Then I got poor service

I reported recently the excellent customer service I received from DesignHouseUK, now I am sad to report that one of the biggest Internet retailers has failed to give me anything like decent service.

The company is Amazon. Now, I'm simply reporting what happened to me on this occasion and I am not passing comment on the company as a whole. In fact, until these recent orders I have always been happy with them. So what happened?

In November I ordered a book from Amazon as a birthday present. This was early November. By Early December I had received an email explaining there was a delay and they were expecting to dispatch the order between 12th and 18th December. The 18th rolled around and I got another email explaining they didn't know when the order would be fulfilled.

By this time the birthday was long gone, but still keen to buy the book I checked other sites and discovered, amongst those listing it, that it is out of print. Surely Amazon knew this and could have either removed the listing or listed it as out of print.

I guess no harm done, there were other presents and I'm not out of pocket. But then more recently I ordered a couple of books and started a trial account of Amazon Prime. I was told the books would be delivered by 17th December - the day after ordering. By the 22nd they had not been delivered so I emailed Amazon.

I wont paste the whole email but I will say that it was full of contradictions. In one paragraph I was told the order was still at their fulfillment centre. I guess that's a sort of warehouse and not a retreat centre in which products find fulfillment. A few paragraphs later the email informed that the items may be at my local Royal Mail Delivery Centre - how is that possible when they are still in the warehouse?

The email was clearly without specific reference t my problem, offered no help or compensation unlike DesigHouseUK. All of this led me to ponder why large companies think they can get away with poor service? Cases such as my Amazon order are rare with Amazon but when they do they should respond better.

Well, thats my updated over the festive period. I would like to wish you all the very best for 2009 and challenge you to set aims for the year now, think what you would like to write in Christmas letter next year and then figure out how to get there.