Amazon: making a small claim

Bada_Bing_2

I've reached the point where I need to make a claim against Amazon in the courts.

Amazon admitted it had delivered a package to the wrong address and agreed to issue a refund. This all happened on the same day the item should have been delivered and is recorded in my Amazon customer service chat.

The problem is the refund never materialised. I've spoken with endless bots and I get stuck in a mindless world of being told I have left my complaint longer than 30 days after making the purchase. This is not true and there is evidence to prove this. It's my complaint about the refund not being received that was made more than 30 days after the purchase.

I've contacted the Amazon social media team and received the same response as given by Amazon customer services. I've also sent a recorded delivery to Amazon's UK Legal Director & Associate General Counsel, which gave Amazon 14 days to respond before the matter would be taken to court. I haven't received a reply.

Therefore, this is now all primed (excuse the pun, not intended) for a court application.

I know there is a lot of discussion about Amazon's liabilities when products are bought and sold using it's marketplace. There is a lot of good debate about whether action should be taken against the seller or Amazon.

In this case, the product was sold to me by a third party (big electrical company). However, it is an Amazon representative that made the written commitment to me, so I will make the claim against Amazon and let them deal with any claim against the third party.

Are there any Amazon experts out there that could give any advice about whether this is the correct course of action? 

DullGreyGuy

You just need to be clear what you are doing... you either should send a LBA to the seller and take them to court under your statutory rights and their failure to deliver. 

You potentially have an option to take Amazon to court instead but you wouldnt be taking them to court about your statutory rights as they are not the vendor but instead for a breach of contract of their A-Z Guarantee. In which case your arguments would be different and you'd need to have read the terms of the guarantee back to front etc. I've not read Amazon's own one, but many companies have massive loopholes in them, normally that claims are their sole discretion. 

I'd be pursuing the seller not Amazon

Bada_Bing_2

DullGreyGuy said:

You just need to be clear what you are doing... you either should send a LBA to the seller and take them to court under your statutory rights and their failure to deliver. 

You potentially have an option to take Amazon to court instead but you wouldnt be taking them to court about your statutory rights as they are not the vendor but instead for a breach of contract of their A-Z Guarantee. In which case your arguments would be different and you'd need to have read the terms of the guarantee back to front etc. I've not read Amazon's own one, but many companies have massive loopholes in them, normally that claims are their sole discretion. 

I'd be pursuing the seller not Amazon

Thanks DGG. I looked at the Amazon A-Z Guarantee. It states:

"The A-to-z Guarantee only applies when you buy items sold and fulfilled by a third-party seller. For items sold by Amazon Global Store or Marketplace items delivered using Prime, contact us."

This order was purchased using Prime One-Day delivery with a Prime membership, so it would seem responsibility rests with Amazon.

km1500

I would just add it is strange Amazon are not refunding - we all know how good they are normally. I wonder if there is something else going on. 

Bada_Bing_2

km1500 said:

I would just add it is strange Amazon are not refunding - we all know how good they are normally. I wonder if there is something else going on. 

I would have said this previously, but obviously my view is now more than a little tainted by this experience.

It's bizarre. I cannot reason with anybody at Amazon - messenger, Twitter, phone calls, email. They all ignore the fact one of their colleagues agreed to a refund via Amazon messenger (recorded in a transcript) on the same day the order should have been delivered. It's just one bot after another.

It's not even a huge amount of money (less than £30). It's just the principle.

Flight3287462

I presume you are prepared to give up your Amazon account if you proceed with this?

WhiskersTheWonderCat

Flight3287462 said:

I presume you are prepared to give up your Amazon account if you proceed with this?

Not only that, but they will blacklist the address, meaning anybody else living there will be unable to use Amazon as well. 

jon81uk

Bada_Bing_2 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

You just need to be clear what you are doing... you either should send a LBA to the seller and take them to court under your statutory rights and their failure to deliver. 

You potentially have an option to take Amazon to court instead but you wouldnt be taking them to court about your statutory rights as they are not the vendor but instead for a breach of contract of their A-Z Guarantee. In which case your arguments would be different and you'd need to have read the terms of the guarantee back to front etc. I've not read Amazon's own one, but many companies have massive loopholes in them, normally that claims are their sole discretion. 

I'd be pursuing the seller not Amazon

Thanks DGG. I looked at the Amazon A-Z Guarantee. It states:

"The A-to-z Guarantee only applies when you buy items sold and fulfilled by a third-party seller. For items sold by Amazon Global Store or Marketplace items delivered using Prime, contact us."

This order was purchased using Prime One-Day delivery with a Prime membership, so it would seem responsibility rests with Amazon.

The fact that prime membership paid for the delivery doesn’t mean Amazon is the seller. Check the original item listing as it will always say sold by…..

Bada_Bing_2

Flight3287462 said:

I presume you are prepared to give up your Amazon account if you proceed with this?

Wow. No, I hadn't been prepared for this. I know they take a very tough stance over their disputes with sellers. I didn't think this would extend to buyers, when it's a clear and obvious error by Amazon.

Bada_Bing_2

jon81uk said:

Bada_Bing_2 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

You just need to be clear what you are doing... you either should send a LBA to the seller and take them to court under your statutory rights and their failure to deliver. 

You potentially have an option to take Amazon to court instead but you wouldnt be taking them to court about your statutory rights as they are not the vendor but instead for a breach of contract of their A-Z Guarantee. In which case your arguments would be different and you'd need to have read the terms of the guarantee back to front etc. I've not read Amazon's own one, but many companies have massive loopholes in them, normally that claims are their sole discretion. 

I'd be pursuing the seller not Amazon

Thanks DGG. I looked at the Amazon A-Z Guarantee. It states:

"The A-to-z Guarantee only applies when you buy items sold and fulfilled by a third-party seller. For items sold by Amazon Global Store or Marketplace items delivered using Prime, contact us."

This order was purchased using Prime One-Day delivery with a Prime membership, so it would seem responsibility rests with Amazon.

The fact that prime membership paid for the delivery doesn’t mean Amazon is the seller. Check the original item listing as it will always say sold by…..

Thanks. You are correct. Amazon was not the seller. This was a question about whether the A-Z Guarantee was relevant to the claim.

In the quoted section from the Amazon website, they say if Prime was used for delivery then the buyer should contact Amazon directly and not rely on A-Z.

I did contact Amazon directly. They agreed to refund me, but it hasn't materialised.

Undervalued

Bada_Bing_2 said:

Flight3287462 said:

I presume you are prepared to give up your Amazon account if you proceed with this?

Wow. No, I hadn't been prepared for this. I know they take a very tough stance over their disputes with sellers. I didn't think this would extend to buyers, when it's a clear and obvious error by Amazon.

It has certainly been claimed to happen.

Ultimately any company can refuse further business from a customer providing the real reason does not amount to unlawful discrimination (e.g. race, religion, gender etc). They don't have to give a reason.

Amazon is one of the most data driven companies on the planet. If their algorithms suggest that a particular customer profile or pattern of behaviour is "more trouble that they are worth" they can ban them. There my be no human involved in the decision at all!

Whether this would happen in you case, who knows! Obviously we only tend to hear about the rare occasions it does happen and even then we only hear the customer's side of the story.