I recently ordered a Kindle. I’ve wanted one for a very long time.  The website said they were “in stock.” So the next morning I expected to login to my Amazon account and see a tracking number etc. Instead I saw that it would be shipped one week from the day I ordered. How long does it take to walk back to the warehouse and put it on a truck?

I called the next day and complained. They nicely resolved my issue and updated my shipping to the faster version for free. Although the person on the line said she had to “Tweak” the system to get this to do it. She had to charge me for the shipping, but lowered the price on the kindle cover that I also ordered.  Great. I was happy. My issue had been resolved.

Then the next morning I got an email alerting me that my checking account was over-drafted.  I had been charged two extra times for my kindle. That’s right I ordered one, and through the “tweaking” I got charged for THREE (an extra $589).

I called my bank (Charter one) and they said to call Amazon and that Amazon would have to not only reverse the charges but Amazon would also pay for the overdrafts.

For the next 45 minutes I was on the phone with Amazon talking with Marta, and eventually her supervisor Stacia. Marta tried to convince me that there was only ONE charge. Well technically she was right, but they had authorized two additional kindle charges. This money is then “held” by my bank and taken out of my available funds. This is why I had over drafts. Stacia finally figured out that she needed to de-authorize two of my three kindle payments.

Now how does Amazon pay back overdraft fees that THEY caused? They want me to fax (cause everyone has a FAX in their living room) a copy of my bank statement (cause I have no problem faxing sensitive information to complete strangers). I provided them with the phone number to my bank. They have my credit card number, but apparently that’s not enough to connect the dots. I said, “Can I turn it into a PDF document (allowing me to blur account numbers if needed) and email it to the billing department?”

Nope. The amazon.com billing department does not have anyone with email, or a direct phone extension. They only accept faxes.

Worried I called my bank back and stated that they wanted me to fax over a bank statement showing the fees. (I will eventually have 5 fees a $39 each so I will have $195. in overdraft fees DUE TO AMAZON.COM’s error.

I understand that amazon.com cant just go and refund money without proof, but can’t you just call the bank? Why do you make your customer go through all these hoops. Is this how you say “I’m sorry?” By making me jump through more hoops? Shouldn’t I be getting free books or something for my kindle?

When I called back my bank to get their opinion on faxing over my online account screen shot they informed me, “If they call and reverse those authorizations, we will then reverse the overdraft fees.” I was happy that this solved my problem, but pissed that the last 30 minutes of my phone conversation didn’t need to happen. The first person at charter one should’ve informed me of this, and it would’ve made my call much easy (and shorter) with amazon.com

Next time, I’ll just let it show up whenever it shows up. In the meantime be sure to:

1. Have systems in place to communicate with your customers in ways that they communicate (chat, phone, email, twitter).

2. If you make a mistake that harms your client, YOU need to clean up the mess – not the customer.

3. Know your policies. If the first person at charter one had told me about refunding over draft fees when amazon corrected theirs I would’ve been able to enjoy the past 30 minutes of my lunch hour instead of spending the entire time on the phone.

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I wasted 10 minutes on a day when I was already behind at my local McDonald’s. When I finally got to the point where I could order, I was informed that they were accepting cash only. I had no cash.

It would have been so nice if they had stuck a sign on any of the trash cans, newspaper boxes, etc that said “Only accepting cash, sorry for the inconvienience, we are working on it.” They didn’t, and allowed me to waste my time in line. Thanks Ronald.

Don’t be afraid to tell your customer news they may not want to hear. My favorite example is the Cable person. They say “I’ll be there between 9 and 4.” You hope they arrive at 9:30, but you ist and wait and wait till 2:30 when they show up. You can’t get upset because they are in the alloted time.  Wouldn’t it have been better if instead of saying “between 9 and 4″ they said, “We can’t get their until at least 2 o’clock.” While you would be dissapointed, you could do something with your morning instead of sit and wait for the cable installer.

Empower your customer, and allow them to make informed decisions.

The customer service show is now available in the iTunes directory. We’ve also made button available on the left if you want to subscribe via Zune. If you have a customer service story, call it in 888-563-3228

For whatever reason the graphics aren’t showing up in iTunes, but I hear that they approve the graphics separately.