I gotta say this.

I never expected this from Amazon, a company I've roundly praised up and down as being the most reliable ever.

I've gone on record many times saying that if Amazon says something - come rain, hail, shine, or the plague from China, it will be DONE.

Yet, over the last few days, Amazon has disappointed me in a way I never thought it would.

They aren't alone by a long shot. Plenty of other companies have too.

But I never expected this from Amazon, and much like Bozo Schofield stabbing me in the back after I helped him out numerous times, THIS is what hurts the most - I have been probably one of the most vocal supporters of Amazon thus far and they do this to me.

Two days ago ,and I mentioned this in another email, a delivery guy marked an order as delivered when it never was.

I waited for it to show up. It never did.

After getting on live chat with Amazon, within 5 minutes it showed up.

Today, they were supposed to pick up a return.

They promised they'd do it by evening.

They never did.

A couple of hours before the deadline, I contacted them.

Their response?

Amazingly enough, they got back to me with "you canceled the pickup!"

And they continued in this vein for HOURS.

When I asked them to email me the chat transcript so I could escalate it to a higher "level", they put off doing that for AGES.

It's only now after damn near the entire evening wasted that I have the email.

And still, they did not email me ALL of it.

First it was "we can't email you"  - then it was "we can't email all of it" (which is not on given ... I've got tons of transcripts emailed to me within a moment's notice of asking).

Then after they stopped blaming me because I refused to accept blame for something I did NOT do?

(I mean, why would i??? I scheduled the damned pickup, why would I cancel)?

Then they claimed it was a "tech error".

It wasn't.

They NEVER once got around to admitting their real problem ie their delivery guy messed up. For some reason, the customer is no longer king at Amazon - the delivery guys are!

And it's at their whims and caprices that orders either get delivered, or dont - and if they dont, they get marked as delivered anyway.

The customer gets blamed for canceling pickups when the delivery person was too damn lazy to show up ...

Amazon, for some reason, NEVER wants to blame the delivery guys, which to me is inexplicable. I mean, arent the paying customers the ones that count?

Same thing for book reviews.

They allow Bozo Schofields to post reviews for books the Bozo never read or bought . . . ANYONE can regardless of whether they bought the book or not.

Inexplicable, and back to the "everyone is having problems now" BS?

Hell, I understand problems.

I deal with plenty myself, but this dishonesty from a company like Amazon, refusing to honor a deal and refund my money - refusing to "Compensate" me for all the hours spent with their profoundly usless customer service who specializes in disconnecting me at every turn and then getting another guy or gal on the line that doenst even know what the issue - and most of all, flat out refuse to do what Amazon is famous for?

NOT ON!

None of this takes anything away from anything I've ever said about Jeff Bezos.

The man is a phenom.

Yet, many dont do it, but he's stepping down from the position of CEO later on this year.

And I guess it's all already going to the dogs.

Anyway, it is what it is.

No-one is bigger than the Universe which sees all.

And Amazon isn't "bigger" either.

Maybe customer service have been told that insulting customers and blaming them while Tom Tomming their delivery and other stuff is the way to go.

So be it, if they think thats the right thing to do.

I dont.

And unless this resolves itself and they eventually do fix it (I still have not given up hope), it's the last you'll hear me praising Amazon.

I'll still do biz with them - WHEN ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

And that my friend is that.

I dont know if they realized it, but they just lost a most valuable customer - and one of their biggest supporters.

Drop in the ocean?

Yet, my friend, they all count.

They all count!

And I'm out.

Back soon!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS - As of now, we're still doing paperbacks through Amazon, and that wont change for a few months most likely, so if you want to order paperbacks - by all means do so - just email me your address too please. (since the form doesnt allow entry of addresses for now). Thank you!