A funny thing happened with a recent online order and I quickly learned that it was more than Amazon automation could process.
There are reasons Amazon attracts so many shoppers these days. In many cases, their prices are very competitive, if not cheaper than brick and mortar stores. They offer a wider variety of products than most physical stores can pack within their walls. Their delivery, while not instantaneous, still beats most other store’s delivery options. But when an unusual situation comes up, the Amazon automation system doesn’t seem to be able to process thigns all that well.
I recently ordered a pair of shirts. One came right away, just as promised. The other, a short-sleeve dark green shirt, was delayed. (At least, an alert I received on my phone informed me the order was delayed.) A couple of days later, I received an alert that the package had been delivered. When I got home, there it was.
Naturally, I thought nothing of it.
The following week, I received an alert that my package was on its way. I wasn’t sure what they were talking about, since I knew I didn’t have any other outstanding orders at that point. The next day, I received an alert that the mysterious package was waiting at my door. They even included a photo of it at my door.
When I got home, I opened the package. It was the same green shirt a second time.
Well, that’s odd, I thought.
So logged in to my account to see if I’d somehow “double-clicked” and ordered it twice. I hadn’t. I checked my credit card to see if they somehow billed me for a second green shirt. They hadn’t.
I had a free shirt I hadn’t asked for. But I didn’t need two of them.
I immediately knew from Amazon’s website I faced an uphill battle
I’ll say it upfront: I despise computer-generated chatbots. They’re ridiculous. They’re programmed to handle about five or six scenarios.
But those crazy humans among us can seemingly create dozens of problems that those chatbots simply aren’t prepared to handle.
When someone mysteriously receives a duplicate item they didn’t ask for, that falls into the category of problems the chatbot isn’t programmed to handle.
I went through a few attempts clicking through a flowchart-like chat process to select the issue I needed to report. The multiple choice answers usually included “Something Else” as a last resort. When I ran out of those “something elses,” the site finally presented me with an option to have Amazon call me.
Great. They call me. That should mean I shouldn’t have to wait in a long queue.
Well, not really. My phone rang within seconds of my clicking the button. I was now talking with another instance of Amazon automation. This time, it spoke.
It seemed to know which order it was calling about. It asked me to give it, in one word, the item I wanted to discuss.
“Shirt.”
It asked if I wanted to return the item.
I said “no,” because while I do want to return it, I don’t want a refund. (I want to keep one shirt and send back the duplicate. After all, I don’t need two of the same thing.)
I went in circles with that AI system because it clearly never assumes Amazon’s shipping department could ever make such a mistake. After about the third pass, it must have felt its little computer brain starting to overheat. So it asked if I wanted to speak with a representative.
“Yes.”
Thank goodness there are humans in the mix somewhere!
It is easy to assume that big companies like Amazon have no human workers in customer service departments. I’m sure sending everyone to pages with lots of multiple choice questions is a much more efficient model.
But if you’re going to rely on computer to do all your problem-solving, you have to program them to be ready for every possibility. That in itself is practically an impossibility.
I was pleasantly surprised that the wait for a human was less than 15 seconds. I honestly thought I’d be holding for an hour or more.
The operator was very nice and I explained the situation. I reiterated that I wanted to send one shirt back, but not be refunded since I was keeping the other one. I just didn’t want to keep a shirt they sent in error that I hadn’t paid for.
That pesky honest nature, you know.
She said she’d print a shipping label for me. Then I said again that I do not want a refund. She said she understood. (That, of course, showed she was smarter than Amazon automation system!)
She asked about my taking the extra shirt to one of a couple of dropoff locations. I told her I was fairly certain a UPS dropoff point was near me so she then emailed me a QR code they can scan when I get there. I had the email about five seconds later.
Problem solved…I hope
I’m really hoping they don’t issue a refund for the shirt. If they do, I wouldn’t know where to begin to have them reverse it.
I don’t know that I’d be willing to battle with the computer again over that.
In the meantime, with fingers crossed that they will accept the shirt (which is unopened) and sell it to someone else and make their money.
I believe honesty is the best policy. And I’d like to believe technology would be better at dealing with a problem caused by someone who’s trying to be honest about someone else’s mistake!
Fingers crossed!
