Ordered a hard drive on Amazon. Wrong item recieved... Amazon Deliberate Delays!

thetriggerhappypwner

This is the first major issue, if any that I have had with Amazon.co.uk.
To be clear, the item was not an Amazon listing, it was a private listing from a seller in the Ealing area of London.
I ordered an 8TB Seagate Barracuda Compute Pro hard drive from Amazon on 9th June 2020.  The seller dispatched promptly and it was all going smoothly until I plugged the drive in to my system and discovered that it was not what I had ordered.  It turned out to be a standard Barracuda with only a 5425rpm spindle speed.  According to Seagates website, it was an "SMR" or "Shingled Magnetic Recording" drive which is much slower than a "Pro" drive with a 7200RPM spindle speed.  I planned to use this drive to store most of my games on as I have almost filled the 2TB drive I currently have dedicated for all of my games.  Therefore it wont be able to store many more.
I contacted the seller, and queried the issue with them.  They replied to me after one or two emails via Amazon's site saying that I was right (knew I was anyway) and that I should send the drive back for a replacement.  The drive offered was a Seagate IronWolf that has the specifications I originally ordered on the "Pro" drive.  I sent the drive back as requested on Monday via Royal Mail Special Delivery by 1pm on Tuesday.
Royal Mail attempted to deliver the drive on Tuesday morning at 09:31, but what a surprise, nobody was in, or they ignored the doorbell.  Been in contact with Amazon ever since, and to say that the customer service I have recieved is shambolic is an understatement!  I have been called a liar repeatedly, hung up on, treated like I am stupid, and Amazon are deliberately delaying this whole thing.
I checked the tracking of the returned drive today, and it is still sat at the Post Office with "Pending" on the tracking info, suggesting that the seller has not collected it. (no surprise there!)  It seems to me that Amazon are trying to hold on to the £190 for as long as possible, while inventing delay after delay to avoid returning it to me when I am entitled to it.
My question to MSE: Does anyone have a suggestions to get Amazon to stop treating me with contempt?

P.S.  Please do let me know if any further info is needed.

shaun_from_Africa

thetriggerhappypwner said:

Royal Mail attempted to deliver the drive on Tuesday morning at 09:31, but what a surprise, nobody was in, or they ignored the doorbell.  Been in contact with Amazon ever since, and to say that the customer service I have recieved is shambolic is an understatement!  I have been called a liar repeatedly, hung up on, treated like I am stupid, and Amazon are deliberately delaying this whole thing.

By "Tuesday morning at 0931", am I right in assuming that you mean yesterday?
If so, it's far to early to get worked up and assume that Amazon are out to get you as the retailer has up to 14 days to refund.

jbondo

Have you spoken to them on live chat? Rarely had any issues on there?

I'd also open a claim (A-Z Gurantee I think it's called) providing the return tracking number there and then wait for Amazon to resolve. Their A-Z Guarantee is the 'Official' returns/issues route etc

Fosterdog

How do you know that the seller ignored the delivery rather than genuinely not being available? The seller might also not have had a chance to collect as most RM collection offices are opening on reduced hours during lockdown (my local one us only open 7am-9am and closed completely on Sundays and Wednesdays) if all depots are working the same hours then they haven't had a chance to collect yet. Even if you arrange a redelivery it can only be booked for 48 hours later so tomorrow would be the earliest they could get it redelivered.

It doesn't sound like anyone is treating you with contempt but more like you have unreasonable demands. The seller has agreed that they sent the wrong item and have agreed to send the correct item when they get the wrong one back. Even without lockdown you haven't given them a reasonable time to deal with this but taking lockdown into account you can expect several more days of delays. And yes I'm sure amazon want to hold onto your money for an extra day or two so they get 2p in interest.

Carrot007

Why are you contacting amazon when they did not sell you this. Or are you contacting the 3rd party direct thoug hamazon. Or even worse, having amazon act as middleman.

Yes , it's aretun, yes these will take forever. Stop buying online if you ever expect to return something, even if as is the case here, though no fauly of your own. Companies think of returns as an afterthought and are never prority. Such is life.

You ordered a computer item thoughh a third part. Presumably not a large supplier with it's own online presence from the sound of it? You are certainly more risk taking than I would be. Was it the price? Well you know all about too good to be true!

