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Amazon has earned my trust in every serious interaction I've had with them (live in USA and have prime subscription). Package never arrived? Reimbursed. Next da

by seibelj 10y ago

Amazon has earned my trust in every serious interaction I've had with them (live in USA and have prime subscription). Package never arrived? Reimbursed. Next day shipping and it took 2 days? Reimbursed. "New" book from reseller is clearly marked up with underlines and notes? Free book, no need to ship it back. The trust I have with this company is the reason why I order from them so consistently, even if they are more expensive. People in India are surely learning the same thing.

hkmurakami 10y ago
Completely agree -- BUT -- that's why they need to take the counterfeit items problem that is invading their site very seriously. They've bought a lot of good will with putting the customer first. But humans are easy to forget the good when bad things happen to them. Amazon could easily lose its hard won good will from the fake goods problem it has on its hands now.
- seibelj 10y ago
  I am confident they will handle it based only on the history I have with them. Killing the golden goose to protect a bunch of thieves makes zero sense. But companies have made worse mistakes, so who knows.
gopalv 10y ago
> People in India are surely learning the same thing. Flipkart from circa 2012 had that. The story should probably more about how they lost that trust. I used to order things on Flipkart regularly (during my WFH years in Bangalore) because the couriers were employed by them, had multiple delivery attempts in a day and items in general came in a day or two to my doorstep. At that point, it was as if they treated "shipping" as their primary product rather than the box they were delivering. For my vantage point, the whole process starts to unravel with "WS Retail" and Flipkart's schism. Suddenly, it looked there was a split-brain between buying, shipping and delivering.
pjc50 10y ago
I wonder what the trust looks like in the other direction: if you can get free stuff by lying to customer service, what happens if that becomes popular in the customer base?
- Tenhundfeld 10y ago
  Meh, that doesn't seem a huge risk. Lying to customer service isn't a life hack. It's unethical and a crime. Depending on the specifics, it could be mail fraud, a felony. Maybe I'm naive, but I believe most adults are not actually willing to commit fraud in writing. And besides the risk of prosecution, most people like to think of themselves as honest people. It's hard to continue that narrative if you're proactively engaging in fraud.
  - pjc50 10y ago
    I was wondering if this varies by country; both the expected extent to which one should game the system (e.g. prevalence of bribes) and actual ability of the authorities to prosecute people.
    - Tenhundfeld 10y ago
      Ah, yeah, I bet you're right.
- Ankurkkhuran 10y ago
  They are learning that very fast. See this : http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/amazon-return-and-refund-policy-mobiles http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-techno... . People were abusing their customer service and they killed the goose. Now the whole return for mobile phones also factors in your buying history and is evaluated on case by case basis.

by seibelj 10y ago

hkmurakami 10y ago

Completely agree -- BUT -- that's why they need to take the counterfeit items problem that is invading their site very seriously. They've bought a lot of good will with putting the customer first. But humans are easy to forget the good when bad things happen to them. Amazon could easily lose its hard won good will from the fake goods problem it has on its hands now.

seibelj 10y ago
I am confident they will handle it based only on the history I have with them. Killing the golden goose to protect a bunch of thieves makes zero sense. But companies have made worse mistakes, so who knows.

gopalv 10y ago

> People in India are surely learning the same thing. Flipkart from circa 2012 had that. The story should probably more about how they lost that trust. I used to order things on Flipkart regularly (during my WFH years in Bangalore) because the couriers were employed by them, had multiple delivery attempts in a day and items in general came in a day or two to my doorstep. At that point, it was as if they treated "shipping" as their primary product rather than the box they were delivering. For my vantage point, the whole process starts to unravel with "WS Retail" and Flipkart's schism. Suddenly, it looked there was a split-brain between buying, shipping and delivering.

pjc50 10y ago

I wonder what the trust looks like in the other direction: if you can get free stuff by lying to customer service, what happens if that becomes popular in the customer base?

Tenhundfeld 10y ago
Meh, that doesn't seem a huge risk. Lying to customer service isn't a life hack. It's unethical and a crime. Depending on the specifics, it could be mail fraud, a felony. Maybe I'm naive, but I believe most adults are not actually willing to commit fraud in writing. And besides the risk of prosecution, most people like to think of themselves as honest people. It's hard to continue that narrative if you're proactively engaging in fraud.
- pjc50 10y ago
  I was wondering if this varies by country; both the expected extent to which one should game the system (e.g. prevalence of bribes) and actual ability of the authorities to prosecute people.
  - Tenhundfeld 10y ago
    Ah, yeah, I bet you're right.
Ankurkkhuran 10y ago
They are learning that very fast. See this : http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/amazon-return-and-refund-policy-mobiles http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-techno... . People were abusing their customer service and they killed the goose. Now the whole return for mobile phones also factors in your buying history and is evaluated on case by case basis.