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

[FireAdvice]

I’ve certainly learnt a lesson from this experience and won’t buy anything expensive especially not an electrical item from them again.

bought an expensive dualit toaster and it didn’t work. They said I could return it, but I’d binned the toaster box . I sent it back, at the post office the woman there even had to open my box to check there was a toaster in there which she did and signed to say she’d done it. My refund came through.

a while later I had an email saying they’d not got my return. I rang them, the bloke apologised and said it was a mistake and not to worry.

then two weeks ago I had an email saying I’d sent them a different toaster back and they charged my debit card for the full amount of the toaster. Customer services are not allowed to talk to me about this on the phone or the chat. I can only deal with the specialist team by email. I’ve replied to the email as instructed was told I’d have a response in 72 hours and nothing. Customer services say they’d can’t escalate it.

ive responded to the email 4x now and still no response. I’m tweeting them and they just repeatedly tell me to respond to the email. I keep telling them that I do but nobody replies.

its like dealing with some rogue trader scam artist. They got my return, but are adamant I sent them a different toaster back which is blatantly not true. But how do I prove it? I have a video of the toaster not working so why would I keep a faulty toaster.

my brother had a similar issue where he ordered an expensive Lego set and in the box it was dirty, mixed Lego….not the set he’d ordered. He couldn’t prove that either. Loads of stories online of people order iPhones, etc and getting bags of icing sugar. They never get their money back, they get treated like they’re the ones trying to defraud Amazon. some people have even being barred from Amazon.

I’ll use John Lewis from now on, or Curry’s for electrical stuff. Just not worth the risk. I don’t think I’ll ever get the money back.

I think it started off with them, but now is with a “specialist team”

I would have probably bought it from JL as they price match electrical items with Amazon

Definitely contact your card company they can do a chargeback within 90 days of payment.
I've had to do that when I was scammed by someone on eBay, and eBay's buyer protection turned out to be nothing of the sort.
I did get an arsy email afterwards for going outside of their procedure but it was all ok

Have you tried the online chat ? I have used this quite a few times and they have refunded me whilst on the chat

As the OP says it is prudent not to buy expensive items from Amazon unless you are using your credit card as back up.

YouTube is awash with bad refund stories. The problem is people were abusing the easy returns system. For e.g., influencers were buying fashion hoards, wearing them for content, then sending them all back. People were buying large electrical items then saying they never received them. Amazon has tightened their returns policy and talking to someone directly is being made difficult.

I bought a simple bottle of a Vitamin E supplement directly from Amazon.
It never arrived.
Amazon said it had.

As it had always been easy to refund before, I went onto the website to contact customer services. I couldn't contact them.
When I finally circumvented the automated AI response system and dialled the CS number, I pressed all the correct buttons only to get an automated message that I had to wait 5 days until I would be allowed to even raise the refund request then the call terminated.

I waited 5 days. Then raised the complaint and eventually got my money back, so all good, but it spooked me.

I also ordered a printer and it was fine, but I also got an email telling me it would not be automatically refunded if I claimed I had not received it, which, with the fact that I wrongly receive packages destined for my neighbours on a not infrequent basis, does not instill confidence.

I don't have a credit card so will only buy with John Lewis or Argos from now on.

**And this feeds into a wider point of companies selling huge amounts of goods in the UK but providing very scant or no (UBER EATS) direct customer services when things go badly. Should be regulations. But I'll see toast flying before that happens.

Chargeback is also available on all debit card purchases, and I've used it successfully more than once. I don't have a credit card.

Oh that's great. Thanks, good to know.

Yes exactly, chargeback is a contractual thing and works on small amounts. Credit card protection is additional and statutory and covers the whole amount of the purchase even if only a deposit was paid on credit card.

@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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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😊

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.

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.

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

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 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.