I feel I’ve been absolutely scammed by Amazon. Do not buy anything expensive from them!

Only if the item is above £100 in value.

We will never order expensive electrical items from Amazon now, we ordered an iPad didn’t arrive on delivery day made me suspicious.

Following day delivery man tried to drop the parcel and run but we made him wait until it was opened and it contained a Cookery book!

Amazon replied to contact immediately and money refunded within the hour.

I used to sell with them. It's more that they created such a Kafka-esque structure of departments which has resulted in such a proliferation of rules that the whole organisation has become entirely dysfunctional. I actually had to threaten Amazon head office with small claims court because it kept demanding I owed money I didn't and withholding my sales earnings. I was stuck in a doom loop of providing verification and proof I didn't owe anything, only to be asked for it all over again by another department, or sometimes even the same department. This went on for months and months.

Funnily enough within an hour of head office getting my small claims threat, Amazon released all my funds.

I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon have changed their processes because their customers scam them.

Years ago I ordered a big fancy coffee machine but returned it because it was too noisy, too big, too faffy and the coffee wasn't any better than our £20 stovetop coffee maker. I got the refund notification before I'd left the shop I dropped it off at - less honest people could exploit this and send back all sorts of rubbish and keep expensive goods. So I'm not surprised the post office clerk had to check the item.

I ordered some moisturiser on there and it came without a lid! And yes it was Amazon as the seller.

I try to avoid them now - had also previously tried to cut down because of their tax avoidance but the convenience had crept back up...

I think it’s the difference between buying from Amazon themselves or Amazon Marketplace. Sometimes it’s not that obvious you aren’t just buying directly from Amazon but if you’re not, the customer service will vary from company to company.

A pal left Amazon because the stealing was so rife and he got sneered at for refusing to join in, but at least the company used to take the hit - that is if it was from Amazon itself rather than Marketplace, which I'd never use

I'm not sure if this has really changed (?), but if so it's the last time I'll be buying anything that costs more than about £20 from them

Can you confirm whether this was Marketplace, @FireAdvice, or the main Amazon?

I'm surprised. I've always found Amazon's customer service second to none. Always spoken to them and been refunded when requested - even for bigger items.

I get a lot of stuff from Amazon but would never buy anything that expensive from them. I would get a Dualit toaster from somewhere this is way less likely to happen, like John Lewis.

I've personally had good experiences from Amazon customer services where the product is definitely from Amazon itself not marketplace, but I still wouldn't trust them with such a high value product so I guess it's lesson learnt.

Hope you resolve it though.

Personally I've also only had good experiences with amazon returns but its incredibly patronising to ask her if she's sure!

It's a pretty straightforward scenario, what on earth could she not be sure about?

I'd contact your credit card provider and tell them what happened, with proof of the return. They'll get your money back.

And a large number of companies in the marketplace do not pay VAT, which means an estimated loss to the taxpayer of £700 million a year...

I stopped using amazon a while ago.

It is absolutely flooded with scams, fake reviews and knock off products. Ive started ordering things dure try from company websites, and funnily enough it is often much cheaper than Amazon!

It takes slightly longer to arrive (a day or two instead of amazons same or next day) but the pay off is worth it to me to know I'm getting a real and safety checked product rather than some cheap knockoff electronics/cosmetics from China.

Honestly Amazon are like a bad cross between Temu and eBay these days. Loads of Chinese tat, and scammers. I barely use them for actual good these days, I do still use Prime tv but honestly I’m not sure it’s worth the money any more.

Chargeback is a little-known protection on debit, credit and charge cards that lets you claim your money back if something goes wrong. It’s not a legal right, but is part of Visa, Mastercard and Amex’s rules, and it can help you get back £1,000s if a firm won’t refund you.
Life's too short to mess about with customer service bots- cut out the middle man I say😊

I had a similar problem with an Argos online purchase, they claimed there was no record of my order and never refunded for an item that did not work. The purchase was actually Microsoft Office, I was sent a code and it cost about £100. The code I was sent did not have the UK option, only Italy, so it did not work. I tried to get Microsoft to help which was a complete waste of time. I mention this in case anyone was thinking of buying such an item from Argos in the run up to Christmas. It was clearly a scam by someone.

I never buy skincare, makeup, nail products or consumables on Amazon as the amount of times I’ve bought my staple products only to receive a fake with perfect packaging (I only know they were counterfeit because I’ve used the products for years and could tell by smell, colour, texture etc). I am very careful about what I put on my skin so will only but from Boots or Superdrug now- who knows what ingredients the dupes have.

Turns out that when a product is sold on Amazon by multiple sellers, Amazon warehouse will mix all the products together. So even if you buy from (for example) the official Cosrx Amazon retailer, their official products will be mixed up with other sellers of the product - so no way of knowing if you’re getting their real one or a dupe.

Definitely see if you can talk to someone - I’ve found Amazon customer service to be good but only when I speak with a human. Otherwise it’s quite poor.

Only order expensive stuff directly from Amazon not market place . I never had this issue . You can and should dispute this with your card provider

There have been scams with Amazon returns, where somewhere underway, a valuable item was exchanged for garbage, childrens toy or something. But that was with goods on the delivery, not on return. But of course it would also work on returns, as long as they are not broken.
Amazon says they have received another item than the one you sent. I'd go to the police and file for theft (or whatever is appropriate) then mail Amazon the investigation number, stating you sent out the correct item and are not willing to pay.

Completely agree. It’s absolutely flooded with cheap and poorly made goods from China. Increasingly difficult to filter out or find better made, more reliable goods. But it’s a good reason to cut back on this depressing business model.

Had a few rubbish items from Marketplace where it was difficult to return and one where I sent it and they said they never received it. Just avoid marketplace now.

Getting frustrated with the quality on Amazon. Some useless items and others that seem to have been used then sent out.

I wouldn't buy an iPhone or other expensive tech from Amazon, I always buy from JL or Apple, there have been too many instances of items being replaced in boxes with Amazon.

twice this year I’ve bought electronics items on Amazon that I had to return, once I got a replacement which I’m happy with, the other time I got my money back

so I think you’ve been unlucky

usually for expensive stuff though I choose JL or similar- essentially somewhere with a physical presence I can go and have an argument with if I need to

My brother was scammed over a phone. Was sent a parcel containing polycel instead. Same weight and size. He had so much hassle trying to prove he had been scammed and didnt recieve the phone. Beware!

@TightlyLacedCorset omg Uber Eats and Just Eat have had me in tears trying to resolve issues!! I agree it should be law that companies of that profit size should have contactable customer services.