I'm surprised, Amazon is well known of having the best in class customer support for their store (I mean: "Customer: My kindle broke, because I sat on it. Amazon: no worries, let me send you a replacement, no need to send back the old kindle" level of good support) - oh and human support, not google botocracy.

Any large-scale consumer-grade service optimizes for cheapness of support.

It's just a coincidence that when it comes to retail, the cheap option (just ship another one out) also works well for the customer. At scale, shipping duplicate items, even expensive ones still works out cheaper than well-trained, competent, well-treated and well-paid humans.

This one on the other hand requires engineering time (can't be resolved by a bot or monkey pressing a "ship another item" button) which isn't cheap and unless they have legal liability, it's cheaper to just stonewall or even ban this customer forever and lose their business.

Have you tried getting through to a human recently on Amazon retail support? It's quite difficult. First you have to negotiate with a bot with an IQ and service level of an angry wasp, then you get filtered through to someone who usually can't help. So you have to try 2-3 times to get stuff sorted.

The whole thing is designed to put people off and make it difficult to get problems resolved.

I'm fairly good at being annoyed enough to work around this but most people out there can't handle things like that easily and Amazon knows it.

How "recent" are we talking about?

Last November, my Logitech mouse's scroll wheel started acting funny. Tried to check on Amazon the warranty situation, the docs said: take it up with the manufacturer (note: the mouse was sold by Amazon, wasn't a marketplace item). This was like two weeks before the 2-year warranty was up.

So, I headed on over to Logitech. Man, their site sucks. My mouse was a "gaming" model, so it wasn't directly clear where I should seek help. I end up with some support guy who was obviously doing something else in parallel, judging by the time between replies. Went through the usual checklist (is it on / did you try unplugging and plugging it back again?). Never mind that before getting on the chat, I had to fill up a form with the exact same questions, up to and including the serial number, which is the first thing the chat person asked for. Half an hour later, he asked the killer question: where did you buy it? Amazon. Oh, take it up with them, then.

Went back to Amazon, opened a new "other" case. Less than two minutes later, I was on the phone with someone from Amazon, asking me point-blank whether I wanted them to try to fix it or reimburse me. Said the latter, and he asked me to be sure to send it within 30 days.

Guess where I bought my next Logitech mouse?

So yeah, Amazon's retail support experience is still top-notch in my book, at least on this side of the pond. This was for an account without prime support that doesn't do a lot of business with them.

Most every manufacturer uses the retail store for returns. The fact that Amazon gave you the run around is actually terrible.

I'm fairly confident that if I actually opened the support request with Amazon first, the ending would have been the same. At no point did Logitech say that their online support was only for items bought through their online store.

Sure, Amazon could have said "yeah, call us" instead of saying that I should see the manufacturer, and it would have saved me half an hour.

But I was quite disappointed with Logitech's reaction.

I've had an issue with a bag and when I took it up to one of their stores for repairs, they just took it in for repairs for free without any question asked whatsoever. Not even where or when I'd bought the item (I didn't buy it from their name-stores, but from some generic department store). Didn't ask to see any receipt. Just "It'll take around a week. Can you leave it now?"

Note that this wasn't some fancy boutique bag or brand, it was barely pricier than the mouse.

Since I'm complaining about Logitech, I should name the brand with great service: Le Tanneur, a French leather goods company.

It depends on "recently". I contacted them (human, right away, speaking my language - I'm in EU and the store was in different country than mine) about a year or two ago where I had issue with my phone, and there was no issue to get my money back (Pixel 4 had issue with NFC not working correctly) - no "We will repair it", like any other retail store I used.

Last month here in UK. After a package was stolen from my doorstep but the delivery driver said it was handed to receptionist. We don't have a receptionist, or a reception!

I'm a "high hitter" customer. I have prime and spend a hell of a lot of money with amazon every year so they tend to do what you ask eventually. But if you're a new customer or low value one your customer experience will be very very different. I know several people buying 1-5 things a year who have been told to piss off.

"The 'computer' is lying" situation is a problem generally. I didn't receive a 16-port switch and another small item a few years back even though it was noted as delivered. Neither Amazon nor UPS would do anything about it. A couple weeks later (I think it had been snowing) I discovered the package tossed in a ditch to the side of my driveway. Everything was actually fine but I had reordered and didn't have a need for a second switch.

I've had a similar situation, where the delivery guy said I wasn't home, so he left the package at some drop-off point. It was a small package and the house has a big ass mailbox. There wasn't a drop-off notice, either. And both my parents and I were at home, with my mom hanging around in the garden in plain view of the mailbox.

The opening hours of the place were a PITA, so after two attempts I called up Amazon and complained about this. Sure enough, they sent the package again without trying anything funny.

They are for retail, not for services.

This has not been my experience. I pay 100$/mo for support and when I have had issues (had a RDS upgrade go really bad once) they have contacted me quickly to get details. Usually only 2-4 hours for an engineer to be on the issue.