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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2892
Location: California
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 12:20 pm Reply with quote
Whether you started out saying that or not is rather irrelevant though, is it not? It's like saying, "Hi, I'd like to ask for a refund on my points," and then adding in, "Oh btw, if you don't I won't shop with you anymore." Same result.

You could have used your points. You just forgot to click the update button. No one was stopping you from applying the points to your order so I don't see why you're making your error AmiAmi's problem. Because you accidentally made a mistake, you missed your chance to use your points, yet you're expecting AmiAmi to rectify your own mistake.

If you correctly applied the points to your order and the system screwed up somehow and charged you for the full amount without points, even though the points were being shown as applied, and AmiAmi refused to compensate you for an error in their system then I would be inclined to agree with you that that's bad customer service. However AmiAmi was at no fault here so regardless of whether or not you continue to shop with them, I can't say that their handling of your situation was an example of bad customer service. Things didn't work out in your favor, but it would have only been icing on the cake if they did. Kind of a bonus.

What you were asking them to do is similar to paying for an order only to find out the next day after the order shipped that the item went down in price, and then asking for a refund for the difference. Yeah, a store could give you the difference back, but they're not obligated to unless they've got some price guarantee for x number of days after purchase. (If they don't charge you extra for a price increase after purchase then I don't think anyone should expect a refund for a price decrease. Of course no store asks you to pay for the difference if they raise the price, but I'm just covering my bases here.) If they decide not to refund you, it can't really be considered bad customer service because you agreed to pay the price you bought the item at, like how your order total was displayed without the points applied and you still sent payment for that amount, therefore acknowledging that the total was correct. All it means is that AmiAmi didn't go the extra step like TRSI may have done for you in the past, not that they have bad customer service.

But hey, if that constitutes bad customer service to you then that's your opinion. I, and pretty much everyone who has replied to you, don't agree. Anyway, we're just going around in circles so I'll stop here. It's past 2AM -- good night.


EDIT: Sorry, one last thing just because it caught my attention as I was reviewing the previous responses. Promise I'll put it to rest after this.

Blood- wrote:
It would have been a simple matter for them to look at how much I've spent at amiami over the last few years and think, "hmm, for 750 yen is it really worth losing this customer?" As I've said before it's not about the money - it's about the attitude.

How were they to know that they would be losing you as a customer if you did not say that you would not be shopping with them if they don't refund, as you claim you did not say at first. And assuming you did not say it at first, are you expecting them to give into your request because you tell them you won't shop with them anymore if they don't provide that refund? Umm... I think that's called "black-mailing" and would give them more reason not to want to deal with you.

It sounds to me like your exchange with them might have gone something like this:

B: "My points weren't applied to my order even though I checked the box. Can I get a PayPal refund?"

A: "You needed to click the update button. Sorry but we can't give cash refunds for points."

B: "Fine I'm not shopping with you anymore."

I won't be hostile about it like Mesonoxian Eve might have been, but I do agree with the points (pun not intended) they were making.

ANYway, done here. Good night for real.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:30 pm Reply with quote
Gee, thanks for that long drip of rehashed crap.

If you were even remotely fair you would acknowledge that AmiAmi contributed to this situation by requiring customers to click an update button that isn't even right beside the "Use All Points" button. It's like they go out of their way to make assigning points more difficult than is necessary.

Look, you are obviously just some spineless corporate shill who has zero understanding of what constitutes customer service. "Blackmail?". What a completely retarded outlook.

I hope you are sincere about being done here because I'm really tired of your stupid bullshit.

Just heed my advice: don't go into business. The world is already filled with lousy service and we don't need you adding to it.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:35 pm Reply with quote
Refusing to join you in your pity party doesn't make someone a "corporate shill". Some of us like to assume good faith instead of acting like the world owes us something.
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Blood-
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Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:44 pm Reply with quote
Of course. Me asking for a 750 yen refund is, naturally, acting like the world owes me something. Thank you for your intelligent and useful comment. Rolling Eyes
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:50 pm Reply with quote
Asking for the refund doesn't, but your attitude throughout your posts on the affair does.
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Bright_Spear



Joined: 24 Jul 2012
Posts: 340
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:50 pm Reply with quote
I'm with blood- on this one. If they couldn't refund him then they should atleast give him a coupon or something to show that they regret the mess up and want to make it up. Its to show they they care about their customers. They might have strict rules about stuff but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have something in place to fix this kinda thing.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:54 pm Reply with quote
Polycell wrote:
Asking for the refund doesn't, but your attitude throughout your posts on the affair does.


My attitude in my posts is reflective of the stupidity I've encountered from certain posters. However, as relentlessflame and Bright_Spear have proven, at least not every poster who has responded is completely dense about what constitutes good customer service.
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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2892
Location: California
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:58 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
I hope you are sincere about being done here because I'm really tired of your stupid bullshit.

Well I certainly can't be done after what you just wrote. Look, I at least never resorted to name-calling and petty insults in my post, and I was expecting you to be civil enough to show the same respect. I guess I was wrong, which is a pity because I do think decent conversations can be had with you. I guess we'll add "as long as it's not about business practices" as a condition to that.

While I didn't agree with your thoughts, I never called them a "retarded outlook" or "stupid bullshit." You would definitely never be able to work in customer service. Trust me, customers are NOT always right, and there are going to be people asking impossible demands.

A customer checks the EMS box and their order ships. "Oh, but I actually wanted SAL! I'm gonna get charged customs! Change it to SAL! And give me a refund of the difference! If I'm charged customs you better be paying for it because I wanted SAL so I don't get charged." The order's already gone. Whatcha gonna do? Call them stupid?

A customer writes their address incorrectly and selected the wrong country. Maybe they selected "United States (Virgin Islands)" instead of "United States." Their order gets shipped to the Virgin Islands and for whatever reason isn't returned to you so it is essentially lost. "But I meant 'United States'! You should have noticed that the address was in America! Give me a refund or reship my order!" You'll be nice and refund them this one time since it didn't cost that much. They place another order and never corrected their address and it's shipped again to the Virgin Islands. "I told you my address was in the U.S.! Why the hell is my order going to the Virgin Islands again!?" What are you going to do, refund them again for their mistake?

Blood- wrote:
Of course. Me asking for a 750 yen refund is, naturally, acting like the world owes me something.

Polycell wrote:
Asking for the refund doesn't, but your attitude throughout your posts on the affair does.

I'm with Polycell.

I've ordered something from Amazon Japan before only to find that a few days later, the item went down in price. Long shot, but I mailed them and asked if I could get a refund for the difference. I wasn't expecting them to do it but it would've been nice. To my surprise, they actually did refund me the difference. A few months later, I was in the same situation where an item I bought dropped in price soon after I bought it. Well, it worked the first time so why not try it again? This time they told me they couldn't. Did I think they had a sudden drop in customer service? Of course not. Getting the refund would just be icing on the cake, and that's exactly what it is in your situation. It would've been nice to be able to get a refund for the points, but no biggy if it can't be done and it shouldn't count as a strike against the store if they can't/don't.

I think that's the root of all this-- You think you're entitled to that refund of your points. You can say all you want otherwise, but if your reason for not shopping with them anymore is because they won't refund your points then it means you believe they were obligated to refund you points that have no value outside of their website. Entitlement.


Bright_Spear wrote:
I'm with blood- on this one. If they couldn't refund him then they should atleast give him a coupon or something to show that they regret the mess up and want to make it up. Its to show they they care about their customers. They might have strict rules about stuff but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have something in place to fix this kinda thing.

The mess up that he himself created? Why refund someone for their mistake? It's like patting them on the back for something they did wrong.

Say they give 300 points as a "sorry you didn't click the update button." Where's the incentive in remembering to click the update button now? If they don't give customers a refund then they're more likely to remember, "Oh! Better click the update button!" If they started giving "sorry you didn't click the update button" refunds, customers are going to be all, "I need to click the update button. Oh, but it's okay if I forget because AmiAmi will fix it for me. They'll even give me 300 extra points." Doesn't make sense.

"I forgot to click the update button so my points weren't applied."
"Oh, we're sorry. We've added 300 points as an apology."

Two days later.

"I forgot to click the update button again."
"Sorry, we already gave you 300 points the first time so we can't again."
"What!? Why not!! You did before! Dude you guys suck! Congratulations! You just lost a customer because your customer service plummeted in two days."
"............"


In any case, Blood- said he wouldn't shop with them anymore. Do people expect a store to give into customer demands for fear of losing them as a customer? Every single time? Blood- might be a decent customer but there are plenty of people who are not. There are people who are going to take advantage of the store every chance they get.

"I expected this item to cost less than 1000 yen to ship. It's 2000 yen. Cover the extra costs or I'm not going to shop with you anymore. "
"Yessir!"

"I got charged customs for this. Refund me for the tax I had to pay or I'm not going to shop with you anymore."
"Yessir!"

"I got my figure but as soon as I put it up on display, my dog bumped into my desk and the figure fell over and broke. Send me a replacement or I'm not going to shop with you anymore."
"Yessir!"

"I bought this item for my friend's birthday. It didn't come in time even though I chose EMS so I had to buy something else and now what I ordered is totally useless. Give me a refund for the express shipping I paid or I'm not going to shop with you anymore."
"Yessir!"

"I chose unregistered SAL for my 10000 yen order. It's been three months and it hasn't come. Refund me or send me a new one, or I'm not going to shop with you anymore."
"Yessir!"

Just how long do you think this business is going to last if they give into customers' every demand? In all these examples, the store certainly can agree to the customer's request, and it would be "an example of good customer service" if they did, but really, do you think the store would? More importantly, does the store have "bad customer service" if they don't?

If Blood-'s posts were more along the lines of, "I asked for a PayPal refund of my points but AmiAmi didn't give it to me. Wish they were more like TRSI and went the extra mile," then I don't think there would be any issues. However, he's basically slamming them for not holding his hand when he's making payment because there was no huge "CLICK THE UPDATE BUTTON!!!!!!!" sign.


