Amazon Nightmare

mksysb

drjohn67 said:

I put up a post regarding this issue, that I had just experienced, and also the previous BBC report. 

It feels like some people who are fortunate enough to have not experienced this issue just quote the rate of events. The impact of such a high value loss generates a disproportionate risk. 

In my case, the packaging weight on the package received was not consistent with my purchase but rather instead with the item substituted. Either the item was switched before leaving Amazon or the thieves had repackaged and paid for the new transport costs (not sure how this was done in a manner so similar to normal Amazon packaging). 

Amazon being so big seems to have blind spots in their organisation. If so many small supermarkets are able to accurately auto-detect even tiny groceries at the automated checkout, why can’t Amazon track the weight of packages leaving the depot? That surely would help prove if the substitutions occur after leaving Amazon. 

Opening the item before you sign for it / the driver leaves should be effective - depending upon the driver this may not be well received. 

They don't need to repackage it.  The way I see it, the driver knows something is valuable because he has to ask for a pin number. He just needs then to have someone purchase something cheap of a similar size.  He fails the delivery that day day.  Next day, he has the cheap item to deliver, puts the label for the expensive one on the cheap one and delivers that.

Ditzy_Mitzy

JReacher1 said:

Sounds like the easiest thing to have done was just report to the police as advised by Amazon. Then when you have provided the crime reference number to Amazon they would have refunded you quickly. 

Suspect they ask you this as although people are happy to lie to Amazon they are likely less keen to lie to the police. 

The police, in this case the OP's local force, couldn't record a crime because, at this stage, there is no evidence that a crime has occurred.  There's nothing to suggest that cause was not clerical error on Amazon's part - putting the wrong goods in the parcel at the warehouse.  

Conversely there may well have been a crime; the point is that the police have to have reason to suspect one has occurred in order to record an offence and provide a reference number.  

drjohn67

They don't need to repackage it.  The way I see it, the driver knows something is valuable because he has to ask for a pin number. He just needs then to have someone purchase something cheap of a similar size.  He fails the delivery that day day.  Next day, he has the cheap item to deliver, puts the label for the expensive one on the cheap one and delivers that.

Swapping labels would be a reasonable explanation if the weight on the package delivered was appropriate for the phone. Having been through the experience I can confirm the weight of the item which is printed on the postage label also with my name printed was not correct for the phone delivered but rather it was exactly correct for the substituted item. 

It was either swapped at the warehouse or if further down the delivery pathway then they printed a completely new very genuine looking postage label with my name and the substituted item weight. 

HillStreetBlues

I personally think it's a label swap and because of a PIN is needed.

Amazon labels are easy peel  so at some point that might change

JReacher1

I think people are over thinking this. It is unlikely to be a label swap, someone has swapped it at the warehouse. It’s the only real viable option. 

drjohn67

JReacher1 said:

I think people are over thinking this. It is unlikely to be a label swap, someone has swapped it at the warehouse. It’s the only real viable option. 

That is my view. That was why I weighed the incorrect item and noted that the label weight was consistent with the incorrect item.  Amazon should be better able to investigate regarding the postal fees associated with my package and track down the teams involved. 

halibut2209

If I filmed myself opening a parcel which was wrong, and ended up suing them in court, I'd simply show them the countless other videos I'd have showing correct parcels

mksysb

JReacher1 said:

I think people are over thinking this. It is unlikely to be a label swap, someone has swapped it at the warehouse. It’s the only real viable option. 

Don't think so, the clue is the failed delivery on the first day.  If it was swapped at the warehouse then it would be delivered as normal.

screech_78

I’m wary of people who film themselves opening packages, although I do understand why people do it if they’ve had precious bad experiences. I had a customer not that long ago that returned an iPhone, we received an old battered iPhone 6S instead. He was told he wasn’t getting a refund and then came the video of him packaging up the iPhone 14. He didn’t get his refund, rightly or wrongly, I’m 99% certain he was trying to fraudulently claim a refund. 

I don’t know if anyone either that’s had this happen to them and I’ve never had any poor experiences with Amazon. I don’t tend to buy high value items from there though. I did pre-order a PS5 at launch and although others complained of issues, mine arrived absolutely fine. 

It’s like the whole courier thing though. Just because you hear of more complaints doesn’t necessarily make them terrible. I was really interested to read our courier failure rate from November-February. I bet a lot of people wouldn’t believe that of all the couriers we use, Evri had the lowest failure rate and DPD had the highest. 

JReacher1

mksysb said:

JReacher1 said:

I think people are over thinking this. It is unlikely to be a label swap, someone has swapped it at the warehouse. It’s the only real viable option. 

Don't think so, the clue is the failed delivery on the first day.  If it was swapped at the warehouse then it would be delivered as normal.

It is a nice theory but if you think about it in detail then you will realise that it is a slightly ridiculous one

Your theory is based on the assumption that an Amazon delivery driver has the ability to place an order and be guaranteed that the next day this order will once again be delivered by them to enable this swap to happen. The chances of the order going to the same courier is very slim as Amazon have numerous drivers that deliver to the same route during the day.  The courier it is picked will be dependent on what warehouse the item is located in and a courier would have no idea of where stock is held.

Secondly if what you were saying was true and it was a label swap then it would be the easiest crime in the world to solve.  Amazon are aware of every order in the courier's van and what each item is so in the OP's example would be able to see that the 2 Outlets were in the van and were meant to go to a different address.  They will easily be able to identify that a label swap has happened and that the driver must be responsible.

So although I do admire your Hercule Poirot sleuthing its sadly all a bit far fetched and can only really have been done at the warehouse :-)