Amazon starting to overlook customers?
This is really strange and new experience with Amazon I faced recently. I always say buying from Amazon is more safe than buying from the store downstairs. This time, it was not the case. I ordered video card from a reseller, TigerDirect and since they don’t ship international, I had to ship it locally to my local courier address in US, Aramex. What Aramex does is basically give you a virtual P.O. Box in the US. You simply ship it to their US Address and add a short code after the name to indicate it’s meant for you, like shown below:
<your name>/ KWI <your number>
147-29 182nd Street
Springfield Gardens, NY 11413
Springfield Gardens, NY 11413
United States
This is very normal people use it in Kuwait all the time. However this time the shipment never came to me and they sent me delivery notification! I checked and found out TigerDirect have shipped the item to the address without the code KWI … They trimmed it and sent it. I contacted them to explain the problem and they replied with the the Thank You we shipped it to this address:
<your name>
147-29 182nd Street
Springfield Gardens, NY 11413
Springfield Gardens, NY 11413
United States
Yes I know! That’s what I was trying to say. Incomplete means wrong address as far as I am concerned. And since Aramex (as they explained) receive the shipments as whole packages they have to sign and accept it, they can’t check each individual item. I said what the heck? Those TigerDirect people don’t know a thing about customer service. Amazon TO THE RESCUE! They replied and explained they will wait for the shipment to return for the refund, and advised to place a second order if I am in a hurry. OK I said. So what? I placed the second order directly from Amazon and got it.
Now it’s more than 45 days and still no money refund. Few emails went back and forth between me and Amazon, until their buyer-guarantee@Amazon.com replied and said the shipment was delivered and signed, we can do nothing to help! What on earth are those people talking about? The shipment was sent with incomplete details, you advised to put another order and wait for that one, now you simply walk away with it? I replied with a nasty email and got a (POLITE) reply saying:
“Greetings from Amazon.com,
We are sorry to hear that you have not received your merchandise
from order ###. The seller provided us with UPS
tracking ### that shows a delivery with
signature acceptance. Amazon.com is not able to resolve shipping
problems after delivery. The address confirmed by UPS is the same
as given for delivery. Please note the UPS tracking number above is
different than the one you supplied as yours had a couple of numbers
transposed. We advise you to contact your local authorities if
necessary in order to pursue this matter further. Thank you for
your understanding.”
Read the bold part and see how they admit the shipment was sent with incomplete details, and now I have to contact local authorities to resolve it! Quite contradicting isn’t it? And what pisses me off more is the address they use “buyer-guarantee”. So I place the order through your site, your reseller trims the address and ship it. You advise me to wait and buy new one, then it’s my problem? Aramex ofcourse is a different story, and say they will charge $30 (8.5 KD) to return the shipment, and that I need to get the refund from TigerDirect.
Now, everyone have taken his hands off and I am the only one who lost. I had no choice but to ship the item to Kuwait and now looking for a buyer. How ironic? I replied to Amazon now just to emphasize more the problem is from the reseller, he needs to address his problems. It seems Amazon are overlooking customers, or tend to think reseller problem is not theirs.
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Comments
Very strange, i never had any problems with both Amazon and Aramex.. But TigerDirect is a sad place to buy things.. i had ordered few things from them .. they never came. But amazon refunded the amount.
@Steven: You can find all the info you need here. However Aramex is for the middle-east only. There must be an alternative in your place. For Aramex, you pay one time around $30 and then pay per weight you ship.
@Rayboy: Yeah I am surprised as you are. Never had such a case with Amazon. But problem this time is, Aramex accepted the shipment and as far as they are concerned there is official delivery. Still, stupid from there side.
Never had this problem before. Hope it doesn’t happen more often! As long as it reaches the Aramex offices, I’m sure there’s a way for you to contact them and let them know about it.
Since UPS says that , they have someone signed it … They usually have a digital image of the signature. you should take that and show it to ARAMEX .. saying that “who is this who signed” at their location
Well, actually Aramex confirm they received the shipment, but they say without the label KWI ### they put it on hold until someone asks about it! STUPID also I know, but the first mistake is from TigerDirect. Besides, if US customer service are not welling to take the cost of this mistake, don’t even think an Arab driven company will.
