Amazon Ruins Christmas Nokia N900 Shipping Delays

by editor

Amazon Guaranteed Christmas Delivery Arrival for shipments? Amazon claims Guaranteed Christmas Arrival for gift orders but that's apparently false advertising. Thanks, Amazon, for the lies that a gift will be delivered by Christmas Eve. Have your Christmas ruined too by Amazon, who doesn't deliver or ship your Christmas gift before the holiday.
 
Buy the Nokia N900 cell phone by the specified date and pay the specified shipping method, have Amazon guarantee you a certain number of the N900 is in stock when you order that gift, have Amazon provide written promise throughout the whole ordering and checkout process (which you better print out, because Amazon will be sure to deliberately leave that date or change it via link in your, quote, Original Invoce), be Guaranteed by Amazon that you'll receive that gift by Christmas Eve, then get nothing delivered.
 
Amazon isn't delivering or shipping the Nokia N900 cell phone before Christmas 2009, and Amazon will do nothing to fix its error, even when it has a third-party vendor sellng the exact product on its own Amazon website. Obviously the Amazon can get hold of the N900 unit stock if it cared enough to do so, since Amazon customer service reps actually tell customers to contact that third-party vendor to try to order it through the Amazon website's vendor instead.
 
Don't get your Christmas gift in time? Amazon's not Fed Ex, they won't be going to any lengths to get you that gift, even when only Amazon itself is to blame. Amazon's previous MO and shift of blame involved the company's fine print that states it is not responsible for late Christmas shipments involving the transit carrier and weather conditions. That little trick had to do with Amazon guaranteeing shipments by Christmas, then shipping at the last minute, blaming the transit (i.e. Fed Ex or UPS) company for lack of delivery when weather conditions were bad or didn't allow package delivery. Not that part of the problem couldn't be that, if Amazon allowed a day or two extra to the carrier and got packages out earlier, it would allow a window for bad weather to pass and delivery to occur. That's right, blame FedEx or UPS for missing delivery dates guaranteed by Amazon on shipments that probably should have departed from Amazon earlier than last-minute.
 
Hey, Amazon, am I an irate customer that never wants to buy from your company again? You bet, but then you already know that, and could care less about your customer losses or the fact that you've helped ruin my Christmas season. Obviously you know I'm serious when I'm so upset about the missing gift that I patiently wait for hours in the middle of the night while you supposedly try to "exhaust every effort" to fix this error of the missing Nokia N900 cell phone. Of course exhausting every effort to obtain the Nokia N900 cell phone I ordered from you doesn't seem to involve any attempt by Amazon to contact its own third-party vendor. You know that vendor has current stock of the Nokia N900 cell phone, and of course you could have helped fix the mess you made by arranging shipment of the phone from that vendor instead. But, your company doesn't care. Not like you don't have that telephone number, Amazon, since you provided the vendor's number to me, telling me (on my 7th phone call in trying to get this fixed) to try last-ditch efforts: those desperate efforts to save my Christmas involved my own expense, in fact nearly $200 more to get the Nokia N900 cell phone in time. That vendor wanted to bypass Amazon's fees it's charged by Amazon (obviously your vendors have great loyalty to Amazon) and so I was stuck further: 2-Day or Overnight Delivery with shipment and billing information being exact, but then I couldn't order from that vendor from the Amazon website, since you don't require vendors to offer specific 2-Day or Overnight Shipping. Nice, Amazon, since you highly advertise that customers can place orders until 9 pm PST December 23, but that's not reallly true either. Unless you require your vendors to actually offer the most expedited and specific shipping options, that advertisement of yours is really misleading.
 
You have a relationship with that vendor, since your customer service reps have the exact phone number to the vendor, access to the exact number of N900 units in stock, and gave a somewhat-guarantee to provide Amazon Promotional Credit for the price difference on my future orders. Of course, Amazon customer service couldn't guarantee that Promotional Credit even though this is all your screw-up. I was supposed to take it on Amazon 'word' that the company might give Promotional Credit.
 
So let's review this terrible situation and horrible customer service Amazon, shall we? You sell the Nokia N900 cell phone and guarantee it in stock and to be delivered before Christmas as a gift. Then you send me a generic email telling me the Christmas gift will now be delivered after Christmas, and you let me know that right before December 22, so that it's impossible to order from anyplace else now. After more than 4 hours in total of phone calls, different Amazon departments, a waste of time with your overseas India Customer Service (which you don't bother telling customers about), lying Amazon Customer Service reps and supervisors including the one who gave me the whopper that he was checking with all warehouses (the whopper laughed at by the next Amazon rep who stated that was an impossibility, that there's no access to be able to do so), you do nothing to correct your false advertising of Guaranteed Christmas arrival.
 
My review of Amazon? Wish we'd never met.
 
