Perhaps people are familiar with this one. I had just arrived back in the country at a place other than the one I'd left from. I needed to get a modem quickly, but not so quickly as to make me want to take the time to drive to Best Buy, and risk Covid etc. I went on Amazon late in the afternoon on Friday and the modem I needed popped right up for less than $80, with delivery (with Prime) set for Sunday. I figured that meant I would have it up and running Monday morning, so I could work that week from home. But as soon as I ordered it, it changed the expected delivery date to sometime before 10 pm on Monday.
Ok, not great, but at least I'd be up and running by Tuesday.
On Monday around 5 pm I got a notice that the modem had been delivered, and that it had been left with the "mail room." I was a little concerned, since my building doesn't have a mailroom, so I went down to the front desk. It had not arrived.
I called Amazon customer service -- which, to its credit, was relatively quick at the 206 number. But the person I got told me this happens often -- the item is indicated as delivered even though it really isn't. They told me to wait to see if it came later in the day and to call them if it didn't. It didn't, so I called them.
They were able to confirm that it had been delivered to the wrong place, and the guy even sounded like he had a sense of where it went -- to a nearby building -- but he refused to give me any hints as to where it might be. In the end, he agreed to send out a replacement order, which would arrive sometime before the end of the day Wednesday. I begged him to try to get it to me sometime Tuesday, so I wouldn't lose two full days of work, but he said the system wouldn't let him.
So that's what happened, and instead of being up and running on Monday or Tuesday, I was finally up and running on Thursday.
Perhaps not the worst experience ever (see above), but still not great, and I'm including it because it's another example (see Apple example) of a WRAITH making it impossible for a customer service representative to set things right. In the old days, I'm pretty sure even Amazon could have figured out a way to get me the modem by the end of the next day. They have fulfillment centers everywhere and the modem was a very common item and a best seller. But the system simply didn't give a damn about my work needs, and did not give the customer service representative the ability to make things better for me.
So Amazon is on the way downhill too, although it's still the only game in town for quick delivery, and one might just say the odds caught up to me this time.
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