Words from Ron Hollis

I love Amazon! I have always been a loyal customer to Amazon and their products. I bought one of the first Kindles upon release years ago. While it did not adequately serve my needs, I was anxious for the future generations.

So, here comes the Kindle DX. It is bigger, faster and better. I bought and tried to implement it into my reading system, but was unable to get the value I needed. I am a reader for the acquisition of information and knowledge. I don’t just read for the sake of reading. Most of my reading is non-fiction works about business or biographies. So, when I read, I try to process the information for application, which requires me to make many marks and notes in my reading.

The Kindle DX does not allow you to easily mark the text and does not support freehand at all.

So, here comes the Sony Reader Daily Edition PRS-900. While not as cool looking as the Kindle, it did support freehand note taking, so I decided to give it a shot. I sold my DX and placed an order for the Sony Reader. Thus my journey of horrible customer service begins.

• Placed order on 12/27/09 from their website (www.sonystyle.com). It showed a ship date of 1/15/10. A long wait, but hey, this is a great product
• Upon ordering, I get my email confirmation for the order
• On 1/15/10, I had not heard anything, so I check my account online and it says “processing” and ready to ship on 1/12 (odd, I thought, so I emailed customer care for an update)
• I get a response saying their system is behind sometimes and the dates may not be right. They would be shipping the product soon.
• I wait until the end of the week and check again. Same status. It’s now a week later than promised and NO real information.
• I send another email to customer care and get a response that their systems are behind and they can’t really tell when the product would ship, but it would be soon

NOW for the fun

• On 1/26/10, I get an email from Sony’s system saying they have CANCELLED my order. Trying to diffuse the information, there is a small comment says there was a failure to communicate with the bank.
• I EMAILED and they said the order cancelled but they were not sure why (interestingly, the email they tell to inquire about issues lets you know they would be handling your request within the next 5 BUSINESS DAYS)
• I CALLED that night. I get a nice guy that looks up the account and says, it was cancelled…Why, I ask, “not sure, something about the communication with the bank”. We think you should call your bank. FYI: The credit card I used was a SONY CREDIT CARD from CHASE BANK….they were probably still in business.
• I asked why they would just send an email cancelling the order instead of telling the customer there is an issue and to call. “I’m not sure why we don’t do that, it’s the way the system works”
• What are my options? We can transfer you to Sales and you can place the order there. I tell them that I don’t want to wait another month, so to have my account marked for special shipment to get me back to the front of the queue. “Sir, we can’t do that. Once the order is cancelled, there are no options, that’s the way the system works.”…
• I ask for his boss…after 10 minutes of waiting, I get his manager. Another nice guy who re-iterates their inability to help me all because of the system.
• He tells me he will be sure to report this issue….”Great, that helps a lot, NOT!”
• He tells me to send an email to sonylistens@amsony.com . Pretty funny email, I thought, because they may listen but they damn sure don’t help.

So, it’s always the systems fault why you can actually serve your customer.

How can a company with the brand of Sony and history be so poor at serving their customers? They should stick to developing products and using distributors to manage the customer relationship because these guys suck!

The good news….I have a greater appreciation for the customer service of Amazon and their ability to serve their customers AND have systems….go figure!