Fortunately you purchased though amazon so it will work its self out at some point. Raise and A-Z when you can (I reterned some items once, the company just ignored until I raised an A-Z and then they just full refunded rather than even then reading the request/ Such are some third party suppliers, their choice).

So just wait and raise what you have tio at appropriate points. No it iss not going to be fast. Again this is the third parties fault and not amazon. They will always give an idiot time to respond. Without a full trasncript it sounds like you are ranting at amazon for something out ot threir control. No point, nothing you can do. Eventually they may get chucked off if they do it a lot.

thetriggerhappypwner

shaun_from_Africa said:

thetriggerhappypwner said:

Royal Mail attempted to deliver the drive on Tuesday morning at 09:31, but what a surprise, nobody was in, or they ignored the doorbell.  Been in contact with Amazon ever since, and to say that the customer service I have recieved is shambolic is an understatement!  I have been called a liar repeatedly, hung up on, treated like I am stupid, and Amazon are deliberately delaying this whole thing.

By "Tuesday morning at 0931", am I right in assuming that you mean yesterday?
If so, it's far to early to get worked up and assume that Amazon are out to get you as the retailer has up to 14 days to refund.

Please read my original post, I have been dealing with this for a whole week now.  I have left the third party seller one star feedback, and I emailed the seller via Amazon on Monday afternoon with the tracking number and told them it would arrive before 1pm on Tuesday.  I don't see an excuse for not being there to take it, especially since the postman attempted to deliver at 09:31 in the morning, so I am certainly NOT blaming Royal Mail here.

jbondo said:

Have you spoken to them on live chat? Rarely had any issues on there?

I'd also open a claim (A-Z Gurantee I think it's called) providing the return tracking number there and then wait for Amazon to resolve. Their A-Z Guarantee is the 'Official' returns/issues route etc

I have spoken to them repeatedly, and all I got is the same old story...  We have raised an A-Z  claim for you, you will jsut ahve to wait 1 - 2 weeks for a decision (this feels to me like a billion years)  and I have heard and researched and found on other similar boards that they often decide in the sellers favor even though the buyer, like myself has done absolutely nothing wrong.  Glad I took a photo of the drive I recieved which was clearly NOT as described to use in court should it go that far.  I returned it as requested, and now, there is nothing but deliberate delay after deliberate delay here from Amazon and the slowest ever that they purposely work.  I am out £188.80 (from here I will round it of to £190), I have no item, and no money, this smells wrong and unfair to me.

Fosterdog said:

How do you know that the seller ignored the delivery rather than genuinely not being available? The seller might also not have had a chance to collect as most RM collection offices are opening on reduced hours during lockdown (my local one us only open 7am-9am and closed completely on Sundays and Wednesdays) if all depots are working the same hours then they haven't had a chance to collect yet. Even if you arrange a redelivery it can only be booked for 48 hours later so tomorrow would be the earliest they could get it redelivered.

It doesn't sound like anyone is treating you with contempt but more like you have unreasonable demands. The seller has agreed that they sent the wrong item and have agreed to send the correct item when they get the wrong one back. Even without lockdown you haven't given them a reasonable time to deal with this but taking lockdown into account you can expect several more days of delays. And yes I'm sure amazon want to hold onto your money for an extra day or two so they get 2p in interest.

Because Fosterdog, I told the seller by email that the item would be arriving by 1pm on Tuesday, and Royal Mail actually tried to deliver much earlier than I expected them to, namely 09:31 in the morning.  I dont see any excuse here, do you?  I am entitled to that refund, it's not unreasonable, it is a legal right that I have.  Because I paid with my debit card, it would be covered under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act of 1974 would it not?

Carrot007 said:

Why are you contacting amazon when they did not sell you this. Or are you contacting the 3rd party direct thoug hamazon. Or even worse, having amazon act as middleman.

Yes , it's aretun, yes these will take forever. Stop buying online if you ever expect to return something, even if as is the case here, though no fauly of your own. Companies think of returns as an afterthought and are never prority. Such is life.

You ordered a computer item thoughh a third part. Presumably not a large supplier with it's own online presence from the sound of it? You are certainly more risk taking than I would be. Was it the price? Well you know all about too good to be true!

Fortunately you purchased though amazon so it will work its self out at some point. Raise and A-Z when you can (I reterned some items once, the company just ignored until I raised an A-Z and then they just full refunded rather than even then reading the request/ Such are some third party suppliers, their choice).

