The Importance of Customer Service: Part 1

Recently I have been dealing with a customer service issue with Amazon.com. My dad's birthday is on Tuesday and he had sent me an Amazon wishlist with some books and DVD's that he would like. So, I ordered them. Two of the items were from Amazon itself, while the third was from a seller within the Amazon community.

A couple days later, I receive an email from Amazon informing me that my package of two items would be sent separately, as one item was not yet able to be shipped. They also wrote that it would be of no cost to me. No problem, I thought.

Today, I received one item. Every time I have purchased an item from Amazon, I've received it nicely package in a cardboard box to keep the item from being damaged. It was not the case this time. I received the item, a 440 page book, in a brown paper envelope. I opened it to find the corners bent and damaged from mailing.

While I understand that it is not Amazon's fault that the book and envelope went through rough mailing, it IS Amazon's responsibility to use protective packaging. I sent an email to Amazon's customer service expressing my disappointment and anger.

Let me know about your experiences. As a seller, have you ever sent an item that ended up getting damaged in the mail? What did you do? As a buy, have you ever received an item that was damaged? What did you do?

Part II will follow in the next few days as this issue is corrected!