I can see that 3 hour call being real - I’ve had similar experiences with amazon customer service that I could foresee becoming a long call, such as canceling Prime: they certainly made me wait about 15-20 minutes while trying to “procure permission” and it ended up being some kind of verbal guarantee that another depr would email me the confirmation. After a few hours I did get the confirmation and refund. The entire call did take about 45 minutes: quite a frustratingly long time.
Navigating amazon customer service itself has become a learning experience. Typically the fastest way when getting an annoying customer service agent who “just doesn’t get it” is to request a transfer to amazon USA customer service. You can also request speaking to a supervisot and continue escalating. Sometimes calls end up being 30-45 minutes regardless of method, since they do not always make transferring to amazon USA easy (and then once you get to amazon USA you play the same game over again).
It’s certainly nowhere as good as my original post made it sound, but it’s still better than most online shops.
They may have ruined online shopping but they haven’t solved it either. The clothing retailers (an area hard for amazon to move in on) will remain competitive.
I think the one area amazon absolutely has done right is customer service. If any other company made their customer service as good, easy, and simple, I think they would be able to catch up quickly as well.
For example: I recently bought a jacket on sale from Columbia sportswear. It didn’t get delivered to my unit properly (despite their usps tracking saying that it did), and when I emailed them about it: absolutely no response. My issue went into a black hole. Of course I have now blacklisted Columbia sports: never again. If this was an amazon purchase, I would have been able to resolve it almost immediately.
From my experience, people signing up for these type of work range from generally ok (most Uber drivers) to absolutely desperate for money (living out of car, signs up for petsitting while owner is vacay).
It seems the lower the bar of entry in terms of capital, the shadier it is. Ie Uber at least requires you to have a car, which involves some kind of credit check which is embodied in the car procurement before it even hit Uber. Dog walking? Not so much.
You tried to airbnb in India ? It’s probably barely passable in LA. Hotels in India would be quite cheap with the American dollar. Hmmmmmmm :thinking face:
Honestly at this point, anything they do is just a ploy to advance some kind of hidden agenda even more so than any other corporation. Their name in my trust bank is pretty bankrupt.
It’s about efficiency too - I love skipping generations but usually I go for the max every time I skip, so that I have peak performance for a couple of years. How does an iPhone se even work efficiently? I could not stand my 6+ because it has become too slow to do anything, and just got rid of it this month for an xs.
These are all welcome trends by a societal point of view. Living standards are increasing. Even low income have access to decent electronics such as iPhones and nicer TVs.
Tbh I’m not sure if they are meant for less interaction. I think they were meant to get you talking to a bunch of other people, not for true puzzle solving aficionados. Then again - I’m not sure where you could satisfy your puzzle solving itch. Perhaps there is a market for escape room type mystery books and strategy games. Reminds me of those Sierra games in the 90s lol.
Honestly I fail to see their appeal. I did one and it was so boring. I think the main “appeal” is that it locks you in a room where everyone is forced to actually interact and not just stare at their phones. It seems to be mostly used for corporate outings or clubs, where people aren’t quite comfortable with each other yet. I’m thinking it would also be good for group dates. But for with your real friends with whom you can do other activities or even just have a good convo? It just seems a “forced creative experience”. The only reason the industry is “booming” is because it was non existent before and filled these specific niches. It will oversaturate very quickly.
Navigating amazon customer service itself has become a learning experience. Typically the fastest way when getting an annoying customer service agent who “just doesn’t get it” is to request a transfer to amazon USA customer service. You can also request speaking to a supervisot and continue escalating. Sometimes calls end up being 30-45 minutes regardless of method, since they do not always make transferring to amazon USA easy (and then once you get to amazon USA you play the same game over again).
It’s certainly nowhere as good as my original post made it sound, but it’s still better than most online shops.