I just stole $5 from Amazon

By | June 22, 2009
Amazon MP3 on the Android

Amazon MP3 on the Android

Amazon claims “We’re Building Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company” and they deliver.  Every time I have had a problem, they jump through hoops to resolve it immediately.

Unfortunately,  I am unable to make myself understood by the Amazon tech support team, which leads to lots of problems.

This weekend I purchased about $6 worth of music downloads from my phone.  (3 tracks, and a CD)  One of the tracks didn’t download correctly, and Amazon incorrectly charged my credit card  and not my gift certificate balance.  I sent this message:

I just ordered a CD and 3 tracks through my T-Mobile Android G1 phone.  The third song, “Crazy Love” did not download.  (The CD was purchased while not on a wi-fi network, so I’m not sure if it worked yet.)

My second problem is a billing issue.  My account has a gift card balance of $29.01, but my credit card was charged.  Please refund my card and remove the balance from my gift certificate.  I would like future purchases to come out of that balance as well.

So what did they do?  They refunded me the full $6 and told me to re-download.  Nice, but not quite right…

4 thoughts on “I just stole $5 from Amazon

  1. ryan

    It’s probably just the CSR’s canned response to dealing with complicated billing issues. With digital goods, the cost of issuing a refund is close to zero.

    Thus it’s more expensive to take up additional time from the CSR than to simply give you a refund and new credit.

  2. Russ

    My guess is a fast response to avoid a possible chargeback.

  3. Arancaytar

    For once, not being able to properly read is to *their* detriment instead of the customer. That’s amusing. 😛

  4. Pingback: Ben Kahn: I just stole $5 from Amazon | Full-Linux.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *