09:39 – We’re both working on science kits today. First up is to build more chemistry kits. Our limiting item on those is the regulated chemical bags, so we’ll be able to build only 13. Still, that’s 13 that we don’t have now, and we’re down to only two in stock.
Amazon’s customer service is pretty amazing. I had Barbara filling chemical bottles yesterday, and one of the ones she filled was with a chemical I’d ordered from Amazon. I got two one-pound containers from them, which were marked as containing 454 grams each. The first one I picked up felt light, so I tared a balance and emptied the contents of the container into a large weigh boat. Sure enough, there was only 427 grams in that container. The second contained only 423 grams, so there was a total of 850 grams in the two containers, rather than the 908 grams I’d paid for.
The stuff cost about $31/pound, so I went to Amazon.com to post feedback to the seller. I’d ordered two items on that order, one of which was from a third-party seller and the problem one from Amazon.com. The only feedback option was for the item from the third-party seller, so I backed up and started looking for another option to let Amazon know that the products were light. The only option that made any sense was the one for return/refund, so I clicked on that. The item from the third-party seller was grayed out and marked non-returnable, so I clicked the radio button next to the product that Amazon had sold to me. I then had to choose whether both of the containers were a problem or just one, so I marked the option for both. On the next page, the only option was to request a refund, so I clicked on that, expecting to be able to enter a requested refund amount. I’d intended to ask for $5 or so, but it informed me that the product was not returnable and that Amazon had issued a refund in full for $62. I was flabbergasted, as was Barbara when I told her.
She said that wasn’t fair to Amazon and that I should contact them immediately to tell them what had happened. So I went back on their site and clicked on the “call me” button. Literally half a second later, my phone rang and I was speaking with a customer service representative. I told him what had happened and that I was expecting a refund for maybe $5, but certainly not $62. He thanked me for calling, and said that in that situation most of their customers would have just kept the money and not bothered to call them. I told him that that struck me as being just as dishonest as someone who was given too much change by a cashier and didn’t tell her. It comes out of her pocket, after all, just as this was coming out of Amazon’s pocket. But the support rep told me that it would actually be more trouble than it was worth to partially reverse the instant refund they’d issued to my credit card, and said just to keep the extra money.