Amazon Touches a Nerve with New Support Option for Sellers

Amazon launched a new live-chat option for sellers who need customer support. But sellers who reacted to the announcement said they need better quality support, not new ways to access customer support reps.

In an announcement titled, "You can now reach Selling Partner Support through live chat," Amazon wrote:

"You can now chat in real time with a Selling Partner Support associate on Seller Central to resolve questions about selling on Amazon.

"We're constantly working to improve the support we provide, and have heard your feedback that you'd like more ways to reach an associate on our team.

"With live chat, you can connect with an associate to immediately discuss your issue. Our associates can help you with the majority of issues via live chat.

"If you need to open a support case, go to Get Help. Once you select your store, service, and issue type, click Contact an associate and then select Chat.

"To help us improve the live chat experience, let us know at the end of each session if you were satisfied with the support provided."

Sellers who replied to the announcement were skeptical that the new live-chat feature would prove more helpful than current options. One seller wrote, "The issue with seller support is not the form of communication or the timeliness of communication it's the quality of the communication. If all we have done is traded standard canned bot generated emails for standard canned bot generated chat messages then how is this better.

"What we need is better informed, helpful support on the other end. Support that doesn't mindlessly send you the same stock email back without actually reading or understanding our issues. I would even be ok if they took extra time to respond as long as they 1) took the time to understand my issue and 2) had an informed knowledgeable answer that resolved my issue."

Another seller wrote, "Adding a new way your bots and overseas mindless minions can use to regurgitate and spew ridiculous scripted trash is NOT addressing "our feedback"! NO ONE here cares that the bots or the mindless minions respond quicker because they respond with asinine garbage! I am sure that ALL of us would rather wait a little longer as long as we get COHERENT support!"

Excerpts of other comments from sellers about the new feature:

"Tried it twice already, all I get are "I am not trained" and don't know."

"We want US-based support."

"As any seller can tell you, the primary complaint about seller support is the poor quality of service we get when we do reach them. They lie to us, they hang up on us, they give us bad advice, they transfer us to non-working numbers, or they refer us to some other magical 'team' that they claim will fix the problem."

Aside from the four thumbs-up the announcement garnered (with 9 thumbs down), there were no positive reactions to the post in the first 29 comments we reviewed.

Is it really as difficult for sellers to resolve issues as the Amazon Announcement Board thread indicates? And how does it compare to the other marketplaces on which you sell?