I, too, consider Amazon's customer service to be stellar. Problem? No questions asked. Instead, "Here's what we can do to make it right."

Agreed. Amazon is stellar.

I also agree. Amazon and their vendors have always given us excellent customer service. Best way to shop for almost anything.

Yes, I also shop Amazon for more reasons than just price....and normally It IS the cheapest. I had a similar experience with something they told me to just keep even thought the item WAS returnable. I've been shopping with them since their beginning when they would often include a little something extra like a gift pencil or a small pad of Post-It Notes with your order. They are a Class Act,

It's all over the net/news that they're a horrible company to work for; pushing employees to the limit, 80-hr work-week, people breaking down etc.

The CEO (I think it is) is debunking it as are some employees, and he has asked anyone to come forward if they think any of these allocations are remotely true. I didn't believe that the company was like that when I read it yesterday, but who knows.

Another happy Amazon customer!! They are amazing.

I've never had a bad experience with Amazon. I purchased a Vigo wall mount faucet, couldn't find it in stock anywhere else and got a killer deal awhile back.

I've never had to get a refund, it's good to know it's a snap!

Jasdip....everywhere I've ever worked they wanted me to work overtime, be on-call in the middle of the night in case a program went down/I had to fix it right away and it totally sucked! work=peon in a sweat shop That's not news....haha Ya work until you can afford to retire and smile while your doing it, just happy to pay the bills.

As for the work environment, if Amazon has been too demanding, this will be a good wake-up call. I remember reading how stressed people are trying to fill orders in a massive warehouse. (Were they wearing roller skates, or did I dream that?)

I too am a big Amazon fan. I tried to return something once, and they said "keep it" and issued a credit. The only fault I have with them is the excessive use of shipping materials, boxes and plastic blow-ups.

Amazon is handy because if you need a variety of things which might involve multiple stops in the car, you can just order from Amazon and it's done!

I hope y'all have signed up for "Amazon Smile" because they will donate a small percentage of your purchases to the charity of your choice. It can add up with the thousands of customers Amazon has. It's worth doing.

Amazon has many millions of customers!

And another big fan here. We have had to return items, but THEY contacted UPS to arrange for a pick-up. All we had to do was put it back in the box and tape it up. UPS had the free return label.

I love love love Amazon. I follow a couple of the forums at Amazon, such as "general help". It's quite interesting and educational! Sometimes annoying. There are many posts this week about that WSJ article. Most people are saying something like "well, nobody's forcing them to work there .... if you don't like it, just quit and work someplace else". I don't disagree.

We returned something earlier this year.......a corn popper. Used it once, and half the kernels were unpopped. We immediately popped corn in the one we had and they all popped, to make sure it wasn't the popcorn.

I wrote to Amazon and they emailed me a printable return label. Postage paid via UPS. Very very easy to do and no questions asked!

I had always been a loyal and happy customer with Amazon until recently, with two different transactions. I was sent the wrong items (from Amazon). They admitted from the getgo that they had sent the wrong items, but the chain of events (very long story) that followed were a nightmare until I made my way up the chain of command, who was appalled at what took place. She assured me that she would be having a conversation with the customer service reps involved and if need be send them to retrain. She also sent me a letter of apology which was unexpected, but very much appreciated.

The accusation of overworking and emotionally overtaxing Amazon employees has nothing to do with the warehouse workers, but rather the desk jockeys. Unfortunately, that is old news here in Silicon (rhymes with fun, btw, sil i cun--it soooo bugs me when I hear it spoken as sil i con, rhyming with gone) Valley where such a work environment is the norm. All the great environmental perks are meant to keep employees in the office for as long as possible, thus eking more work out of them. The young and ambitious ones can often handle it, but it becomes quite tough for those with families and older employees.

SJerkin...your last sentence is so true.

I agree with sjerin, though it's not just for the young.

I spent a career in Silicon Valley that I loved and like many other things - it's a choice. The environment can be very fast, demanding, unreasonable and unforgiving. That suits some people and not others. The rewards are not only monetary, and for many, the monetary rewards are modest.

Sili-con (as in gone) is ok with me, what bugs me is Sili-cone (like ice cream cone), the stuff used in construction as a caulk.

I can't remember who it was, but quite awhile back, at the height of working = foozball, one good sized Silicon Valley tech place locked people out at something like 6 p.m. Didn't let 'em back in until 8 a.m. or some similar, reasonable hour. The CEO was of the opinion that people with social and family lives would be better and more loyal workers. It was working well for him. Obviously not a trend....

I had some bad luck at Amazon awhile back with a gift magazine subscription. Those aren't under their complete control. It seemed nightmarish with many calls. Finally, I just asked for a refund. They agreed. :) Problem solved.

