The Samsung S25 flagship for my wife. Amazon didn’t deliver (NDD) in two days. I cancelled and bought a pink one, only available from Samsung—next-day delivery.
Yet Amazon kept the money they should have refunded. They even said the OTP (one-time password) to the delivery driver had not been used. I had never seen or received their phone.
I had two legal processes going: One called a ChargeBack, and the other MCOL (essentially Master Card small claims court, which I had to pay £80 to file)
On the very first day I complained (late November), I received two emails: “We’ve sent you the funds”, and the other “We will send you the funds”.
No and no.
I can sort out about 45 emails to:
We will send you the money
Call your bank (by far the most)
We’ve sent you the money
Our computers need time to think (this was an obvious early December delay)
They never said it was delivered. They never denied that they have my money for a product that was not delivered.
I had them nailed. They had no chance in the world - even if it were just those first two emails.
The ChargeBack seemed the least likely to happen. My bank (Revolut) did not receive much documentation other than “money charged for no product sent.”
Yet today, Amazon capitulated. They could have asked for a 28-day extension, or on the 14th defaulted (and had to pay my court fees + interest), yet they waited till the last day of the ChargeBack pathway to refund me just the original amount.
I sent a polite letter asking for the £80, yet that is entirely not going to happen.
My experience is Amazon customer service is excellent 99% of the time, but when you run into that 1% issue, they are practically impossible to deal with. I posted this screed a few months ago about a problem I had with them which took dozens of back and forth messages over a couple of months before it was finally resolved.
I could clearly tell they just wanted me to go away. The bulk of their replies were “Call your bank” as if my bank was going to just pull the money out of their vault. I can’t quite throw accolades at Revolut, as when I did contact them, they would constantly say “Rest assured,” even when I asked them to stop saying that.
They didn’t owe me the money, yet never explained why I should “Rest assured” as I was building a slam-dunk claim on the MCOL side.
What they did was contemptible. The worst that could have happened, if they kept up on the MCOL/small claims side, was that a judge would take a very dim view of a huge multinational company acting this way.
Also, as this was a lot of money (Jeff Bezos just made 10x that much as I typed this sentence), I got the “go away” treatment, and even though there were no punitive damages possible for me, or fines (for them) if their goal was to lose a 30-year customer, mission accomplished.
Admittedly I’ve not had to deal with Amazon customer service very often, which itself is a plus for them. But the few times that I did I was quite impressed. I guess I just never ran into that 1%. They also make returns very easy as you just drop off the item at a store that acts as a bulk shipper for them.
I have never had much problem with Amazon with customer returns. It’s often a bit of a game of tiddly winks, as in all pieces have to fall a certain way to make it easy peasey.
I’ve never ordered tech from them either. (Computers, phones or tools).
I just don’t trust the delivery process with tech, lots YouTube of folks receiving empty boxes.
They have always been quite helpful to me…possibly due to many tens of thousands of dollars of purchases over the decades.
My most recent issue was caused by strange circumstances and their AI chatbot.
I ordered some filter gels (flat plastic sheets about the size of a sheet of paper).
I live on the corner of Dummy and Bogus streets, so it was supposed to ship to 3 Dummy Street, but the driver dropped it off around the corner on 3 Bogus Street. This happens.
My across-the-side-street neighbor on Bogus Street’s teenaged son showed up on my doorbell cam dropping the thin flat package on my porch but didn’t press the doorbell.
The heavy winds blew it away…forever
Amazon sent a “Delivered!” package with a photo of not-my-house.
I contacted Amazon saying it was never received and told the bot that showed me the photo that it wasn’t my house.
Somehow the bot processed it as an exchange, so they told me to return the original before X days to avoid another charge.
So, how to untangle that with Amazon? Neighbor had it, threw it on my porch, wind carried it away, then Amazon tells me to send the old one when they ship the new one.
10 minutes on the phone with a nice Amazon guy on Friday solved everything.
The last issue I had with them was when I ordered some items that ended up being shipped separately. This happens sometimes, no big deal, but in this case for some reason one of the items shipping separately had a shipping charge added because its value was less than the free-shipping threshold. But free shipping is supposed to be based on the value of the total order – it wasn’t my choice to ship this thing separately.
I don’t remember if I called them or emailed them but the shipping charge was quickly refunded.
I’ve never had an issue with getting anything refunded from Amazon. The OP seems very confusingly written. You ordered a computer, it was never delivered, and Amazon refused to refund the money? So you had to pay for a lawyer?
I do not recall having a problem with Amazon before. Indeed, in some cases “you sent me two, only charged for one. I only want one. Want it back?” Their reply (in some cases, maybe a vendor) has been, “Thanks. Keep the extra.”
minor7flats has spent tens of thousands, and that might set Jeff Bezos back 5 seconds to lose this kind of a customer. Perhaps they do check your history, and if you’re a “whale” (no offense minor), you might be treated kindly and not have to dispute with your bank, send two “LBA’s” (letter before action) - the second being one someone actually had to sign for to legitimize my MCOL lawsuit, which they absolutely would have lost. No biggie, £1,110 plus £80 for the poor schmuck’s filing fee and a puny amount of interest. With paying via chargeback, they only needed to refund and did not lost any “case”.
My only issue is when i get some item under $10 that was damaged or defective, and I call Cust Serv- they are happy to have me send it back for a full refund, but the last two times I had to talk to a supervisor to point out the fact that shipping it back is a waste of my time and their money. But they agree, after 10 minutes on the phone.
Mind you on anything more than $10, or just a “it doesnt fit” i always do send it back.
Here, certainly for a high-price ticket item like a phone or a Macbook Pro, I will open it right there.
If they’re just tossing it on your doorstep (A Macbook pro?) and you get a brick, you are likely screwed. Yet Amazon uses the OTP (and in my case admitted it had not been used) and no way they’re leaving a high price item to be stolen / replaced / blown into the wind.
ETA: My domicile is apparently hard to find. Till a bunch of over-50 condos were built, there were only three of us in the postcode.
So when Samsung was sending the pink phone that my wife uses, I saw it was DHL and really wasn’t’ sure they knew where I lived, Like Amazon, they had a map of where the courier is when it’s somewhat close. So I was prepared with the Union Jack (British flag) and ran after the guy who had just blown by and was well on his way out of here.
Well, I thought you were talking about a TV in the OP, and was really surprised you found a pink one.
I almost did order a TV from Amazon, and I think I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t usually have issues with them, but having to spar over a big-ticket item like that sounds stressful.
I did buy two Dell monitors from them last month and they dumped them on the front porch and left without knocking on the door.
Amazon has always been good about returns for me, and I’m not even a Prime member. Once I had a rescue pup chew up an almost-new Kindle I bought. I contacted C/S hoping they would be kind and give me the Prime Day price, even though it was no fault at all of theirs. The guy was great and sent me a brand new Kindle at no charge.
Did you cancel while it was on the way to you?
See- Amazon- and most other companies doesnt like that. Because it is hard for them to get the item back.
And if so- why?