Backed into a corner by Amazon - No goods, no refund, closed account, scripted/unhelpful response

Rianad48

Like a good MSE follower, I used it to track the best deals on iPhone 14's. A great deal came up, £539.10, directly from Amazon. GREAT! Made purchase using my debit card on my husbands amazon prime account (had to use a cash transfer from a credit card, as it was the closest to 0% I could get, and I didn't have the cash to hand already).

1st issue, delivery attempted whilst we were out. Returned to depot. Long story short, after a few days of waiting, Amazon declared it "lost in transit" (I think that's the exact wording, but can no longer check). Amazon sent a replacement.

2nd issue, Replacement was declared "lost in transit" (Same as above, a very long story short, and again I think it's the exact wording, but again, unable to check). Amazon insisted on refunding me. Explained we wanted the phone and would prefer another be sent, due to the price being so low. At this point, the price had gone up to £599. They insisted they couldn't, and that we would need to make another purchase, but on successful delivery, they would refund the difference. 

I wait for my refund to go back into my account. Make the purchase at £599 - using debit card, plus vouchers that amazon offered as a gesture of good-will due to the above (£15). 

3rd issue, delivery arrives. Driver asks for the "one-time passcode". I give him it, he hands me an empty envelope and walks away. I stop him, explain it's too light to have what I ordered in it. He seems shocked, opens package and sees it's empty, searches van. Insists on taking empty envelope away. (Side note: We happen to receive a call from Amazon depot in the middle of this, put it on speaker, so the depot person and delivery driver can hear each other. Depot person explains he can refund me, great. Attempts to, but can't because the system hasn't refreshed with the delivery drivers confirmation of delivery. - We live in a no signal area, so believed him. Asks us to call Amazon customer services to get the refund. )

Issues continued, let's put these together at 4th Issue: We contact Amazon CS, they have given us a zillion things to do first. "Wait 3 days while we investigate" "It is a third-party issue, report to police and share crime reference" "We need the police report" The police report isn't valid" 

5th issue: We respond to every single request, in good time. The last one, about the police report not being valid - we went back and asked exactly what is wrong, as I could see it met the criteria they listed. The response to this was them closing my husbands account. No reason. Replied asking why, wishy washy reasoning: Title of the reply includes = "Returns and Refund Policy Violation", content says "We took this action because our records show that we closed another account of yours for not meeting terms of our conditions of use agreement" (there is no other account of my Husband - I do have an account, but haven't used it much, and it hasn't been closed).

6th issue: Due to this, all our alexa devices have been disabled! So we can't use any of our smart home functionality without resetting them all to a different account.  (I am less worried about this issue. At this point I'm looking forward to selling them all and moving to an alternative provider... but it felt like an important thing to add here!) 

Amazon now refusing to deal with us, so I have raised a visa dispute with my bank (waiting to hear from them, should hear tomorrow - but they will likely ask for evidence. I have a bunch of evidence -screenshots of chats, video of delivery, doorbell footage, emails, police report - but due to my account being closed I am unable to access any evidence from within amazon now). 

I just want my money back! (Or the phone... but I feel like I am giving up on that now!) Any success stories? Advice? 

Emmia

Too late now but I'd never order a phone online for delivery, always buy or collect in a physical shop and open the package there and then with CCTV coverage.

Too many stories of non-delivery / substituted delivery. 

Did you actually pay with a credit card or debit card?

Hoenir

Rianad48 said:

"We took this action because our records show that we closed another account of yours for not meeting terms of our conditions of use agreement" 

Something in the distant past perhaps that's been forgotten. Amazon are tech based. They've managed to find a connection in their records. 

DullGreyGuy

Emmia said:

Too late now but I'd never order a phone online for delivery, always buy or collect in a physical shop and open the package there and then with CCTV coverage.

Too many stories of non-delivery / substituted delivery. 

It's not necessarily bad advice but have ordered many phones, laptops and other more expensive things online and to date every one has turned up as expected. None of the phones have been from Amazon but other high value electronics and photography stuff has been. 

I find there is an odd correlation between 1st time posters and wrong/none delivery from Amazon... yet to see someone who's been here for months/years to report the same despite many saying they're a regular Amazon user.

Exodi

DullGreyGuy said:

Emmia said:

Too late now but I'd never order a phone online for delivery, always buy or collect in a physical shop and open the package there and then with CCTV coverage.

Too many stories of non-delivery / substituted delivery. 

