If you need traction on a thorny Amazon.com customer service issue, and you feel regular customer service isn’t cutting it, you can reach their executive customer service team by email, at ecr@amazon.com.

The ecr no doubt stands for “executive customer relations.”

Other methods for reaching Amazon’s regular customer service include calling 1-800-201-7575. You can also have Amazon call you.

Mark was pushed to tracking down executive customer service after he called regular CS and the guy kept calling him Ma’am and hung up on him. Mark’s letter is inside. — BEN POPKEN

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Mark writes:

“After an experience with Amazon today, I’m wondering if their level of customer care, and by this I mean both customer support and just outright caring about customers has begun to fall.

Shortly before the customer vote fiasco, I placed an order for a DVD box set as a gift for my mother. The order is listed as being placed on November 22, and the estimated arrival date as December 8th, which is today.

I looked at the tracking information on Amazon and it says that the package has not been picked up. When I called the Post Office to inquire why, I was told that the package was returned to Amazon because it was addressed improperly. When I went to the Post Office web site with the tracking number, I saw this:

“Label/Receipt Number: 9102 ***********************
Status: Return to Sender

Your item was returned to the sender on November 27, 2006 because it could not be delivered as addressed. “

I called customer service and a few things happened that made me very upset. Let me add one more thing, it was obvious the support center was in India. I don’t care if I’m talking to a penguin in Antarctica as long as I get some help and I am treated like my business matters.

First of all, the customer service representative would not stop calling me Ma’am. Even after I confirmed my address, even after telling him three times I was a man and my name was Mark, he still kept calling me “Ma’am.”

Secondly, he insisted that the package was never picked up. He couldn’t tell me when it would be picked up or when it would arrive, all he said was it hadn’t been picked up. Thirdly, he would not transfer me to a supervisor. He said “the supervisors are all extremely busy so I can’t do that.”

After all this he told me “I understand that the arrival of this package is critical for you but I suggest you wait a few more days and call back on this matter.”

Ok, DVDs for my mom are not “critical” so now I’m being patronized.

I asked him if he could just tell me when the DVDs will get there as I’m not upset, I just want to know. He says “Ma’am, I’ll send you an email with all this information tomorrow, thank you for calling Amazon.com.” And he hangs up.

So basically, the guy wouldn’t listen to me, lied to me, refused to transfer me to his superior, patronized me, and I’m left still not knowing what the heck is going on!

Here’s my question for you, has Amazon.com become “too big for it’s britches” so to speak? I’m wondering what you and your readers think about Amazon.com’s handling of customers these days. I used to think they were great but now I’m feeling mistreated. I do understand that posting something about it may open the flood gates to the XBox complaint department but still…”

Pic courtesy larksflem.

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