Getting screwed by Amazon

[Stonepounder]

Not sure this is the right place. If not let me know and I'll pull this post.

On 12/28/2019 we were at a Christmas get together for a good part of the evening. When we got home, being the computer nut that I am I checked my email and saw a note from Amazon, then another, then another about things that I had just bought. Huh? Then I got an email from Amazon that they had detected suspicious activity and had locked down my account and cancelled the orders. The email specifically stated that I would be reimbursed for any money spent off the 'Gift Cards'. The 'orders' totalled over $5000 worth of Apple Smartphones (at about $1000 apiece and 'Gift Cards' totalling about $1400. I called Amazon and confirmed that I had not ordered all that stuff, I called my credit card company and told them the same thing, and then I called the cops.

The dummy who thought ripping me off was a good idea had used his own personal email account as the 'ship to' for the gift cards and my address for the delivery address for the Smartphones. While waiting for the cops to arrive I printed off all of the orders for them. When the cops arrived they had to laugh at how easy this one was going to be, since they had his email address. Amazon helped me reset my password and unlocked my account.

I thought all was OK and went back to normal. Even placed a couple of orders with Amazon over the next couple of weeks. Then on 1/12/2020 I got another email from Amazon saying that my account had been locked due to a billing dispute. Turns out that my credit card company wouldn't pay Amazon for the 'Gift Cards'. Seems that if you order a gift card from Amazon, they send it out via email within a couple of minutes of receiving the order, yet have no way of cancelling the gift card once it has been sent. So, even though Amazon knew the orders were fraudulent within 1-2 hours on the evening of 12/28, they couldn't cancel the gift cards and wanted either my credit card company or me to pay for them. Say What?

I tried to call the folks who had locked my account, but customers can't call them and the Customer Service can't communicate with the 'Dispute Resolution Team' via phone either, only by email and they were not allowed to give out that email to customers.

That was a month ago. So, I lost my last month of Prime (which we pay for annually), we can no longer watch Prime TV since the account is locked, I can't play any of the games I used to play on Amazon, and even more importantly I cannot access any of the Kindle books that we have bought and paid for. I would guess we have a couple of hundred dollars invested in Kindle books. And I discovered that I could no longer check Kindle books out of the library since my account was locked.

I have written to the 'Dispute Resolution Team' several times and have received nothing but the same form letter that basically suggests that I pay for the Gift Cards, never anything from a real person. I've filed complaints with the FTC and the BBB, neither of which seems to have done any good.

So, I am looking for any suggestions about what I can do to get my account back. (Please don't just tell me to dump Amazon, we have good and valid reasons we shop Amazon and are Prime members.)

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[samnsara]

1. i have never had good luck getting ahold of amazon customer service...

[Stonepounder]

2. Amazon Customer Service

The funny thing is I have had excellent luck with their Customer Service dept. Whether it was needing to return an item, having an item delivered to the wrong address, receiving an item that wasn't what I ordered, etc. They have been very helpful and resolved my issue quickly.

[CountAllVotes]

3. This is disgusting

I'd be doing a fraud alert on your credit.

You have to contact Experian, Transunion and Equifax for starters.

It is a good thing you reported this to the police. If you don't get the action you require, call them up and ask for a supervisor!

I've been not a great customer of amazon.com for several reasons but your situation just reinforces this behavior. I will now boycott them entirely.

Frankly, I hope they rot in hell with their "Prime" membership B.S.!

Best of luck getting a quick resolve on this. It sounds like a nightmare!

[Stonepounder]

9. The police were great.

The perp was known to them. He has some serious mental issues. They talked to him the next day, however he was in the hospital in the psych ward by the time they reached him. A couple of days later he was arrested for 'receiving stolen property' (Not the Amazon thing, but actual goods') but was released OR before the detective working my case even found out about it. Then a couple of days after that he was arrested in Ohio (we live just across the river from Cincinnati) for receiving stolen property again, only this time the property included a gun, and a rape charge, which bumps things up to felony level, so the last time I looked he's still in jail. It is complicated for a local KY cop to get permission to interview a prisoner in another state, but they are keeping a close eye on him. I suspect that if he goes to trial he will end up serving more time that he would have for my problem. Or he may end up in a psych hospital for the foreseeable future.

[Skittles]

19. do you know how he was able to access your account?

I am curious

[Wabbajack_]

4. Hmm

I don't know if this is helpful but

1) You could contact your local news, nothing lights a fire like bad publicity

2) Is it possible to make a new account? That wouldn't help you with your books, obviously

I will say that I heard credit card fraud is MASSIVE on ebay and amazon and that those companies don't care.