One thing I remember when I hear stories of work stress in this kind of situation is that young people nowadays aren't as inclined to think of hard work as normal. My first (minimum wage and no work in bad weather) job wasn't what I would call "taxing", but for several hours a day I averaged dealing with 70 people (live) per hour. 80 was the top limit of human ability--if the average was up past 75, my boss would actually help. :) Plus answering the phone, making transaction calls out and serving coffee. I was on the hop with no slowdowns and no breaks until after the rush. The hours either side were busy too, but I figured if I had at least a minute per customer I didn't have to run in top gear. Maybe it's easier to do all that on one's feet. I wonder if the desks are the problem?

I did t even know Amazon was a Silicon Valley company.. I thought it was Seattle.

Actually, the workplace issues with Amazon have to do with both the white-collar and the warehouse workers. On the white-collar side, that the "culture" of the company sometimes demands working massive numbers of hours per week is pretty typical of hi-tech (so, "stop whining" could be a reasonable response there). However, Amazon in addition has a rather nasty, Machiavellian political structure (anonymous system that encourages widespread "reporting" on colleagues, stacked-rank reviewing that mandates firing a fixed percentage each year) that, along with the long hours and fast pace and lack of amenities (Amazon does not "do" the many amenities offered by other hi-tech firms, especially the family-friendly ones), burns people out really, really fast. Retention rate is 15% after 5 years, which is the worst rate in hi-tech. There are also on record a number of cases where people were fired as a direct result of having cancer or other health problems or were forced to return to work within hours of a miscarriage or other major medical problem, and so forth.

On the warehouse side, in 2011 it was reported that rather than install air conditioning in its warehouse (Lehigh Valley, PA) or slow the frenzied pace of work it demands, Amazon hired ambulances during heat waves to wait outside and haul off workers who collapsed on the line due to heat stroke, dehydration, etc. The fallen were soon replaced by new applicants in that jobs-starved area. Public outcry led to that warehouse finally being air-conditioned, but Amazon warehouse work in general is reputed to be some of the most brutal in the business. A recent Supreme Court decision addressed Amazon's practice of holding warehouse employees for up to 1/2 hour after their shifts, without pay, in order to undergo security screening. The Supreme Court upheld the practice, meaning that warehouse employees now required to "donate" up to 1/2 an hour to Amazon each day.

Considering how fast Amazon burns through high-tech talent, of which there is not an infinite supply, while never yet turning an annual profit (!!!), I don't think their business model is going to be one that is sustainable long-term. "Enjoy" them while you can, folks.

The story about Amazon with so many comments (5,730 so far, and still open), and to which CEO Jeff Bezos made a response, was in last Sunday's New York Times business section, not the WSJ (see http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?ref=business.)

I have a friend who's worked at an Amazon warehouse out west and loves it. She used to do a lot of walking to retrieve items for shipment and now that she's older she's working a forklift. I tried to get my son to apply at Amazon in Lexington but he says he's heard from a lot of people that it's horrible. May be an age thing, who knows.

The source of the media talk about Amazon's workplace environment is probably

this recent article from the New York Times.

I found it pretty shocking. Encouraging employees to sabotage one another? Intruding on their sleep, for heaven's sake? And so much more. It was not what I expected from a modern business.

I have an Amazon credit card, and shop there a lot. It's still my go-to place when I need to buy something. But I hope the Times article makes Amazon rethink some of its policies as an employer.

Yes, Amazon is one of many "tech" companies in the greater Seattle area (another one starts with an M) but when people talk about a Silicon Valley environment, they usually mean the cultural characteristics of fast growing and (originally) technology industry companies for which unreasonable demands and expectations of employees are normal. Unreasonable rewards and compensation are also normal.

I didn't find anything surprising or unusual in the article from what I experienced with my own and lots of similar companies that I knew (as a consultant to many) from the inside.

Fast paced companies can be extremely fun places for motivated and high-achieving people to work. Those that don't last long are often those who don't measure up. Not always, but often. At least that was my experience. As with any demanding job that carries a more than a 9 to 5 expectation, it does take a major effort (and an understanding family) to be successful and yet still have a personal life outside work.

No company wants negative press, but I promise you nothing will change. It's a cultural thing. The hot companies, where again rewards can be high, often have multiple qualified applicants for every opening. Not so much right now because the job markets are so hot, but for every leaving employee, there are plenty of others dying to crawl over the other bodies and take the spot.

Thanks for that, Jasdip. In other words, Amazon's warehouses work like any other fulfillment center, just on a larger scale. I do think they should either automate more or put in more humanizing elements. Like if it's too long a walk to the break room, they should add a few satellite break rooms in the far parts. I know some warehouse workers who've tried other kinds of work, and ended up liking the warehouse better, so maybe some of Amazon's workers actually like their jobs. Re productivity, it seems that many of the people they described in the story work pretty autonomously. If they're out of sight of their team leaders, it makes sense to check their work using digital tools. The issue is whether they're just trying to keep lollygaggers and goldbrickers working along, or if they're setting their productivity goals too high, not whether they're checking.