Amazon customer service - good in the US only?

[Algiedi]

Hello everyone,

Yesterday I had my first contact with the amazon.com customer service (chat) about my broken Kindle. I've been VERY favorably impressed and customer service quality suddenly became an important aspect for picking my next device.
But since now I'm "forced" to buy Kindles on the amazon.fr website, I tried to check out if it was as good in France as in the US.

The service is absolutely pathetic. I've had 3 people on chat, none of them have been able to answer simple questions about the warranty, one going so far as to improvize answers that were blatantly wrong. The spelling was awful ("Im plased to hepl u " - I wish I was kidding) and the attitude was overall very unprofessionnal. I haven't gotten the promised phone call yet, but I'm definitely not getting my hopes up.

Has anyone else witnessed that discrepancy, or is the French customer service the very unfortunate exception to the rule?

[Talldog]

I've never gotten customer service outside of the U.S., but I can tell you that it's not always stellar here either. I was on a chat the other day with CS because that's the only way you can cancel pending Kindle deliveries, if they're pending for devices you don't want them going to. I spent at least 15 minutes trying to explain to the person that I wasn't trying to cancel a book order, but I never did get through to him. He finally bounced me up to a second level person who took care of me, but the point is, don't go by one experience.

[Algiedi]

Originally Posted by Talldog

the point is, don't go by one experience.

Yeah I would normally not extrapolate a rule out of a single try, but I've also read very positive feedback about it on this forum that's coherent with my own experience (even people advising a Kindle if only for the quality of the customer service). Or is it that I only noticed those because of said experience?

[HarryT]

UK customer service is excellent, in my experience.

[geoffwood]

Originally Posted by Algiedi

The spelling was awful ("Im plased to hepl u " - I wish I was kidding)

Perhaps Amazon didn't think to staff a French Customer Service desk with people who speak English as their first language.

[Algiedi]

Originally Posted by geoffwood

Perhaps Amazon didn't think to staff a French Customer Service desk with people who speak English as their first language.

Let me "reassure" you, the entire conversations took place in french (given that I'm French myself).
I was transposing my impressions into English of course - I'm not sure that quotes in french would have fulfilled its illustrative purpose as efficiently

[ProfCrash]

I would complain that the Customer Service was unsatisfactory. Amazon is known for putting CS high on its list of priorities and would appreciate knowing that there is a problem.

I know in the US that there is a seperate Kindle Support site that it is best to use. Regular Amazon support is not trained to answer questions on Kindles or deal with Kindle problems. Normally when people have bad CS experiences they have called Amazon CS and not Kindle CS. There are exceptions to that rule, there always are, but that tends to be the case.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Algiedi

Hello everyone,

Yesterday I had my first contact with the amazon.com customer service (chat) about my broken Kindle. I've been VERY favorably impressed and customer service quality suddenly became an important aspect for picking my next device.
But since now I'm "forced" to buy Kindles on the amazon.fr website, I tried to check out if it was as good in France as in the US.

The service is absolutely pathetic. I've had 3 people on chat, none of them have been able to answer simple questions about the warranty, one going so far as to improvize answers that were blatantly wrong. The spelling was awful ("Im plased to hepl u " - I wish I was kidding) and the attitude was overall very unprofessionnal. I haven't gotten the promised phone call yet, but I'm definitely not getting my hopes up.

Has anyone else witnessed that discrepancy, or is the French customer service the very unfortunate exception to the rule?

Click on the 'call me' button, avoid the chat.

[Algiedi]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Click on the 'call me' button, avoid the chat.

Less discreet when you're at work and pretending to, well, work
But yeah, I was hoping to compare this morning after I was told several times that someone would call me back in a couple of hours.
Still waiting.

[HarryT]

The customer service desks shift around the world as the time of day changes. If I phone in the morning, I seem to get people in either Ireland or South Africa, and they always seem to be extremely helpful. In the afternoon, support seems to move over to the Far East - the Phillipines, Thailand, etc - and I don't find them to be quite as good - they sometimes seem to struggle to understand what I'm saying.

Consequently, when I do phone Amazon, I try to call first thing in the morning.

[JSWolf]

In the US, there is Amazon CS and Kindle CS. If you have Kindle CS, call them for Kindle support.

[howyoudoin]

.....

[Talldog]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Normally when people have bad CS experiences they have called Amazon CS and not Kindle CS. There are exceptions to that rule, there always are, but that tends to be the case.

In my case, I did go to Kindle CS. The first guy was clueless. The second guy took care of me in a minute.

[Kumabjorn]

When I have been in contact with CS I always get a mail asking me to rate the service. I thought that was standard procedure. That way you can tell them exactly what the problem is and I believe it goes to a CS supervisor.

[HarryT]

Just had another example of good Kindle CS; I've been having a problem with downloading to Kindle for PC; they fixed it, then phoned me up to check that it was working OK for me.