2.11.22

Amazon (lack of) Support Part 1 “Agency Insider Opinion Piece”

Written by Matthew Ferguson | Read Time: 5 mins

“Amazon support undermines logic and all we think we know of Amazon as consumers.”

See past and supporting posts in this series:

Have you had to deal with Amazon support? No? If you want to know what it’s like, grab a lemon. Now squeeze juice it into your eyes. Do that twice daily, for 6 weeks. Now you know.

It isn't you. It isn't us. It is very much them. And in 15 years of working alongside Amazon, I don't think it has ever been so bad.

Warning - This post may prove to be more a group catharsis for many. If you are looking for some silver bullet to improve your dealings with Amazon support, I have bad news for you. But I have included some (hopefully useful) learnings.. So do read on.

How bad is it?

We’re a management agency. We manage Amazon support cases for our clients. Imagine how bad your situation or event is for your company. One issue, one brand…

We manage dozens of cases daily. We track our time, and Amazon is a significant portion of it. No other channel makes the mundane update as cumbersome or inconsistent. No other channel makes me question my sanity so often.

We could write a (dark comedy) book on some of the more bizarre interactions… battery info for a sweater? HAZMAT for cheap earrings? Amazon support reminds me of what hell would be like for common sense.

The topic has led to some very interesting ‘tips’ on forums and private chat groups which border on the mystical. I once worked with a Brand who was adamant if you followed a mini step-by-step arcane procedure of removing and deleting something in the UI a few times, it could help fix listing issues unrelated. Causation and correlation misunderstandings abound around Amazon and albeit entertaining for bystanders not affected by the revenue impact, they can be soul-destroying if you are on the hook for the outcomes.

I have a personal story which is 100% true. While I was living it, I think I grew more grey hair in 3 weeks than the previous 3 years…

I cannot get into the specifics out of confidentiality respect for the Brand, however the outlines will be more than enough.

This really happened…

After many weeks of the typical back-and-forth path to nowhere, I decided to conduct a test. We’d already logged calls, cases and many replies at this point. We’d achieved nothing (save those extra grey hairs).

We decided to open a case with the same exact message 5 times in a row, within a few minutes of each other. We wanted to see what would happen between cases and reponses. A few theories on how Amazon support work might be proven, or at least hinted at. I’ll try to pretend the idea was purely scientific in origin.

Amazon quickly highlighted 2 as duplicates, and closed one. I held my breath the rest would follow suit, but they did not. Instead, the other 4 took us on a journey… to nowhere, but with very different scenery.

Case One: We got a response almost immediately, informing us this had been escalated. YAY! Oh wait, that's happened before… It got a follow up response a day later. They had not read the case backstory, and offered advice we had already tried a few times (and had added in the case). I'm fairly sure repeating the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, is known to be a mark of insanity. But already, the taste of disrespect was in my mouth. We took the time to write and explain things. Why did no one take the time to READ it?

Case two: We got a reply two hours later, informing us to carry out a procedure unrelated to the problem. A procedure we knew worked for other similar types of issues, but not for this event. Someone was reading the wrong script and clearly had limited practical knowledge about the topic, but at least they replied, right? A plus point for effort!

Case three: We got a reply a day later, giving us a different procedure to try to fix the issue. We knew more than the friendly, but junior support agent, convinced it wouldn't work. We tried anyway… and it didn’t.

Case four: The response was, I kid you not, over a completely different topic which had nothing to do with our case subject. Did they copy and paste the wrong reply? Was it a bot? Such questions will trouble me on my deathbed (not).

There are a few big issues to unpack on these events. Let’s recap; exact same topic, four cases, four totally different responses, after weeks of circles on an original case. No responses worked. How on earth can this be?

We were trying to update a size value on a few listings, whom we were sole contributors and Brand owners. Something simple. Something detrimental to buyer experiences (refunds for wrong sizes), something any other channel allows you to do with relative ease. Something. So. Simple.

It took nearly 4 months to get all 30 fixed. 4 months of Amazon support agents time. 4 months of our time. 4 months of the client impacted negatively by sales and refunds and IPI score. 4 months of a poor buyer experience. 4 months of responding to the same cases, highlighting the same issues, repeating the same actions attempted. 4 months of Groundhog Day whack-a-mole repetition, with zero means to escalate it or hop on a call with someone capable of helping. 4 months of circles, where no one wins. 4 months of being told to call support, being told level two support doesn't take calls, following up in cases, and cases going in endless circles. 4 months with much wasted time, energy, and emotions.

Amazon support is undermining rather than supporting agencies and sellers alike. How can ‘experts’ possibly have so much trouble updating a size on a channel? We have to share the exchanges with our clients… who even reading them, sometimes still struggle to believe that the flagship of innovation, ‘Amazon’ can be so… I’ll let you pick the right word.

This is just one silly example of one event for one client. We have a decade's worth of ‘fun’ like this under our belt. Some similar, some hilarious and some tragic, given the impact the client faced during the delays.

And lately, it’s gotten worse. Forget worrying over grey hair. Soon I won’t have any!

You are not alone

Hearing this can be reassuring. It won’t help your issue get resolved faster, but at least you can avoid sleepless nights wondering if you no longer speak proficient English, or have been transported to purgatory without noticing.

Indeed, one of the big selling points that our agency has for experienced Amazon traders, is that we manage Amazon support. They know the pain so well, they know they want it off their radar and given to another.

So in that regard, do delegate where possible. Share the fun. Bring others into the folly so you sleep better at night. Take shifts. Compare notes. Do not fall into self-doubting despair.

Stay tuned for next week, as we post part 2 of this feaster rant of a thought.

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