Buyer Beware - Amazon

[MtView]

This never happened to me before. I’ve ordered several brushes and other shaving items from the Amazon vendor without a hitch. Today my Chubby 2 Super came in the mail. When I opened the Simpsons box up, someone had removed the Simpsons brush and replaced it with a cheap, generic, black handled synthetic.

It sunk in quickly that when I went to return it I may never get credited for it because I didn’t (and don’t) know how I could prove it came that way. I called Amazon and spoke to someone who understood the situation, documented it and said I shouldn’t have a problem with the return. Fingers crossed.

I don’t know who is at fault here. The vendor may not know anything about this if Amazon manages the inventory. It could happen with any Amazon item I suppose. I don’t think I want to risk it happening again. At least I may have found a temporary cure for B.A.D!

 

[flynshave]

I've found that Amazon is very customer-friendly regarding returns. I think they realize that having a good return policy is a customer trust issue.

One issue with Amazon's inventory system is that they co-mingle their own stock with products that they stock on behalf of other Amazon sellers. So, even if you buy "Sold and Fulfilled by Amazon", the product may have come from a third-party's inventory. Back in my cartridge days, I received some counterfeit Mach 3 cartridges from Amazon, AWFUL!

 

[Rhody]

Good to get a refund

 

[MtView]

Good to get a refund

I’ll be happy with a refund and call it a day.

 

[Rhody]

I’ll be happy with a refund and call it a day.

One time in a million I’ll luck out. I ordered Proraso red. And they sent green. I called. They don’t accept returns of shaving cream so they sent the red as a replacement.

 

[Henry Green]

I had the same issue with a pricey folding knife a few years ago - someone had swapped out a cheap piece for the original. Amazon made good.

 

[Atlantic59]

I had a similar issue with Amazon. They have so many products, the people processing returns are not very familiar with what the items coming back should look like. They seem to have a big problem with some customers abusing the return policy. At the same time, the return policy helps them gain customer trust.

 

[AZBronco]

As long as you don’t have excessive returns (and they’ve never defined exactly what counts as excessive), they are usually pretty good. If you’ve made a lot of recent returns, they may give you grief.

 

[dmshaver]

Too bad, but glad the customer service is going to make it right. In all likelihood it won't be a refund, it will be an Amazon credit. Still good. What's really sad is you had your heart set on breaking in your Chubby 2 Super this weekend.

 

[Owen Bawn]

I ordered a box of 200 Yorkshire Gold tea bags but they only sent me a box of 80. I emailed them, they told me to keep the 80, and offered me the choice either of a refund or 200 more tea bags. I took the refund. It was quite painless dealing with them.

 

[MarcDavidMiller]

Which seller was it? If it was Alrossa I would contact them as well; it seems that Alrossa is now Simpson’s seller through Amazon and, given their very aggressive pricing, I would think they want to know about problems.

As others mentioned, Amazon is very generous with refunds (not just credit) when mistakes are claimed unless you have an undefined large amount of returns and claims.

I buy lots of things from Amazon, both sold by Amazon and sold by third party vendors (shipped by Amazon and shipped by the vendor themself). I don’t think I have had any of my claims disputed in 20 years.

 

[corlay]

sounds like the previous purchaser of your Simpson’s brush has gamed the system.

1. Buy Simpson’s brush
2. after receiving brush, swap it with a cheap synth
3. return your purchase for refund, with the swapped brush inside the original packaging
4. hope no one notices...

pretty awful

 

[SharpieB]

Which seller was it? If it was Alrossa I would contact them as well; it seems that Alrossa is now Simpson’s seller through Amazon and, given their very aggressive pricing, I would think they want to know about problems.

As others mentioned, Amazon is very generous with refunds (not just credit) when mistakes are claimed unless you have an undefined large amount of returns and claims.

I buy lots of things from Amazon, both sold by Amazon and sold by third party vendors (shipped by Amazon and shipped by the vendor themself). I don’t think I have had any of my claims disputed in 20 years.

Same. Amazon may be a big evil hated company, but they are amazing for returns and exchanges.

My family had Amazon packages arriving almost daily and we rarely have issues.

