6 ms·

Amazon insisted I report my missing package to the police

namirez 3y ago
File a chargeback to your CC company. Don’t waste your time with Amazon reps after the first call. Chances are they’ll ban you from Amazon which makes it easier to transition to other services.
- 3pac 3y ago
  My bank just said that there was "no error" when I did this after Amazon failed to deliver something last year. I imagine that Amazon makes up a good portion of their chargeback complaints now. Separately, I had my bank block Amazon Prime from charging my debit card. It shows up as a different merchant so they were do it and I can still make one-off purchases (which I don't like to any longer). I did this because the UI to cancel Amazon Prime did not work on my new, updated MacBook. It did not respond to clicks on the "confirm cancel" or whatever button.
- kylehotchkiss 3y ago
  This wasn't for a US customer. Americans hold a lot of power when wielding chargebacks.
jerlam 3y ago
Odd, something similar just happened to me for the first time. Amazon says they delivered my package, but their picture confirmation of delivery wasn't even my package. I looked outside and couldn't find the package anyway. If I wanted to mark the package as lost, Amazon says to wait three days as if the package will magically manifest itself. Amazon also says to ask all my neighbors as if delivering my package to someone else is expected. Lo and behold, the correct package was delivered on the third day without any notification whatsoever. The fact that the correct package was eventually delivered seems to indicate that Amazon knows there's a discrepancy between their internally- and externally-facing systems and they've built a bunch of speed bumps (like a three-day waiting period) to reduce customer discontent.
- mindslight 3y ago
  From what I've seen, packages that are marked delivered and then show up a day or two later are one of two things. Either the courier trying to falsely keep their on time stats and daily quotas up despite not being able to (Goodhart's law). Or a misdelivery to a neighbor who either brings it by or leaves it out so the courier informally picks it up and redelivers.
johnny99k 3y ago
I ran a small company for 10 years (I just closed it during the pandemic) and we bought lots of stuff on Amazon. The latest scam I ran into was that I would get a tracking number that matched my city and state. USPS doesn't usually put any other information on the tracking number, so Amazon would claim it was delivered. The scammer would order a very small package (less than a lb) to a random address in our city and then use that tracking number to scam me out of hundreds of dollars. I was only ever able to get my money back by going to my USPS office and getting a manager to sign and date a form that said that the package was not delivered to my address. Due to privacy concerns, I could never see the destination address. It's a huge inconvenience and most people won't go through this (or even know they need to get this info from a manger).
- lsllc 3y ago
  You mention your company has closed ... but FWIW: Next time try the United States Postal Inspection Service. They are a full federal law enforcement agency with nationwide jurisdiction and might be interested in a case like this (IDK how much they are kicking-down-doors-guns-blazing or investigating dog-bites-mail-person cases). I once had a law enforcement friend tell me that if you're ever buying items on eBay and are worried about scams, pay for it with a USPS money order (by mail) because any scams would then be mail fraud for the USPIS to investigate vs. your local PD who isn't going to be able to do much if the scammer is elsewhere. YMMV!
LorenPechtel 3y ago
At least in the US this sort of thing is understandable--if the person is telling the truth it's usually not a big deal, if they're a scammer it substantially elevates the offense. Thus scammers are unlikely to be willing to file the police report. Insurance companies often do the same thing--it's not about catching crooks, it's about making lying much higher risk.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  > At least in the US this sort of thing is understandable–if the person is telling the truth it’s usually not a big deal …says someone who doesn’t understand the experience of community–law-enforcement relations in lots of communities in the US.
  - haswell 3y ago
    I think the point here is that filing a truthful police report about a stolen item isn’t going to get you in trouble. This has nothing to do with other systemic issues that are off-topic here.
    - dragonwriter 3y ago
      > I think the point here is that filing a truthful police report about a stolen item isn’t going to get you in trouble. > This has nothing to do with other systemic issues that are off-topic here. And I rather think my point was that the “other systemic issues” are not off-topic here because they are why police interaction as a reporter/victim is not, and even more relevantly here is not perceived to be risk-free in a number of less-socially-privileged segments of society, and that policies which impose mandatory law enforcement interactions are (and are known to be by firms adopting them) effective means of disincentivizing engagement with whatever function is gatekept by those policies from people in those communities, not merely excluding “scammers”.
