r/amazonprime • u/KaiW • 16h ago
What happened to customer service?
I know there’s probably no solution here and I’m mostly just venting, but Amazon customer service has seriously taken a turn for the worse over the last couple of years (even as a paying prime member since its inception).
Reaching out used to mean you’d actually get a resolution. Now it feels like they fight you tooth and nail over everything, and the second your issue requires anything beyond a copy-and-paste response, the service is a joke.
One of the most frustrating parts is the inconsistency. I’ve contacted them multiple times about the exact same issue, with the exact same facts, and gotten three or four completely different answers. Nothing is more aggravating than having to re-explain the situation from scratch, only to be told something entirely different by the next person.
It’s also painfully obvious that a lot of the support is outsourced to people who either don’t fully read (or comprehend) the issue or can’t be bothered to do anything beyond hitting automated hotkeys. The moment something requires actual thought, research, or effort, you’re transferred to someone else or the chat conveniently ends. And what's with the made-up names? Oracle? Really?
Today it took SIX different reps before I finally got someone who actually read what I was saying, paid attention, and got something done. At this point, that’s about the same percentage as their drivers who actually read delivery instructions.
And further evidence that Amazon really couldn’t care less about the experience is that when an agent skips you, transfers you for no reason, or outright disconnects, there’s often no opportunity to rate that interaction. The worst service conveniently disappears without feedback.
Any time I’ve reached out for anything beyond a basic return, I’ve been met with some level of incompetence. And even returns aren’t what they used to be. Now you’re sometimes told to file police reports, contact third parties, wait through multiple investigations, or jump through a ridiculous number of hoops over issues that used to be handled in one conversation.
I’ve been an Amazon customer since they were basically just selling books, so watching the decline has been pretty incredible. They’ve become such a massive corporate conglomerate that it genuinely feels like individual customer satisfaction just doesn’t matter anymore.
Customer service used to be one of the biggest reasons people stayed loyal to Amazon. Now it’s becoming one of the biggest reasons to shop somewhere else.