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The secret to online customer service: Buy somethingBy LARRY LIEBERT
What you can't find is a phone number for customer service. As recently as last Christmas, the word was that dot-coms had no choice but to start providing personalized customer service. Otherwise thousands of potential purchasers would continue to abandon their virtual shopping carts before checkout, frustrated by their unanswered questions (or shocked by the hidden shipping charges). Experts warned that the path to online profitability did not involve leaving frustrated shoppers to click helplessly around a Web site, hoping to happen upon answers to questions such as "Does that toy require AA batteries?" or "Will I have to pay the shipping to return the shoes if they don't fit?" As it turned out, many of last year's dot-coms aren't around anymore, and many of those that survived aren't about to spend heavily on "frills" such as real live customer service. I'm no opponent of online shopping. I've bought books, CDs, video games and two cameras from Amazon.com. All have gone smoothly, except for the purchase last summer that sent me on a frustrating hunt for Amazon.com's semi-secret customer service number. I bought my daughter Rachel a camera to take to Spain on a summer trip. The camera arrived a few days beforehand, but it seemed to be acting up. The automatic flash occasionally went off in bright sunlight for reasons we couldn't determine. It didn't happen often, but if the camera was defective it wouldn't be back from Spain in time to meet Amazon.com's 30-day limit for returns. What to do? If Amazon.com hadn't sent me a $25-off coupon, I would have bought the camera at Ritz and simply returned it to the store. Instead, I was left clicking madly in search of a number to call. I found an e-mail address but that's seldom a good way to talk out a problem. Eventually, I found an online directory of 800 numbers. There was, indeed, a customer service listing for Amazon.com. The first service rep I reached at that number offered me no solution whatsoever. Return the camera within 30 days, he said, or it's yours to keep. But I called again and reached a supervisor who was terrific. He extended the return period for an extra day and sent me a polite and reassuring letter along with preprinted return labels. In the end, the camera stopped acting up so I never needed to return it. And when I gathered up the warranties and receipts that came with the camera, I discovered something intriguing about online customer service: Amazon.com evidently has no interest in offering telephone assistance to online browsers. But once you commit to spend money, it's there to help. As Amazon.com spokeswoman Carrie Peters later told me,"We really felt the 800 number made sense when our customers had a question about an order or their password, that kind of thing." And there it was, in the tiny print at the bottom of the online receipt I'd printed out when I ordered the camera: Having difficulties? We're here to help. Please send the details of your problem to orderform-help@amazon.com or call (800) 201-7575. - Larry Liebert is the Times' executive business editor.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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