Amazon

I can remember when Amazon was a genuinely good company that trusted and believed in their customers. Just like Nordstrom's department store and many others like them, consumers have exploited them with false returns and lies about shipping mishaps and quality control. Sellers have responded by raising prices and adding exorbitant shipping costs to deter returns and make the process as unappealing and difficult as possible. They make false promises about guarantees and easy returns, no questions asked. They know they walk a fine line with us. So, they over-promise and under-deliver, hoping we'll get used to being treated so poorly.

It's a tough task to persuade customers to try you out for the first time and even more difficult to get them to stay when there are so many sites to choose from online. We turn to the worst possible resources for reassurance...other people. We rely heavily on reviews. Amazon is infamous for posting fake reviews claiming they had no idea it wasn't real. You have to question every aspect of the shopping experience, and reviews are the hardest. You are left to wonder if they're true or if they're just trying to tarnish the company's reputation because they are the competition?

Once again, Amazon plays the game well. It's a perfect example of this anomaly. They have lost control of their sellers' marketplace, and the sellers are running amok! Their products are junk, and their prices are high. The part that bothers me the most is the false advertising and the tricky wording they use to pull you in and fool you into buying their product. They put a picture of the high-end merchandise and the price of the low-end merchandise. So when you look at the picture, you think you're getting that for this price that they have listed. Then when you click on it, it's a whole different scenario. This used to only happen with sellers who used Amazon as a platform. Now it's happening more and more with Amazon itself. Amazon is using the same tricky marketing strategies as their lazy sellers. They have stooped to new lows, and I wish I had more options for places to find everything I need or want. I shopped eBay for years before I found Amazon. Now, I'm beginning to venture out to Temu, since most of the Temu sellers also sell on Amazon for twice the price for the same product.

People who shop on Amazon are willing to pay a little bit more for the convenience Amazon offers. The prime membership includes free shipping and most of the time you receive your order within three days. Temu, on the other hand, can take weeks to receive. Your order will usually come in several different shipments. Returns on Temu are horrible. I returned several items that were beyond bad for whatever reason, and I have yet to receive any money back. It's been months. Instead, they want to dangle a bunch of coupons, saying you have credit towards your next purchase. In reality, I've never seen that credit either! I get the same discounted price whether I returned something or not.

I've only been using the site for a couple of months now, and it's tricky. There are lots of crafty sellers who have learned and mastered the art of retail deception. The hardest part about shopping with Amazon or other websites like Temu and even eBay is that when something goes wrong, the consumer is always the one left paying for it. It used to be the company taking the hit and chalking it up to the cost of doing business. Not anymore! They make returning a product so miserable and complicated that you give up on trying to ensure the return of your money (NOT AS CREDIT!) by looking at bank statements and cross-referencing the website that sold you the bad merchandise. It is time-consuming and most of the time an ineffective effort. Websites like Amazon don't keep their information current to real-time, so we can't confirm receipt or process your return since you sent it. Rarely does it say it's complete!

It's almost always just hanging there open, waiting for a concerned consumer to bring it to their attention and demand their money back. This is a way for Amazon to hold onto your money as long as possible, hoping you'll get too distracted or busy with your life and forget about it altogether. We have become lazy, and they make it more energy-consuming. If the price is not worth it, we just throw the item away and hence, the money we spent on it gets tossed into the vast pit of wasted money and bad decisions, never to be seen, reclaimed, or used again.

We read reviews, but they don't work as we had hoped. Moody humans with all their motives can rarely be considered accurate or applicable as intended. Often, we are faced with lies as they are usually bribed by the company, offering the consumer free merchandise if only they post a rave review complete with pictures. We have YouTube to thank for much of this manipulation. Where is this all heading? I have no idea!

All I know is that I spend too much for products that are not worth it. Quality is a thing of the past unless you are buying authenticated luxury products. And even they are starting to get tainted. I feel terrible most of the time I shop now when before it made me feel excited about receiving my order. Now, it's a necessary evil that I'm forced to buy three of the same type of item to find one that works. Then I get to return the other two items and wait for my money to be accessible to me once again. This can take days, maybe weeks to happen if at all.

