Amazon pain
I ordered four Blu-Rays from Amazon.com.uk a couple weeks ago. I wanted two of them really badly (a Polish one and an Asian one) and threw in the other two for good measure since I was already paying for shipping. All of them were regionless and had not been released in the US. The previous regionless Blu-Ray I had bought from the UK plays fine in our player and the picture on Sunrise is unbelievably gorgeous -- I'm so happy I bought it before it went out of print.
Our discs arrived on Tuesday... in one of those wraparound cardboard boxes that Amazon has taken to using for purchases of one or two discs. Except this was four discs. Sent internationally. I couldn't believe they used that kind of packaging, since all the vertical support is placed on the discs themselves instead of the box. And, no surprise, when I opened the box, two of the discs had been damage. One just had the plastic case a little crushed on a corner, but the Polish one had the front third of the case collapsed. I was mad.
So I immediately submitted a complaint about the packaging, but since I wouldn't have a chance until Thursday to go to the post office, I waited until this morning to fill out the request to return the items for a free replacement. I printed out the mailing labels, put them in the same crappy box, went to the post office, and mailed them. The cost was $10.03, which annoyed me since Amazon's page said they'd only reimburse up to $7 of the return cost.
Forty minutes after I submitted the request for a return, I received a non-automated reply from Amazon's customer service. The rep said that normally they'd request I return the item, but since the shipping would be "prohibitively expensive", that I should just keep the damaged items as complimentary copies and I'd receive new ones in the mail. ARGGHH!! I would have been very happy with this outcome if the email hadn't come just as I was heading out the door to the post office!!! So now I'm on the phone with the post office trying to stop the shipment, but it's already left my local branch and is at the sorting facility. Crap.
And now I'm kicking myself for not having put off sending out the package until Saturday, as the lazy part of my brain had suggested I do. I wouldn't have been late this morning and I would have been two movies ahead.
Our discs arrived on Tuesday... in one of those wraparound cardboard boxes that Amazon has taken to using for purchases of one or two discs. Except this was four discs. Sent internationally. I couldn't believe they used that kind of packaging, since all the vertical support is placed on the discs themselves instead of the box. And, no surprise, when I opened the box, two of the discs had been damage. One just had the plastic case a little crushed on a corner, but the Polish one had the front third of the case collapsed. I was mad.
So I immediately submitted a complaint about the packaging, but since I wouldn't have a chance until Thursday to go to the post office, I waited until this morning to fill out the request to return the items for a free replacement. I printed out the mailing labels, put them in the same crappy box, went to the post office, and mailed them. The cost was $10.03, which annoyed me since Amazon's page said they'd only reimburse up to $7 of the return cost.
Forty minutes after I submitted the request for a return, I received a non-automated reply from Amazon's customer service. The rep said that normally they'd request I return the item, but since the shipping would be "prohibitively expensive", that I should just keep the damaged items as complimentary copies and I'd receive new ones in the mail. ARGGHH!! I would have been very happy with this outcome if the email hadn't come just as I was heading out the door to the post office!!! So now I'm on the phone with the post office trying to stop the shipment, but it's already left my local branch and is at the sorting facility. Crap.
And now I'm kicking myself for not having put off sending out the package until Saturday, as the lazy part of my brain had suggested I do. I wouldn't have been late this morning and I would have been two movies ahead.