Amazon Prime Day.. Bad Chat Support.. Scam?

Amazon Prime Day! #Primeday was not a good day for me. Lots of people complained about the sale quality.. Nothing good for sale. Ok, whatever, to each their own.. I didn’t expect anything huge.. It’s a ploy to get people on Prime.. But I did find something worth buying.. A Roomba! I thought the idea was cool, and they were cheap enough ($130 off) that I decided to try one.

Now let me preface all this by saying I am a big Prime customer.. I spend $10,000 plus a year on Prime. Everything from groceries, electronics, gift cards, house supplies, vehicle parts, etc.

Here is my original order —

My Roomba Order
My Roomba Order

 

You can see it says it was refunded… That is because it arrived defective. After sitting there watching the Roomba spin circles for 20 minutes, I realized there had to be a problem. Sure enough, the right wheel was refusing to turn. It was brand new, so there was nothing clogging it up or wrapped around the wheel.. But I checked anyways. I googled the problem and found it was a common problem. To fix it, you just need to replace the wheel module.  I had already thrown away the box (silly of me), so I thought maybe they could just send me a new wheel. Instead, they asked me to send the whole item back. Amazon has a really good returns system.. You get a label, they pay the shipping, you just drop it at a UPS store.

Here is my original chat transcript. Notice they say they will be doing a “free replacement” for me. I double check to make sure I need to send everything back and get a whole new kit. I try to see if I can get a new tracking number, but the agent (confusingly) tells me that there will be updates later.. I was lost, but I thought my issue was resolved so I ended the conversation.

 

Original Chat Transcript
Original Chat Transcript

 

I send in my item and am a bit surprised when I receive a refund. I let it go, thinking that soon, an “update” would show up in my account, with new tracking for the new Roomba. I figured being a replacement, they would rush it out to me.. After the weekend and still not hearing anything, I decided to reach out to them.

Here is my 2nd chat transcript. You can see the agent is pretty confused on the situation. I am rather patient as you can see…. Until the end..

 

Second Transcript
Second Transcript

 

Summary: The Roomba arrived defective… I talked to an agent and was told I was getting a free replacement and needed to ship my first item back. So I did. I then find out that since I got a refund instead (remember, I just wanted a new Roomba) I need to purchase a new item. Since it was a Prime Day deal, I can’t find that price now. I figure they will just give me a coupon code. Nope, turns out if I want it, I am stuck with the $130 difference… Guess it’s my fault that they refunded me vs giving me the replacement? OUTRAGEOUS.. Really not much more to say here! Amazon, make this right!

 

Brandon Sullivan

I am an entrepreneur, meteorologist and storm chaser. I travel and take captivating photos and videos across the world. If I'm not chasing, I'm at the gym. All opinions are my own and do not represent my employers or investments.

One thought on “Amazon Prime Day.. Bad Chat Support.. Scam?

  • July 20, 2015 at 3:50 PM
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    I never return ANYTHING on amazon until I get my replacement. Normally you have about 20 days to return the product from the day you requested a replacement or refund so there’s never any hurry when return things.

    Also I am a big spender on amazon myself. Be careful returning products they have a new system if you do more then x amount of returns in a calendar year they will cancel your account. I don’t know the number on the returns but I got a security email from amazon.

    I bought three items that went together and they didn’t work for what I wanted and after returning them I got a warning about returns from amazons security department. I have return a few things over the year but not much mainly Christmas gifts etc

    Amazon tracks all returns and customer credits issued. Apparently they don’t like people returning things

    Reply

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