Like, I suspect, most people I have mixed views regarding Amazon. On the one hand you can have practically anything you wish for delivered to your home, often the next day, with ‘free’ delivery. To make it even better, within 30 days you can return it, no questions asked. It’s a really good service.

On the other hand there is the issue of the amount of tax Amazon actually pay in this country. It’s not good – they have clever accountants! For example their European base is in Luxembourg, where different rules apply.

But what happens if the widget you’ve bought from them breaks after the 30 day period? (As happened to me recently).

Well on the face of it, the service is very poor. There’s really nothing on the website to help much; you very quickly find yourself going round in circles and getting increasingly angry and frustrated. Very often, as obviously intended, the customer gives up.

What you really want is someone to talk to. The phone number of a real person, perhaps. Well, it’s not obvious, but it can be done. The following worked for me.

1. Find the customer service page. This gives a range of options for things you might like help with. These simply take you to other web pages – not a lot of help.
2. Click on the ‘Something Else’ box. This brings up some more links, including a ‘Contact Us’ link.
3. Click on the ‘Contact Us’ link; this brings up a Text Chat window.
4. Write something like ‘I want to talk to a real person’.
5. Eventually it gives you the option to ‘Talk to a Customer Service Associate’. Click on this and you can request a phone call. They ask for a phone number – which they probably have anyway – and they ring you back.

By doing this I found myself talking to a very helpful Pakistani gentlemen who sorted out the problem, and arranged for a refund and a collection of the faulty item by courier the next day.

Excellent – result.