This is something that pisses me off about Aramex. They are fast and organized. But once there is a complain, customer is an ENEMY
Dude its Aramex thats at fault. According to Amazon you received the package which is true, Aramex received the package.
Now either Aramex sends you the package OR they send it back. If they send it back you get refund, if they send you package there is no problem.
Now since they didn’t send you the package neither did they return it, then they are at fault. You should contact Aramex and complain to them and have them either send the package to you or return to sender.
Amazon is not at fault here, even if they left out information from the mailing list.
@Mark: Thanks for your comment. As I see it, it’s both parties fault. First, Amazon should make sure the address is correct, otherwise they should take responsibility for that mistake. Aramex on the other hand should either try to forward the shipment or return.
I filed complain with Aramex as well as you may have read in previous comment. They say that they receive full large packages from UPS containing various shipments, and they have to sign for the whole package not every individual one. This is quite possible as it is more practical. Still, Aramex are so cheap and lousy in their customer service they are never welling to take any responsibility.
If you want to really laugh. I had the manager of customer service at Aramex closing my trouble ticket without even waiting for my answer. I called the customer care and asked “Do you see my reply? they said NO. Very well then… how did you close it? They have a hell of a lousy customer service manager here in Kuwait, and I bet it’s the same every where.
However I don’t agree that it’s not Amazon and TigerDirect fault. They have admitted the address was not complete, so from my perspective, incomplete is wrong. and if they ship the item to wrong address, and guy there accepts it, it’s their fault and they should try to get it back. Aramex say if they ship it back UPS will charge them fixed 8.5 KD. That 8.5 KD should be charged on TigerDirect.
What really surprises me is Amazon did not even care to discuss it with the reseller as to why he trimmed the shipping address.
DUDE! Mystery solved…I sell books (very few and as kind of a hobby) on Amazon, and someone bought a book with the wierd “Kwi ####” in the address. If I get a weird address, I always type it into the USPS zip code finder to see if it’s viable. With the Kwi prefix, it says it’s NOT a viable address…so I typed in the address into Google and this blog came up! Now that I know that the KWI is a virtual mailbox, I’m just going to mail it and let the winds of fate have their way.
buydembooks: Well, Glad to be of any help, and good to know sellers are trying to figure eligible addresses :)
I thought it’s a spam post first, but the power of Google brings use of older posts doesnt it? Thanks for taking the time to write. That way I know there is a use for the post, and become even more careful and better in my next writings.
PS: I have removed the number after KWI in your comment as it’s a customer private number. Hope you dont mind.
Wow this is ridiculous! I work for a company in the US. We got an order to ship to an address like this but the buyer forgot to enter her box#…and she didn’t tell us until after the package was sent! I have been calling the New York aramex office all day trying to talk to ANYONE but keep getting voice mail with no call back! I’m so glad i found your post though, because i never would have known WTF was going on with this order! Thanks for the great explination!!
Whataheadache: Well it’s nice to see what efforts you guys put to make the delivery, and it’s nice to be of any help. At the end, we are the guys ordering through you :)
So last thing we want is more wasted shipments.
hi there Bashar,
a similar thing happened to me and after loads of investigations (on my part of course) and a lot of e-mails i discovered that when you order through amazon you should never order through what they call express checkout because when you do so the parcel arrives with an incomplete address.(how odd is that!)
SO, always order through the standard checkout even if it takes you a little more minutes to do so , that is he only guarantee that your address is complete.
hope i’ve been of help.
KSA Manal: Thanks for that tip. Definitely would help. I usually don’t do express checkout however. This problem accured from the stupid reseller who decided to chomp the address rather than asking before.
Thanks again for warning me to this point though.