We are all messed up. I suggest making it, growing it, and using the barter system to put our unique talents to practical use. Unfortunately, most people are subject to lethargy, being too lazy to put in the required effort needed to do anything for themselves that is of high enough quality to be proud to share with others. So where does that leave us all? Dependent. Angry. We have to face the fact we are reliant and forced to trust others (people, companies, AI, and websites) with our money based on their word, which in reality is unreliable, knowing they refuse to trust us.

We must do as they want us to, even though it may not always be the right choice. But we must trust them. It's truly a dilemma for me, and I know I'm not alone. I don't know if it can be fixed. As a consumer in the prime of her money-spending life, I have stopped dead in my tracks to evaluate and renegotiate the terms. I need to understand what I'm up against before I can move past it in any victorious way. I'd like to have some products and devices that show where my money went at least. Right now, I have very little to show for the money I've spent. It's confusing if I actually ordered something or just put it in a basket somewhere, never to return to complete the purchase. Or sometimes, I order the same thing twice from different websites! I have become the queen of returns, and stores hate me.

Too bad, I say! Do they look at my returns to spending ratio? Because if they did, they would be better at customer service solutions and offer a smile knowing I have choices. I am being forced to comply and to accept whatever sub-standard products they are selling or go without. I must change the way I buy, since they have changed the way they sell. AI is our customer service representative so the company can stay out of any bad light their products cast. They hide from us behind websites, chats, and outrageous hold times and language barriers we can't wait to experience. It can take literally hours on a customer service call, that could yield a couple of hundred bucks if you are lucky, and then allow them to just credit your account with them since it's faster for you to see some money back in your control. Well, kind of. Money they already received just gets reused.

And so it turns. With awareness reaching new levels, I can detect now what was never before there to detect in most sales environments beyond the used car lot. We battle the bait and switch, tricky wording, and we now must out-master the sellers and companies in the art of deception and false promises. Over-promising and under-delivering doesn't work for me anymore. Resources are becoming less while the wants and needs are increasing. Something has to change, and it has to be the consumers who drive the change. We need to get our act together, be on the same page, and take a stand! I hope this website will encourage that.

This is my very first post, and it feels good to get this off my chest!

Good morning,

Kindly note that I am filing a complaint for sexual harassment from a member of your customer service representative personnel.

Early this morning, I placed a Whole Foods order through your Amazon portal. I did not receive a specified item or the correct substitution. In addition, the delivery persons did not dial my apartment number to get into my secured building. I do not know how they gained entry because I did not provide access. Instead, they found my apartment on the second floor, left the groceries at my door, #206. Yes, they left without knocking to inform me of their presence at my front door. I received a text message informing me of the delivery. In other words, the delivery persons completely ignored my request to dial 206 for secured entry.

This practice of not following instructions for delivery is not acceptable for various concerns of security breaches, potential theft and/or the necessity of returning a product.

Again, I Google searched Amazon's customer service phone number only after your self-help prompts for resolution did not provide the correct assistance. So, I dialed 800-280-**** and immediately received a request to identify if I am over 50. Since I am 55, I selected 1 and received an offer for a home emergency call device. I did not call customer service to be bombarded with something completely not germane to the issue I tried to resolve.

The representative did not ask how could they assist me but rather immediately started droning on about the special offer. I tried to request that they stop with the unnecessary gift pitch at least twice before I lost my temper and cursed. She disconnected the call. I called back and the same representative, Jessica, responded again. She accurately identified that I was the same upset customer and instead of immediately asking about the nature of the call, she referenced the curse I uttered and immediately transferred me over to a 800 number that obscenely offered sexual services!

Here are some of my serious concerns.

As a customer, I do not want any other assistance or potential special offers until my concerns are satisfactorily resolved. At best, the option to participate should have occurred at the end of the phone call as an option to participate not as a prerequisite to resolve the problems that the consumer may be currently experiencing.

Seriously, in my humble estimation, it should be common sense, customer service for any potential and acceptable resolutions for excellent customer service assistance. Rather, it indicates that the Amazon customer service team (management perhaps) is completely aware that the customers' participation will significantly drop and the great opportunity for a special gift, if one meets the age criteria, will dramatically reduce your unwanted opportunity for a completely unnecessary sales pitch leading to a loss in potential profit? (Sarcasm intended).

So, now we may skip over my original concerns about security and safety upon delivery of items ordered.