Last edited by crosswithyou on Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:16 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:16 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
My attitude in my posts is reflective of the stupidity I've encountered from certain posters. However, as relentlessflame and Bright_Spear have proven, at least not every poster who has responded is completely dense about what constitutes good customer service.
And there you go again! Disagreeing with you over what constitutes "good customer service" doesn't make somebody "completely dense", but you insist on acting as if your definition(which is rather churlish) is the only valid one(and having attended a seminar on this sort of thing and worked with people who had the authority to have expensive appliances shipped to irate customers, I can tell you it's not the one anybody in business actually uses). AmiAmi has bad customer service because all they have is canned responses to work with, not because they refuse to bow to your every demand.
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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2892
Location: California
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:21 pm Reply with quote
Polycell wrote:
AmiAmi has bad customer service because all they have is canned responses to work with, not because they refuse to bow to your every demand.

I've personally never received any "canned responses." I think they might have native speakers working for them, actually, or at least Japanese people with very high English ability. I'm more inclined to think they have native speakers though since it's probably easier to find an English-speaking otaku who wants to work at an anime store than a highly educated Japanese person who speaks very good English who wants to work at a relatively low position such as customer service. They'd make more money working for a corporation.

I think if you ask them something that's answered on their website or something that they get asked a lot they might give you a "canned response," but otherwise any replies I've seen have been pretty personalized.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:01 am Reply with quote
@ GokuMew2 - yes, I was wrong to use insulting terms with you and for that I apologize. I do have a problem remaining civil when irritated and it is something I need to improve on. I recognize it is ridiculous for an almost 48-year-old person to be resorting to immature insults with strangers on the internet.

I won't bother responding to your other comments because we simply don't see eye to eye on this issue and we never will. I know for a fact that AmiAmi did not give me good customer service. I know for a fact that losing a customer over 750 Yen is not good customer service no matter what you believe.
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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2892
Location: California
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:35 am Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
@ GokuMew2 - yes, I was wrong to use insulting terms with you and for that I apologize. I do have a problem remaining civil when irritated and it is something I need to improve on. I recognize it is ridiculous for an almost 48-year-old person to be resorting to immature insults with strangers on the internet.

I accept your apology, and I am glad that you can recognize when you've crossed the line and are man enough to apologize.

We certainly don't have to agree but we can at least respect one another. One thing the internet where people are often faceless can always use more of is respect. Thank you for showing me some respect and apologizing.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:24 am Reply with quote
GokuMew2 wrote:
I've personally never received any "canned responses." I think they might have native speakers working for them, actually, or at least Japanese people with very high English ability. I'm more inclined to think they have native speakers though since it's probably easier to find an English-speaking otaku who wants to work at an anime store than a highly educated Japanese person who speaks very good English who wants to work at a relatively low position such as customer service. They'd make more money working for a corporation.

I think if you ask them something that's answered on their website or something that they get asked a lot they might give you a "canned response," but otherwise any replies I've seen have been pretty personalized.
Really? I asked if an order that had gotten delayed to two different months would be split and the response I got stated they couldn't combine orders from different months - something that just screams "canned response" to me.

Specifically:
Me wrote:
One of the figures has been delayed a month longer than the other(January instead of December). Will this affect them being shipped together?
Them wrote:
Thanks for your mail. Unfortunately as those orders are scheduled to be released in separate months our store is unable to combine them together. Our store policy states that, basically, we can combine orders together as long as the date of release is scheduled for the same calendar month. We realize this can be inconvenient, but our warehouse simply does not have enough space to keep items for long periods of time, and keeping items longer our warehouse increases the chances that it will be damaged or even lost.


We apologize that we cannot accomodate your request this time, and we thank you for your kind understanding with regards to this policy.
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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2892
Location: California
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 12:14 pm Reply with quote
Polycell wrote:
Really? I asked if an order that had gotten delayed to two different months would be split and the response I got stated they couldn't combine orders from different months - something that just screams "canned response" to me.

Yeah, definitely sounds like a copy/paste. As far as I know, they automatically split items that get pushed to a different month though sometimes it takes them a few days. It's possible they were just busy and/or misread your mail, thinking you were asking to combine orders that had been split due to a delay. *shrug* Personally I wouldn't be too hard on them for it since they probably have to go through hundreds of mails a day, and there are probably a lot of questions they get asked a lot so it'd be quicker for them to just C&P answers to common questions rather than reply to each one individually, ya know?

I don't have any examples on hand since I haven't had the need to mail them in a while (and lately I've been purchasing more from their Rakuten store since there are more point campaigns), but all the responses I've received in the past were tailored towards my specific inquiry. They even greeted me with my name on most if not all of them. I remember the grammar being native-level too, btw.

So yeah, you definitely got what looks to be a C&P but I think they probably just misread your mail. They're human.
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Keonyn
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Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 5567
Location: Coon Rapids, MN
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 4:48 am Reply with quote
Well, that's mostly over and done with, but just to make sure we don't return down that road let's try and keep this to reviews of stores and feedback of those stores. Someone is well within their rights to be critical in a way you may not agree with, and in the end all that matters is they say their piece and future readers will be able to decide if that is or is not an issue for them. You're still welcome to discuss issues brought up here, but let's try and keep it civil and useful to future readers of this thread.
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