Perhaps you should be focusing on complaining to your credit card people rather than amazon

Legal action is an obvious resource but of course that costs money

[radical noodle]

5. Try contacting whatever credit card

you use for your Amazon account. I have always had good luck with disputes with Amazon but never ran into anything like this. Have you tried the Live Chat or called 866-216-1075 (which is the fraud and unauthorized account access number)?

[Wabbajack_]

7. Live chat has worked well for me

[Lefta Dissenter]

27. For me, too.

I was going to suggest that, but I seem to be a slowpoke.

[customerserviceguy]

6. What is so important

that you need Amazon, and cannot get what you want from other places?

I dumped Amazon a couple of years ago, and I don't miss it one little bit. I can get a lot of what I want from eBay. And books, when I want one, can be obtained from a variety of sellers. If enough people feel like you that they simply cannot live without Amazon, then they have control of our economy that they don't deserve, and will abuse as they have done to you.

[Stonepounder]

10. There are a couple of reasons.

1. I have something called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis that makes shopping brick and mortar stores about 1000% more difficult than it was before, so I tend to go out as little as possible.

2. Most online stores charge shipping which significantly raises the actual cost of items and delivery times ar iffy. With Amazon Prime I can order just about anything and get free shipping and 2nd day delivery.

3. We like the shows we can get for free via Amazon Prime.

[customerserviceguy]

13. I can understand

the mobility needs, my 86 year old mother loves Amazon. It's just one of the things we disagree on.

I guess the best thing to do is avoid the gift cards. I don't know enough about Amazon to be able to tell you how to deal with them, my lady is very astute at being patient enough to get something through a thick skull at a customer service department (she says I'm good practice) and I just put offending firms on "The List" and don't worry about them again.

[Stonepounder]

14. I don't think I have ever ordered a gift card from Amazon.

Remember, this was somebody who managed to get into my home while I was out and used my computer to order over $5000 worth of stuff, including gift cards.

[mr_lebowski]

8. Only thing I can think of is to go to every 'consumer affairs' type website you can and write

reviews describing this horrible treatment.

ConsumerAffairs and BBB are two that I check often before doing business.

Doesn't have to be nearly as long as that post, just the basics ... someone stole my credit card and ordered stuff, amazon captured it and stopped deliveries, but they've suspended my account (denying me all my prepaid stuff like kindle and amazon prime membership, including my amazon video, etc) and are insisting I pay for the goods they never even delivered!

That's long and short, the gift card part is somewhat superfluous.

Start posting that on every site of that nature that allows customer reviews.

Worth a shot, it's free and won't take that long.

Good luck ... that's some BS right there.

[Stonepounder]

11. Good idea. I will do that! n/t

[happybird]

12. If you are on Twitter

some similarly worded tweets tagged to Amazon might draw their attention.

The situation you are in is totally unacceptable and infuriating! Even as a random bystander, I am pissed! I wish you the best of luck in getting it resolved.

[Lulu KC]

28. Yes!

I had a problem with Sprint and had a call from “the president’s office” within an hour of tweeting #sprint and #fcc. Other thought that comes to mind is your state’s AG office, but could get complicated with various states involved.

[Fla Dem]

15. Write to Amazon. I would write a letter to each of the executives I've listed.

But i would address the letter to the primary contact Dave Clark with a CC to the other 2..

I would put in the letter exactly what you wrote here about your experience. Tell them you expect nothing less than full reinstatement of your Amazon Prime for one year without charge for the difficulties they have put you through and the non-responsiveness of their "Dispute Resolution Team". I did this with Xfinity and while I didn't get free service, they put me on a plan for 5 years with all the services I was currently getting but at a much reduced rate. Try it, it can't hurt. Be business like and professional.

Primary Contact

Dave Clark
SVP, Worldwide Operations and Customer Service at Amazon
410 Terry Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
[e-mail]

Secondary Contact
Mike Roth
Vice President, North America Operations at Amazon.com
410 Terry Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
[e-mail]

Chief Executive
Jeff Bezos
President
410 Terry Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
[e-mail]


Good luck.

[Stonepounder]

16. Sounds like a great idea.

The letters will be going out tomorrow!

[Dem2theMax]

17. I just read a very detailed article by Consumer Reports.

The article was about the fastest ways to get great customer service from a company.

They did say that when you call a company, you can get passed around for days trying to get to the person who can actually help you.

What was highly suggested, and by all customer accounts seems to be the best way to go, was to use social media.

Facebook and Twitter being the top two.

The article mentions that companies realize that if you write something on social media, more people see your complaint. They don't want people seeing you complaining about their company, so they will be quicker about fixing the problem.

