good customer service does exist: it's named Amazon.it

Yesterday my brand new Kindle Touch Wifi froze! The screen was stuck on a page and it did not respond to any screen touch or button press any more. In the Amazon Kindle Touch FAQ I was instructed to press the ON/OFF switch for 20 seconds where after the screen would flash and the Kindle would reboot. Unfortunately not mine! In which case I was invited to contact the Amazon Support desk. Since it was Sunday and I was in NL about to leave for the airport to return home I send an email to Amazon's Italian support desk, hoping to get an answer on Monday morning.

When I arrived at the airport I noticed someone tried to call me 4 times but since it was from a private number I didn't know whom to call.



After check-in and security control we sat down, enjoying a cup of coffee and the FREE Wifi on CGN (Cologne-Bonn) Airport. *blieb* you've got mail. A mail from Amazon, first apologizing for the inconvenience with the Kindle Touch and noticing that she (Giovanna from Amazon Support) tried to contact me via phone a couple of times and if I could please verify the number since she did not reach me... the four missed calls obviously. I responded by mail that I was travelling at the moment and she could reach me after I landed or the next day (today). I don't know why but I missed another (private) call around 21:00 yesterday evening, I probably need a louder ringtone.

So nevertheless being Sunday and Sunday evening even. Amazon's customer service employees tried to contact me to solve my issue. That is great, it even makes me forget the problems I had with their device!

Had? Yes, I HAD problems, because this morning I tried the reset once more, without any luck, the screen was still the same, but when I looked after half an hour again, the Kindle was functioning normal again... the battery ran empty though (from 90% to 10% in less then a day judging by the battery indicator). So I send and email to Amazon saying the Kindle was back alive and thanked them for their efforts, even got a friendly email back again.

This was my second experience with Amazon.it's support (also the other one was very positive despite the problem) and I must admit that although you might sell the best or cheapest products online, there's always something that can go wrong. How you counter and handle these issues makes the difference!

an e-commerce story with an Italian flavour

this story is from a recent personal experience!

I wanted to try the Lavazza coffee pads at home (and home-office) and therefore last week Sunday evening (June 3rd) I went onto the Lavazza Modo Mio website, registered, picked a nice coffee machine and selected some pads. Then the "problems" began:

1. despite ordering a €100,- coffee machine you still need to order at least 8 boxes of their coffee pads. Being a good boy I choose all eight various tastes and went on with the ordering; 
2. the payment step: my credit card was rejected for the payment (strangely enough I used it 15 minutes later to order Nespresso cups without any problems). So I choose Payment at Delivery which is a common payment method in Italy. One I personally do not like (now even less) but I was left no other option; 
3. For a week I did not hear anything, a mail I send them via the Facebook page was NEVER answered -so far for Social Care- and also no one delivered this nice new shiny Apple-white with Galaxy-silver touched Italian coffee machine to my doorstep, not even an email, nothing. On their website my order status said is was "in progress"; 
4. On Friday (so 5 days after ordering) I called Lavazza Customer Service in Turin where someone told me they should have contacted me to ask if I really ordered the machine, etc. I asked them why and she explained it was standard procedure to call every client after an order. To me it seems a waste of time and money... Why I did not receive that call, nor email, nor sms she could not really explain me. I told the operator I still would like to have the machine and that she could proceed with delivery; 
5. Today, 9 days after ordering (that's a lot of cups of coffee later), the TNT delivery guy phoned to know if he would find me at home (bonus points) and he promised me he would be here within a couple of minutes. As he did; 
6. BUT... he could only accept CASH or cheque *LMAO*, and since I rarely have more then €100,- in my wallet I had to send him off... 

  lessons learned by me:

•  when ordering online your credit-card doesn't always work even if there's still enough to spend; 
• despite ordering online you will have to wait for a phone call before the order process can proceed; 
• despite ordering online within Italy do not expect fast delivery (Nespresso delivers within 1-2 days); 
• not all couriers accept credit-cards/bankcards for the deliveries 

lessons to be learned by Lavazza:

• people ordering online might have other (higher) expectations; 
• why a minimum order quantity? (you could ask delivery costs for smaller orders); 
• check the payment methods and check with the payment provider why a valid credit-card bounces; 
• why disturb the fast (and cheap) order process with a phone call?; 
• and if this call is so important why not care about informing the client via mail (or sms) you would like to contact him for the order process to run smoothly, so he can contact you if you do not reach him; 
• 9 days delivery time without any communication about the order status (via email) is not normal, the BIG example Nespresso does it within 1-2 days (like I already said); 
• if creditcard payments in the webshop work you will have no trouble with (modern) customers not used to cash money or cheque books

 Let's hope Lavazza will learn from this (I have) and maybe contact me to see how Salesupply can help them to improve their e-commerce in Italy and abroad!


UPDATE 13/6/2012: I went to pick it up (on the other side of Varese, driving 15km) at TNT where I could pay with modern money ;-)

UPDATE 19/6/2012: the coffee is great, better then Nespresso, the machine a bit complicated (not as easy as the Nespresso we had)