Edd's Gatherin' Place

The New York Times (NYT) headline today, Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human, strikes a cord with many online shoppers. The NYT looks at the arrogance surrounding Amazon.com and CEO Jeff Bezos’s refusal to put Amazon.com’s toll free Customer Service number on their web site. The wheezing weedy-boy spokesman, Craig Berman, of Amazon said in a statutorily senile statement:

Amazon sees no reason to apologize for its decision to leave the customer-service phone number off its Web site. "We've found that customers really do appreciate the self-service features we've got."

As The Anchoress said of her grandmother’s favorite retort, Balls, or in my vernacular, Amazon.com and the many other companies willing to take your money but skip the customer service, they have lost their cojones! As an individual who holds degrees in Management and Marketing it is time for many online companies to relearn Marketing 101, Customer Satisfaction makes money. Amazon.com is not alone; look at Dell and many other technological companies outsourcing their technical service to India and the Philippines.

Not all is lost; there are individuals who experienced poor service in the past striking back. Either in the form of an individual boycott or as in the case of Ellen Hobbs of Austin Texas posting Amazon.com’s toll free Customer Service number 1 (800) 201-7575 on her web site clicheideas.com/amazon.htm or Lou Garcia, president of the “Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business,” located in Alexandria, Virginia, posting customer service information on many companies at the web site pueblo.gsa.gov/crh/corpormain.shtml.