Consumer Reports says to be polite in your complaint. It also says to make sure you use hashtags that will get the alert of the company you are having issues with, in this case #Amazon. You can obviously put more information in that hashtag.

I just read this yesterday and it seems like a good way to go. Good luck. It's not fun fighting customer service of any company.

I never give up. Hyundai just had to buy back my car.
It's a lemon. I fought a very good fight and I won.

[dalton99a]

18. +1

[KY_EnviroGuy]

20. Considering that Amazon is holding property that legally belongs to you.....

it seems they have a legal obligation to eventually unlock your account to allow access to those items (such as Kindle books).

Perhaps a letter written by an attorney to them by mail would be in order that fully explains the whole case.

Amazon Corporate Office Headquarters HQ
Address:
1200 12th Avenue South, Suite 1200
Seattle, WA 98144 USA

Phone Numbers
Corporate Phone Number: 1-206-266-1000
Corporate Fax Number: 1-206-622-2405
Corporate Email: [e-mail]
Amazon's Customer Service Phone Number is 1-800-201-7575.

I'm trying to drift away from Amazon and go with direct purchase from manufacturers or other dealers, due to the recent poor customer service. Most of it now is done by on-line bots. I feel they're much too far along in achieving a monopoly with America's retail space.

Best of luck in resolving this problem. This is a tough one........

[Stonepounder]

21. I've embarked on a campaign of being a real pain in the ass to Amazon

I'm posting on Facebook and Twitter daily about this nonsense. I've complained to the BBB, the Consumer Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission. And I've sent actual letters (vis USPS, not email) to their Legal Office, a couple of Executive Vice Presidents, and Jeff Bezos himself complaining about the issue. Plus every couple of days I call Amazon Customer Service after I wait the obligatory two days for Amazon Customer Service not getting a response from the 'Dispute Resolution Team' either. I freely admit I am spreading bad publicity about Amazon, but there is nothing they can do about it, since I am speaking the truth and have the documentation to prove it.

I can be a real bastard if I have to be. I try to be the nice guy first, but when that doesn't work then I start getting not nice. I am at that point now. Next step is get a lawyer and sue them. They have the right to cancel my account for any reason they can dream up, but the don't have the right to cut me off from a couple hundred Kindle books that I have bought and paid for and are stored on their cloud.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

22. Wow. You really have done your homework!

Just two more thoughts:

1. Perhaps try writing your Congress person, emphasizing the stonewalling and feeling of helplessness. Sometimes a little political pressure can make a huge difference.

2. You might also try something through the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection:

Link: https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-consumer-protection

You're teaching us all something by revealing what's happened to you. Hattip for your efforts.....

[thinkingagain]

29. It sucks but The kindle books may not legally owned by the buyer according to this

You don't own your Kindle books, Amazon reminds customer

Nygaard's little dust-up with Amazon isn't, in and of itself, a big deal. But it serves as a bitter reminder that we don't ever truly own the digital goods and software we buy online. Instead, we rent them, or hold them in a sort of long-term lease, the terms of which are brokered and policed exclusively by the leaseholder. 

More at the link

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/gadgets/you-dont-own-your-kindle-books-amazon-reminds-customer-f1C6626211

[Lars39]

23. I think a major part of the problem is the

credit card company not reimbursing for the gift cards.
A police report should be included in any written correspondence (and it needs to all be in writing)you make to them and to Amazon. Also the printed copies of any emails concerning the matter.
I hope this is resolved soon.

[RobinA]

24. Why Would They?

It’s a dispute, and if you file a dispute with your credit card company they don’t pay until it is resolved. It’s ultimately Amazon’s responsibility to make sure they are getting legitimate payment when they release goods to a buyer.

[Lars39]

25. Sounds reasonable.

I hope he posts the outcome.

[FuzzyRabbit]

26. Washington State Attorney General's office might be able to help.

Amazon is a Seattle company. I recommend calling the Washington State Attorney General's office and explain the problem. They might be able to help you or tell you where you can get help.

Years ago I tried for nine months to resolve a phone company problem. The phone company representatives were non-responsive. One day, out of desperation, I called the WA state utilities commission at 4:00 in the afternoon. At 9:00 AM the next day I received a phone call from the state regulator saying the matter was resolved in my favor. It took only 20 minutes -- the phone company representatives had never even looked at their records pertaining to my problem.

[Joinfortmill]

30. People have contacted Jeff Bezos directly

and gotten results. I don't know his contact info. If all else fails, have an attorney send a letter directly to Bezos. Attorney fees for a letter likely won't be much. Good luck.