On September 15, 2010 I received an email from Amazon.com introducing their new program connecting them with American Express’ Membership Points program. As I needed two items for my home and could not afford to buy them outright, I signed onto Amazon’s “Get Started Now” Registration process . On 9/16/10 I registered, Amazon then calculated that my 46, 000+ points had a value on their site of $363.00+ for shopping purposes. (This info was not sent to me but it appeared on the screen and I unable to save it.) I proceeded to shop using my points and ordered a vacuum cleaner and a new phone with an answering machine totaling around $385.00--I would owe Amex some twenty-something dollars.

The order was taken but when I received an email from Amazon.com regarding the order, it looked like the points were not used and they had charged my American Express card which is not what I authorized them to do. In fact, I never would have purchased these items if not for my points. I am working a 1/4 job because of the economy and do not have the funds for these items now. I immediately emailed both Amazon and Amex with copies of the order and stated that I thought something odd had happened with their website and the connection to the Amex Points Program.

To date, I have called Amex 3-4 times. Each time, the Membership Rewards Dept. told me that initially Amazon was having some difficulty with starting up the program and hooking into Amex. Each rep. at Amex said that I would be contacted by phone, email or letter to correct the problem of charging my points. Last week, I called Amazon.com and spoke with R. and then her supervisor, B. Both said that I failed to click on the box that said “Use Membership Points” and thus my Amex was charged and that there was NOTHING that they could do about it. I find this hard to believe.

As far as I am concerned, I am falling into the cracks of consumer fraud...I had a come on offer from Amazon, I followed each and every screen/window to register and then place the order and something went wrong...not on my part, on Amazon’s. I am quite a loyal Amazon customer and to be treated with such disrespect and contempt is outrageous. R and B told me to ship back the Miele vacuum cleaner and the phone and then reorder them the correct way by clicking on the points box! If that is not an insane suggestion, I do not know what else to say. What incompetence. I have not only used the vacuum cleaner but I threw out the box and I am not about to pay UPS to pack it and ship it back to them and reorder it...this is the ultimate of absurdity. And then they emailed me two surveys asking if they had done a good job and solved my problem...this is surreal.

I also called Amex Membership Points again and spoke to " C ". He reiterated what all the Amex reps have before, that there was a problem with Amazon and the points program and it has been resolved. He offered to let me use $200.00 of my points towards the $363.00 that Amazon had quoted me...what is going on here? FRAUD. I was offered $363.00+ by Amazon, not $200.00. This is fraudulent.

As a consumer I registered with Amazon, got the calculation of my 46, 000+ points to $363.00+ Amazon dollars, ordered and voila, the computer program that existed at the time with Amazon charged my Amex and NOT MY POINTS!!! And now I am writing this letter since I am unable to get a human being at either company to think outside of the box and charge my points as they said they would. Way too outside of the box kind of thinking required.

I sent a registered return receipt letter to Amazon, Amex and the NY State Attorney General's Fraud Division with full email back up. And here is a copy of the two emails that I just received back from Jeff Bezos' Exec. Asst. who conferred with Jeff about my consumer problem:

Here is Amazon's email responses to my certified letter of complaint to them: (These are real emails--names withheld to protect me.)

Email #1

Dear "My Name",

I'm Aaron DeFoe of Amazon.com's Executive Customer Relations. Jeff Bezos received your letter and asked me to respond on his behalf.

I’m sorry to hear about your frustrating experience with your American Express Reward Points. I’m currently looking to see what happened with your orders and expect to have an answer for you in the next 1-2 business days.

If you have additional questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected]. Thanks for your patience, and I’ll be in touch again soon.

Regards,

Aaron M DeFoe
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
==========================

Email #2

Dear " My Name ",

As you may recall, I'm Aaron DeFoe of Amazon.com's Executive Customer Relations.

I’ve reached out to our payments team and they’ve confirmed your points weren’t selected at the time you placed your orders. During the checkout process there are three options to choose when paying with points, and the default setting is to use no points.

We try very hard to make this process apparent and I’m sorry for any misunderstanding. While your points weren’t’ used, I’ve confirmed you do have a total of 58, 082 points available for future orders.

I've applied a $50.00 promotional discount directly to your account for use on your next Amazon.com order. I hope you'll accept this as both a gesture of goodwill and an apology for this bad experience.