xhkkffbf 3y ago
Does this apply to my AWS machine with a misconfigured Docker container?
32gbsd 3y ago
Sooner or later the house of cards is bound to fall down
ChoGGi 3y ago
I was expecting something a bit pricier than £71.97
pavel_lishin 3y ago
I wonder how successful filing in a small claims court would be.
- voakbasda 3y ago
  Very successful at getting your Amazon account banned, I’m sure.
maerF0x0 3y ago
This is a fail on the policing. A report of an alleged crime should always be marked. Of course they don't want to do their job, or collect statistics that might show they're not doing their job. Also, whatever happened to the 'believe her' campaign? This is the same pattern of issue, people disbelieving the victim of a crime.
- multjoy 3y ago
  This is relates to England, where the recording of crime is subject to very specific rules (Home Office Counting Rules) because of the issue of the police under-recording crime. Under these circumstances, the author isn't the victim of the crime - the parcel hasn't been delivered so the victim is Amazon. Under HOCR, 3rd party reports can only be taken for rape offences (unless the 3rd party has specific connections, like a parent/guardian). Amazon know this and they will eventually back down when the case is escalated to someone who knows what they're doing.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- nitwit005 3y ago
  What would the crime be? The most likely thing to have happened is the delivery person delivered it to the wrong location.
- voxic11 3y ago
  The author doesn't claim to be a victim of a crime though. So you are actually arguing that the police should turn people who don't believe they are victims into victims just for the purpose of making police reports. That seems directly opposed to the spirit of "believing the victim". All the author is claiming is that their package wasn't delivered. Packages fail to be delivered all the time but that doesn't mean some crime is occurring in every instance. Even if you take the "delivered to receptionist" as evidence of a crime the author was still not a victim. The item was stolen from the courier not the author. I think more importantly it doesn't matter if the package failed to be delivered due to a criminal act or a simple mistake. In either case Amazon is equally required to offer redress, so obtaining a police report is a red herring.
6LLvveMx2koXfwn 3y ago
I was lead to this absurdity after reading another fail: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/aug/31/my-1399-laptop-refund-from-amazon-is-a-lost-cause https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/aug/31/my-1399-laptop... Amazon, having predicated their reputation on amazing customer focussed service, now seem to be the epitome of the opposite.
kylecazar 3y ago
This is written in a confusing way. So Amazon claims this isn't a real requirement, that it was a rep error, and refunded the author?
oidar 3y ago
Do I have to be a reporter with a major news outlet to get decent customer service? I've been having a reoccurring problem with Amazon that I've failed to get resolved with the online/phone/email customer service and I'm at my wits end. Amazon packaging insists on packing heavy bulky items (like a multi-pack carton of liquids) with delicate items resulting in the delicate items being damaged. It's clearly a packing problem, but there is no way for the customer service agents to annotate this in the packing system. I'm so tired of dealing with Amazon and trying to figure out the best way to get issues resolved with them. It's always refunded, but that doesn't fix the issue - I want it to stop happening and spending my time dealing with it.
- mensetmanusman 3y ago
  Order them one hour apart
  - thedanbob 3y ago
    Amazon often combines separate orders for shipping so this approach wouldn't work unless you waited for the first order to ship before placing the second.
    - colanderman 3y ago
      I've always hoped they would do this but haven't been able to get them to even when I try. Like, going out of my way to select "Amazon day delivery" nearly a week out, and separate orders within a day of each other still come separately or even on different days.
      - thedanbob 3y ago
        I'm sure it just comes down to what's available in what distribution centers, how big the order backlog is, Prime status, etc. The algorithm that makes those decisions would be fascinating to study.
    - noxon 3y ago
retrocryptid 3y ago
Amazon did something like this to me in Seattle last year. Thankfully, I eventually recovered my package from the person who took it when they helpfully delivered it to a train platform downtown. My solution was to no longer buy things from Amazon. Target.com and B&H Photo now get my business. They routinely use carriers who understand they should deliver packages to my building's secure foyer and not the public trans shelter around the corner. (And yes, I could have packages delivered to a locker, but the nearest locker is a further walk than the local Target store, so why would I?)
- extraduder_ire 3y ago
  Does amazon support what3words or pluscodes in addresses? I haven't had to try, since the postal service in my country is exceptional at knowing where people are and what's typically used in my area. Also, postcodes map 1-to-1 onto buildings here so there's no way to have a mixup unless you don't check the address correctly.

