Amazon seller ringing me constantly

ripplyuk

I was unaware that Amazon share the customer’s personal phone number with marketplace sellers. I placed an order yesterday and within an hour, the seller rang me twice and sent a text message saying he wants to speak to me about my order. I was shocked because I’ve only ever received messages from sellers through Amazon’s official secure messaging service, not direct to my phone. It made me uncomfortable so I ignored him. I checked if he had messaged me on Amazon but he hadn’t (and still hasn’t). The order is only worth £9 and widely available so I didn’t care if he cancelled it. 

Then he started ringing incessantly. This morning he rang seven times before 9am and continued after. I then reported this to Amazon but I’m not sure if it was a bot or a real person. They said they’d tell him to stop ringing me but he was still ringing me while I was live chatting with Amazon. 

I thought it was worth mentioning this for others to be aware because I had no idea customer’s  numbers were shared so widely. I’d now prefer to put a false phone number on my account but I’m not sure if that could cause other problems. 

ButterCheese

What specifically did they want to discuss with you?  Depending on what they said, I'd either have an interesting discussion with them and potentially buy more of their products, or I'd just say no thanks and block the number.  If it was anything to do with your address, method of payment etc then I'd say likely a scam

ripplyuk

ButterCheese said:

What specifically did they want to discuss with you?  Depending on what they said, I'd either have an interesting discussion with them and potentially buy more of their products, or I'd just say no thanks and block the number.  If it was anything to do with your address, method of payment etc then I'd say likely a scam

I didn’t ask. I felt like if it was anything legitimate, they would use the proper channels to communicate. 

Isthisforreal99

Although I've never had a marketplace seller phone me I don't think I'd be particularly 'shocked' if they did. I'd do what I alwaya do with unrecognised numbers, ignore and block. 

sonearandyetsofa

Why not just answer the phone or text them back? There's nothing they can actually do to you over the phone, and if you don't like what they're saying you can always hang up or block them. You could just text them back asking them to message you through amazon if that's what you prefer.

elsien

It may well be a scam of some sort. 
I had this with eBay when a seller account was hacked and I got multiple calls and messages every day because the alleged seller said they were delivering from Amazon but what they were trying to do was to to get an Amazon code from me so they could log into into my Amazon account.

if it helps, I did answer one of them and they did really pile the pressure on and it was a gentleman from abroad with quite a distinctive Indian accent. 

I would be very wary of adding a false phone number because the phone number for texts  is one of the authentication methods that Amazon use.

ripplyuk

elsien said:

I would be very wary of adding a false phone number because the phone number for texts  is one of the authentication methods that Amazon use.

That’s a good point and one I hadn’t thought of. Thank you. I’ll leave my phone number as it is. 

I assume it’s a scam, otherwise he would message me on Amazon. No normal person would ring so many times in a row either. Whatever it is he wants, he clearly doesn’t want Amazon to know about it. I won’t answer because I find scam calls can sometimes increase once they know the line is live. 

I’m a bit disappointed that Amazon haven’t taken any action. Their customer service used to be great years ago and I didn’t think they’d want a seller like this on their platform but I guess they’re too big to care about this sort of thing now. 

elsien

Just block him. 

Marvel1

Block the number

Could be a consequence.

Vectis

Perhaps there's a problem with your order that they want to inform you about?

You won't know unless you answer the phone. If it turns out to be a scam call or a waste of time, simply block the number.