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Old 06-08-2017, 08:02 PM   #3
barryem
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Posts: 2,459
Karma: 68781975
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Arkansas
Device: Paperwhite 4
In 2011 I bought the first 7 books in the Rabbi Small series from Amazon for my Kindle. I didn't know at the time that more of them had been written so I didn't buy the ones that came after until 2014. During that period Amazon added their Audible upgrade procedure where if you have the Kindle book you get a big discount on the Audible version.

I clicked a link somewhere that took me to Amazon's search for Kindle books I own that are eligible for that upgrade and I found the 8th book on the list. That gave me the idea of going back to the first one and getting it and getting one a month till I have them all.

But no! I own all the Kindle versions but only the ones I bought later, 8 and up, are eligible. I called Amazon's Kindle support.

They got an Audible support rep on the line and finally decided there was no way they could get me that discount on the first 7 books. When I bought them that wasn't part of the deal. When they added that they re-issued the books to accommodate that. I had the old issues.

These two support people spent at least an hour trying to figure out a way to do this. After about 10 minutes I was ready to give up the idea. I only occasionally listen to audiobooks and it just wasn't that important to me. But both of them though I deserved the discount and dug in trying to get it for me. During the course of that they got a number of other people involved. Finally one of supervisors suggested they just give me free copies of the audiobooks. I declined that, not really feeling at this point like I had that coming.

But what amazing service that is! That had to have been a really expensive thing for Amazon to do, and they refused to stop trying even after I said I was ready to give up and I wasn't going to be unhappy about it.

Another time, back when the Kindle with the 5 buttons on the bottom was the current Kindle, I had a couple of those and I lent one to a neighbor with a book on it she wanted to read. She returned it to me with a scratched screen, thanks to her cat, who obviously didn't like the book.

I called Amazon to see if I could get a discount on a replacement if I returned that one. They insisted on simply replacing it for me under warranty. I explained that it was user damage and not a flaw or a defect but they didn't care. So I accepted the replacement and then, even though I told them I was in no rush for it since it was a spare, they overnighted it. I felt pretty guilty about that one.

I do realize that there are people who hate Amazon and they do some things I don't like, too. But where customer service is concerned I don't think they have any competition at all. They're in a class by themselves.

Barry
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