I hope I have your utmost attention to converse about the absolutely heinous, need I say, shockingly unexpected and unwanted sexual harassment that I had to endure without any resolution of my actual concerns. (Yes, I am still being snarky, and I still want lamb roast for my curry kabobs. No, ground beef is not an option. Feel free to let Whole Foods know that I will accept a rack of lamb chops to rectify the situation.)

There are absolutely no conditions to sexually harass a customer. If your customer service representatives have not had training on this travesty, perhaps now is the time to rectify it.

There is no acceptable rationale from a member of your team that justifies sexual harassment to a customer. I shall reiterate this sentiment. Sexual harassment is not acceptable under any conditions. Toxic femininity is just as deplorable as toxic masculinity. Now, for my diatribe - our society needs to seriously recalibrate our normalized heinous, indecent and despicable unconscious thoughts, juvenile attitudes and flat out immoral and inhumane behaviors that condones sexual harassment.

Every human being has the right to experience holistic, kind and thoughtful engagement; it is not necessary, nor should it be acceptable to demonize each other whenever any disagreements or misunderstandings may arise from bad behavior. In other words, we simply cannot or should *** what appears to be power over or privilege for that matter whenever inappropriate sexual behaviors and harassment ensue.

In this particular case, it is even more egregious because Jessica appears to have institutional support for her unprofessional and deplorable response; she assumed the mantle of Amazon's corporate authority derived from and maintained by your continued monopoly from the products and services your organization provides worldwide. She has had the audacity to protect, insulate and hide behind the corporate veil of Amazon's enormous worldwide customer service teams! It is the nature of a predator to hide in plain sight or act from their own corporate room with a predatory view.

Please continue to pay critical attention to this matter.

It is deadly, not potentially, precisely because her professional response was to intentionally inflict maximum psychological distress upon another human being that she considers less than or inferior to herself by deploying one of the original sins of our collective human experiences. Namely, the purposeful intent to dismiss, dehumanize and objectify a different human being as precisely that - a non-thing and lesser than. People who have institutional power over others (as an Amazon representative vs. an individual customer) and continuously and persistently deploy inappropriate and indeed abhorrent sexual mores to ignore or silence another person's legitimate requests for assistance toward the mutual, satisfaction and resolution of a problem is the problem itself.

If you, meaning senior customer service management teams, simply dismiss this egregious event of sexual harassment as nothing and not harmful; then I have made my point. If you are still in critical thinking mode, I hope whoever is reading this email realizes that Jessica did not even need 5 or 10 seconds to immediately transfer my legitimate request for assistance to an 800 sex hotline number even if she was just pretending to do so.

My point is that her particular automatic response was not to continuously drone on about the special offer again or to simply say something like, 'Amazon has a policy of no tolerance for cursing, please hold until I find a manager that will be able to properly address this situation', or something similar that indicates the current concern of the customer will be escalated to the appropriate team to address the issue. Rather, I felt that she became instinctively predatory in her unprofessional and deleterious behavior. In other words, this is not the first time she has engaged in predatory behavior and gotten away with it.

From previous correspondence regarding my concerns of delivery people not following the specified protocol for my safety and containment, some members of the Amazon customer service team already know that I am elderly and disabled. If you cannot already tell, in addition to being snarky on occasion; I am absolutely sure that I am absolutely witty as well. Seriously, I am intentionally utilizing terrible humor now because I am still in tears trying to write this message in order to express my grave concerns regarding this painful telephone experience.

As before, what I choose to share next is absolutely none of your business, but I shall reveal it to illuminate the heinous results of predatory sexual behaviors - unconscious or intentional - if you have properly addressed this issue with her then all people involved in this unfortunate predicament knows that she has promptly denied any responsibility for her actions. In all likelihood, she has or will protest most vehemently and/or try to claim victimhood by tearfully explaining that she was unnecessarily provoked. The predator, aka 'woe is me', is never at fault for their evil behavior.

