Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Ebay VS. Amazon


I have always bought my expensive textbooks online. After trying many sites, I found that Amazon and Ebay have the best prices. I compare the two site’s prices for the book and then choose the cheapest option. Sometimes Amazon wins with its student discount and sometimes Ebay because it is cheaper. Recently, I have been buying from Ebay if the price difference is small because of their superior customer service.

Two months ago I bought a textbook from Ebay. It said that would ship in a maximum of four weeks. Six weeks later I still did not have my product and the seller had no responded to my emails. I contacted Ebay and a claim was set up that day. Though I had to wait a week to see if the seller would reply (they did not), after that week everything went swiftly. Ebay refunded my money within three days and I was contacted within a week to make sure I was happy with the resolution; I was.

In contrast to this experience, I ordered a textbook from Amazon at the same time. By some aligning of the cosmos, this textbook was also not on time. I filed a claim and waited… and waited. After two weeks, I finally went back to check on the claim to learn that I had to take yet another step to push the claim along. Not once did I talk to a person, did someone contact me or did I feel the process was rapid. It took almost a month to get a refund and it was only when I checked on the claim once again that I learned there had been a refund issued. Because of Amazons lack of customer service (or decently) I will go to Ebay first.  

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