It's funny that the article mentions that the Amazon phone number "isn't hard to find"; I remember that they used to be the poster child (poster company?) for obscurantism in that respect. See, for example, http://amazoncustomerservice.blogspot.com/2007/12/8.html. (Actually, although I agree that it's not hard to Google, a few idle clicks on the Amazon page—including to Help > Contact Us—didn't immediately turn it up there.)
When I click "contact us", it gives me a page that says:
"How would you like to contact us?" and gives me 3 options:
1) E-mail
2) Phone
3) Chat
If you choose phone, you can have them call you, or you can call their number. It may seem convoluted, but since you are able to choose your order and issue you would like to discuss, the amazon representative calling you doesn't have to go through all the verification nonsense and looking up orders and such silly steps.
> It may seem convoluted, but since you are able to choose your order and issue you would like to discuss, the amazon representative calling you doesn't have to go through all the verification nonsense and looking up orders and such silly steps.
You are right that these are advantages, and I'm OK with it; but notice that you have to be logged in (or enter your password) to see these options. It seems to me that requiring you to be logged in to find the phone number is still at least a bit ridiculous.