Kindly note, I am speaking about her behavior not her humanity; it is an act of love and grace that she did not bestow upon myself as I attempted to reject the special gift in my pursuit of a different goal. I shall acknowledge that she absolutely has the right to be respected and not cursed at. It would have been reasonable for her to say something like, 'I will not be able to assist you if you continue to use bad language. If it continues, Amazon allows customer service representatives to either terminate or escalate phone requests for assistance. Which do you prefer?' That scenario did not happen because she would have to acknowledge that before I started cursing, I made reasonable requests for her to stop the gift/sales tactics to which she willfully ignored. Enough, you get the point.

If you have not surmised by now, I have had to take medication to try and reduce the epic sensory overload as a result of Jessica's unprofessional and predatory behavior. What you do not know is that I am a survivor of sexual trauma. The result of her poor judgment triggered intrusive memories of my childhood and adult experiences of predatory sexual behaviors by members of my community.

Two final requests:

1) I appreciate the fact that Amazon does provide the customer service phone numbers of their major delivery partners to address customer issues regarding delivery services and any issues thereof.

But seriously, individual voices mean absolutely nothing to corporate conglomerates such as yourself. Yet, I shall take a leap of faith again and request that you utilize your authority to insist to your corporate delivery contractors that if they continue to not be in compliance with delivery safety protocols, that appropriate actions and/or penalties will be taken to ensure the safety of Amazon's dedicated and loyal customer base. In other words, people who are just as magnificent as I am.

Yes, I still have to contact Whole Foods regarding their abysmal delivery service.

2) Please address directly with Jessica, your corporate customer service representative, the profoundly serious ramifications of this situation and address it accordingly. Thank you.

Well, have a blessed day and thank you for your time and patience listening to my concerns.

Respectfully,

W.

Order IDs: 114-319****-130****, 114-034****-648**** and 114-000****-126****.

Amazon restricting my account While have orders I just paid for out, & not even marked shipped yet. They put a hold on my account a week ago or so and it was for two weeks at least, and never got to use my whole month worth of time with Amazon prime, said they was going to refund Amazon prime video as well, stating that it's also with Amazon prime $7.48, but that's not true.

Amazon prime video is separate especially the one without ads that I was not refunded back, but I don't even care about the refund part right now it's all about how they treated me! They told me that I had too many refunds already and gave me a warning email!, OK whatever but, after that, not even two days later, I made a purchase with my EBT and they canceled it two seconds later and refunded it back, which was a trick, because That was what restricted my account, it wasn't me, it was them!! They said to not do it anymore, but I didn't do anything! Every time I email them, it's the same email every time telling me the same thing over and over!

I can't get anything done with these people and they are so rude when it comes to this and you can never talk to anybody about anything like this that's important! I got an order out now that was ordered before they restricted my account to only music, books, etc. things like that! Said I can only purchase things like that, I don't even get things like that so I'm going to be closing my account but I'm hoping they're going to refund the money for the orders that are out right now they have not even marked it shipped yet after two days ago, they took the money off my account!

So I don't know what's going on with them, but they are doing something that just don't seem right that needs to be looked into you! I hope this don't happen to anybody else! Whatever you do, don't try to get any refunds even if you do need a refund or if you have this problem, I wish we could all sign in a petition about this because if we did? We would win!

Because they don't give you details on why they restrict or hold your account! They just do it and then you can't do nothing about it even if they take your money! Note: if you notice in the screenshots, they're a little mixed up, but they say when I explained about the warning, and then look at the dates!

When they open my account back up before restricting it I made that purchase with EBT that they canceled and refunded back, that's what I think they did on purpose. Because by them issuing a refund with a restricted my account because of the refund thing they was talking about on the picture you see about the warning of the refunds, because after that is when I got restricted and made another order before that ever happened that is still as of today after taking the money off my account still not been marked as shipped.

Good morning,

For 19 days, I have been trying to get a return fixed. Back on Dec 26, 2924, I initiated a return and a return label popped up. The return label was for your warehouse in Kentucky, which I affixed on the package. Having done so, I went to my local UPS store and mailed it to you. However, I was unaware that I would receive another return label for FedEx from the seller, a third-party, about which I was not informed. So, the problem lies in the two return labels. Now, as a customer, I wasn't aware of this third-party. I didn't know that I was going to receive that label and I put the first label on the package. However, now they're saying I didn't apply the correct label. While this might be true, I can't help but question why Amazon gave me the first label. However, it doesn't seem to be my fault, but Amazon insists that it is as they provided the label. Currently, the situation is that the item is in your warehouse and I am unable to persuade them to ship the package back to me. My attempts to have them forward the package to the third-party have also proven unsuccessful. Thus, I'm still waiting for my refund.

