Email jeff@amazon.com.
I've done it a few times before when Amazon really messed up. I got a call back in less than 24 hours and my problem was solved.
[Edit: read the article again, it seems he did :) ]
I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
141–150 of 447 posts
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#142filing the chargeback is a good idea... but also, the sender made a critical mistake sending it usps.. that makes it mail fraud. Talk to the US Postal Inspection Service, it's a branch of law enforcement, and I'm sure they would be very interested with all of the evidence youve collected. They can cross state lines and arrest the sender. https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/
[deleted]
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
The notion that "Amazon has EVERYTHING" only works if you can actually count on the purchase to work. Once it becomes apparent that third-party sellers are crap and those items don't count, you're back to "Amazon has certain things." And I'm not merely careful to filter stuff. Amazon is no longer my go-to in general. I do buy stuff from them sometimes, but they're not the first place I check for most things. A less s…
I just don't see how Amazon isn't the go to. Anything handled directly by Amazon generally has the most competitive pricing, near guarantee of two day delivery or faster, and far larger selection than any other individual store. I cannot think of any general purpose store off the top of my head I would prioritize over Amazon. To be clear, there are some specific purchases I would not make over Amazon. Amazon's clothi…
I started doing comparative shopping via the local trovaprezzi.it since amazon collapsed third party seller inventories by sku and seldom buy from amazon today unless is from amazon itself (not even warehouse) and still I return a third of purchases
Shame because I previously bought dozens of books completely hassle-free
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not if you've got EC2 instances or Kindle books.
You're saying that disputing with Amazon will pull all your kindle books ? I don't think that would fly in countries with consumer rights. Bear in mind this is also a Marketplace seller and not the real Amazon.
[deleted]
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the truly paranoid: have two amazon accounts, one for services (AWS, Kindle, etc) you care about, and one for purchases that you wish to protect.
That's not necessarily going to protect you if they can link the two - same address, same card, etc. https://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/ > We have found your account is directly related to another which has been previously closed for abuse of our policies . As such, your Amazon.co.uk account has been closed and any open orders have been cancelled.
If Amazon refuses to tell you, you can make a request under EU law that they have to honor. For example, in Germany this is implemented in Bundesdatenschutzgesetz §34:
You have, once every 12 months, the right to demand (and receive, for free) from any entity that stores any data about you, all data that they have stored about you, and all probabilistic models derived from it.
So, you'd make a request under BDSG §34, and Amazon would have to transmit all data, including any accounts they consider connected, any and all data they based their account closure on, a list of all third parties they gave your data to, and what, and the weight factors of all probabilistic models based on you (for example, risk and credit rating models, etc).
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point was more that "mysterious hole" and "innatention" are mostly the same thing. My words were "scams are hard to detect" and I stand by them. The people you want to be more attentive make hourly wages and probably see thousands of these appeals every week, statistically none of which are creative scams worthy of arguing about on HN. You're asking too much. Those employees don't exist. You have to get over thei…
> My words were "scams are hard to detect" and I stand by them. I think it should be easy to detect that two addresses are not identical. Which should make this scam easy to detect. * shipped to different address * shipped to different name Even low-paid support people should be able to detect that. If they can't, then Amazon is hiring people who can't (or won't) read . i.e. if support people can't read, they shouldn…
Yes, it will be trivial to detect - once double-checking the address becomes part of the procedure for verifying package delivery. If checking the address isn't part of the procedure, then the procedure needs to be modified. Low-paid support people are expected to follow the procedure exactly, so that the company can obtain consistent results.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
also its funny that even though the mail was sent to Jeff himself, no one in Amazon cared enough to verify the delivery address?
A couple of possibilities: *The customer service reps have to answer a huge volume of cases and they really don't take time to read the email *It's ingrained into the customer service reps to follow policy to a T. So if it was signed for, deny. *They're using some sort of automated system that shows whether something was signed for. If 'yes', deny.
I still use Amazon because of the convenience and because the vast majority of the time I never have to deal with their customer service, but in the rare instances I do I've noticed that over the past few years Amazon has become very Google-like in terms of putting everything behind systems that are either automated or may as well be (strict script-following offshore customer service).
There used to be useful links ("Where's My Stuff?") directly attached to your order for inquiring about status if things are late, etc, with just a click or two... this all kinda still exists but has been buried so far up into the user interface that there's no way it isn't intentional obfuscation to try to limit any kind of meaningful interaction between the customer and anyone alive within Amazon, with a further barrier between the front-line alive people who are clearly all offshored and anyone in the US.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#148I'm wondering more and more why Amazon hosts third-party sellers at all. They dilute the Amazon brand to a tremendous degree. It used to be that buying from Amazon meant a certain level of quality and service. Now there are really two Amazons: the old one, and a new one that's basically a shitty version of eBay. I have to go out of my way to avoid these crappy third-party sellers when I'm searching for stuff on Amazo…
The real damage to Amazon from this behavior is that it's no longer reflexive to buy things on Amazon.
The problems with fraudsters makes it enough of a cognitive burden to buy small items at a reasonable price -- which often are cheap knockoffs requiring careful vetting or overpriced resellers -- that I routinely find myself thinking "Eh, maybe I'll just stop by the store on my way home."
It's not that I'll stop buying things at all from Amazon, it's that other sellers now have a chance to make their case for my dollars because Amazon isn't a clear win in terms of effort involved, satisfaction with purchase, etc and that I no longer feel comfortable making impulse buys -- I have to second guess the quality of the product, which often means I just won't buy it.
My Amazon bill is down ~25% YoY because of that.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#149The only way I've got problems solved with Amazon is going to the police and let them sort it out. Worked every time. Amazon was in now way responsive or helpful before I've got the police involved.
The chances are the seller is a fake as well. They use stolen identity to sell and transfer funds. Police will likely end up with a dead end. You have to trace the funds. FBI would be a better help here. Now how do you get them involved? lol
> Please contact your local FBI office or submit a tip electronically if you have information about: [...] Financial crimes that involve fraud, especially corporate fraud, mortgage fraud, or other investment fraud schemes where significant dollar losses have occurred, including those impacting you or your place of work
https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us
I've heard that the FBI will definitely get involved if it falls into their investigation categories. Also, it can never hurt to call and ask anyway.
Edit: Mail fraud is specifically listed on this page relating to organized crime: https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/organized-crime
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#150I'm wondering more and more why Amazon hosts third-party sellers at all. They dilute the Amazon brand to a tremendous degree. It used to be that buying from Amazon meant a certain level of quality and service. Now there are really two Amazons: the old one, and a new one that's basically a shitty version of eBay. I have to go out of my way to avoid these crappy third-party sellers when I'm searching for stuff on Amazo…
Amusingly, I've actually been finding myself buying more things on Ebay.