Amazon have a justified reputation for customer service, indeed the success of their business has been built on it. Yesterday, though, I had an experience that caused me to question whether that is still the case. I got a phone call to say that an order I had made from amazon earlier in the week had been delivered in error to an address in a nearby town. I drove over to pick it up and was concerned that the other persons order (a camera) was still missing.

The only way to complain and bring this to Amazon’s attention was via an email form on their web site. In reply I got an email saying that they were sorry I had not received my order and that it was being sent again. Clearly they hadn’t bothered to read my email!

The message came from an automated address, so it was back to the email form on the web site. I asked them to cancel the second order and not make matters even worse. Too late, I eventually got another email to say the order had been despatched (this was all less than 5 hours after the first complaint).

I am now faced with the additional hassle of returning the books I don’t need and reclaiming my costs in doing so.

There are several things that concern me in all this:

• Nowhere on the Amazon web site is there a telephone number. If I had been able to talk directly to a human being this comedy of errors could have been avoided.

• The emails I received from them were clearly largely automated and any human element was unclear and ungrammatical. It does not fill you with confidence that you are dealing with an intelligent and caring organisation.

• I have already spent an hour collecting the books in the first place. Add in several phone calls, two emails and the time and expense of returning the second order this amounts to considerable inconvenience. I am the customer. I am not employed by Amazon. If my time was money they would now owe me.

The lesson, perhaps, is that automated systems work well 99% of the time but when they go wrong there needs to be a human being you can talk to. Amazon need to learn to listen to their customers.