 

[FarmerTan]

I ordered a box of 200 Yorkshire Gold tea bags but they only sent me a box of 80. I emailed them, they told me to keep the 80, and offered me the choice either of a refund or 200 more tea bags. I took the refund. It was quite painless dealing with them.

I bought 5 Arko sticks and only got 1 one time.

They refunded it, no questions asked. Obviously not a huge amount of money, but for such a RARE gem in the Shaving Soap Werld..... well, I couldn't let Arkoman be dissed that way!

 

[MtView]

Which seller was it? If it was Alrossa I would contact them as well; it seems that Alrossa is now Simpson’s seller through Amazon and, given their very aggressive pricing, I would think they want to know about problems.

As others mentioned, Amazon is very generous with refunds (not just credit) when mistakes are claimed unless you have an undefined large amount of returns and claims.

I buy lots of things from Amazon, both sold by Amazon and sold by third party vendors (shipped by Amazon and shipped by the vendor themself). I don’t think I have had any of my claims disputed in 20 years.

This was Alrossa and I did contact them too. I'm getting the impression that there is a language barrier with whoever responds to customer emails - not in a bad way. There is a general effort to communicate with something like "we will get back to you very soon" and signed by Marry.

I don't think there was any bad faith on the part of Alrossa. As another poster pointed out, it's more likely Amazon sent me a returned item (second mistake) and got scammed by a previous buyer who substituted the brush (first mistake).

So long as the return goes through I'm good with it. You can imagine my rollercoaster that went from the excitement that went from YAY - A new Chubby 2 to What?? a cheap synthetic in a Simpsons box. It probably would have been comical if I videoed it.

 

[FarmerTan]

This was Alrossa and I did contact them too. I'm getting the impression that there is a language barrier with whoever responds to customer emails - not in a bad way. There is a general effort to communicate with something like "we will get back to you very soon" and signed by Marry.

I don't think there was any bad faith on the part of Alrossa. As another poster pointed out, it's more likely Amazon sent me a returned item (second mistake) and got scammed by a previous buyer who substituted the brush (first mistake).

So long as the return goes through I'm good with it. You can imagine my rollercoaster that went from the excitement that went from YAY - A new Chubby 2 to What?? a cheap synthetic in a Simpsons box. It probably would have been comical if I videoed it.

Yes, can you believe your experience mimics mine with the "Arko Incident of 2020"?!?!

 

[SharpieB]

I bought 5 Arko sticks and only got 1 one time.

They were just being nice.

 

[Ivo4u2]

I bought 5 Arko sticks and only got 1 one time.

They refunded it, no questions asked. Obviously not a huge amount of money, but for such a RARE gem in the Shaving Soap Werld..... well, I couldn't let Arkoman be dissed that way!

Lol but it is a nono to go low on arko stock in the Amazon warehouse since it keeps all unwanted critters at eBay

 

[Owen Bawn]

I bought 5 Arko sticks and only got 1 one time.

They refunded it, no questions asked. Obviously not a huge amount of money, but for such a RARE gem in the Shaving Soap Werld..... well, I couldn't let Arkoman be dissed that way!

There are some guys on this site who, if they ordered one stick of Arko but were mistakenly sent a box of 12 would be contacting the Better Business Bureau to lodge a complaint!

 

[RayClem]

I recently ordered some RAM sticks for my computer as the original ones were failing. I ordered Patriot PC3 15000 memory (1866 MHz). What I received was PC3 12800 (1600 MHz) memory. Although I was hoping for the slightly faster overclocked memory, the PC3 12800 worked just fine. The 16% difference in RAM speed is negligible for most application, so I just kept it rather than going through the hassle of filing a claim and returning the old memory. I did leave a negative comment in the reviews for delivery by Amazon. The package clearly showed the specifications of the memory.

While my mix-up was minor, I would have been annoyed if I had ordered an expensive Simpson brush and received a cheap brush instead. I suspect someone ordered the Simpson brush and returned it for a refund, substituting the cheap brush in the return package. Whomever received the return should have opened the box to check to see if the proper item was returned and denied the claim, but stuff happens. I understand that Amazon employees are under pressure to maintain productivity, so quality can suffer. There needs to be a proper balance of productivity, quality, cost, and safety.