When you place your next qualifying order, you'll see the promotional funds listed on the Order Summary page, just before you submit your order. If the funds aren't shown, please read the following to ensure your order qualifies:

http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/browse/-/3145051/

"My name", I’m sorry for all the time you’ve spent and I hope you’ll give us another chance. Please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] if I can be of further assistance.

Regards,

Aaron M DeFoe
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com


As of today, after being a loyal customer of Amazon.com for years and spending thousands of dollars, I am being told to shove it and pay for it. The corporate culture reeks of GREED and GREED and nothing more. I am appealing to the Consumer Fraud Division of The New York State Attorney General for their help. This is like an entrapment case. I followed the bait, registered with the site, selected my items for points payment and puff, their program had kinks and now I cannot use my $363.00 worth of Amex points. I am being told that I am the problem maker, the one who selected the wrong payment option, that it was all my fault! I made the mistake. Well that is factually incorrect.

Going forward, we all need to find alternatives to Amazon.com for online purchasing until they incorporate business practices that are NOT FRAUDULENT AND DECEPTIVE AND MISLEADING. Google : Alternative Sellers to Amazon.com and you will find many. In the meantime, I now have to deal with American Express and the Office of Andrew Cuomo, the hopefully soon to be new Gov of New York.

Thank you for reading this. Maude Geller, NYC

I recently ordered some books from Amazon.com. When asked if I wanted my items to be shipped as they were available I selected yes, just in case something was backordered. However, on the website everything said it was in in stock. I received an invoice with TWO different shipping amounts. I contacted Amazon via chat and was informed that the order could not be canceled (I wanted to cancel all but one book) because it was already being processed to shipped. I asked about the prices and was informed that because I selected to have them shipped when available the price was not $42.00 but $107.00 for shipping. My invoice said that they were all shipping at the same time, so the charge should have only been $42.00. The email sent to me said it was shipping in three shipments. Yet I could not cancel the orders that were not set to be shipped. My online invoice said 1 shipment. I finally called Amazon and was informed that the shipping charge was incorrect because it was not being shipped in three shipments but one shipment. . . .The customer service agent was helpful and said he would refund my shipping charges. . now I just have to wait to see what happens. . . Be very careful when you select your shipping methods. If at all possible - do not select "ship separately".

I purchase a leaf blower from Amazon because I was told they have great customer service, in case of troubles. Iused this Husqarvna blower 5 times and stops after 5-7 minutes of use, then will NOT restart without starting spray. They stated item was purchased out of date and no help, other than greatly reduced $.

I will make future purchases from brick/beam stores that will stand behind what they sell. I did think highly of this business and even purchased stock for this company. I will be unloading my stock and doing no added business with them.

I hope this review helps anyone trying to make it thru this tuff world and purchase from any company that cares about you.

Having ordered a product (book and CD textbook) with their own product code, they sent me the wrong item. I ordered again and paid for it a second time and again they still sent the wrong product. I ordered and paid for the product one last time, and again they sent me the wrong product. The codes were correct, and my order was correct but apparently their warehouse could not get it straight. When I told them to send me the correct product they refused until I paid for a fourth item. I now have $400 in merchandise that I do not want, and I still do not have what I wanted.

Amazon.com book reviews are nothing but scam. They are all written by their insider editors. Just try and sell any writer's books over there, if Amazon editors do not like you, they would remove all 5 stars reviews under your book reviews. After many times of negotiation with Amazon editors, the reply is... "This is how they run their business." They have a review complain website, it is all written phony guidelines which they do not apply at all.

This is Amazon complain website: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=14279631#reviewguidelines

But whatever falls into their guidelines, they are suppose to remove the reviews. But Amazon editors do not follow them at all. When you write to them, they would give you reply like, "We do according to our editor's discretion, not by the website on the web-page."

Imagine all these phony books reviews on Amazon.com. And if their editors do not like your books, then they will set and have their own editors to post all 'one star' worst reviews on writers books.

Many writers have great books, but Amazon editors will trash them in order to make certain of books to sell (those books probably paid the editor or something), this is their editors policy and they seems proud of it.

SHAME ON AMAZON- EDITORS, these are all true.

If you have doubts, just write to their editors and complain about one bad review, then you will get these arrogant answers from their editors.

SHAME ON AMAZON!