It's not necessarily bad advice but have ordered many phones, laptops and other more expensive things online and to date every one has turned up as expected. None of the phones have been from Amazon but other high value electronics and photography stuff has been. 

I find there is an odd correlation between 1st time posters and wrong/none delivery from Amazon... yet to see someone who's been here for months/years to report the same despite many saying they're a regular Amazon user.

I'm glad you said it, I've likewise never had an issue.

Would an Amazon driver even know they're delivering an iPhone as I expect it probably comes like this, I'm pretty sure the label does not indicate the contents either?

born_again

I-Phone will come in a box, given the size of the actual apple box.

user1977

Plus if it wasn't high value, it wouldn't have the one-time passcode procedure attached to the delivery.

Undervalued

born_again said:

I-Phone will come in a box, given the size of the actual apple box.

Not necessarily for a s/h or refurb one  (which I assume this was due to the price). Back Market for example send all phones in a very slim, cleverly designed, anonymous looking package.  

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Exodi said:

It's not necessarily bad advice but have ordered many phones, laptops and other more expensive things online and to date every one has turned up as expected. None of the phones have been from Amazon but other high value electronics and photography stuff has been. 

I find there is an odd correlation between 1st time posters and wrong/none delivery from Amazon... yet to see someone who's been here for months/years to report the same despite many saying they're a regular Amazon user.

I'm glad you said it, I've likewise never had an issue.

Would an Amazon driver even know they're delivering an iPhone as I expect it probably comes like this, I'm pretty sure the label does not indicate the contents either?

Don't know about Amazon but my wife's £800 phone from Music Magpie come in a grey mailing bag with an obvious phone shaped box inside but they sent it Special Delivery so fortunately it arrived without issue.

The requirement for the passcode presumably highlights it's high value? Amazon have done a U-turn on massive boxes with small things in and seem to use as little packaging as possible since Covid pushed up the cost of cardboard so a sign something is high value with a phone sized box in a card mailer probably isn't hard to figure out for someone who is going out of their way to steal such things   

I'm sure there has been one thread on here from a not new poster about Amazon delivery issues such as this, I remember it being surprising as usually these threads are new posters but then aren't a lot of the topics on this particular board new posters as well?. 

Exodi

born_again said:

I-Phone will come in a box, given the size of the actual apple box.

Since cutting out the chargers, phone boxes aren't as bulky as they used to be. This is the current iPhone 15 box for example:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Don't know about Amazon but my wife's £800 phone from Music Magpie come in a grey mailing bag with an obvious phone shaped box inside

I feel an 'obvious phone shaped box inside' is seemingly obvious to people on this forum, but in reality it is not.

Looking over my order history from Amazon as an example, out of my last 10 purchases, half of them (a laptop charger, a oneblade shaver, a book,  a smart cat ball and an RGB lighting kit) came in a box similar in dimension and weight to a phone box. I'd be amazed if forumites can seemingly tell the difference between packaging containing a box containing a laptop charger or a shaver, from packaging containing a box containing a phone. In reality they can't.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

The requirement for the passcode presumably highlights it's high value? Amazon have done a U-turn on massive boxes with small things in and seem to use as little packaging as possible since Covid pushed up the cost of cardboard so a sign something is high value with a phone sized box in a card mailer probably isn't hard to figure out for someone who is going out of their way to steal such things   

I will concede here and accept it could be more this than anything. Presumably anything in a small box that has been flagged as HIGH VALUE - REQUIRES PASSCODE - MUST BE HANDED TO RECIPEIENT, DO NOT LEAVE OUTSIDE is a target of an opportunistic thief, not the superhuman ability for Amazon drivers and forumites to accurately identify which of the thousands of similar shaped/weighted boxes have iPhones in them.

Vectis

1st phone - lost in transit.

Replacement phone - lost in transit.

Yet another replacement phone - empty package.

Next - 'my husbands account closed' and 'our records show that we closed another account of yours for not meeting terms of our conditions of use agreement'

I mean, one phone lost in transit, ok, it happens. Two phones lost in transit, and it's starting to look a bit odd. But, then a 3rd phone goes missing too? And, Amazon shut the account because of, presumably, previous suspicious behaviour on the account. You can surely see how it looks?

Either you're really, really unlucky or there's some other issue at play here?

Btw, you should still be able to check some of the transit details because Amazon send emails or messages about delivery status, as do Royal Mail and other couriers. We order A LOT from Amazon, I mean daily deliveries, and are constantly getting updates as to dispatch, in transit, delivered or otherwise. I assume you must have emails/messages telling you where the parcel is?