We had the same problem, so we now rent a box at the UPS store that receives all our stuff, including USPS and FedEx. We also don't have to worry about people swiping stuff from our roadside box like we used to, and if we don't check the mail every day--no big deal. It is pricey, though.
I ordered some more of the prebiotics I've been taking, and the regular one I get was out of stock. Amazon's website recommended the Vegan version. They looked the same, but when I got them today I noticed that the amount of prebiotics was different. I went online to return them, and unlike all the other supplements and food stuff, this one let me go through the return process. I filled out all the fields and then it said NonReturnable. I went to the Chat Box, which is also automated, and hit the same dead end. There is an option to have them contact you by phone, so I put in my number and got a call...from a computer. When it did not recognize the name of the product I told it, it put me though to a human, who said they would refund my money ($57) and I could keep the product. Had the product been marked as Non Returnable up front, and had the phone computer recognized the product name I said, I'm not certain I would have been able to get past that point to speak with a human. So if you want to talk to a human about product issue, use the Please Call Me feature and then garble some gibberish for the computer when it calls you. I also wonder if the guy looked at my account history to decide whether or not to extend me that solution.
It used to be that when you called the main Amazon number for customer service (206-922-0880), it went right through to a live customer service person, and they would help with a refund or replacement, whichever was available. Now, you have to go through the chat with the automated voice first, and (like @John Brunner says) if you can confuse the AI Chatbot, they will transfer you to a real person and take care of the problem. You usually get a choice of refund to your bank/amazon account, or a gift card.. The bank refund takes a few days, but the gift card is in your account within an hour or so, so I always choose that option for a refund.
I was offered this choice but chose a credit card refund. It just "felt" like it would be cleaner. As we discuss this, I would think that Amazon would offer you an extra dollar or two if y.ou did the gift card options, because that would reduce the chargebacks that get processed through their merchant account
The GC works great for me because if I want to order a replacement (like for a broken product) then the gift card allows me to order the replacement immediately. When I bought the yogurt maker, and it arrived with none of the little glass jars, they obviously didn’t want it back; so they refunded the money. The yogurt maker worked perfectly, just needed jars; so when I got the gift card, I ordered jars and kept the yogurt maker. The jars were about $16, so I ended up with the new yogurt maker/jars for the cost of the jars.
I hate to keep stuff I did not pay for, but I'm gonna use the prebiotics they told me to keep. The dose for both types is 3 tablets, so I'm taking 2 tablets of the "regular" one and 1 tablet of the vegan. This will dilute by 1/3 the quantity of one specific XOS, and will maintain the same quantity of 2 other prebiotic types. We'll see if I notice a difference.
One of the things that I discovered on Amazon is the recently ordered section, called Buy Again. Walmart+ has a similar thing and goes through the items you usually order to see if you need more of anything yet; but the Amazon page also lets you know when something is on sale, which is a great idea. Walmart seldom has sales, although occasionally something will be cheaper than usual. As an example, today, I was looking and discovered that my kelp tablets (which i take morning and night for my thyroid) were on sale for 55% off, a super savings; so I ordered them. I try to check through the Buy Again list whenever i am on Amazon, to see what items they have on sale that day that I regularly buy, and stock up when I find something on sale, especially when it is half price.
I just placed an Amazon order and had to get a Customer Service guy on the Chat because I could not make the purchase of Prime go away. Apparently it follows the order all the way through the process as though it's a purchased item, but it's not really. I've not encountered this before, but it's the only time I can recall that I bought a single item that qualified for free shipping without tagging something else to it...not that that should matter. I burned up an hour emailing screen shots and waiting for an answer. I'm pi$$ed. These guys just got their hands slapped for selling Prime when it was not ordered and then putting up hurdles to cancelling it. I got a Customer Satisfaction form at the end of the Chat. I was blunt.
I may have mentioned this before, but some time ago I went to the Recently Ordered page of my Walmart account, and there was all the stuff I bought in the store during my normal shopping trips, in addition to the online stuff!!! I had a Big Brother panic attack. I figured that Walmart tied those things together because I used the same credit card in the store as I use on line. There is a setting on the website where you can turn off displaying the in-store purchases...but I'm sure the data is still being gathered.
I got another Customer Satisfaction form via email. I got a chance to be blunt again...and I took it.
I switched from using my amazon chase card because of problems I had with chase billing. But every once in a while they would switch me back without my consent and I had a dickens of a time undoing it. It went from a simple procedure, to find the thing to do with amazon hiding it.