Amazon UK - Fix your customer service!
The Issue
Amazon UK, fix your customer service!
I am calling upon Amazon UK and its CEO John Boumphrey to transform their customer service processes to ensure an effective response to customers who need to make complaints when things go wrong and to provide meaningful assistance with issues that cannot be easily resolved.
Like a lot of people I use Amazon all the time; I have a fire stick, kindle tablets for my kids, and my wife uses the Amazon shopping app to source hard to find ingredients for Joe Wick's body coach meals. I buy most of my films and music as digital content but mainly I rely on Amazon for audiobooks. Since 2018 I have used audiobooks as part of my daily (and nightly) coping strategy to maintain mental wellbeing. I have over 100 audiobooks and I have listened to many of them over and over again because of the comfort and peace of mind they bring.
Back in November 2021 I was the victim of fraud. The perpetrators used my Amazon account to 'refund' €912 over 11 transactions to a bank account not listed in my Amazon payment methods or that I have any affiliation with. I became aware of these fraudulent transactions when I began to receive demands by email and post from Amazon.de asserting that I 'owed' them €82. As I have only ever lived in the UK and only ever used Amazon UK with transactions in UK £ sterling, I was somewhat surprised by these claims, and immediately contacted Amazon customer service to try to resolve the issue. Over the last 6 months I have contacted Amazon UK over 20 times, spoken to many agents via phone, live chat, Twitter and Facebook and have received no assistance. In each case the person dealing with my complaint insists that the account is on hold and must be referred to an 'account specialist' who will contact me within 24-48 hours. On no occasion has this happened.
Since January 2022 (when I began to realise this was not going to be settled in a timely way) I have been keeping a log of the calls I have made to Amazon UK. I have even reached out to Amazon.de customer service but the issues remain unresolved. My account remains functional and I am able to order and receive items, Amazon continues to withdraw funds for various subscriptions including Audible and Prime membership but I keep experiencing a multitude of issues such as being unable to set up my kids new kindles on my account because Amazon kids is not available in Germany, or the language on the fire stick changes to German & more seriously, I continue to receive letters from debt collectors in Europe which I fear will have an impact upon my credit score and future financial security, not to mention the unwanted stress these issues have placed upon my mental health and wasted time spent trying to get to the bottom of the matter.
Whilst trying to reach Amazon UK through every conceivable means I discovered that a huge number of others are experiencing the same difficulties when reaching out to Amazon UK's customer service. Issues such as being sent in circles, not being able to escalate complaints, not being provided with information as to how to make formal complaints. Even the alternative dispute resolution service Amazon UK has elected to use (as stated in the terms and conditions as of April 2022 - section 14) cannot be utilised by UK citizens as the 'Online Dispute Resolution - European Commission' no longer accepts applications from the UK post Brexit. (Alternative dispute resolution after Brexit | The Law Society). If it wasn't the case that I had hundreds of pounds worth of digital content on my account, I would simply close the account but this would be a bitter loss to me, and as I am not at fault, I am reluctant to do this at the present moment, preferring to encourage Amazon to take its obligations to its paying customers seriously.
As of yesterday, Amazon Help are no longer responding to my requests via Twitter and Facebook and I feel I have no option but use social media to appeal to all those people who have been unable to resolve their complaints because Amazon do not have a customer service process that is fit for purpose to sign this petition.
The Issue
Amazon UK, fix your customer service!
I am calling upon Amazon UK and its CEO John Boumphrey to transform their customer service processes to ensure an effective response to customers who need to make complaints when things go wrong and to provide meaningful assistance with issues that cannot be easily resolved.
Like a lot of people I use Amazon all the time; I have a fire stick, kindle tablets for my kids, and my wife uses the Amazon shopping app to source hard to find ingredients for Joe Wick's body coach meals. I buy most of my films and music as digital content but mainly I rely on Amazon for audiobooks. Since 2018 I have used audiobooks as part of my daily (and nightly) coping strategy to maintain mental wellbeing. I have over 100 audiobooks and I have listened to many of them over and over again because of the comfort and peace of mind they bring.
Back in November 2021 I was the victim of fraud. The perpetrators used my Amazon account to 'refund' €912 over 11 transactions to a bank account not listed in my Amazon payment methods or that I have any affiliation with. I became aware of these fraudulent transactions when I began to receive demands by email and post from Amazon.de asserting that I 'owed' them €82. As I have only ever lived in the UK and only ever used Amazon UK with transactions in UK £ sterling, I was somewhat surprised by these claims, and immediately contacted Amazon customer service to try to resolve the issue. Over the last 6 months I have contacted Amazon UK over 20 times, spoken to many agents via phone, live chat, Twitter and Facebook and have received no assistance. In each case the person dealing with my complaint insists that the account is on hold and must be referred to an 'account specialist' who will contact me within 24-48 hours. On no occasion has this happened.
Since January 2022 (when I began to realise this was not going to be settled in a timely way) I have been keeping a log of the calls I have made to Amazon UK. I have even reached out to Amazon.de customer service but the issues remain unresolved. My account remains functional and I am able to order and receive items, Amazon continues to withdraw funds for various subscriptions including Audible and Prime membership but I keep experiencing a multitude of issues such as being unable to set up my kids new kindles on my account because Amazon kids is not available in Germany, or the language on the fire stick changes to German & more seriously, I continue to receive letters from debt collectors in Europe which I fear will have an impact upon my credit score and future financial security, not to mention the unwanted stress these issues have placed upon my mental health and wasted time spent trying to get to the bottom of the matter.
Whilst trying to reach Amazon UK through every conceivable means I discovered that a huge number of others are experiencing the same difficulties when reaching out to Amazon UK's customer service. Issues such as being sent in circles, not being able to escalate complaints, not being provided with information as to how to make formal complaints. Even the alternative dispute resolution service Amazon UK has elected to use (as stated in the terms and conditions as of April 2022 - section 14) cannot be utilised by UK citizens as the 'Online Dispute Resolution - European Commission' no longer accepts applications from the UK post Brexit. (Alternative dispute resolution after Brexit | The Law Society). If it wasn't the case that I had hundreds of pounds worth of digital content on my account, I would simply close the account but this would be a bitter loss to me, and as I am not at fault, I am reluctant to do this at the present moment, preferring to encourage Amazon to take its obligations to its paying customers seriously.
As of yesterday, Amazon Help are no longer responding to my requests via Twitter and Facebook and I feel I have no option but use social media to appeal to all those people who have been unable to resolve their complaints because Amazon do not have a customer service process that is fit for purpose to sign this petition.
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Petition created on 16 April 2022