Thanks, Amazon, for ruining a loyal customer relationship after nearly a decade and thousands upon thousands of dollars spent with your website. Thanks, Amazon, for every personal rave review that has been given about your service and shipping, and only if all that could be taken back for the destruction of my holiday. Amazon apology? Of course not, just a general email simply stating the Christmas gift won't arrive by Christmas and is now estimated for delivery between December 30 and January 5, 2010, insinuating that was the plan all along. Oh, and Amazon email does so kindly allow cancellation of the Christmas gift purchase, or Amazon will cancel the N900 for you if you don't click on the right link in email communication-if you get dropped from the queue, you'll be lucky to see the N900 at the end of February 2010. Seriously. Amazon is providing an estimated delivery date of February 2010 for its post-orders (already placed orders )on this cell phone.
 
Gee, Amazon, how badly did you screw up supply of the N900 when your listing for the phone is now gone altogether. Normally when a product is out of stock, Amazon continues to show the listing and continues to take future orders for when the item comes back into stock. So how bad is it when no more orders are currently being taken by Amazon at all.
 
Here's the rumor Amazon, popping up across the internet including maemo.org, and that talk seems to be proving true: that online stores offering a discount at all on the Nokia N900 were only provided a limited amount of stock or units, and that the Nokia N900 is shipping first and foremost to customers that paid full retail price with no rebates or discounts on the cell phone. So it seems Amazon oversold the N900 without having any means of obtaining more of the mobile phone stock before Christmas. That's nice, Amazon, since customers had the opportunity to buy the phone nationally from a choice of retailers, before you screwed them over by promisting Christmas delivery you refuse to fulfill.
 
That's right, because we all know Christmas extends into the 2010 New Year. Four hours on the phone with Amazon, 6 different Amazon customer service representatives, and Amazon refuses to fix its own screw-up. I'm supposed to feel consoled in knowing that you, quote, misplaced, the final N900 unit available, supposedly the one slated for delivery to me? Or am I to assume that when Amazon upped the price of the N900 with supply and demand, that you didn't want to cancel the later orders where you could lose more money on the item than what I was charged?
 
Apart from what seems a heartfelt apology from a customer service rep, there's no apology from the company itself. Not that it matters, since Amazon's ruined Christmas already and I don't have the N900 ordered. An acknowledgement, that Amazon itself screwed up, would be nice however.
 
What about Notice? Amazon apparently feels no ethical need to notify customers of their own false advertising and screw-up. Late at night on Dec 21, well past business hours to even be able to place expedited shipping anywhere, Amazon notifies the item is now due December 30-January 5.
 
What does Amazon recommend? That ranges from absolutely nothing, to the ludicrous. Even if you follow the ludicrous out of desperation, the end result of no Christmas gift is exactly the same. The nothing, self explanatory. The ludicrous: Amazon's recommendation to buy the N900 item from an Amazon third-party vendor, since Amazon itself no longer lists the gift on their site. That's right, buy the N900 at roughly $150 higher and pay that vendor's expedited overnight shipping. Only you won't be able to perform that purchase via Amazon, even though that's where the vendor is selling, because Amazon doesn't require the vendor to offer a 2-day or Overnight shipping option. So Amazon's recommendation: call the vendor directly to verify the N900 is in stock, then purchase the N900 at the far higher price, and pay the huge $45-$50 Overnight shipping charge to get the gift in time for Christmas. Then, maybe be able to get Amazon to credit you the difference in N900 price on a future Amazon order. Basically an Amazon credit to your account, so you're obligated to purchase from the company again in order to see any of your money back. You can be guaranteed not to get reimbursed any of the vendor's shipping rates at all, nor any applicable taxes for purchase through that vendor. Amazon of course charges no taxes, obviously a selling point the company is well aware of.
 
Of course, after such an Amazon screw-up, the company would deliver the N900 as fast as possible in terms of shipping methods after Christmas, right? Or not. Turns out that a customer service rep at Amazon, whom tried to change the shipping method to faster shipping service, got the following info: that change is considered a change to the order, so it would actually delay shipment by two months until end of February 2010. Order changes throw you to the bottom of the queue apparently. Yeah, that's when I want my Christmas gift shipment, Amazon, past Valentine's Day of the New Year.
 
Now, after Amazon tells you to do all of this craziness, the company also doesn't guarantee that it will issue you that future Amazon credit for the price difference of the item, because it's not sure of its own policy regarding third party vendors. So you just get to gamble out of desperation, and apparently plea your case to the next customer service rep, about whether you'll actually get that credit for the astronomic new price on the gift they'd guaranteed for Christmas.
 
