Amazon

That was the worst experience I have had with Amazon so far.

I placed a large food order with Amazon Fresh to be delivered on Sunday. Some time ago, Amazon began severely limiting the number of delivery windows available at any given moment, making it challenging to obtain the delivery window I really needed. It so happened that I had a chance to grab a slot while I was sitting at the Portland airport lounge late on Saturday evening. I placed the order and didn’t even look at the confirmation.

It turned out that I accidentally placed it at my mom’s address; I have no idea why it happened; I do not default to her address ever, but I had such a situation specifically with Amazon Fresh several years ago when I placed an order at Anna’s address, but I cancelled it immediately. This time, I only noticed the address was incorrect when it was out for delivery.

I started the Amazon support chat, but immediately noticed that the callback was available, so I pressed that button. A CR called back, and I explained the situation, and she said she would try to contact the driver. After some time, she reported that the driver is not picking up, and asked whether I want to cancel the order. Retrospectively, that’s what I should have done, but I told her: No, do not cancel, I will walk there and pick it up.

After I hung up with her, I saw a CR chat flashing with “Are you there?” I replied that I had already been contacted by phone, and my issue was not resolved. They said: well, let me try! I repeated the same story, and they double-checked that the addresses were within a mile of each other, and typed: trying to contact the driver. Then a new message appeared: I was able to contact the driver, do not worry, your order will be at your place in 10-15 minutes!

Thirty minutes later, I received an automated Amazon message: We are sorry, but your order could not be delivered. Would you like a refund or reschedule? I clicked “reschedule” and selected the last evening slot on Monday when I would definitely be home. After the reorder went through, I saw that it was again placed at my mom’s address!!!

I contacted the customer support chat again. The CR typed: let me see what I can do, and then – sorry, I can’t cancel this order since it was already placed (???!!!), I can issue a refund, and then you can submit a new order. I asked multiple times whether it is possible to stop the order delivery, and they were like” if this address does not existm the driver will return the order,” and I kept saying that the address exists, it’s not the point. Finally, he said: OK, I will take care of that!.

I placed another order and checked that it was place at the correct address. I received it on time, but forty minutes later, I received a message that my other order was out for delivey! I still hoped that it will be “not delivered” or at least they will contact me, but at 10 PM (!!!) my mom called me: I am so sorry for disturbing you, but there are four gigantic packages by my door!

So I had to walk to my mom’s place, take the packages, quietly discard behind her building a half of the produce so that I could bring the rest home, filled in my backpack and walked back, returning home at 10-45.

And, for the record, there is no good way to complaint to Amazon customer service. I tried, but it brings me back to the same chat, and the only thing I can get is a refund, which I already got. But no one will refund me a total of 3.5 hours!