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Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

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Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#21

I do not trust Amazon to ship anything safely and securely anymore. Almost everything I receive is damaged, late, or mis-delivered. Books are especially abused somewhere in Amazon’s fulfillment. (They’re always bent, creased, or dirty.) Items that are supposed to be 1-day shipping typically take >=3, and Amazon’s tracking mostly says “oops! it’ll come trust us”. (Not verbatim, obviously.) Amazon’s return process is b…

It's genuinely astonishing how bad Amazon is at shipping books now. It used to be their Thing, and now basically any book you buy from them arrives damaged. You can complain and get them to send a replacement and the replacement is damaged too. In my experience Amazon Japan still knows how to pack books correctly, but I haven't ordered from them since the start of COVID... they properly secure books to a bit of backi…

I agree. I don’t books on Amazon anymore here in Germany unless I cannot get the book anywhere else.

As for Amazon Japan, their packaging is most often top-notch although that’s more related to Japanese mentality than to Amazon‘s policy.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#22
post #2

My shock here is that someone would order something that costs $7k from amazon! Buy that from BH, newegg, some specialty retailer, etc. Not American alibaba.

I'd argue the opposite -- why not order from Amazon? Lots of folks have come to trust Amazon's reliability and customer service over the years, so it does make sense for customers to order expensive things from Amazon or any other online store, especially with a pandemic going around. This incident in particular does seem to be an outlier, and we'll have to see how Amazon resolves it.

Don't use Amazon all that much but from the comments here and in other articles that seem to pop up more often recently I figure now time has come for Amazon to finally milk that sweet sweet trust relationship.

I've recently used newly opened Amazon.pl, first purchase and I had to wait +5 weeks for a small item. I'm not used to navigating the labyrinth of checking whether something is fulfilled by someone or whatever. I just had the displeasure of buying something from a dropshipper.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#24

I do not trust Amazon to ship anything safely and securely anymore. Almost everything I receive is damaged, late, or mis-delivered. Books are especially abused somewhere in Amazon’s fulfillment. (They’re always bent, creased, or dirty.) Items that are supposed to be 1-day shipping typically take >=3, and Amazon’s tracking mostly says “oops! it’ll come trust us”. (Not verbatim, obviously.) Amazon’s return process is b…

The winning strategy for Amazon is to segregate by loyalty: Have an absolutely stunning experience until you are addicted, then let you have bad products and focus on newer clients.

In fact, nothing tells us we all see the same prices either. I suspect they only show me more expensive items, because I can find my A4 paper at 6€ elsewhere instead of 10€ on Amazon. And same goes for most other stuff. Maybe after a few years, Amazon profits off us with a hefty margin. Price segmentation by (reverse) customer loyalty.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#25
post #11

How does Amazon protect itself against unscrupulous buyers ordering $7k cameras and then claiming they received an empty box?

Well, it was pretty clear in this case as even UPS confirmed the package was way too light to actually contain the TV.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#26

I do not trust Amazon to ship anything safely and securely anymore. Almost everything I receive is damaged, late, or mis-delivered. Books are especially abused somewhere in Amazon’s fulfillment. (They’re always bent, creased, or dirty.) Items that are supposed to be 1-day shipping typically take >=3, and Amazon’s tracking mostly says “oops! it’ll come trust us”. (Not verbatim, obviously.) Amazon’s return process is b…

It's genuinely astonishing how bad Amazon is at shipping books now. It used to be their Thing, and now basically any book you buy from them arrives damaged. You can complain and get them to send a replacement and the replacement is damaged too. In my experience Amazon Japan still knows how to pack books correctly, but I haven't ordered from them since the start of COVID... they properly secure books to a bit of backi…

Lots of books on Amazon are now printed on demand. In theory a smart and possibly environmentally friendly practice.

But you end up with smudgy pages from a bad printer, pages missing, and a book binding not lasting more than a day.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#27
post #2

My shock here is that someone would order something that costs $7k from amazon! Buy that from BH, newegg, some specialty retailer, etc. Not American alibaba.

Recently i ordered something via newegg, after a week they canceled order bc seller didn’t ship, then next day it arrived in amazon box

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#28
post #2

My shock here is that someone would order something that costs $7k from amazon! Buy that from BH, newegg, some specialty retailer, etc. Not American alibaba.

I'd argue the opposite -- why not order from Amazon? Lots of folks have come to trust Amazon's reliability and customer service over the years, so it does make sense for customers to order expensive things from Amazon or any other online store, especially with a pandemic going around. This incident in particular does seem to be an outlier, and we'll have to see how Amazon resolves it.

Because Amazon co-mingles inventory from sellers by UPC. So if one crook ships in empty boxes and you buy from someone else you still can get shafted and the honest seller eats the costs.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#29
post #11

How does Amazon protect itself against unscrupulous buyers ordering $7k cameras and then claiming they received an empty box?

I imagine they do some type of internal checks to see if it is a residential address and if there have been similar issues in the area. If they feel like the buyer may be lying then I'm sure they have some way to turn the matter over to investigators who may monitor their financial records and may even send police or FBI to surveil them.

Re: Amazon refused to refund $7k after shipping an empty box instead of a Sony A1

#30
As a rule I don't order from Amazon beyond a certain price point. I purchase from a physical retail store. First couple of years of Amazon in India was really good. Good collection, low prices and good customer experience. But as their orders and catalog has shot everything about them has become a shitshow, at least from what I've observed. Also they have significantly ramped up 3rd party sellers and given extremely high density of retail stores in India I might as well go visit those stores and cut out Amazon. If I run into problems I can "physically" visit a store and talk to someone; with Amazon I might as well have better chances of talking to God.
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