AMAZONIAN INDEED!. Review on Amazon

Over the last couple of years I have had a few opportunities to shop with Amazon.com and with each opportunity my admiration for the way the company functions and supports its customers has strengthened. Amazon.com for those not familiar is arguably the largest virtual or online shopping mall in the world, with a massive catalogue of products available at great, convenient prices. They ship products all over the world and in time.

But, lots of companies do the same or at least promise to do the same, isn't it? Well, maybe, but, the reason I am all praises for Amazon is an experience I had with them sometime back. In fact, It will make for a wonderful case study in customer satisfaction. It was also something that made me a firm loyalist . So, now, let me take you through that experience.

In December 2006, I ordered a DVD set from Amazon, this was the  SUPERMAN ULTIMATE COLLECTION 14 DVD box Set released by Warner Bros priced at 80$. The set contained  all Superman movies digitally remastered with loads of Extras. However, soon after the release it was found that two of the DVDs in the collection were old editions rather than the advertised New Special Editions. This was a manufacturing/ packing error on part of the Video company Warner Bros and no fault of the seller- Amazon.com. Realizing their mistake, Warners asked the affected customers to call a helpline number, register themselves and get the old DVDs replaced by new ones. The customers had to send back the wrong discs on receiving the new ones through a prepaid envelope enclosed in the package. Unfortunately, while this procedure was easy for the domestic buyers, it was complex and expensive for international buyers and cumbersome too. Since, I too had got  the wrong discs,  I called up the international helpline number and got registered. But, over a month passed by without any replacement discs or confirmation from Warners and eventually in desperation I decided to write to Amazon for help. This despite knowing that the situation was not their fault and thus in no way their liability or responsibility. I was of course right about that but Amazon had other ideas.

For starters, I got a reply within hours of posting my query something I wasn't expecting thanks to prior experiences with online shopping sites like Rediff etc. who answer at their leisure.  And, if this wasn't surprising enough their answer which was largely on expected lines, stating that this was an issue that only Warner Bros. could sort out,  had something else that quite honestly left me stunned.

While, Amazon could not replace my DVDs they did something that had  probably won them the credibility and trust of their customers in the first place.  Amazon works on relationship and trust of their customers and in keeping with that philosophy they decided to refund the entire amount  I had paid for the DVD set and what's more, they even asked me to keep the set( which had to be returned as per policy) since returning it would have cost me a fortune! Honestly, I was amazed by this gesture, because I have had similar experiences with Rediff.com and let alone refunding the amount, they never bothered to deliver the actual goods even after they had called back the items wrongly delivered. But, that's a different story for some other time. For now, lets just hail the wonderful customer commitment displayed by Amazon and hope that Indian online companies would follow suit. Customer Satisfaction and commitment are words that are thrown around by several companies but few walk the talk when the moment of truth comes calling, those who do become winners and that's what Amazon is today.

So, that was my experience  which ensured that I became a loyal customer for life and for this I give  two thumbs way UP to Amazon.com.