Amazon - When They Get It Really Wrong...

I order a lot of stuff from Amazon - not like some power user or something, but several times a month I order from Amazon.  The only issues I've ever had before have been with third-party vendors - you know, ordering through Amazon, but filled by another company.  I ordered 100 yellow dice last month and it took a long time to fill the order and then only 46 dice came.  An email to the vendor via the "contact seller" button on the "orders" page under my Amazon account and the issue was rectified - and the remaining 54 dice were two-day shipped to me.  No problem.  The only other time I "hassled" a vendor was when I ordered a DVD with "rush" shipping on a Thursday and contacted them on the following Tuesday when I checked my order and saw that it hadn't shipped yet - and, in fact, was posted "expected delivery" to be 2-3 weeks.  I emailed them and the next day things were rectified, the DVD was shipped.

Yeah, this isn't about those...

Every time I've ordered from Amazon they've been great.  Things ship quickly and are always packaged carefully.  If they say next day, it comes the next day.  If they can't get me something, I get an email saying "Sorry - there's a problem."  That's always been my Amazon experience.

Until now.

April 1 I ordered the Hunger Games trilogy (so, Michael, do you READ trilogies?) for Rachel in hardback.  She has them on her Kindle*, but she's like her dad - she likes to hold an actual book sometimes.  Plus, it's more convenient sometimes to have a book rather than an electronic device.  But, again, not the point.  April 1 I ordered the books - Standard Shipping.

I got a notice on my orders page that the estimated shipping date would be April 13-April 16.  Okay, that's a little long, but it's a popular series, right?  She can wait a bit for the books.  I log in on April 13th.  Not yet shipped.  Okaaaay.  I keep checking.  Over the weekend.  Still not shipped.  April 16th.  Still not shipped.

So the morning of April 16th I sent a message to Amazon** complaining*** that my order, whose expected delivery end date was today had not yet shipped and I had not received a notice that it was backordered or that there was some other problem with the order and asking if it was going to ship.  I received a reply that was, in my opinion, a bit condescending:

Upon checking, I see that you've initially placed the order using Standard shipping. Please understand that standard shipping usually takes 3-5 business days to ship any order.

So, when I'm inquiring about this ELEVEN business days later, I'm somehow confused by the process?  Yeah, I'm still a little bitter...

So they, "at no additional shipping charge" to me change the shipping status to next day, which is cool.  But then I get an email the next day that says there's a problem with my order and it won't come until Thursday (which is, coincidentally, three days - hmmm, standard shipping perhaps? - from the day of my complaint).  But I'm okay with that, because they sent me a notice.  And sure enough, when I got home from work Thursday, there was a box from Amazon on the porch - UPS.

But this isn't really about bad customer service.  I've blogged about that before, well, sort of, anyway.  This is NOT a post to protest Amazon and its terrible policies.  This is also not a rant against Amazon or a call to boycott the mega-store-website-whatever-it-is.

This is actually about grace.

They screwed up.  Kinda badly, actually.  This is all they do (customer service) and they failed.  Completely.

But I won't walk away from Amazon.  And not because they often have good prices or the convenience (well, it's only sort of convenient - still takes at least one day to get my stuff - not like walking into a store and walking out with it, right?).  I won't walk away from Amazon because one mess up, even treating me badly (and that quote wasn't the whole of it, by the way) as if I don't matter, doesn't counter the many good experiences I've had working with Amazon.  It's maybe overly simplistic, but I can forgive them.

It's about grace.  It's an image, an illustration.  Like the parking meter reader when I was at the Crossing demonstrating  mercy to me (yesterday's post).  It doesn't seem like much - maybe it's too mundane an example.

But too many times I've seen people walk away from churches, marriages, friendships, all kind of relationships - because of "one thing."  Something happens - I won't deal with it, I'll just walk away.  Lots of other churches, spouses, friends, whatever, online vendors, whatever...  Does it matter?  Well...

Can we offer grace in the little things?  Why not?  Why is grace so hard to offer?  Would it be easier to offer grace to the book store in town because you know his name and your kid and his kid go to school together than faceless Amazon?

One question that will keep coming up in a Bible study that just started leading is this: as Christ followers, how should people be able to tell that we are different?  What should mark us from "everybody else"?  Should grace be one of those marks?












*Kindle post is coming
**Not super easy to figure out how to contact them about your particular order, by the way.  No "contact seller" button on THOSE orders
***Yes, complaining - sometimes we have a right to complain.  We need to do it respectfully and with the right motivation, however...