Quote:
Originally Posted by sschind
Just curious as to why you don't do business with Amazon. They aren't my favorite company either.
I totally agree about the price comparison thing and it seems a small percentage of sellers nowadays actually have the items in hand. Buying on the internet isn't like it was back in the good old days when everyone was honest and you could trust them.
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Last year I decided to buy a bushel of steamed blue crabs through a seller on Amazon. I talked to the company (Maryland Blue Crab Express) beforehand and told them what I wanted. I didn't want junk, and I knew what *good* crabs were. I told them if they couldn't send me good crabs, then hold off shipping until they get them in. I was willing to wait.
I decided to buy through Amazon specifically because I knew how good their guarantee was, and told MBCE to expect my order. Yeah, I was playing it safe (I thought), because I have been lied to by online crab shippers before and I wanted to cover myself as much as possible.
So I got the shipment, and it was punk garbage. My first clue was when I lifted that bushel of crabs in the box (six dozen) and noticed how light it was. I thought they had sent me only a half bushel by mistake. The weight of the crabs was less than half bushels I have bought before. They didn't smell all that good neither. But we had to at least taste them and not make a hasty conclusion. Connie and I both tried to eat some of the crabs, but they tasted like they had been soaked in swamp water. So besides being airweight crabs, they smelled funky and tasted bad. BTW, come to find out that MBCE is actually located near Lancaster, PA, so I suspect the crabs likely came out of the Susquehanna River and not Chesapeake Bay like they were claiming.
So I immediately went through all the procedures on Amazon's website to effect a refund, and the company said they did not want the crabs sent back to them. I verified this at least three times, then tossed the entire shipment out into the woods and took pictures which I sent to MBCE.
Anyway, Amazon said they would not honor any guarantee on the order because the seller claimed the order was non returnable. Apparently Amazon's A-to-Z guarantee really didn't mean a whole lot. Yeah, apparently they USED to have a good guarantee, but I think they switched over to an offshore third party customer service outfit in Pakistan or India, and things changed there.
I could often find things cheaper elsewhere, but would often buy from Amazon anyway, simply because of their return guarantee. But after that episode, I was done with them. If any seller just states that their product is non-returnable, then guess what? Too bad for you if you get garbage from them.
So yeah, I am done with Amazon. Even though I have bought a lot of stuff from them for a real long time. Heck, I used to buy books from them when that is all they sold. Even passed some emails with Jeff Bezos when it was basically a one man show. Heck, Connie and I would often both get Amazon gift cards as gifts, and give them to others as well. But they left me holding the bag on that garbage and are apparently willing to allow their sellers to pawn off garbage on THEIR customers. I won't give them a second chance to do that to me.
And if I buy something off of Ebay and it shows up here in an Amazon box, then I contact the seller immediately for a refund and return label to ship it back to Amazon.