Amazon

Oh You Amazonian Temptress

When we lived in Klamath Falls we took advantage of the Amazon Prime free delivery. Someone once told use Klamath Falls was nicknamed Katalog Falls because of the limited shopping opportunities of that rural small city had. It was always fun to see where the stuff was coming from. Most of the common items came from one or two places, either Reno, Nevada whish is about 250 miles away or Troutdale, Oregon which is nearer to 300 miles away. Both places were an easy 2-day delivery away.

You would think that now that we live in a suburb of Portland, the largest city in the state of Oregon with a population of nearly three quarters of a million (over 3 million in the Metropolitan Statistical Area) we might not have to rely so much on ordering things from Amazon. But that is not the case.

There are several reasons why it is still so tempting to order from Jeff Bezos’ minions. The first is because we are now so used to doing it. Secondly, because we are in the “big city” physically going shopping anywhere is a hassle because of all these people and their traffic. The third reason is probably the coolest. Remember those two towns with big Amazon distribution centers from above, well the Troutdale one is literally a mile away. On the way to Friday morning grocery shopping, invariably when we will get the traffic light down the street, we will see a line of those funky looking Rivian electric delivery trucks lined up across from us.

When the printer ran out of ink last week at 8 o’clock at night I ordered some from Amazon and the package was waiting on the front porch when I got up at 6:30 the next morning. Two days, HA! Certain items we get same day or overnight.

No Plan B

I know back in February that I said that Better Off Dead, might be my last Jack Reacher book, but it wasn’t.

After buying a couple of new sweatshirts with my self gifted Christmas bonus I still had a wee bit of money leftover. I thought maybe I would get our local bookstore to order for me the latest Jack Reacher book, No Plan B. That way I could pick it up on our every four week visit that coincides with our haircut. The next of which was on the calendar for the 29th.

Donna said go ahead and get it from Amazon, so you could have it for Christmas. So, on the 18th I placed an order. At checkout my estimated delivery date was listed as the 28th, so much for that expedited Prime delivery. In the end they did get it to me earlier than that and even earlier than Christmas to boot, the book arrived on Christmas Eve.

The first few books every story was more or less direct, as if you were walking in Reacher’s shoes, but as the series progressed the stories would occasionally give the point of view of the villain in the story, but still it was very Reacher centric. This last novel written with his real life brother, who will eventually take over by himself, was with four different points of view. Of course Reacher was the center point and there was also the main bad guy, a CEO of a for profit prison that was up to no good. That really was enough, but we also got a thread about a father out for revenge because of his sons death. There was also stuffed into the narrative, the story the story of a teenager boy who is running away from home. Both of these last two story lines were left until the end to fit into the main story and done in such a way that seemed jarring to me. And while both of them were, in some way, used to further the plot along, in the end they both were wrapped in about a paragraph each and they really weren’t really needed.

So, this time I mean it, No Plan B was the last Reacher book I’m going to buy. I’ve got digital copies of the first two dozen books and I’ll probably go back and read each one as they get adapted for the Amazon Prime TV series.

Third Times The Charm

We have been ordering Donna Celestial Seasonings DECAF Green Tea K-Cups from Amazon since before we moved to Oregon in 2019. There have been several different K-cup quantities over that period, but sometime late last year or early this year we started buying them in 96 count boxes. A few of months ago we couldn’t get the big boxes anymore so we found a seller that was selling the same thing, but they were listing it as 4 boxes of 24. This worked out well until early this month we repeated the usual order and when it was delivered it was a single box of 24…

We contacted the seller and they told us they even though they were the seller, the order was fulfilled by Amazon and we needed to contact them. Well, as you might expect, with Amazon there is no way to contact a real person by phone. Returns are dead easy, but because the tea is food item, returns were not allowed. After fumbling around their help center, I finally found a bot thingy and it took a couple of wrong selections before I did find a way to get it to refund our money or more accurately, added the total purchase price to a virtual gift card and we even got to keep the single 24 count box.

