Amazon issues

Ha, ha.  I don't pay UK tax.
Ha, ha. I don’t pay UK tax.

Amazon is not doing well in the British press, because it is evading UK tax by claiming that it is a Luxembourg company. The Luxembourg office employs 134 people while the UK operations employ 2265 people but it still only pays tax to Luxembourg. Obviously, most of Amazon UK’s customers are based in the UK, not in Luxembourg. But this post is not about that, which has already been widely reported but about a more mundane issue – Amazon UK’s customer service. I have now contacted them seven times over the past couple of years and every time, without fail, I have got a spectacularly inept answer, which completely failed to resolve the issue I was raising. Twice, in the last couple of weeks, I have received one of their evaluation emails, asking to say whether the item had been received by such and such a date, in both cases the date in question being at least a week away. In both cases, I had not received the item so the only evaluation possible was, No I have not received the item. The second time, I sent a facetious email, asking if they expected me to predict the future and then, because they always fail to answer my question, I concluded And, just for a change, please answer my question which is: Why can’t you make sure that you send these out when the final day has passed?. Here is their answer:

Hello,

I’m sorry for any misunderstanding caused.
I understand your concern regarding the delivery of your order.
I see you purchased “xxxx” (referring to a completely different order I had made that day which had nothing to do with the order I was writing about) on our website in order #xxxx.
In this situation, it’s best to contact the Seller to explain the situation and to make appropriate arrangements.
To contact your seller, click “Your Orders” in Your Account and then click “Contact Seller”. Please allow up to 3 business days for the seller to respond to your e-mail.

Nothing whatsoever to do with my question. Is this an issue for me? For Amazon UK? Do users of other Amazons have this problem? Is there a secret way to get to an Amazon customer service rep that actually answers the question you raise? Or do they just really not give a damn?

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