6 ms·

If I order toilet paper via my Google Home, where does it come from? Wal Mart or Target? How long for shipping? If they send me dog food instead, how do I get i

by hbosch 9y ago

If I order toilet paper via my Google Home, where does it come from? Wal Mart or Target? How long for shipping? If they send me dog food instead, how do I get in touch with customer service? Is it Google's customer service or Target's? I don't see how this is a threat to Amazon. People don't shop there because they have voice -- they shop there because I can Prime myself anything in 2 days or less and if it's messed up I can talk to a human being and find out why. I'd hate to try and get the same kind of service via Google and Target.

dawnerd 9y ago
I order by price, so that means not ordering things like paper towels from amazon. Their grocery and household goods are often more expensive than just going down the street. Also target has amazing returns. You can return online orders to the store - not like you can do that with amazon. I believe Walmart is the same.
- CamelCaseName 9y ago
  Starting this month, you'll be able to return some Amazon items to some Kohl's locations. [0] I suspect that will be true for Whole Foods as well at some point soon. [0] http://www.businessinsider.com/kohls-returns-amazon-how-to-2017-9 http://www.businessinsider.com/kohls-returns-amazon-how-to-2...
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
cryptoz 9y ago
> they shop there because I can Prime myself anything in 2 days or less and if it's messed up I can talk to a human being and find out why. Really? Amazon is often very late with Prime deliveries in my experience, only hitting the 2-day mark maybe 60% of the time. And when the miss the delivery (which I am paying $100/year for!!) there are no options presented for customer service or support, just "check back here in 3 days and if your package still hasn't arrived we'll present you with more options". Meanwhile I can call Google any time and get great customer support for the products I pay for. I'd vastly prefer the Google delivery experience that I'd expect them to create compared to what Amazon Prime is now.
- tedmiston 9y ago
  > Meanwhile I can call Google any time and get great customer support for the products I pay for. We must not use the same Google. Lack of available support is one of the most cited reasons for not buying Google hardware, especially their own Chromebooks.
  - panopticon 9y ago
    Yeah, cryptoz's experience goes totally against the grain with respect to all of my friend's and family's experience too. Although I do have issues with Prime from time to time, Amazon's customer service usually kicks me a discount or another month of Prime as recompense. As a bit of an outlier, Google Fiber's customer service has been stellar for me though.
    - sli 9y ago
      Yeah, all of my experiences with Amazon's customer service have been great. I usually have to Google the CSR chat link to find it, but I'd probably do that anyway.
  - uep 9y ago
    Or the same Amazon for that matter. I suspect it has to do with the kind of things I order, and where I'm located, but Amazon deliveries have always arrived within two days for me (sometimes one day). Exceptions being when I order stuff that is not eligible for prime, but I know that at the time of ordering. Their customer service has also been excellent in my experience. That said, I haven't had a terrible experience with Google yet, but I've barely used their support. I'll find out soon, because my Google-purchased phone started the infamous bootloop the other day.
  - richardknop 9y ago
    Exactly my reaction. Google is known for having almost non existent customer support. Not just in products but also things like Google Cloud (before that App Engine). It works well and you are happy but if there's some issue with your site/app, getting in touch with a human being is almost impossible.
daveFNbuck 9y ago
Amazon has been messing up most of my deliveries lately and they make it as difficult as possible to talk to someone to find out why. When I do talk to someone, they always pretend to check the status, say that the item has been lost in transit, ship another one, and extend my prime membership by 1 month. Now I've got a hassle, a late shipment, and often a duplicate on the way that I'll have to deal with later.
