October 21st, 2019: Current status: Amazon did not dispute the credit card chargeback, they still don’t seem to believe that the issue is on their end.
FINAL UPDATE: (10/21/2019): The person from the “Executive Customer Relations Team” Was finally able to apologize for the whole situation.
No idea if they’re investigating the seller or anything.
They never disputed the charge back, and mentioned it’s been listed as a refund in their system.
Also got a gift card out of it. I consider the matter closed and resolved.
UPDATE: (10/23/2019): This might NOT be over yet.
Update (Hopefully final) (10/24/2019): Received email from the disputes team @ amazon, and they acknowledge what the executive customer relations team concluded. Should now be over.
On October 10th, 2019 I got scammed via an Amazon Prime order.
So far when contacting Amazon about the scam I’ve been met with incompetence, indifference, and a complete lack of care.
Took a while to get both email and phone customer support to understand what happened.
- List of similar/related events:
- $6,000 DSLR on Amazon But Got Rocks, Then Bricks
- 22-year-old Allegedly Scammed Amazon Out Of $370k With Return Shipments Filled With Dirt
- Between 2014 and 2016, the Finans and Glumac stole and sold over 2,700 consumer electronics items – Their fraud exploited Amazon’s customer service policy
- Please let me know of any others.
Here is a timeline the events.
October 8, 2019
Order placed for two GoPro Hero 7 Black.
From the official GoPro Amazon Prime Page.
Item sold by “britecorp” fulfilled by Amazon.
Item shipped from an Amazon warehouse.
October 10, 2019
Package delivered at 10 AM. To my apartment complex package room.
The package room is run by LuxerOne, when a resident gets a package they get texted a one time code to enter the package room. The room is under video surveillance.
At 9 PM I went to the package room to pick up my package.
The shipping box looked fine, no tampering.
The boxes inside looked kinda odd, but I figured they were just to ensure the product packaging does not get damaged.
When I opened these two boxes with badly done home-printed GoPro labels, To my shock I found a block of wood in each.
Each block of wood mostly likely cut to weigh the same to what a GoPro in retail packaging would weigh.
At this point, at 9:14 PM I should have gone to bed.
When angry, pissed off, with an extreme feeling of being wronged, sleep on it. Don’t deal with it that night.
Well, I ended up calling Amazon.
Anger and poor Amazon Customer support.
During that call on the 10th, I was able to quickly get to talking to a person.
I explained to them what happened.
Their response: “Sometimes when a package is delivered, it can still take a day to show up.”
They didn’t understand.
-Okay-
So I explicitly said “I have the box with the tracking number for the GoPros, I have the boxes that should had been GoPros. Instead of GoPros, I got blocks of wood”
Amazon Customer Support: “Oh! so you have the items as ordered? is their anything else I can help you with sir?”
It was at this point, where I full on lost my temper. Said regrettable things.
Amazon seems to only verify items by weight.
I next contacted Amazon via online methods. When they replied, I found out how they verify they get a “correct” product.
It’s only via weight.
I ended up calling them again, mentioning I’ll do a charge back.
On the phone call Amazon said they would investigate the issue, and to call back on Wednesday, October 16th.
Oct 13th – Credit card charge back.
On Sunday, October 13th I started the credit card charge back process.
This action has to be what has made Amazon so unhelpful.
The charge has been removed from the credit card statement, and Amazon had two days to dispute it. It looks like they have not disputed the charge back.
I think a lot of people would be good at this point. Not me, I want this investigated, I want Amazon to fix things, I want this seller Amazon is fulfilling for investigated.
I do not want this to happen to another person. No one else should have to go through this, excited to get a new item only for it to be a 100% scam.
The feeling when that happens is awful.
Wednesday October 16th
The day to call Amazon back to get a status update. This was “fun”.
At 6:25 PM I call the Amazon customer support number once again.
This time their tone has changed, I can tell they did NOT like the whole charge back action.
They will not give any sort of update to if they ever did a proper investigation. I doubt they did.
They’re no longer dealing with me.
All I get from Amazon now is “File a police report”
I keep asking to escalate it, they will not. Police report or nothing.
Eventually they do a “pseudo hang-up”, they stop talking, muted their mic.
They never did hang up, the call was like this for 3 or 4 minutes before I hang up.
Police report time.
I have no choice now, have to attempt to get a police report.
So at 6:47 PM I call my county’s police department non-emergency number.
I explain the situation, let them know there’s no rush.
They’re going to send an officer to me. I’m super lucky to live in an area that the police will even show up for something like this.
At 9 PM that same night, there was an Officer at the door. The officer who showed up was super polite, professional, and willing to do what he could. I showed him the boxes, planks of wood, and the Amazon order page.
The Officer mentioned that this isn’t a thing there would be a police report for as it is a civil matter between me and Amazon. He also had me call up Amazon customer support.
So I got Amazon back on the phone, let them know the status update. Even had the officer talk to Amazon support directly.
Yes, I had a Police Officer talk DIRECTLY to Amazon customer service on behalf.
Amazon customer service took down the information, noted the response ID # from the Officer. (NOT a Police Report)
Thursday October 17th – Might as well e-mail Jeff.
at 11:50 AM I sent an email to Jeff Bezos, because why not at this point.
I explain the situation.
At 5:43 A person from “Amazon.com’s Executive Customer Relations Team” Responds on Jeffs behalf… Basically saying the canned responses I’ve already been getting. Oh, and asking for a police report.
Wait, wasn’t that already marked on my case/file on Amazon?
Here’s the response.
I replied to this email reiterating that the issue is from Amazons Fulfillment center, this is NOT something that happened once the item was shipped. Also included details, again, for the Police Officer and the Police Department.
In the meantime I emailed the Officer myself giving a status update, he was able to respond quickly. Potential good news for me, but I’m going to keep those details out for now.
This is where currently stands.
On to other things – ‘britecorp’
So, as I mentioned above I ordered these two GoPro Hero 7 Blacks from the GoPro page, and it was an Amazon Prime item.
Sold by “britecorp” fulfilled by Amazon. You can check them out here
I can find nothing about this “company” Anywhere else on the Internet.
They mostly have positive feedback, big red flag is the ‘past 30 days’
If you go through their feedback you will find a few other GoPro related issues, and other issues. (NOTE: One of them is mine)
File a complaint with the carrier. I bought a CD and it arrived home made not store bought. It was only $16 but I reported it to USPS and I swear the post office police are the ones too mean to work at the DMV. They sent amazon a message about mail fraud, I git a copy and it read scary.