How about some “merchant service” from the customer? When you have a special circumstance with your shipping address it would really benefit the merchant and you to contact them by email with a little explanation about how to utilize your shipping address. The limited fields on Amazon and other websites may not put your shipping address in the correct format for shipping to that address. I received one of these orders through AMAZON and it came throuh as “KWI 123, 147-29 182nd Street”. I mean, what am I supposed to make of that when US addresses are normally just a number followed by a street name or number. Help us help you – email us with some info to make our job easier instead of getting all arrogant about it and thinking we know everything there is to know about shipping to every single place in the world. We’re just human beings too!
Seller on Amazon: Thanks for your comments.
To start with, a merchant’s job is to send to the provided address, not to change it to what seems like a correct address. If it turns wrong, then it’s buyers fault. If merchant does want to do it, then he should do some research as the guy buydembooks mentioned in the comments. He Googled for KWI instead of just trimming it, and he found the answer. If you Google for “KWI Shipping” this post is # 4 in the results.
Why didn’t I contact the merchant? If you have read the post fully, I did mention I contacted TigerDirect in the first place to explain the problem and clarify why the address was trimmed. They ignored my whole email and just replied with the address they sent to. They did not reply to my question and just ignored it. They overlooked it, and Amazon did as well.
Have they replied then by something like:
“We were unable to explain the KWI extension in the name field, we assumed it was an error and removed it” That would have been much more acceptable, we can try to reach solution from there. But no, the merchant made his sale and does not want to discuss it any further.
That is the point of argument here. They did not ask, or even answer my question. If you in person are addressing those questions raised by customers, I personally wouldn’t be writing about it here. I am not writing for the joy of complaining, but as a final act to share with others how my experience went, hopefully someone will make use of it. And some merchants did.
Reverse your credit card charge will get their attention. I was supposed to receive an item on monday from a company on amazon.com and they shipped it without a street address. Only the City, State and Zip code. I called them and told them, if I don’t have the Item by tuesday at the absolute latest I will call my credit card company and reverse the charge because on wednesday I am out of the country for the rest of the year. They will just have to eat the $25 charge back fee and accept the negative feedback.
Eric: Thanks for the tip. You’re probably right. I should’ve thought of that back then. Only problem is, when I found about the problem, it was over 30 days already, and I know credit card trans can be reversed within 30 days only right?
I found someone that can help wit this probleem.
try contacting http://www.TheAmericanConcierge.com
they do these kinds of things.
mustafa: Thanks. I will give them a look. Have you tried them, or are you associated with them in any way?
I am a member. I had them purchase me a laptop at the apple store in NYC and delivered it to aramex the next day. not only that, i get a trucking number the same day. also they can hold my packages and send them when I choose. for the month you get some 10 requests, my wife uses the account too. not associated with them. I know alot of people having the same problem shipping like me. I never get my packages on time. last year I ordered something online for my wifes birthday and the shop forget to put the mailbox number it was put on hold. what I am going to do this year is ship the packge to The American Conceige and have them take care of it. they service is good, answers requests fast.
mustafa: That sounds interesting. But their sign-in page is fishy. Says “Your credit card information is safe. We use SSL 128bit encryption technology” however their URL is normal http. Even if you force it to HTTPs, their certificate is issued by them selves. So I can’t trust them with my credit card.
Also, the site has no mention anywhere else on the web if you Google their name.
Hello All,
Thank you Mustafa for bringing this issue to my attention. To Explain, during this time period we were updating the site for enhanced secuity features and new flexible plans.
Rest assure that we are dedicated to our members and their privacy. We now use a 256-bit Secure Sockets Layer encryption. In addition, secure transactions are processed by Authorize.net.
Because we are a fairly new service, not many people know about us, thus this is why you wouldn’t find many comments on Google or any other search engine. As we expand and grow, providing much more benefits for our clients I am sure that this will change.
any comments/questions please feel free to contact Info@TheAmericanConcierge.com
Have a wonderful day!
Thank you,
Tanya Stephens
Client Account Manager
TheAmericanConcierge
Aramax is 100% at fault. That Aramax address in New York is ok, but comes up as invalid if you have KWI in the wrong place…you have to type that KWI number in the name field. Aramax got your box, had your box, and probably still has your box. This is not Amazon’s fault, and it’s not Tiger Direct’s fault. How many unlabeled packages do you think Aramax receives? They need to learn how to store them until an inquiry comes up, or return them at once. Amazon isn’t going to refund you, when some slackjone thief has your shipment in Aramax’s corporate office.