What about those Amazon Christmas Shipping Cutoffs? Pay no mind to those, since they don't apply across the board. Tried to order this Christmas gift from a third-party vendor selling on Amazon itself, but it turns out they don't all go in accordance with those shipping cutoffs Amazon is listing. In fact, if I was willing to pay $150 more, which I was, there's no option to get it here in time-only an Expedited Option that states 1-3 business days. Since Amazon was so kind as to provide me only less than 2 delivery days to get it here in time through anyone else, that also would arrive after Christmas Eve and day. That third-party vendor is willing to bypass Amazon's fees it would be charged, to charge the customer directly, but then that company requires the item to be shpped directly to the billing address of the credit card. If you've got several homes and billling and shipping don't match exactly, they're not shipping it.  Strange, right, considering that Amazon requires that vendor to ship to a different shipment and billing address when purchased through Amazon's site-but then there's that little problem, that Amazon doesn't require the vendor to make explicit expedited shipping options available. So if shipment address is different than billing, you can't go through the vendor directly-but if you try to use that vendor through Amazon, you can't pay any price to even have guaranteed expedites shipping timeframes. Thanks for the recommendation, Amazon. Since this is a third-party vendor that you're allowing to sell on the Amazon website, don't you think maybe you should be arranging a way to get a unit from the vendor? It is, after all, an Amazon screw-up, with terms you guaranteed to your customer.
 
What about Sorry? Of course not. Amazon.com issues no apology, since that would be admitting its own liability in the matter. After all, the company falsely advertised GUARANTEED Christmas arrival shipping, did not honor it, has not intent to honor it, yet has done nothing to rectify its screw-up even after hours on the telephone. No 'sorry' in any Amazon email received, just general emails, most of which hold no indication that the item was ever even slated for arrival before Christmas. And that's another interesting fact. I printed out screenshots throughout the entire ordering and checkout process, so possess copies of the item number quantity supposedly in stock and also of the guaranteed arrival date. Interestingly, Amazon, that you include invoice arrival date as a link that just suddenly changes to the new arrival date without including the previous date. I print everything out along the way-for those that don't, then don't be expecting that Amazon includes that vital info of their own guaranteed arrival they conveyed to you. You won't find it in your, quote, original invoice. You'll only have it if you print it before checkout.
 
One of the 'are you kidding' Amazon.com emails includes the following from a customer service rep:
"To help make up for the delay, I've refunded the cost of shipping it to you to $0.00."

"Although the shipping method is free, it'll still take some time to get the item. As soon as we receive more stock, we'll ship your order and send you an e-mail to let you know."
 
No, Amazon, actually the shipping was NOT free though that's the least significant part of all this-but, really, adding insult to injury by telling me you've REFUNDED $0.00 to "help make up for the delay." Are you kidding?
 
Heard Nokia only sent companies a specified amount of the N900 for any offers or discounts, that Nokia's holding stock for full price customers. Already the N900 had severe delays even for pre-orders placed directly through Nokia itself. And then there's the Nokia Ovi rebate advertised by Amazon, with the maximum purchase date December 30, 2009 and final mailing date January 10, 2010. So how's that going to work, Amazon, since you're not covering the extra $50. Since Amazon doesn't bill until shipment date, if it's not shipped before the 30th, the N900's not getting the rebate obviously-even though orders placed well before. For anyone whom ordered from Amazon in that timeframe when at least one rep's now claiming an oversell, based on Amazon's own system supposedly not being able to update with orders coming in so fast in the same minute's time (yeah, right-that's why the stock continued to read identical for nearly an hour, right Amazon?), the N900 has to ship by month's end or your out of luck. Right now the estimate for changes to placed orders is already end of February 2010.
 
And what about the Amazon letter I was offered by a customer service representative, stating Santa forgot to put the item on his sleigh? Gee, I don't think that's going to get me very far in terms of a gift obviously not intended for a child (not that children actually aren't going to take that kind of news worse than adults whom are missing their Christmas present). How about a letter from Amazon instead, stating that Amazon forgot to put the item on a sleigh-or better yet, that Amazon sold it to someone else at a higher price. Hmmm...you probably don't issue these letters for people who forgot to place their orders, so Amazon's method of dealing with its own screw-ups is to blame Santa? Nice. It always helps to blame a fictional being-at least they can't sue you for defamation of character.
 
Amazon, quote, Customer Service
Amazon Telephone Number Toll-free in the US and Canada: (800) 201-7575 (expect to go to India without choice)
Amazon Telephone Number Non Toll-Free: (206) 266-2335 (expect to go to India without choice)
Amazon Wireless Phone Department in US (866) 423-5351 (do not push '2' for post-orders when instructed, even if yours is post-order, or you'll be transferred to India again; talk with someone personally to be transferred from pre-orders to post-orders; this Amazon department is in the US unlike others, supposedly due to some requirement)

International Amazon Telephone Number outside the US and Canada: (206) 346-2992 or (206)-266-2992
Another International Amazon Telephone Number: (206) 266-2335
Amazon.com Website Orders E-mail Address:
orders@amazon.com
resolution@amazon.com
charge-inquiries@amazon.com
jeff@amazon.com

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