- staticassertion 9y ago
  So they give you two products and a month of prime... what response did you want on the customer service end?
  - Retric 9y ago
    If the same issues keep showing up they probably want a fix to the actual problem. And really, having two show up at some random date is not going to be helpful if you miss a kids birthday etc.
  - daveFNbuck 9y ago
    They didn't intend to give me two products, and the month of prime is worthless if they don't actually have 2-day shipping. The response I want on the customer service end is for them to stop using their shitty AMZL carrier and deliver reliably like they used to for the last 10 years. It would also be nice if Amazon didn't hide their customer service options so I didn't have to waste a bunch of time finding it every time there's a problem.
    - beering 9y ago
      You can ask them to make a note on your account to not use their in-house delivery.
      - daveFNbuck 9y ago
        I've been contacting them a lot lately, and they haven't made me aware of that option. Thanks for letting me know!
viperscape 9y ago
With that said, I’m really irked that amazon is using “private” shipping companies, I’m tired of seeing joe schmoes ring my bell in their Honda Civic or uhaul rental van, with my goods, my address, and seeing my house and family. They even take pictures with cell phone of package at door, wtf. Is there any background check, nope. Stick to a professional shipping company and not fly by night, random folks please
- colordrops 9y ago
  Have you had any actual problems with these "fly by night" shipping companies? Do "schmoes" not work at Fedex and UPS?
  - wickawic 9y ago
    I have never seen a UPS employee throw a package at my house
    - tyingq 9y ago
      It happens. https://www.google.com/search?q=ups+employee+throws+package&prmd=nvsi&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&biw=360&bih=512 https://www.google.com/search?q=ups+employee+throws+package&...
    - anotherproj 9y ago
      There is an entire website dedicated to UPS employees throwing packages: http://dontthrowmypackage.com/category/ups/ http://dontthrowmypackage.com/category/ups/
    - jjeaff 9y ago
      Ha. I'll assume you are being sarcastic.
      - aeotnhu0923nt 9y ago
        I doubt it. We just moved, but in our previous neighborhood, we knew the UPS guy who did our deliveries. It was always the same guy, and he was great! He even gave us some great tips on where to vacation! I knew about his family probably more than he knew about ours.
anindha 9y ago
Big retailers don't do well in this type of online marketplace. Target and Toys"R"Us already tried partnering with Amazon and both deals failed [1][2]. Google should start developing warehouse technology and a delivery network in order to start competing directly with Amazon. Their current strategy is just a coat of paint on declining businesses. [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100017752821017751 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100017752821017751 [2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113798030922653260 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113798030922653260
- quickben 9y ago
  They should start with something more basic: customer support department.
  - zitterbewegung 9y ago
    Nah, they should start with figuring out how to not kill a project that people want.
bitmapbrother 9y ago
>If I order toilet paper via my Google Home, where does it come from? Well, you would specify where it came from by mentioning Walmart or Target. >If they send me dog food instead, how do I get in touch with customer service? Is it Google's customer service or Target's? The same customer service you ordered the product from and was clearly stated in the email confirmation you received from either Walmart or Target.
danudey 9y ago
This is as much a threat to Amazon as Microsoft PlaysForSure was to Apple.
tw04 9y ago
Really? Because if an order is screwed up with Target you can either call and talk to a live person, or walk into a store and talk to a live person. I love Amazon but they've got nothing on target from a service perspective (IMO).

