Amazon Has an Honesty Issue

> and have even contested credit card charge-backs.

Personally, I'd never do a CC chargeback against certain companies. Too much risk of being cut off from a crucial vendor by a "customers who do chargebacks aren't worth the trouble" automation/SOP.

(For household consumer issues... if customer service was exhausted, I'd escalate to the CEO's office "?" email address, and if even that didn't work, but I really needed it solved, I'd consult a lawyer about whether they could negotiate a solution with a letter or phone call.)

I have had some amazing experiences with Amazon CS, but mostly meh ones. Usually I have to spend 10-20 mins sorting out an issue that was not my fault (package never arrived, return never arrived at their warehouse after I dropped it at UPS), and at most they give a $5 credit for the trouble.

But then there was one time where I literally got hundreds of dollars in refunds for a screw up on their end. I didn’t even ask for it — their guy volunteered it and I couldn’t believe he was serious. But he was: he refunded me for a dozen or so purchases to make up for one (expensive) item that was delayed past a birthday that it was supposed to be for. I got the item for free, and then some.

This isn't just an Amazon problem. I requested a refund from Expedia because their search listed a hotel from another state with a city by the same name when I made a specific city & state search. Their search functionality clearly had a bug and we reserved a hotel in the wrong city. Upon realizing this an hour later we phoned Expedia who told us to phone the hotel; when we talked to the hotel the person that answered said only a manager could refund my purchase and to call in the morning. When I called in the morning the manager told me they held the room for me so I had to pay for it anyway. I realized that I had been gaslit, willingly, but the people who worked there. I talked to Expedia who offered me a partial refund, which I refused. I called my credit card company and they filed a dispute, eventually citing that I'd had several successful bookings with Expedia before (totally unrelated to my case).

To me, the issue is that credit card companies no longer exist to protect and defend consumers the way they used to. They're deep in the pockets of vendors, massaging their backs for a kick of the churn. There's room here for a very heavy handed, national agency in each country that makes these companies lives hell when they lie or drag their feet.

A relative had mail stolen from an outgoing mailbox. She filed a complaint and was contacted months later when they caught the guy. They found her checks (to charity) in his house. She was shocked to hear back so much later. Apparently they were on the case the whole time, since it was affecting a lot of people.

I have relevant industry experience, and I would advise anyone to never, ever use Priority or Express Mail for a high-value item, under any circumstances. Even with third-party insurance.

Theft is much more likely than with UPS/FedEx overnight services, and it's nearly impossible to arrange the delivery so that the parcel is on camera for its entire journey, something easily accomplished with some other carriers. And if the package lost, prosecution is almost an impossibility, as is therefore recovery.

In the event of a loss, Postal Inspectors are typically useless for pursuing package theft committed by USPS employees, even with very high value because they live in perpetual fear of the APWU (their explanation, not mine). They also hilariously attempt to pass the investigative buck to local authorities, who rightly note that it was a Federal crime committed by a Federal employee on Federal property.

The Postal Inspectors recently had a high-visibility thread on another site that very much overstated their value, and ever since that thread went up that's been the narrative. It's wholly unjustified.

Registered Mail is the only USPS service worth considering for such items, and it's actually incredibly good, and tightly controlled. It's arguably the most secure service of the major carriers, and probably where that recommendation comes from. As bad as the USPS is at delivering everything else securely, they're excellent at getting Registered Mail items where they belong. Insurance up to $50K can be purchased (and sometimes over that amount).

For someone with no experience doing a one-off, high-value shipment, that is what I would strongly recommend. The insurance also comes without the endless hidden caveats one finds with UPS that requires a complex decision tree to validate, or the BTW-it's-not-actually-insurance aspect of FedEx's declarations (for which they'll happily charge).

Third-party insurance services are worth their (very reasonable) cost, but can be difficult for the average person to secure. Services like Brink's enter the picture when you start talking about moving items above that level.

But Priority/Express is the absolute wild west in terms of secure package delivery. Temporary employees working with no oversight, with a union that will reflexively and aggressively defend people even when it's fully aware it's defending criminals (sound familiar?), and unmotivated inspectors. It's a recipe for high rates of package loss, which is exactly what it has.