Amazon’s customer service experience is great (or not) – depending on who you ask!

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One of the best things about Amazon is its customer service. One of the worst things about Amazon is its customer service. You see: it all depends on who you ask!

If you are the customer, you loooooooove Amazon. If you are a writer or the seller of goods, you may not be so thrilled with Amazon’s customer service. Why? Because, even though Amazon’s customer service is what keeps the customers coming back and makes it rate much higher than many of the other online companies, according to the story in Forbes I linked to above, there are those who sell on Amazon who have problems.

For example, and I’ll tell you right up front, I don’t know the back story to this debacle, but I am sure it’ll eventually come out. Not being a reader of romance novels, I am sure that this is a fascinating story, but I can’t really say as a result of personal experience.

Jamie McGuire, author of Beautiful Disaster, is apparently having serious issues with Amazon, because they are contacting her book’s previous purchasers (without any notice to her, as Amazon is wont to do), requesting that they update their files, citing “problems with content.” There is no problem with the content, according to the writer, but Amazon is additionally encouraging the previous buyers to ask for a refund. The upshot is that she is being charged for each of these refunds, even though the time period (as set by Amazon) for refunds has long passed. In addition, the amount of the refund being sent to the readers is more than they paid by several dollars, because the price for this book has increased quite a bit since it became so popular. The refund, of course, comes directly out of Ms. McGuire’s earnings.

I wonder if all these shenanigans could be a result of Ms. McGuire’s being offered a (presumably very lucrative) contract to make Beautiful Disaster into a movie? It may also be related to the fact that Warner Brothers was the eventual winner of the bidding war for the movie, and anyone who sells on Amazon knows – ya just don’t mess with Warner Brothers. If you presume to sell any of their products, even when you bought and paid for them yourself and are the rightful owner, you will likely be seeing them in court.

I don’t know the ending of this story, but I’ll certainly keep readers informed as events progress.

And: how is your Monday going?