Amazon Parcel Not Received but Amazon Refusing to Refund/Replace

fiisch

Thanks again for replies - for closure, or in case anyone stumbles across this thread suffering the same fate, it seems that emailing jeff@amazon.com did the trick.  I'm sure my email didn't land in the inevitably busy inbox of Mr. Bezos, but Amazon, like so many companies now, seem to employ a specialist team to pick up complaints where the writer is attempting to contact the CEO directly.  Up to that point, emails sent to complaints@amazon.com had been ignored, as had requests to raise a formal complaint via the live chat/over the phone.

We received a couple of emails asking for further information, but ultimately Amazon have refunded the order in full.  I am slightly suspicious that they have chosen to refund and not replace (after all, sister-in-law is still wanting to acquire an air-fryer for her mum!) and wonder if this is a precursor to closing their account, but at least she can now order a replacement direct from Ninja.

Must admit this experience has made me a bit wary of ordering high value items from Amazon in future (and I type this on an Apple MacBook purchased from Amazon just last week!) - I understand their process and the drive to minimise customer service costs, but it seems somewhat draconian to stonewall enquiries about a lost order with the one-time passcode defence....

ArbitraryRandom

As these issues are seeming to become more common, I'm interested where amazon (and other mainly/wholly online retailers) go in terms of workable solutions other than closing customer's accounts and blacklisting entire households. 

There will always be some margin of fraud, but I'm assuming, as 'AI' becomes more advanced and integrated with e-commerce platforms, the algorithms they use to identify patterns of behaviour will become more refined - unfortunately we are currently being presented in more or less every media outlet an example of over-reliance on a black box computing system to identify fraud (the post office).  

Peppa537

Amazon's customer service is so hit and miss now. I've had a few issues but thankfully not with expensive items and they were resolved. I don't order mobile phones or tablets from them anymore in case I get the empty box/something else in it instead situation that a few have had. A friend's Ninja air fryer was supposedly left outside by Amazon because they weren't home. However they couldn't find it anywhere, when they contacted Amazon a replacement was sent out with no issues.
When I last ordered a mobile phone from Amazon (in 2022, it was worth £250) I was supposed to give a OTP but the driver just handed the parcel over and left.
I also have heard of people getting Amazon parcels for other addresses left on their doorsteps, and when they contact Amazon they aren't interested and are told to keep it in case the correct recipient comes to collect it. But as you have no way of finding out where these parcels have gone (I had this when left at a wrong address by Amazon Logistics, they said it couldn't be tracked) You'd think they'd ask for the info on the label so they could link the to missing parcel reports. Someone potentially could have contacted Amazon if the Ninja Air Fryer had been delivered to the wrong address and got nowhere.
On the other hand, I had a £20 item with a no delivery attempt recently, I heard the van pull up outside and his door open, I got up to open the door and he drove away. I immediately had an email saying delivery had been attempted and parcel couldn't be delivered, usually they leave parcels on the doorstep. I went on live chat to find out what was going on, they contacted Logistics, the manager emailed me and the driver was asked to deliver on his way back to the depot. 

Undervalued

ArbitraryRandom said:

As these issues are seeming to become more common, I'm interested where amazon (and other mainly/wholly online retailers) go in terms of workable solutions other than closing customer's accounts and blacklisting entire households. 

There will always be some margin of fraud, but I'm assuming, as 'AI' becomes more advanced and integrated with e-commerce platforms, the algorithms they use to identify patterns of behaviour will become more refined - unfortunately we are currently being presented in more or less every media outlet an example of over-reliance on a black box computing system to identify fraud (the post office).  

Are they?

Obviously they are very disturbing if you happen to suffer the problem. However with the vast increase in online shopping I suspect we are talking about a tiny fraction of one percent of all transactions. Like anything, you seldom hear when everything works fine and as it should. Plus, there is no doubt that fraudulent claims happen too.

ArbitraryRandom

Undervalued said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

As these issues are seeming to become more common, I'm interested where amazon (and other mainly/wholly online retailers) go in terms of workable solutions other than closing customer's accounts and blacklisting entire households. 

There will always be some margin of fraud, but I'm assuming, as 'AI' becomes more advanced and integrated with e-commerce platforms, the algorithms they use to identify patterns of behaviour will become more refined - unfortunately we are currently being presented in more or less every media outlet an example of over-reliance on a black box computing system to identify fraud (the post office).  

Are they?

Obviously they are very disturbing if you happen to suffer the problem. However with the vast increase in online shopping I suspect we are talking about a tiny fraction of one percent of all transactions. Like anything, you seldom hear when everything works fine and as it should. Plus, there is no doubt that fraudulent claims happen too.

Aside from 'more common' meaning in total as well as by percentage and, if nothing else, if your sales were 50/50 in-store and online a few years ago, but are now 75% or 100% online, the percentage of fraudulent returns may stay the same, but the impact of those returns has grown in significance (1% of £100 might not be worth doing anything about, but 1% of £100m changes the RoI of any action)... Yes: 

The total returns rate as a percentage of retail sales dropped from 16.4% to 14.5% from 2022 to 2023. However, the percentage of fraudulent returns (including return abuse practices by consumers) continues to trend in the wrong direction, increasing from 10.2% to 13.7% of total returns.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelleykohan/2023/12/29/merchandise-returns-drop-9-but-fraud-expected-to-rise/# 

Reports last week suggested that so-called porch piracy in the UK had jumped 500 per cent in the past four years. ...there were 16,421 reports of parcel theft in the year to August 2023, up from 2,707 for the same period four years ago.

https://www.ft.com/content/0d6e0acd-02b4-4ed7-817f-a2792dd09914

The more interesting question for me is how things will change going forward - in the US, for example, Amazon recently introduced a suite of changes (you can find a lot of people complaining online), inc charging a nominal fee for some of the more convenient return methods; a restocking fee for some customers; and taking longer (upto 45 days) to refund higher value items. They may not be able to cut and paste the same rules to the UK, but I think it's fair to say a lot of online retailers are considering the issue of fraudulent returns/'lost' items.