Amazon Return Drama

[mk005]

Hi guys, mostly just posting here for visibility and a searchable record if someone else has this issue.

 

Preface:

So my story starts October last year, was finally upgrading my computer and purchased a new Motherboard, CPU, and RAM from Amazon. Stuff arrived, motherboard had been previously opened, thermal goop on the socket, bent pins. So I went ahead and returned it, no problems. While I was waiting for a replacement I complained to my friends on discord and they made a joke about me receiving the Newegg treatment, it was a good laugh.

 

January comes, I order a new SSD, it arrives previously opened but is otherwise intact. I contact customer service, say that I don't trust a drive that has potentially been tampered with, request a replacement. Replacement isn't possible, customer service opens a refund for me. While I'm chatting with customer service I'm hanging out on discord and my friend mentions that this is becoming a common problem. I receive my refund. Everything seems good.

 

The true story begins:

Last week I receive an email saying that the SSD I returned did not have a matching serial number to the one that was sent and that unless I "send the correct item" they will recharge me for the device. Also they disposed of the item that I had returned. I reply, letting them know that seeing as the item had been opened before I received it, this isn't all that surprising, and that I returned the exact item I received in the condition I received it in. Clearly this drive had been opened once, returned and now re-sent to.

 

I had some back and forth and received a few of these:
 

Quote

Hello,

 

Thank you for writing to us. We contacted you so that we could better understand the activity on your account.

Your comments and suggestions will help us improve and offer better service to our customers.

At this time we cannot issue a refund for the items you returned to Amazon.

If you would like to appeal this decision, please reply to this email to reach an Account Specialist. Our Customer Service team can only confirm that we sent this message and help you with technical issues. They cannot reverse this decision or share more details on this matter.

If you have any order or account-related concerns, please contact our Customer Service team via the link below. Customer service will not be able to answer any other question about the refund on your order 702-8958456-5237843.
www.amazon.ca/contact-us

Account Specialist
Amazon.ca

 

Most replies got me back either an identical to the email above or extremely similar.

I wasn't sure if I was talking to a bot an employee who was copy pasting the same script, so I tried emailing Jeff@amazon.com with a description of my problem and got back one of these:

 

Quote

Hello Matthew,

My name is Monika and I am a member of the Amazon Account Services team. Jeff Bezos received your email and I am responding on his behalf.

I’ve reviewed your e-mail, and I understand you're concerned about return order 702-8958456-5237843.

Your return for the order #702-8958456-5237843 contained the incorrect serial number instead of the original Samsung 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2 Internal Solid State Hard Drive Memory Card, Maximum Speed, Thermal Control, MZ-V8P2T0B.

We cannot issue a refund for this order until we receive the correct item.

You can review our return policies in the Returns, Refunds and Title section of the Conditions of Use, available at the link below:
www.amazon.ca/conditionsofuse

We appreciate your understanding.

Best Regards,

Monika
Escalation Specialist
Amazon.ca
http://www.amazon.ca

 

I re-stated my case to Monika, asked that they address the open box issue. Again, mentioned that I returned the item that I received and that this is all out of my control.

 

So I'm basically stuck. I'm just waiting for the charge to appear on my credit card statement so I can dispute it and get my amazon account closed.

 

The End:

Again, I don't think that whining about my issue here will get anything done. But figured it would be helpful to have another case to look up for if this happens to someone else. Apparently Amazon's refund policy doesn't always work out...

 

Thanks for reading, I'll update this post of there's a happy ending.

[TetraSky]

Good luck with that. Unless you recorded yourself opening the Amazon package and showed to the camera you received the wrong item without a single pause or break in the video, they can claim whatever they want. Even more so if they "disposed" of the item you sent back, now it becomes their words vs yours and you know who they will side with.

 

Amazon has gone to shit in the last year or so. Also had issues with them, so much so I just closed my account and will no longer shop there. The convenience of getting ripped off is not worth it anymore.

[Isuck Assimov]

fucked up that they seemingly can dispose of the item you returned without gettin your permission. Is that the state of the law in CA ?
 

[dalekphalm]

OP, did you notice the SN didn't match before you sent the RMA back?

 

IMO Amazon should have offered to send the drive back at least. If they won't budge, you're pretty much SOL. A Credit Card chargeback is basically your only option.

[Mister Woof]

Chargeback seems unwise in the grand scheme of things. Your standing with Amazon is probably worth more than the cost of one drive. I'd try to escalate it further, but if you can't, I'm not sure there's another option with an overall good outcome other than eating it.

[mk005]

5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

OP, did you notice the SN didn't match before you sent the RMA back?

 

IMO Amazon should have offered to send the drive back at least. If they won't budge, you're pretty much SOL. A Credit Card chargeback is basically your only option.

