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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

#171
post #128

This this a clear cut case and amazon should process the refund, however, in general refunding is a hard problem for Amazon to solve due to the sheer volume fraud that occurs. For anyone unaware, go to telegram and do a public search for 'refunding'. There are hundreds of channels where you can pay someone to refund >£10,000 of stuff for you for a 10% fee. Afaik, the main method that 'refunders' use to defraud amazon…

[deleted]

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

#172
post #128

This this a clear cut case and amazon should process the refund, however, in general refunding is a hard problem for Amazon to solve due to the sheer volume fraud that occurs. For anyone unaware, go to telegram and do a public search for 'refunding'. There are hundreds of channels where you can pay someone to refund >£10,000 of stuff for you for a 10% fee. Afaik, the main method that 'refunders' use to defraud amazon…

For returns you have to print a barcode and put it in the box. You don't get your refund until they physically scan the code in the box. Maybe it's not standard everywhere, but this process has been around for some years now. If the package never gets to the return center, no refund would be processed…

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

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's not an outlier. I've ordered things from Amazon and gotten completely wrong things- like 1 latex glove in the box instead of the makeup I ordered. There are a lot of knockoff products on there, even benign things like birdfeeders are getting faked and sold: https://www.marketplace.org/2019/11/18/how-amazons-counterfe...

Irony is the bird feeder story originally came out before we knew amazon was using their market insight to steal and knockoff their own sellers products. Likely amazon was the one making the knockoffs.

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

#174

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 dirty book thing is so weird, often covered in some weird kind of glue-like "stuff"...

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

#175
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same with roughly the same package volume annually over 8+ years. Literally the only thing lost was due to a historic weather event and Amazon still took care of it. Maybe with commodity household goods it’s different than with higher value items or with electronics.

Electronics is certainly more of an issue - Nobody is shipping empty boxes of toilet paper. The main issues you get are when returns are put back into stock but haven’t been sufficiently checked. I used to work for an online retailer who sold things like games consoles and the amount of return scams we got was absolutely shocking. If you sold a games console with a free game (usually a code inside the console) people…

Off topic but I have seen interesting labels that break destructively.

If you could turn that into a ribbon, then any box could be wrapped in such a way any tampering is evident.

If you could also print a QR code on top, then you have a per shipment tamper proof

I suspect it exists but i am sure there is a long way between that and cost effective useage

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

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably like in "The Rainmaker". Automatically deny every claim above $X. If there's a complaint on the denial, automatically approve or deny based on a new number $Y. Most people give up before you finally get a real human to actually check the case.

If I was a god I would never send anyone to hell to burn forever in fiery torment. For this situation I would be very very tempted to make an exception. Anyone who sets up an automated system designed specifically to hassle people for seeking recourse for being wronged, deserves every form of torture they get.

I understand this is hyperbole, but people do a lot worse things than automated fraud, if we are looking for reason to send someone to hell...

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

#178
post #158

Whenever there's an article about an obvious outlier case (still outrageous in its own of course) you can assume that the top comment will be general complaints about said company's decline, often not representative of people's experience as a whole.

The only outlier here is the cost. General complaints can be assumed to be reprensentive of these people's experiences, or they wouldn't be here complaining, no?

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

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would never buy anything expensive from Amazon, the customer service is not adequate when things go wrong. I even stopped buying CD's from them as they would almost always arrived with cracked/broken cases. Specialist sellers, e.g. Prestomusic, actually wrap and pack them properly (and often have much better websites for buying music).

Are you still buying CDs?

It’s rather nice to buy unusual CDs and FLAC them. I like to do it from time to time.

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

#180

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…

I'm genuinely surprised that people have such vastly different experiences with Amazon. I made 231 orders with them last year(lockdown....) And haven't had a problem with a single one. Couple times I wanted to return something they just refunded me without asking to send the item back. Everything arrives next day, always(here in UK anyway), and the customer support is stellar compared to literally anywhere else. Anyo…

I wonder if there are regions (or countries) which are worse? Amazon in Germany is also great, so far.

I’m like you - I’ve ordered so many things from Amazon this last year or so (new circumstances plus pandemic lockdown) and literally not one problem of the sort described. I can think of two items out of hundreds which weren’t on time (one, Amazons’s logistics made it a whole day late, and one was the seller’s issue). And the (very rare) returns were dealt with without a hitch.

For other reasons, I actually want to not be so reliant on Amazon, but their combination of Prime delivery, reliability, and customer service is unbeatable for many/most non-specialist items.

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