HUNTINGTON, W.Va.-January 13, 2000-Enhancing the company's commitment to customer service, leading online retailer Amazon.com, announced plans today to open its first customer service center on the East Coast in April in Huntington, West Virginia.
In response to Amazon.com's growing global customer base, the new customer service center will support the company's retail and marketplace customers from around the world who shop at www.amazon.com or sell via sothebys.amazon.com, zShops, and Auctions.
"The customer service center in Huntington means that growing numbers of Amazon.com customers will be able to receive swift and efficient service for all pre- and post-sales across all major time zones," said Joe Galli, Amazon.com's president and chief operating officer.
"Our analysis of Huntington revealed a strong customer-oriented culture. So we're excited to call Huntington home as we build on our goal to be the most customer-centric company on earth," Galli added.
"Offering our customers the best shopping experience has always been at the core of Amazon.com," said Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com. "Following through on that tradition and commitment is a key consideration of our customer service representatives, who day in and day out go the extra mile for our customers."
The Huntington customer service center is expected to be fully operational in April and will be managed by Rob Gannon, site director. Gannon will report to Bill Price, vice president of customer service at Amazon.com. With the addition of the Huntington customer service center, Amazon.com will have a total of seven customer service centers, including Seattle; Tacoma, Wash.; Slough, England; Regensburg, Germany; Grand Forks, N.D.; and The Hague, Netherlands. The Huntington customer service center will be owned and operated by a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., Amazon.com.wvcs, Inc.
Huntington Open House
Amazon.com will have recruiters at the Civic Center (One Civic Center Plaza) in Huntington for an open house on Friday, January 14, and Saturday, January 15, to receive applications and résumés. Hours of the open house are as follows: Friday from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Interviews for part- and full-time customer service positions will be held by company recruiters in the first week of February. Interested applicants can call Amazon.com's recruiting line toll-free at 1-877-243-2910 for more information.
About Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com (Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries) is the Internet's No. 1 music, No. 1 DVD and video, and No. 1 book retailer. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN - news) opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection, along with online auctions and free electronic greeting cards. Amazon.com lists more than 18 million unique items in categories including books, CDs, toys, electronics, videos, DVDs, home improvement products, software, and video games. Through Amazon.com zShops, any business or individual can sell virtually anything to Amazon.com's more than 15 million customers, and with Amazon.com Payments, any seller can accept credit card transactions, avoiding the hassles of offline payments.
Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they may want to buy online. Amazon.com's All Product Search scours the Web to help customers find merchandise that is not available at Amazon.com, Amazon.com Auctions, or Amazon.com zShops, making Amazon.com the shopping destination to find anything.
Amazon.com operates two international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom and www.amazon.de in Germany. Amazon.com also operates PlanetAll (www.planetall.com), a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 150,000 movies and entertainment programs and 500,000 cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1892 to the present. Amazon.com also operates Amazon.com LiveBid Auctions (http://livebid.amazon.com), the leading provider of live-event auctions on the Internet.
Amazon.com has invested in leading Internet retailers that are improving the lives of customers by making shopping easier and more convenient: drugstore.com, an online retail and information source for health, beauty, wellness, personal care and pharmacy, at www.drugstore.com; Pets.com, the online leader for pet products, expert information and services, at www.pets.com; HomeGrocer.com, the first fully integrated Internet grocery-shopping and home-delivery service, with operations in Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Southern California, at www.homegrocer.com; Gear.com, which offers brand-name sporting goods at prices from 20% to 90% off retail, at www.gear.com; and Ashford.com (NASDAQ: ASFD - news), the leading Internet retailer of luxury and premium products and the Web's No. 1 retailer of watches and jewelry, at www.ashford.com. Amazon.com also has a minority interest in Della.com, which brings together leading retailers with gift registry, expert advice, and personalized gift suggestions to help everyone give better gifts, at www.della.com; and NextCard, Inc., considered the industry's leading issuer of consumer credit on the Internet, at www.nextcard.com.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, consumer trends, competition, risks of distribution center expansion, risks related to fourth-quarter performance, risks of system interruption, management of potential growth, risks related to auction and zShops services, risks related to fraud and Amazon.com Payments, and risks of new business areas, international expansion, business combinations, and strategic alliances. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 1999, June 30, 1999, and September 30, 1999.