After the money showed up as a gift card in the Amazon account we reordered the 4 boxes of 24. It wasn’t two day delivery, but it was still free, so a few days later the order arrived. As you could tell from the title of this post, this second order once again contained just one box of 24 K-cups where we ordered and paid for ninety-six. This time when I found the bot there was no option that I could find to pick that would give us the purchase price and keep the money. I did find a way to have it put me in a queue to chat with an actual human. After a few minutes I was connected and after repeating my problem in a couple different ways, I got the same results as the first time, keep the 24 and the full purchase price in a gift card. Plus a guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again.

This time, thinking that the problem was the Amazon fulfilling part, we opted for a seller said that it was fulfilled by them not Amazon. We waited with baited breath to see whether we would get 1 or 4 boxes of 24, but when the packed showed up on our doorstep several days there was a large box that contained 4 boxes of 24 K-cups.

Was it the different seller or that guarantee from a chat bot? I don’t know, but we’ll see in a couple months when we order tea again from Amazon.

One Last Insulated Mug Post

The Pluses:

  1. I don’t have to wait near as long until the temperature is drinkable compared to the metal insulated mug.
  2. It tastes great, maybe even better than from a ceramic mug.
  3. It holds the temperature longer than the ceramic mug.
  4. It looks cool as hell with the powdered latte mix from Maxwell.

The Minuses:

  1. It feels really delicate, like little tap and it will shatter into a million pieces.
  2. I miss the heft of the ceramic mug.
  3. The temperature doesn’t stay warm that much longer.

Insulated Cup Update

When I used the new free metal double-walled 12 ounce mug for a second time I waited a bit before taking a sip. I even took the plastic sippy lid off to cool it down before taking a drink so as not to burn my tongue. But now that my tongue’s taste buds weren’t singed, the coffee tasted awful. Turns out this is the biggest complaint about the metal mugs. So I’m glad Amazon refunded the money, I don’t feel bad at all, because after washing, the mug got placed in the Goodwill donation pile.

Undaunted by my first try, I went back on Amazon to look for a metal double-walled mug with a ceramic coating. Didn’t have much luck on that front. The one that I did find had either 5-star reviews that were great or 1-star review because the coating wasn’t total or flaked off.

I was about to give up when I exited Amazon and tried a just plain Google search. I found something that looked interesting a Double Wall Insulated Glass Cup for sale. Of course it was for sale on Amazon…

It’ll be here Wednesday.

I Feel A Little Bad About It

There is nothing really finer than drinking coffee from than a thick walled ceramic mug. The only downside to it though is that it draws a lot of the heat into the mug from the liquid. Recently, I was becoming tired of having to reheat my cup of coffee, sometimes more than once, before finishing it, so I ordered a metal double-walled 12 ounce mug from Amazon earlier this week.

It arrived today and when I pulled out of it package it looked too thin. The metal of the cup was the same thickness as the strap handle. Crap, this thing was supposed to be insulated. I immediately went into the Amazon account and started the process to send the mug back and try a different one. When asked for a reason, I typed in, “Not insulated.” When I was offered the option of credit the charge card or get it faster on an Amazon gift card, I picked gift card.

The next screen surprised me:
Refunded
There’s no need to return your item.
Your refund has been issued.

Okay, cool. Free mug. So before ordering something else, I thought I’ll try it out anyway. Made my usual afternoon cup, placed the plastic cover on, and sat down. A minute or so later I took a sip and it was so hot I burnt my tongue. Huh. Felt the outside of the mug and it was cool to the touch. Hmmm, this thing is insulated. The cup walls must be pretty dang thin…

I went back to the Amazon order page to see if there was anyway to take back my refund request. Nope. I’m sure Mr. Brazos is not going to miss that $12.99, but I still feel a little bad about it.

