Amazon Experienced Some Uncharacteristic Chaos This Holiday Season

While most of us expect Amazon to run like a well-oiled machine during the holiday season – at least from a customer’s perspective – even the most organized e-commerce giant in the world can have a few wobbles. This holiday season, Amazon had quite a few customer service wobbles on the omnichannel customer support front.

In early December, Amazon acknowledged to Recode that some customers’ orders were experiencing shipping delays as the company faced high demand for fast shipping as well as winter storms. The statement came on the heels of a slew of customer complaints on social media sites such as Twitter (News - Alert).

“We are off to a record-breaking start to the holiday season and on peak shopping days, delivery promises vary and may be longer than normal based on order volume and the fulfillment and delivery capacity available in a given area,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to Recode.

Industry watchers are also blaming overtaxed Amazon warehouses, from which stories of worker hardship and too-high expectations have emerged. The company also recently severed its relationship with shipping company FedEx, so entered the holiday season with one less shipping partner than usual. Instead, it relied on UPS, the U.S. Postal Service and its own shipping company, Amazon Logistics. The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon blocked its third-party sellers from using FedEx's ground delivery network for Prime shipments, noting a decline in FedEx performance in advance of the holiday shopping season.

Shipping delays and worker treatment aside, Amazon has also taken as beating this holiday season due to its call center-based customer support…or lack of it. Many shoppers have found it difficult to find a real human being to speak with, as with many e-commerce companies, Amazon relies heavily on automated systems. In a recent letter to the always-colorful New York Post, one Amazon customer who was a victim of credit card fraud and who struggled to get the problem ironed out, wrote, “I find the entire company has become a monopoly, completely without a human element and completely disinterested in any single customer — simply in profit by bulk.”

So, while many companies look to Amazon as an example of how to build a successful omnichannel e-commerce company, this year, many companies trying to match Amazon’s success saw a few examples of what not to do.

Edited by Maurice Nagle

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