by hbosch 9y ago

dawnerd 9y ago

I order by price, so that means not ordering things like paper towels from amazon. Their grocery and household goods are often more expensive than just going down the street. Also target has amazing returns. You can return online orders to the store - not like you can do that with amazon. I believe Walmart is the same.

CamelCaseName 9y ago
Starting this month, you'll be able to return some Amazon items to some Kohl's locations. [0] I suspect that will be true for Whole Foods as well at some point soon. [0] http://www.businessinsider.com/kohls-returns-amazon-how-to-2017-9 http://www.businessinsider.com/kohls-returns-amazon-how-to-2...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

cryptoz 9y ago

> they shop there because I can Prime myself anything in 2 days or less and if it's messed up I can talk to a human being and find out why. Really? Amazon is often very late with Prime deliveries in my experience, only hitting the 2-day mark maybe 60% of the time. And when the miss the delivery (which I am paying $100/year for!!) there are no options presented for customer service or support, just "check back here in 3 days and if your package still hasn't arrived we'll present you with more options". Meanwhile I can call Google any time and get great customer support for the products I pay for. I'd vastly prefer the Google delivery experience that I'd expect them to create compared to what Amazon Prime is now.

tedmiston 9y ago
> Meanwhile I can call Google any time and get great customer support for the products I pay for. We must not use the same Google. Lack of available support is one of the most cited reasons for not buying Google hardware, especially their own Chromebooks.
- panopticon 9y ago
  Yeah, cryptoz's experience goes totally against the grain with respect to all of my friend's and family's experience too. Although I do have issues with Prime from time to time, Amazon's customer service usually kicks me a discount or another month of Prime as recompense. As a bit of an outlier, Google Fiber's customer service has been stellar for me though.
  - sli 9y ago
    Yeah, all of my experiences with Amazon's customer service have been great. I usually have to Google the CSR chat link to find it, but I'd probably do that anyway.
- uep 9y ago
  Or the same Amazon for that matter. I suspect it has to do with the kind of things I order, and where I'm located, but Amazon deliveries have always arrived within two days for me (sometimes one day). Exceptions being when I order stuff that is not eligible for prime, but I know that at the time of ordering. Their customer service has also been excellent in my experience. That said, I haven't had a terrible experience with Google yet, but I've barely used their support. I'll find out soon, because my Google-purchased phone started the infamous bootloop the other day.
- richardknop 9y ago
  Exactly my reaction. Google is known for having almost non existent customer support. Not just in products but also things like Google Cloud (before that App Engine). It works well and you are happy but if there's some issue with your site/app, getting in touch with a human being is almost impossible.

daveFNbuck 9y ago

Amazon has been messing up most of my deliveries lately and they make it as difficult as possible to talk to someone to find out why. When I do talk to someone, they always pretend to check the status, say that the item has been lost in transit, ship another one, and extend my prime membership by 1 month. Now I've got a hassle, a late shipment, and often a duplicate on the way that I'll have to deal with later.

staticassertion 9y ago
So they give you two products and a month of prime... what response did you want on the customer service end?
- Retric 9y ago
  If the same issues keep showing up they probably want a fix to the actual problem. And really, having two show up at some random date is not going to be helpful if you miss a kids birthday etc.
- daveFNbuck 9y ago
  They didn't intend to give me two products, and the month of prime is worthless if they don't actually have 2-day shipping. The response I want on the customer service end is for them to stop using their shitty AMZL carrier and deliver reliably like they used to for the last 10 years. It would also be nice if Amazon didn't hide their customer service options so I didn't have to waste a bunch of time finding it every time there's a problem.
  - beering 9y ago
    You can ask them to make a note on your account to not use their in-house delivery.
    - daveFNbuck 9y ago
      I've been contacting them a lot lately, and they haven't made me aware of that option. Thanks for letting me know!

viperscape 9y ago

With that said, I’m really irked that amazon is using “private” shipping companies, I’m tired of seeing joe schmoes ring my bell in their Honda Civic or uhaul rental van, with my goods, my address, and seeing my house and family. They even take pictures with cell phone of package at door, wtf. Is there any background check, nope. Stick to a professional shipping company and not fly by night, random folks please

colordrops 9y ago
Have you had any actual problems with these "fly by night" shipping companies? Do "schmoes" not work at Fedex and UPS?
- wickawic 9y ago
  I have never seen a UPS employee throw a package at my house
  - tyingq 9y ago
    It happens. https://www.google.com/search?q=ups+employee+throws+package&prmd=nvsi&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&biw=360&bih=512 https://www.google.com/search?q=ups+employee+throws+package&...
  - anotherproj 9y ago
    There is an entire website dedicated to UPS employees throwing packages: http://dontthrowmypackage.com/category/ups/ http://dontthrowmypackage.com/category/ups/
  - jjeaff 9y ago
    Ha. I'll assume you are being sarcastic.
    - aeotnhu0923nt 9y ago
      I doubt it. We just moved, but in our previous neighborhood, we knew the UPS guy who did our deliveries. It was always the same guy, and he was great! He even gave us some great tips on where to vacation! I knew about his family probably more than he knew about ours.

anindha 9y ago

Big retailers don't do well in this type of online marketplace. Target and Toys"R"Us already tried partnering with Amazon and both deals failed [1][2]. Google should start developing warehouse technology and a delivery network in order to start competing directly with Amazon. Their current strategy is just a coat of paint on declining businesses. [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100017752821017751 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100017752821017751 [2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113798030922653260 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113798030922653260

quickben 9y ago
They should start with something more basic: customer support department.
- zitterbewegung 9y ago
  Nah, they should start with figuring out how to not kill a project that people want.

bitmapbrother 9y ago

>If I order toilet paper via my Google Home, where does it come from? Well, you would specify where it came from by mentioning Walmart or Target. >If they send me dog food instead, how do I get in touch with customer service? Is it Google's customer service or Target's? The same customer service you ordered the product from and was clearly stated in the email confirmation you received from either Walmart or Target.

danudey 9y ago

This is as much a threat to Amazon as Microsoft PlaysForSure was to Apple.

tw04 9y ago

Really? Because if an order is screwed up with Target you can either call and talk to a live person, or walk into a store and talk to a live person. I love Amazon but they've got nothing on target from a service perspective (IMO).