Amazon Help Chat Session

Our Amazon account was hacked and for the last couple of months I have called 4 times to customer service to try and straighten it out. The first time the front line rep took my info. Two days later I got an email from amazon saying things were fixed. They were not. The second time I called and elevated it to the next level. Same email, same results. The third time, with a better understanding of what my problem was, I got bumped up a level to a native English speaker. They seemed to understand and directed me to a third person. Two days later, same email, same results. The forth time, I asked for a refund of my prime membership fee, they don’t do that, but this time I got a different person who directed it to the Fraud Department. A week later I got the same email and still had a problem. Today, not wanting to listen to the crappy music while on hold, I tried a chat session.

Initial Question: I have attempted 4 times to try and clear up an unauthorized access to my account without success. Someone gained access on March 6, 2019 and changed the account email. They promptly created a trade-in order for 3 x-boxes, received an amazon gift card for their value, which they turned right around and spent on ps2 gift cards, leaving me with a bill for the non-existent x-boxes. Every time I get a customer “service” rep on the phone they fill out a form to the fraud department. Two days later I get an email saying my account has been fixed, when in fact it is not.

Mohammad (Amazon): Hello, my name is Mohammad. I’m here to help you today.
Brian: hello
Mohammad: Hello Brian
Brian: Did you read my initial chat text?
Mohammad: Yes Brian
Please allow me 2 minutes to check this for you and assist you with this.
Brian: OK

…3 minutes later…

Mohammad: Thanks for waiting
Brian: OK
Mohammad: I have checked this here and I see that the reps did inform to the accounts team about the unauthorized access in your account to our fraudulent department
and hence they have put all the orders on hold, Disabled the password to your account
as well
Brian: And I received an email overnight saying that everything is fixed…But it is NOT! the trade-in account still shows I owe 3 x-boxes.
Mohammad: Brian do you have the order ID of the trade-in ?
Brian: wait one.
Mohammad: Sure
Brian: TRN-4909xxx-6896xxx
Mohammad: Thanks
Mohammad: Thanks for waiting

…2 minutes later…

Mohammad: I have checked this here and please do not worry as we shall surely take care of this here as I see that the lead has already mentioned on this trade in order that the account was hacked with all the necessary details
Please do not worry as this shall surely be taken care of
Brian: Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you are the 5th person to tell me that in the last 2 months, so I remain skeptical.

…4 minutes later…

Mohammad: Yes I can understand your concern here however and I am sorry about the delay in the process however to speed up the process I request you to please go ahead and dispute the charges with the bank
Brian: The bank (credit card) has never charged me. They recognize it as an unusual purchase and flag it. I tell them I did not approved the charge. And I end up with a new charge card.

…3 minutes later…

Mohammad: Brian in this case I can see that the trade in order from the lead has been marked as unauthorized order as per the information you have provided to us
However I request you to wait for the investigation to be completed from the team here as this has already been forwarded to them and also again I am escalating this issue with them so that this is resolved at the earliest for you
I
Brian: I have been waiting for at least the last month. In the meantime I am unable to purchase items from Amazon with a charge card so I am unable to take full advantage of my Prime Membership.

…3 minutes later…

Mohammad: Yes I can completely understand your concern here
and I am very sorry about the delay in the process however I can see that the order is under investigation and also this has been marked on the order
I request to please wait for the investigation to be completed by the team here as I can clearly see that the trade in order has been marked for you with all the details
Brian: OK, I just hope that it will be completed sometime soon.
Mohammad: I’m forwarding your feedback to the concern department and the right people in my company as well so that they’ll come to know about the problem.
Now they’ll be able to check for the source of the problem and get this resolved at the earliest for you
Mohammad: Brian I’m confident that they’ll check in this issue and resolve for you as soon as possible as the order has been marked with all the details
Brian: Thanks for your time
Mohammad: I highly appreciate your patience, co-operation and understanding in this matter.
You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Brian: nope.
Mohammad: It was a pleasure to assist you with this. Thank you for contacting Amazon.com. We hope to see you again.

This took over thirty minutes, about the same as a phone call to them, but I got to listen to my music. Anyway, I’m not holding my breath this will ever get resolved.