Pinnacle Performance Champions

Amazon.com Customer Service and the Curious Case of the 1 Eared Giraffe

Back in May of 2013, I published this article on Amazon.com’s world-class customer service.

Happy to report that since then I’ve continued to frequently purchase a wide variety of items from Amazon and they have continued to provide the high quality customer care I teach and often preach about.

And that brings us to this latest example of Amazon customer service and the curious case of the 1 eared giraffe..

Seemingly out of nowhere my daughter, Ava, had an urgent need for these animal onesie pajamas. With Christmas fast-approaching, I tried to reason that we could get her this as a present. That offer was met with agonizing opposition as evidently the nearly 8 week wait for the comfort of animal sleepwear would simply be too much to bare. 

Given a selection of colorful creatures to choose from, Ava decided the giraffe would be her ideal mate so I went ahead and ordered.

Here’s the picture from Amazon.com:

While most of my Amazon purchases are eligible for their Prime 2-day shipping services this product was being sent from a distributor in China and Prime was not available. 

Eagerly awaiting her cozy companion, every day for 2 weeks Ava would ask me if “the package” had arrived. Finally, on day 15, it did. 

In what was likely the quickest turnaround of all-time, Ava disappeared momentarily then reappeared in our kitchen like this:

Notice anything peculiar? At first, neither did we but if you look closely you’ll notice the giraffe has no right ear. If you refer back to the first picture, you can see the girl is actually holding the giraffe by the ears. Apparently, they didn’t try that with this one.

Attempting to avoid a catastrophic meltdown (likely felt where you are now), I assured Ava that I would contact Amazon and was confident they would resolve the issue in short order. 

Below are the series of email exchanges between myself and Amazon.com customer service.

Beginning with this request for return:

 Item: LATH.PIN Unisex Costume Animal Cosplay Onesie Adult Pajamas Anime Cartoon Sleepwear Medium, Giraffe
> Qty: 1
> Return reason: Defective/Does not work properly
> Customer comments: Arrived with only one ear and appears to have been created
  that way. My daughter is quite upset and doesn't want
  to wait several weeks again for a new one to be delivered

—

Reply received:

Dear customer, we have received your return request. We are so sorry you received
damaged item. You don't need to return the item, you can keep it. We will make a
full refund for you tomorrow. Could you please kindly send us the photo of the
one ear giraffe. We will send it to our QC. Thank you very much.
Please feel to contact us if you have any problem, thanks again.
 Have a nice day.

—

That’s great.. I don’t even have to return the item, they’re just going to ‘take care of the customer’ and refund my purchase price. Still, Ava really wants a fully functional giraffe so I sent the picture I posted above along with this reply:

Thank You for your prompt response and offer to keep item and refund amount paid.
I have attached a pic on the 1 ear giraffe. Will the anticipated 2 ear version
be sent? My daughter prefers her giraffes to not be hearing impaired..
--

Not long after I received this reply:

Dear customer, thank you for your photo. We will send a new one to you tomorrow.
We will send you the new tracking number later. Thank you very much.
--

As I often say…

This is another great example of customer service recovery done right and why Amazon.com continues to earn my business and accolades.

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

Also on LinkedIn Pulse @ Amazon.com Customer Service and the Curious Case of the 1 Eared Giraffe