No I didn't look at the SN. I just saw that the Samsung box had been opened with a box cutter, but the sticker on the drive inside matched the description on the box. Figured a replacement was my best option : /

[mk005]

8 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

Chargeback seems unwise in the grand scheme of things. Your standing with Amazon is probably worth more than the cost of one drive. I'd try to escalate it further, but if you can't, I'm not sure there's another option with an overall good outcome other than eating it.

Yeah I'm aware. But, other than my girlfriend using my account to buy bird toys, I don't find myself using Amazon much these days. In the area of Canada I live in, prime is kind of garbage. Anything I'm buying seems to be the same price from other stores once you factor in shipping and such. That or I can find something semi locally. And the "2 day shipping" usually takes closer to 2 weeks. 

 

I have tried everything I can think of to escalate this.  On the bright side, they still haven't billed me yet, probably because we're still emailing back and forth. Almost all the replies are "until you return the correct item, we cannot issue a refund" (the last reply I received was the one from Monika above). I'll keep trying until they bill me I guess. 

[dalekphalm]

15 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

Chargeback seems unwise in the grand scheme of things. Your standing with Amazon is probably worth more than the cost of one drive. I'd try to escalate it further, but if you can't, I'm not sure there's another option with an overall good outcome other than eating it.

IMO unless the SSD was only like $20, I'd probably go with the Chargeback option and then just assume my account will be cancelled, and open a new one with a different email address.

 

But I'd also be very persistent with contacting them for a resolution.

7 minutes ago, mk005 said:

No I didn't look at the SN. I just saw that the Samsung box had been opened with a box cutter, but the sticker on the drive inside matched the description on the box. Figured a replacement was my best option : /

Hmm, that's a shame. Had you known that the SN was different at the time of contacting them for an RMA, it very likely could have been resolved. They probably just think you're trying to scam them.

 

If you had opened the return request with "My package wasn't sealed and the SN doesn't match, please help", they would have been able to approve the request knowing the SN won't match when it arrives. Or they would have declined you ahead of time, and at least you'd still have the SSD in your possession, so you could sell it as open box for a small discount or used it.

 

Your options now are simply to keep pushing and contacting support, or to give up and do a chargeback (with the knowledge that they'll likely close your account).

 

Let us know how it turns out, either way.

[Mister Woof]

4 minutes ago, mk005 said:

Yeah I'm aware. But, other than my girlfriend using my account to buy bird toys, I don't find myself using Amazon much these days. In the area of Canada I live in, prime is kind of garbage. Anything I'm buying seems to be the same price from other stores once you factor in shipping and such. That or I can find something semi locally. And the "2 day shipping" usually takes closer to 2 weeks. 

 

I have tried everything I can think of to escalate this.  On the bright side, they still haven't billed me yet, probably because we're still emailing back and forth. Almost all the replies are "until you return the correct item, we cannot issue a refund" (the last reply I received was the one from Monika above). I'll keep trying until they bill me I guess. 

I hate to "give in" to the big corpos, but sometimes you gotta ask yourself if it's worth it. Amazon controls a lot of things, and being at their mercy in the case of service provisioning seems like it could backfire on you pretty easily if you aren't careful. Again, not trying to lick any boots here, because they kind of are the bad guys, but...eh IDK.

 

I'm willing to bet they've sent you the wrong (but better) item in the past, forgotten to charge you for something, issued you a refund but told you to keep some item, etc., that would balance out this one issue in the grand scheme of things. So you could use that to somewhat assuage yourself of this issue.

[mk005]

21 hours ago, Mister Woof said:

I hate to "give in" to the big corpos, but sometimes you gotta ask yourself if it's worth it. Amazon controls a lot of things, and being at their mercy in the case of service provisioning seems like it could backfire on you pretty easily if you aren't careful. Again, not trying to lick any boots here, because they kind of are the bad guys, but...eh IDK.

 

I'm willing to bet they've sent you the wrong (but better) item in the past, forgotten to charge you for something, issued you a refund but told you to keep some item, etc., that would balance out this one issue in the grand scheme of things. So you could use that to somewhat assuage yourself of this issue.

You're right, they do provide alot of utility for random stuff, but no, I haven't received anything other than what I've than what I've ordered from them in the past (just some items are open or broken). It was the buyer protection that was the most valuable to me. But factoring in the prime membership and now this 280 ish dollar charge, I'm definitely in the red over all. We'll see how it goes.  I still haven't heard anything back and they still haven't charged me, so I don't really know what's going on at this point. So currently in limbo. I'll keep asking them to reconsider until they decide to end the conversation. 

[Guest]

Call credit card company. 

 

Shop elsewhere.