I have had some unpleasant and rude interactions with individuals who proved dishonest, alleging they would expedite the package to both me and the third-party. I have been served with a variety of lies, all the while my package remains in your warehouse and I still haven't received my money or my package.

Therefore, as things stand, I hope that you can help me. I have all the necessary documentation available for your review, which I will attach to this. Nobody else has been able to assist me so far, but I will keep going until I find someone who can. Thank you for your assistance.

False Promise

I originally ordered on Nov. 25, and by the 29th it still hadn't shipped, so I contacted them.

They apologized but mentioned the delivery would be in January. I expressed that it was too late and they offered to refund the shipping cost if I reordered with expedited shipping. Consequently, they updated my order, refunded the cost of the former order and I paid for the new one, inclusive of expedited shipping. They mentioned that if I contacted them after receiving the item, they would refund the shipping cost.

All of these conversations with customer service are recorded in the chat data.

This is exactly what the person (Abhijeet) who made the false promise for refund said:

-'With Amazon Global Priority Shipping I can assist you with a one-time exception. You may contact us once the item is delivered to you and we will process a Refund for $223.11. Would that be okay?'

-'The shipping speed changed for 1 item. The new estimated delivery date will be December 10, 2024.

This change will reflect in your orders in about 5 minutes. Once the item is delivered to you, you may contact us and we will process a refund for the shipping charge. On priority, I've forwarded this issue to the shipping team in our company. I am aware that our choice of delivery services reflects on our business as a whole.

Be assured that this will be taken care of. You are always most welcome. Could I be of any further help for the day?'

When I received the package, I contacted your service department. The representative didn't believe me and ignored me, which greatly upset me.

As a result, I requested the entire data regarding the CS conversation, which I now possess.

Following that, I have conversed with more than 10 persons in the CS department and their supervisors about this case. Everyone acknowledged that he made a false promise, but they insisted that they could not refund the shipping fee.

If someone from your company made a false promise, shouldn't the individual who made the false promise be held accountable?

I trusted your company, but I feel deceived and disappointed. This scenario is unthinkable in my country and could easily make headlines on TV news.

I gave Amazon three stars because they dont warehouse all of there products. The issue I had was with UPS, they dropped one of my packages of at one of there pickup locations but not at the location requested.

The other package wasnt even dropped off at the other store I had to drive to but neither package was dropped off at the store of my choice.

The store where only one of the packages was sent to told me I could have them deliver the missing package delivered to that store five miles from my original choice or drive to Another metro area where my package was, making it around a twenty mile trip or so because it was the total opposite direction from where the first UPS store sent me. On the Amazon app, my packages were ready for pickup at the location of my choice.

I've been waiting since October for a refund. I have spoken to six people and received different responses.

Initially, it was expected on October 23rd, then it moved to October 30th. On October 25th, I asked about it and was told it was now issued and I'd receive it in five business days. However, those days came and went, and it updated to 'refund not issued; stuck in processing'. I contacted them again to be told they can't do anything and was asked to contact Affirm, whom I paid through.

Affirm stated it's stuck in processing, so they cannot do anything until it is processed. I contacted Amazon again, who tried to push me back to Affirm, but then suddenly said the refund was issued and I'd get it on November 30th. Having grown tired of waiting, I contacted them again today and am now being told that it was issued and credited on October 17th. Meanwhile, the tracking still states 'not issued because of being stuck in processing', on top of my bank account proving that to be false.

I've never received a refund, nor does my bank have a record of a refund request. So clearly they're messing with me and seem to think I'm going to just forget about all that money when I absolutely will not.

It's clear that they're committing return fraud. Avoid these leeches.

It's been wet, snowy, and raining lately. My driver, bless his heart, delivered my package to my door.

Upon leaving, he decided not to use the "turn around", and backed out. 1/4 mile of windy, wet and soggy road. Doing so caused a fair amount of damage to the driveway.
The frustrating issue i have, is the 36 min phone call.

I was on hold most of that, transferred 3 times and most of the conversation when I got to the person I needed to talk to was account verification! Ridiculous!!