Amazon: we're not here to help

[scarlettina]

So . . . I went over to Amazon to order up my brother's Chanukah gifts. I checked his Wishlist and selected a few things for him. I go to complete the order and I get the following error message on one of the items: "We're sorry. This item can't be shipped to a Wish List or gift registry address." There's no other explanation. The only option the

Comments

[gaelfarce]

Is it something someone else can pick up for you? Was it like the Poor Man's James Bond book or other 'how to' guide?

That's just odd as hell.

[scarlettina]

The item in question was a Mr. Potato Head Darth Tater, which he's been wanting for quite some time now. It's not like it's hugely exotic. Another commenter suggested that it might have to do with supplying other merchants with my brother's address, which would be a privacy issue and which I could totally understand. But if that was the issue, then the customer service rep should have had that information instead of uselessly parroting back to me the same response I received online.

In any case, I did finally manage to get the item so all is well. But as I said, it was a poor customer experience.

[gaelfarce]

What the hell? You'd think that info would be available. I was thinking you were trying to get some improvised munitions manual or the faces of death tapes.

Of course the last time I ran into trouble getting an item was when I was picking up a smorgasbord of Liberation Theology and anti-globalization texts for a class.....literally minutes before the Battle in Seattle.

[scarlettina]

...the faces of death tapes.

::chuckle:: I can't tell you in how many ways the image of my brother watching the Faces of Death tapes is just wrong and simultaneously hilarious. Oh. Dear.

[mabfan]

I don't know if it would ruin the surprise, but you might want to tell your brother about this. Especially if he thinks having those items on his wish list means someone will be able to ship them to him from Amazon.

[scarlettina]

I'll mention it to him with regard to the other items I couldn't order (this was actually much more protracted experience than what I recorded here). I won't mention it with regard to this one because, as I said, I did manage to order it.

[kyrelle]

Maybe it could be given as an early Channukah present. Otherwise, its still sitting on his Wishlist, and he could potentially get duplicate gifts...

[mimerki]

Wow. That makes no sense at all. Especially since obviously he could place it on his Wishlist. I would think a helpful, "This item can't be ordered from a wishlist" message when you tried to add such a thing to the wl would cut down on frustration...

I also agree with another commenter that you should tell your brother, though I rather envision a nice "the things I go through for you" card to go with it. ;)

[spazzychic]

Wow.

This sentence no verb.

[scarlettina]

Heh. Pretty much.

[pauldf]

That's sad that you couldn't get a decent explanation.

You might try emailing exactly this writeup to feedback@amazon.com, including the URL to your brother's wish list and which item you were trying to buy. (I don't remember whether that's the address for feedback where you do want a response or feedback where you don't care whether you get an individual response or not, but would like Amzaon to know so they can try to fix the problem.)

My guess is it has to do with privacy issues around your brother's wishlist's ship-to address and items sold by non-Amazon merchants.

[scarlettina]

See, that's an explanation that makes sense and had that been the explanation I received, I'd be happy to hear it, because it means that Amazon is aware of privacy issues and respects them. Sadly, that wasn't my experience.

It would also seem to me, having worked in the online retail environment, that that's the sort of information customer service should have to help stem user frustration.