So just wait and raise what you have tio at appropriate points. No it iss not going to be fast. Again this is the third parties fault and not amazon. They will always give an idiot time to respond. Without a full trasncript it sounds like you are ranting at amazon for something out ot threir control. No point, nothing you can do. Eventually they may get chucked off if they do it a lot.

I am contacting Amazon because the item was sold on their website by a third party.
I dont expect this to all take a billion years!  I know it's only up 2 weeks, just to deliberately delay, but it feels like a billion years!
I know, the drive was supposed to be a Seagate Barracuda Compute Pro with 7200RPM and 256MB cache, but what I got was a standard Barracuda Compute with only 5425RPM and SMR "Shingled Magnetic Recording" (as confirmed by Seagate themselves).  This means that the drive would have been totally unsuitible for running games off, as it would have been very slow by comparison.  The drive I ordered would have been more suitible, the reason I ordered it.
My point here is that Amazon seem to be inventing more reasons to delay this as long as possible, and I am looking at issuing court proceedings should this fail to resolve.  That is the only way I feel I have to get a resolution for this farce, that I did not cause.  I have done nothing wrong here and I seem to be treated like a criminal by Amazons shambolic customer service representatives!
And look what I found on THIS board!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6158272/amazon-a-z-guarantee-not

LABMAN

So you emailed them on the Monday afternoon and expected them to read it change whatever plans they had for Tuesday morning to be there to take delivery?  Do you think that's reasonable? I was going say good luck with that In Court but it's never going to see Court particularly at this time...you are being unreasonable in your expectations.

thetriggerhappypwner

LABMAN said:

So you emailed them on the Monday afternoon and expected them to read it change whatever plans they had for Tuesday morning to be there to take delivery?  Do you think that's reasonable? I was going say good luck with that In Court but it's never going to see Court particularly at this time...you are being unreasonable in your expectations.

No, that is not what I said, What I was trying to say was that I expected them to at least TRY to be there.  does not seem that they even tried.  Postman tried to deliver at 09:31, not at 13:00, that was early, and they should have been about.
I love those pop-up notifications.  Excellent work there MSE!

visidigi

A week? I have been waiting for four to have something I sold assessed buy one web company (when I asked about it they told me it would take a further three, but the price offered at the time would continue to be honoured), it took Nike 14 days to refund me after delivery. It took Amazon over a week for a rejected delivery to be processed for a refund... so yes, you're being a little impatient to say the least.
Ask amazon about the A to Z guarantee and you want to claim on that as the goods were not as described.

thetriggerhappypwner

visidigi said:

A week? I have been waiting for four to have something I sold assessed buy one web company (when I asked about it they told me it would take a further three, but the price offered at the time would continue to be honoured), it took Nike 14 days to refund me after delivery. It took Amazon over a week for a rejected delivery to be processed for a refund... so yes, you're being a little impatient to say the least.
Ask amazon about the A to Z guarantee and you want to claim on that as the goods were not as described.

Amazon did that for me, without my consent.  Now I have nothing but delay delay delay.  And it's really testing my patience, I believe that Amazon are doing it purposely as well so that they can keep my £190 that they should be refunding me, and not in the year 10 trillion.

visidigi

thetriggerhappypwner said:

visidigi said:

A week? I have been waiting for four to have something I sold assessed buy one web company (when I asked about it they told me it would take a further three, but the price offered at the time would continue to be honoured), it took Nike 14 days to refund me after delivery. It took Amazon over a week for a rejected delivery to be processed for a refund... so yes, you're being a little impatient to say the least.
Ask amazon about the A to Z guarantee and you want to claim on that as the goods were not as described.

Amazon did that for me, without my consent.  Now I have nothing but delay delay delay.  And it's really testing my patience, I believe that Amazon are doing it purposely as well so that they can keep my £190 that they should be refunding me, and not in the year 10 trillion.

You seriously need to relax. There is zero point in getting upset about it. If you are speaking to people on chat/phone in this way I think its clear why you keep getting cut off.

You've convinced yourself its malicious and I don't think anything anyone will say or do will change that view.

My advice to you, if you wont be patient, is be careful how much you 'kick off' at amazon - they have the right to choose who they do future business with and they're pretty good at cutting people off (no pun intended).