Me: Thanks for sharing the tip.I am fully aware of the field label thing, and my Aramex address has been working for years. It’s just stupid Tiger Direct have taken out the KWI thing and did not include it.
The item was still @ Aramex but they didnt want to pay to send it back, neither did Tiger Direct or Amazon. I got it sent to me and gave it to a friend eventually.
I have an aramex account and its my first time to order , I have CAI### box , where should I write this number ? in address line 2 or just after my full name?
thanx
Shams El Din: They usually have nice help once you login to the Aramex Shop & Ship section. I write the KWI (CAI in your case) in the second field of the name (last Name).
First Name: Your first name
Last Name: Your last name/ CAI#
i just registered yesterday and pay 135 sr to subscribed
i asked them before i leave how to fill the applacation adress if i want to buy somthing from net.
they show me how to write adress 1 and adress 2 – nice service
the problem is when i put these adress 1 and 2 in amazon site to buy the site says invlid adress.
so i need help when i called the custmer service and explianed my problem they said we don’t know wait we will transfer you to ex-2160 and ex-2161 but no one answer for 4 hours i spent 25 sr for calling with my mobile
i am far away from the aramax ceneter about 80km
then i called the manger and he said as them call 2160-2161
if you are outside saudia arabia just call +9666910000 ex-2160,2161
now i want to returned my many i dislike aramax
Anonymous: Aramex are having several problems recently, and their support is not always the best help. I think they are better in Kuwait however.
I’m not sure they would give your money back. Would they?
As for sites refusing to take virtual mailbox, this issue is related to the site and not Aramex. Amazon takes those virtual mailboxes happily all the time for me.
Hi there, Can anyone help. I am using the Aramex US Virtual PO Box address and Amazon simply can not recognize it and won’t accept it as a shipping address. Is anyone aware whether the Aramex PO Box is now banned by Amazon or not?
Thank you,
Ihab
Hi there, Can anyone help. I am using the Aramex US Virtual PO Box address and Amazon simply can not recognize it and won’t accept it as a shipping address. Is anyone aware whether the Aramex PO Box is now banned by Amazon or not?
Thank you,
Ihab
Ihab: I really doubt it otherwise everyone will start having trouble. Are you sure you’re doing it right? You can try to contact Aramex I’m sure they’d help out.
Same problem happened for me today when my relative tried to add my address to his amazon account after I gave it.
This is the error message:
“The street name or number appears to be invalid.”
The funny thing is I was already added the address in my account but no more edit is allowed with the same error message!
I knew that some merchants was denied to accept such addresses as they are recognising them as Virtual Address due to lot of accounts with a slight difference in their name but with the exact apartment No. and street name but I didn’t know that amazon will do the same for this address which is provided by aramex.
FYI I already contacted aramex Dubai and informed them about the issue but the lady was not aware of this and she suggested me to retry in a later time!
Dissapointed, so bad!
Hassan: Forget later time. If Amazon doesn’t want it, they will not allow it in the name. But why would they do that?
Why don’t you contact them :)
Here is the solution I have been advised to do by aramex Shop and Ship executive officer in Dubai:
Full Name: [put your full name]
Address Line1: 147-29 182nd Street
Address Line2: [your box number exactly like this "XXX XXXXX" with no "Box" word or "#" ie: "DXB 12345"]
City: Springfield Gardens
State/Province/Region: NY
ZIP: 11413
Country: United States
Phone Number: (718)553-8740
If the error comes again, press the continue again! after two retry it must be done!
Good luck!
Hassan: Hmm.. thanks. I wonder however how resellers from Amazon will handle this. I bet it could confuse delivery companies a lot. Careful… if something goes wrong, Aramex won’t back you up
Hi
May you tell me how to make virtual P.O. Box in Aramex ?