10 Great French Deals

Whilst not decrying your experience I have not had any issues with ANY overseas amazon, I may have been lucky. This includes US, FR, DE and ES
I can think of about, ooh, 6 or 7 items (maybe a few more) that have arrived damaged, open or wrong and in almost every single case, with a bit of effort on my part I have received one of a) a full refund and told I could keep the item, b) a replacement item and told I could keep the original opened or damaged item or c) a substantial discount between 35 and 50%.

The only things I had to send back were the Beatles in Stereo box set and Ten Year War and as they are massive, expensive items I can’t blame them. Also if the item is damaged or defective they NEVER ask you to pay return postage, yes if you have changed your mind but not for damage.

First rule….never start with an email. I have never had any joy from an initial email response. It’s always “We value you as a customer”. If you can, always call and speak to someone and second best do it by chat (From the UK you can’t phone the US, it has to be by chat). Think of it as a flow chart…Did you get what you want? If yes then go to xxx, if no then go to xxxx.

I usually get something close to what I want from a phone call, if not, and you get a determined representative (this has only happened on a couple of occasions) then follow up immediately with an email saying why you are unhappy, always be polite, always make a note of the rep’s name and use it when you are talking to them. The response to this follow-upemail will usually give you what you want.

Tell a lie, there is only one time when I did NOT get anything when I knew others did and that was when I had ordered Roxy Music from am.us for $76 and the next day it dropped to $61 for a short time and I asked for the difference. some people here reported they got it. I and a few others did not.

As stated only twice have I been asked to return an item overseas, if it is damaged at worst they will make you photograph it and upload the image and usually they will take your word.

So people’s pre-standing negative disposition to amazon aside and yes things do go wrong (damage and wrong items etc.) I have found them to be quite generous if you are calm, factual and persistent. Call first, chat second and email last.

Reading your post the main error was not challenging the damaged delivery of the first box, experience tells me if you had they would either have refunded you in full or given you a decent percentage without the need for return. The phrase “didn’t want the hassle” will usually lead to disappointment. and as yet after 30 odd emails I have never had one unanswered…..

I sympathize, I recently had a case where I ordered a box set, and was instead mailed ONE DISC from the set. I asked for another copy to be mailed out, and received the SAME DISC again.

On contacting Amazon they refunded my money, and said don’t bother to the discs back. 30 days later, you guessed it, they billed me again. I did finally get it sorted, but it was work.

Still, that said, I wonder if you’re expecting too much of the likes of Amazon. I mean, a bent corner? You’re shipping something from France to Canada. It’s a long way on a plane, with multiple carriers. I’d say a bent corner is inevitable. If it’s just a bent corner, I’d not have sent it back or asked for a replacement.

Actually, this very week I received Vangeli’s El-Greco box set – an absolute monster of a box weight wise – and it had two bent corners. But all in all, it the mail service…..

Had 5 deluxe edition box sets damaged to send back when Amazon.de had this great deal BUY 3 PAY FOR 2 last december…
3 arrived without blister and not new and all were damaged with heavy bumps because they were not protected enough !
But at the end within several weeks i had replacements OK and total shipping return refunded.
The guys working at the customer care in Germany were awesome.

I hope you bought it on your credit card which should have “protection”.
Get in touch with them and tell them what happened.
See if they will claim the money back.

Marvin Gaye 1971 – 1981

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B01E5YJIO0/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Mixed Up – Torn Down: Mixed Up Extras (3CD Deluxe format digipack)
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07CF6X8T1/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

43 €! ;)

Needs to be Amazon-supplied products so it may be that you were trying for 3rd party ones?

A couple of tips re products to consider.

Holger Czukay “Cinema” CD anthology and The Cure “Mixed Up” deluxe CD are both cheapest I’ve found so far on Amazon.Fr even before you add in the €10 discount.

You haven’t used the code

Thanks for the link to guardian article – all I can say is long live physical formats, something you can own & sell or donate / gift.

“uninformed and technically and historically dubious”.
You could say that about every Guardian article.

Thanks for that CAB.

It’s something I notice now in journalism that I didn’t before.

How journalists, rather than just reporting the news with facts, seem to be incapable of reporting without their own bias and spin shining through. Left or right, old or young.

—-I have had a bad time with CDs, I don’t use them or like them so let’s do an article rubbishing them. I genuinely think it’s the modern internet age making people think how they see things is exactly how everybody else should see things with no room for other thought.—Groupthink— ’twas ever thus I suppose.

Love him or hate him Ricky Gervais hits the nail squarely on that head in his latest stand-up on Netflix. “It’s my own personal internet”