File a chargeback to your CC company. Don’t waste your time with Amazon reps after the first call. Chances are they’ll ban you from Amazon which makes it easier to transition to other services.

3pac 3y ago
My bank just said that there was "no error" when I did this after Amazon failed to deliver something last year. I imagine that Amazon makes up a good portion of their chargeback complaints now. Separately, I had my bank block Amazon Prime from charging my debit card. It shows up as a different merchant so they were do it and I can still make one-off purchases (which I don't like to any longer). I did this because the UI to cancel Amazon Prime did not work on my new, updated MacBook. It did not respond to clicks on the "confirm cancel" or whatever button.
kylehotchkiss 3y ago
This wasn't for a US customer. Americans hold a lot of power when wielding chargebacks.

jerlam 3y ago

Odd, something similar just happened to me for the first time. Amazon says they delivered my package, but their picture confirmation of delivery wasn't even my package. I looked outside and couldn't find the package anyway. If I wanted to mark the package as lost, Amazon says to wait three days as if the package will magically manifest itself. Amazon also says to ask all my neighbors as if delivering my package to someone else is expected. Lo and behold, the correct package was delivered on the third day without any notification whatsoever. The fact that the correct package was eventually delivered seems to indicate that Amazon knows there's a discrepancy between their internally- and externally-facing systems and they've built a bunch of speed bumps (like a three-day waiting period) to reduce customer discontent.

mindslight 3y ago
From what I've seen, packages that are marked delivered and then show up a day or two later are one of two things. Either the courier trying to falsely keep their on time stats and daily quotas up despite not being able to (Goodhart's law). Or a misdelivery to a neighbor who either brings it by or leaves it out so the courier informally picks it up and redelivers.

johnny99k 3y ago

I ran a small company for 10 years (I just closed it during the pandemic) and we bought lots of stuff on Amazon. The latest scam I ran into was that I would get a tracking number that matched my city and state. USPS doesn't usually put any other information on the tracking number, so Amazon would claim it was delivered. The scammer would order a very small package (less than a lb) to a random address in our city and then use that tracking number to scam me out of hundreds of dollars. I was only ever able to get my money back by going to my USPS office and getting a manager to sign and date a form that said that the package was not delivered to my address. Due to privacy concerns, I could never see the destination address. It's a huge inconvenience and most people won't go through this (or even know they need to get this info from a manger).

lsllc 3y ago
You mention your company has closed ... but FWIW: Next time try the United States Postal Inspection Service. They are a full federal law enforcement agency with nationwide jurisdiction and might be interested in a case like this (IDK how much they are kicking-down-doors-guns-blazing or investigating dog-bites-mail-person cases). I once had a law enforcement friend tell me that if you're ever buying items on eBay and are worried about scams, pay for it with a USPS money order (by mail) because any scams would then be mail fraud for the USPIS to investigate vs. your local PD who isn't going to be able to do much if the scammer is elsewhere. YMMV!

LorenPechtel 3y ago

At least in the US this sort of thing is understandable--if the person is telling the truth it's usually not a big deal, if they're a scammer it substantially elevates the offense. Thus scammers are unlikely to be willing to file the police report. Insurance companies often do the same thing--it's not about catching crooks, it's about making lying much higher risk.

dragonwriter 3y ago
> At least in the US this sort of thing is understandable–if the person is telling the truth it’s usually not a big deal …says someone who doesn’t understand the experience of community–law-enforcement relations in lots of communities in the US.
- haswell 3y ago
  I think the point here is that filing a truthful police report about a stolen item isn’t going to get you in trouble. This has nothing to do with other systemic issues that are off-topic here.
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    > I think the point here is that filing a truthful police report about a stolen item isn’t going to get you in trouble. > This has nothing to do with other systemic issues that are off-topic here. And I rather think my point was that the “other systemic issues” are not off-topic here because they are why police interaction as a reporter/victim is not, and even more relevantly here is not perceived to be risk-free in a number of less-socially-privileged segments of society, and that policies which impose mandatory law enforcement interactions are (and are known to be by firms adopting them) effective means of disincentivizing engagement with whatever function is gatekept by those policies from people in those communities, not merely excluding “scammers”.

xhkkffbf 3y ago

Does this apply to my AWS machine with a misconfigured Docker container?

