My personal experience of their customer service, returns policy etc. is quite good*. I was amused by the incident I've quoted from though. Even there the poor guy was trying to help and I expect that his lack of attention to detail was more to do with volume of calls he had to deal with.

(Usually) good to their customers - their staff: not so much.

*That said, I have heard of some incidents where Amazon have banned Prime customers for too many returns. Seems like a drastic ban too, with customer services refusing calls, loss of access to all account pages receipts etc.

I've got prime at the moment (39 a year for students), but the increase in the number of things that aren't prime eligible (or are 20-30% more expensive for pime) means I'll probably not be renewing.

You cunning bastard. Imagine trying to do a double switcheroo, reverse loopback end-around - to not get a refund to get a refund and back to not getting a refund!

You are the owner of Amazon by now, are you not?

I'm wondering if the refund turned up anyway.

It was tempting to just let it ride and keep the refund, but then it occurred to me that it might end up as yet another blot on some poor sod's staff assessment. It was only a few pounds anyway.

Not yet - although if it does I'm not fighting it again :)
 

Good on you! A lot of people think that getting over on someone - even a company as big as Amazon - has no other ramifications.