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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

#551

Post by kennywinker »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #497
wpietri wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perfectly believable. The thing I really loved about Amazon is that they had their act together. But that has declined drastically over the decades; now whenever I actually have to deal with them it seems like there's a ton of internal chaos. In June 2018, I ordered a soccer magazine, "Futbol Total", for my soccer-mad nephew. It said it would arrive in 4-16 weeks, which seemed weird. I waited it out, and no magazine.…

> The thing I really loved about Amazon is that they had their act together. But that has declined drastically over the decades This seems to be a problem for all big platforms. When they’re small enough to not change the ecosystem, they can do what they do well. Eg amazon ships more conveniently and google returns better results and uber is less scammy. Then they get massive and become a viable,better understood tar…

I suspect you're undervaluing the impact of monopoly on those businesses. Google and Amazon are barely competing with anybody - when they were trying to win their position, there was a lot of value in keeping you happy. Now, not so much

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

#552

Post by bartvk »

cerved wrote: post #52

I always record unboxing anything I buy online, it's a convenient way of proof of something is missing out damaged

Yup, me too. It's so incredibly easy to do if you have an iPad with a kickstand, just hit record and unpack. If all is fine, delete. If not, then you are covered.

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

#553

Post by floatingatoll »

ageitgey wrote: post #215

Like most people, I've ordered a lot of packages (hundreds?) on Amazon and almost never had a problem. In the rare case of a problem, Amazon would instantly refund me. But almost all those orders are under $1000. Everything changes when you have a problem with an expensive order. Amazon has a price threshold where the support system is different and the normal CS people are powerless. During lockdown, I ordered a Son…

A tiny corollary/anecdote: Every time the person who used to live here forgets and ships a book to my address, I call Amazon, they say “oh sorry”, and they instruct me to recycle/dispose of it and won’t accept a return of the still-unopened envelope. I’m not sure how this ties into LTV on the refunds side, but it feels like a sort of hidden incentive that’s not well known.

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

#554

Post by Peaches4Rent »

ghaff wrote: post #368
ericmay wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, kind of. So Steam and Etsy themselves trend toward some amount of centralization, but in the case of Stream for example you have Playstation, Microsoft's platform, Stadia (soon to be cancelled I'm sure), Switch, Epic game store, iOS, and others. They aren't all exactly 1-1 comparable but I think that's ok. Frankly, you can get games from a lot of sources. You might say you can't get an indy title from one of th…

People clearly differ. Steam and Etsy are actually two companies that, if I were unable to use them starting tomorrow, that would basically have zero impact on my life. Whereas, although I do order from a variety of online retailers, going cold turkey on Amazon would be a fairly significant inconvenience for me--although some seem not to use them much.

You'd just create a new account for Amazon.

But what about your gmail? You'll lose all access to your email

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

#555

Post by heavyset_go »

franga2000 wrote: post #495
asimpletune wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me about how these infractions can be enforced without suing though?

You report them to the relevant regulatory body.

Most states' Attorneys General offices have Consumer Protection branches, as well.

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

#556

Post by caseysoftware »

sbarre wrote: post #496
rantwasp wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so, at what point is legitimate to involve the Credit Card company? you don’t even need to actually do it, tell cs you will do it unless it gets here in x days. issue a chargeback and move on.

As others have also said, doing a chargeback risks Amazon closing your account permanently. So if you're prepared to take that risk and never buy from Amazon again, sure.. go for it.. But given the centralization of vendors this can have bigger downsides than upside.

Intriguing and horrifying.. What happens with a ban?

I assume all my not-downloaded Kindle books become unavailable. Does the Kindle app delete the ones I have locally? (I assume the result would be similar for movies/shows purchased.)

Does it ban my credit card, name, address, or a more abstract "buying profile"?

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

#557

Post by ArtDev »

As Amazon's prices have risen, the minimum order for free shipping on other companies has lowered.

For human rights reasons, I am avoiding Amazon unless the price is clearly much better. The funny thing is, it usually isn't (except for books).

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

#558

Post by sporedro »

ageitgey wrote: post #215

Like most people, I've ordered a lot of packages (hundreds?) on Amazon and almost never had a problem. In the rare case of a problem, Amazon would instantly refund me. But almost all those orders are under $1000. Everything changes when you have a problem with an expensive order. Amazon has a price threshold where the support system is different and the normal CS people are powerless. During lockdown, I ordered a Son…

Strange I would assume that $5k to them is still nearly nothing. I've never ordered anything over $1k from Amazon and never had an issue with refunds due to issues but I guess they have a cutoff somewhere. I'll keep that in mind if I ever need to order something expensive like that.

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

#559

Post by heavyset_go »

FpUser wrote: post #419
rkalla wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like others have said - be careful with this option - there are a LOT Of examples in the Google Fi forums about people doing a chargeback with Google because of charges they felt were fair or fraudulent via Google Fi, and next thing they know their Google Account (Photos, Docs, Email, etc.) is disabled. I would watch the same thing with Amazon (Music, Alexa, Photos, AWS, etc.)

This is why I do not use gmail or any other online services from any vendor which might restrict me from doing things I do. My online dependency is limited to Netflix and Amazon. Amazon is easily replaceable. As for Netflix - there are other services and as an alternatives I'll just read more books. I might miss Google Gearch and Youtube but from my experiments those can be used in anonymous mode. For people who earn…

A couple of years ago I migrated away from Gmail for just this reason. Before I did that, my life could have become very difficult if Google decided to deem me as a persona non grata, and I'd have little to no recourse.

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

#560

Post by bfdm »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #343
ageitgey wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the end, it probably took 3-4 weeks to get my money back for a $5k 1-day delivery package that wasn't ever delivered. I would have gone the bank route next, but since Amazon did eventually give me my money back, it wasn't needed. I'm sure the shipper was who lost/stole the package. But my point is that you can't take your great support experience with Amazon buying $50 sheets and expect that you get the same exper…

As I've moved more of my shopping away from Amazon I've noticed that lots and lots of online retailers are now competitive on the logistics side. Fast shipping is now table stakes.

Unfortunately many have also opened the doors to so-called third party marketplace sellers. It's making the experience of looking for items online worse. Some label this poorly, some offer no easy way to filter to only items sold by the actual company.
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