32gbsd 3y ago

Sooner or later the house of cards is bound to fall down

ChoGGi 3y ago

I was expecting something a bit pricier than £71.97

pavel_lishin 3y ago

I wonder how successful filing in a small claims court would be.

voakbasda 3y ago
Very successful at getting your Amazon account banned, I’m sure.

maerF0x0 3y ago

This is a fail on the policing. A report of an alleged crime should always be marked. Of course they don't want to do their job, or collect statistics that might show they're not doing their job. Also, whatever happened to the 'believe her' campaign? This is the same pattern of issue, people disbelieving the victim of a crime.

multjoy 3y ago
This is relates to England, where the recording of crime is subject to very specific rules (Home Office Counting Rules) because of the issue of the police under-recording crime. Under these circumstances, the author isn't the victim of the crime - the parcel hasn't been delivered so the victim is Amazon. Under HOCR, 3rd party reports can only be taken for rape offences (unless the 3rd party has specific connections, like a parent/guardian). Amazon know this and they will eventually back down when the case is escalated to someone who knows what they're doing.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
nitwit005 3y ago
What would the crime be? The most likely thing to have happened is the delivery person delivered it to the wrong location.
voxic11 3y ago
The author doesn't claim to be a victim of a crime though. So you are actually arguing that the police should turn people who don't believe they are victims into victims just for the purpose of making police reports. That seems directly opposed to the spirit of "believing the victim". All the author is claiming is that their package wasn't delivered. Packages fail to be delivered all the time but that doesn't mean some crime is occurring in every instance. Even if you take the "delivered to receptionist" as evidence of a crime the author was still not a victim. The item was stolen from the courier not the author. I think more importantly it doesn't matter if the package failed to be delivered due to a criminal act or a simple mistake. In either case Amazon is equally required to offer redress, so obtaining a police report is a red herring.

6LLvveMx2koXfwn 3y ago

I was lead to this absurdity after reading another fail: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/aug/31/my-1399-laptop-refund-from-amazon-is-a-lost-cause https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/aug/31/my-1399-laptop... Amazon, having predicated their reputation on amazing customer focussed service, now seem to be the epitome of the opposite.

kylecazar 3y ago

This is written in a confusing way. So Amazon claims this isn't a real requirement, that it was a rep error, and refunded the author?

oidar 3y ago

Do I have to be a reporter with a major news outlet to get decent customer service? I've been having a reoccurring problem with Amazon that I've failed to get resolved with the online/phone/email customer service and I'm at my wits end. Amazon packaging insists on packing heavy bulky items (like a multi-pack carton of liquids) with delicate items resulting in the delicate items being damaged. It's clearly a packing problem, but there is no way for the customer service agents to annotate this in the packing system. I'm so tired of dealing with Amazon and trying to figure out the best way to get issues resolved with them. It's always refunded, but that doesn't fix the issue - I want it to stop happening and spending my time dealing with it.

mensetmanusman 3y ago
Order them one hour apart
- thedanbob 3y ago
  Amazon often combines separate orders for shipping so this approach wouldn't work unless you waited for the first order to ship before placing the second.
  - colanderman 3y ago
    I've always hoped they would do this but haven't been able to get them to even when I try. Like, going out of my way to select "Amazon day delivery" nearly a week out, and separate orders within a day of each other still come separately or even on different days.
    - thedanbob 3y ago
      I'm sure it just comes down to what's available in what distribution centers, how big the order backlog is, Prime status, etc. The algorithm that makes those decisions would be fascinating to study.
  - noxon 3y ago

retrocryptid 3y ago

Amazon did something like this to me in Seattle last year. Thankfully, I eventually recovered my package from the person who took it when they helpfully delivered it to a train platform downtown. My solution was to no longer buy things from Amazon. Target.com and B&H Photo now get my business. They routinely use carriers who understand they should deliver packages to my building's secure foyer and not the public trans shelter around the corner. (And yes, I could have packages delivered to a locker, but the nearest locker is a further walk than the local Target store, so why would I?)

extraduder_ire 3y ago
Does amazon support what3words or pluscodes in addresses? I haven't had to try, since the postal service in my country is exceptional at knowing where people are and what's typically used in my area. Also, postcodes map 1-to-1 onto buildings here so there's no way to have a mixup unless you don't check the address correctly.