Complaint Rating:

I ordered a Nintendo Wii for a friend's birthday, but learned immediately after placing the order that I'd entered his old address rather then his current one.

Since I selected one day delivery, I was not able to change the address with Amazon until the tracking number was issued by the shipper.

The next day, I contacted Amazon and gave them all the correct information so that they could fax an authorization to DHL to re-route the package. Since I received a confirmation email from amazon that this was completed and my package was now re-routed, I assumed everything was fine until my friend did not receive his gift. Tracking the package with DHL, I learned they twice attempted to deliver to the wrong address, then Amazon ordered the item returned as undeliverable. At no point did anyone at either company attempt to contact me or the addressee at either phone number that was on file with them both.

Though DHL confirmed that they had the address correction in their files from Amazon, they claimed they never received the official authorization from Amazon. Amazon blamed DHL and DHL blamed Amazon. On the third day, a representative from DHL looked into my problem and promised that my package would be intercepted and returned to New York overnight for redelivery. I emailed my friend and explained that his package would be delayed a few days before it would make it back to him. Four hours later, a different representative from DHL called me and told me that it would not be possible to intercept the package and I was out of luck.

I called Amazon and spoke to two different people at an “offshore” call center who did not understand the problems I was explaining. When I asked if Amazon could just resend my package when it was received, it was explained that this would not be possible and my package would automatically be restocked.

The technicians explained that I could order a Nintendo Wii right now to replace the returned item, but I would have to purchase it from one of Amazon’s “partner” sellers at a cost of over six hundred dollars. I explained that I’d paid $250 for the Wii directly from Amazon and had performed every reasonable step necessary to ensure my gift was delivered. Paying a $350 markup to rectify a problem that could not be solved by Amazon was not an acceptable remedy for their errors. The supervisor I spoke with said that there was nothing he could do and thanked me for my business.

The end result is that my gift is automatically going to be restocked when Amazon receives it and I have the "opportunity" to re-order the item when it comes back in stock. Being that there are international shortages of this particular product, I will not have the opportunity to reorder the same item and it is now weeks since my friends birthday has passed. I still have not been credited for my returned order and I still have not received any explanation from Amazons customer service.

For six years, I have been a loyal and frequent customer of Amazon. I have spent hours building wish lists, reviewing items, and providing them with tons of valuable marketing data. After my experience, I can say with certainty that I will never use Amazon or DHL ever again.

The lack of accountability on all parties is unacceptable.