Up Your Irish Amazon

Sometimes it helps to be a stroppy cow. Last Friday I ordered a couple of items from Amazon UK. I only really wanted one of them, but the second cost less than the first-class postage on the first, so I got the second item without paying any extra as the order then qualified for free delivery.

The items were supposed to arrive anytime between yesterday and tomorrow, but when I checked yesterday they hadn't been despatched, nor had they been despatched when I checked today. There was absolutely nothing on the page to explain the delay, so I rang Amazon. It turned out that they were using the wrong card details, even though I'd entered in the correct ones. It appeared that my old Switch card was on file and they'd used that, instead of the new Visa card I'd entered when I placed the order. The old Switch card wouldn't have worked because (a) it had been replaced some time ago by the Visa and (b) it had expired some time ago. Why they used these card details when I entered totally different ones is beyond me. Even more puzzling is why I was told that the card had been accepted and the payment verified.

I politely (at first) explained to the Irish lady on the other end of the phone that there should have been some sort of warning on the page, telling me that I needed to amend some details, but she told me that this wasn't their policy, they simply continued to try the card and after a while, cancelled the order. I told her that in my opinion this was rather silly (not to mention bad for sales, although I didn't mention that bit) and she agreed with me (humoured me).

After my card details were corrected, I was told that the order would be despatched tomorrow and would arrive next week, which caused me to have a mini-fit. "Next week?" I mini-fitted. "It was supposed to be here tomorrow at the latest!" I then suggested they sent the order first-class and it was amended, except I was going to be charged more than 20% more for the privilege. At this point I had another mini-fit and muttered something along the lines of "In the interest of good customer relations, you should send it first-class and let me off the cost". Receiving no response to this, I asked for the order to be changed back to free delivery, and the Irish lady said this had been done. Refreshing the order page on the website confirmed this.

After sighing a lot and loudly muttering (yes, it is possible to mutter loudly, I've perfected it) that I would be thinking twice before using Amazon again, I terminated the phone call. On checking the order status a few minutes later, I discovered that my items were being despatched tomorrow by first-class, were estimated to arrive one or two days later (i.e., Friday or Saturday) and I had been refunded for the cost of the first-class postage.

So ... if you want first-class delivery from Amazon but don't want to pay for it, you know what to do.