5/5

posted Jan-31-2012

Amazon is by far my favorite retailer. I recently returned a TV because it arrived in poor condition (manufacturer defects; not related to shipping or storage).

To start, they shipped (Amazon Prime/free) it a day after they had originally planned, which caused my schedule to change. Fortunately, I can work from home, but I had wasted time at home waiting for a freight shipment that never arrived. This was due to Amazon misreporting the shipping information, but I also believe it was due to the freight company.

To rectify the situation, Amazon gave me 5% of the value of the TV for the hassle. This was before the TV even had arrived.

Now, once the TV arrived, the "white glove" service looked over the TV for any issues and they rightfully signed off on it. However, after watching a full movie, it became obvious that a few minutes of looking at the TV did not really show the problems with it, which included only HDMI inputs working, plus sound and video coming in and out intermittently.

So, I called up Amazon and they politely apologized for the inconvenience and they offered to replace the TV with the same model at no cost for shipping. After checking, they did not have any more of those TVs in stock, so they just returned the TV at no cost to me.

As we were on the phone, I picked out my second choice TV (more expensive, but better), and I ordered it later that night [through the website]. The difference was largely paid for by the original refund.

Now, to finish it up, Amazon also handled the return of the TV at the same time as the drop off of the new TV. This was fortunate for timing, but it also lead to an unexpected surprise. After the returned TV was processed by Amazon, they refunded the original amount paid (not the amount after the shipping hassle), and they also refunded me an extra amount on top of that.

So, while the original TV was a bad unit, Amazon more than made up for it with exceptional customer service and an extremely thoughtful process along with free shipping. They recognize that your time is worth something, and I appreciate that.

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1/5

posted Jan-31-2012

After sending in an old iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, which both worked perfectly, I was told by Gazelle that both devices had trouble powering on, when that has never once been the case unless their battery had drained to empty (I assume they would try plugging them in). As a result, they reduced the value of them to about 20% of the original offer.

On the bright side, they are willing to send them back free of charge, but I do wonder if I will get the same phones back now. Somewhat fortunately, there was a distinctive scratch on the back of the iPhone 3GS that will tip me off. Hopefully I can just use the box that they send to sell them to some other service.

So, either they are lying, or the shipping box that was damaged and they failed to notify me of that. There is also no way to question the result.

I will never use Gazelle again. This is exactly the kind of bait and switch that I feared with this type of service.

The one nice aspect of the service, minus the fact that I felt like I have been lied too, is that the entire process is very streamlined and you are kept informed the entire time. If it did not feel so sketchy, then it would have been a great service.

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