what I have previously ordered, can be a little haphazard, but can also be remarkably useful and accurate.
And then there are the reviews. I have now contributed over 160 of my own reviews and am now a ‘Top 500 Reviewer’ so clearly I find the reviews useful and also enjoy providing my own. It really is the crucial USP, or Unique Selling Proposition, of Amazon. The more reviews the better, as I usually sample both 5 and 1 star reviews in order to more usefully judge the pros and cons of the particular product. Yes, there is a lot of bickering and ‘tactical voting’ in the reviews, but these problems are minor and are largely offset by the sheer volume of reviews.
Allowing other sellers to use the Amazon web-site further enhances the whole experience as it is now possible to not only select from a wide range of products but also from a wide range of suppliers. On top of that, I feel I can buy from other suppliers via the Amazon web-site with confidence, knowing that Amazon in a sense ‘police’ these alternative suppliers.
On the rare occasions I have had to contact them (by e-mail), their response has been quick, friendly and accurate.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Is this a comment on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
Hi Jake, my name is Malte and I am one of the team working on this prototype. Good point about the UK-US distinction. The sites may seem the same for an unsuspecting user, but I understand that the reviewing functionalities may differ, e.g. when it comes to reviewer rankings. Do you think we should have two separate profiles for Amazon UK and Amazon US?
Yes I think it is important to separate the two sites as a lot of people in the UK use both sites as sometimes items can only be purchased from the USA .com site.
OK, will forward this to the team and make sure we are clear on the distinction. Thanks again.
I assumed that we were talking about UK/European sites. This is my experience of .co.uk. Apologies for not making that clear. :-)
No problem, Jessica, we actually just introduced that important distinction and now have two profiles for Amazon: one for co.uk and one for .com. I retagged your posting so that it appears in the right place.
Many thanks again for sharing your experience,
Malte
(How’s My Feedback? team)