Kicking up a stink about Amazon's failure to deliver a £700 iPhone to me (and then refusing to refund/replace) has - I'm delighted to say - resulted in the money being returned to me today.
What I've learnt:
★ Exploiting social media and video to complain can get the attention of AmazonUK's PR team
What I haven't learnt:
☆ What happened to the iPhone
☆ Why Amazon insisted it had been "handed to resident" when it hadn't
☆ If Amazon got a signature upon "delivery" (as they claimed they would) (and, if so, who from?)
☆ Why Amazon's customer service team wasn't able to properly handle the issue, but preferred to tell me it wouldn't respond to future emails from me and considered the matter closed.
Thanks to everyone who shared my issue and helped Amazon see sense.
@gcluley Did complaining on Mastodon help? Or did you have to use some other Social Media site to actually get them to see sense?
@kiranjholla I don’t know. I posted all kinds of places. :)
@gcluley That's what I do too. Typically I get responses only on Twitter, not on Mastodon (I'm not on Facebook/Insta).
That's unfortunate, but true.
@gcluley Graham, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for the whole affair.
1) The courier delivered the package to the wrong address.
2) The person at that address was handed a package and a form to sign was pushed under his nose.
3) He signed without reading or thinking, in a hurry to return to what he was doing before being interrupted.
4) Later, when he opened the package - "Ha, a free iPhone!", so he left it at that, laughing at whoever sent him a present.
5) From the point of view of Amazon, the package was delivered, the form was signed, so the case was closed. (Do they have your signature on file? Could have they determined that the signature on the form was a wrong one?)
6) When you complained, they decided that you're some kind of scammer and treated you that way, because it was the most cost-effective option.
7) When you raised a stink and they decided that the reputation damage would increase the amount of money you demanded, they returned you the money. It is perfectly possible that they still think that you've scammed them.
@bontchev Huh, the thing that's odd (in the UK) there's a whole thing with high value items that amazon will send you a code via email which you have to present to the courier.
(there have been scams relating to the courier taking the package back post QR scan etc.)
An iPhone = high value enough for this to take place; provided @gcluley is in the UK; and that an amazon business account gets that kind of behaviour.
All this suggests to me that amazon screwed up somewhere regardless.
@gcluley ridiculous it took such a thing but glad its sorted now.
I try to avoid amazon at any costs (personal reasons).
Always start shopping with pricespy or pricerunner plus some cashback sites like nectar or quidco
@gcluley what I’ve learned:
Amazon only fulfills their legal obligations if their customers have enough of an audience and enough technical skills to brew up a storm on social media
@michael @gcluley I see only 8 reposts here and am impressed if that's all it took for Amazon to reverse course. Its conduct was inexcusable, as is not requiring the intended recipient to give a code to effect delivery.
I thought UPS lying about having attempted to deliver a package was bad; happily I haven't had one stolen.
What they have in common: outsourcing to minimum wage workers.
@samueljohnson lol. I don’t think mastodon is what got @gcluley his refund