So I bought a product for €200 on Amazon.com. I am slightly ashamed of doing so but I did, didn’t know where else to find this type of product. So after a few days they told me they would not be sending me the product for whatever reason. So I would be getting a refund. They said if I hadn’t gotten the refund within 5 days I should contact support. So after 5 days I contacted support. And as soon as I did that, they sent me an email claiming that they require me to upload a picture of my “government issued identity document”. They write that if I don’t do that “You may continue shopping on Amazon, but you will no longer be eligible for a refund on the order <order number>”. Surely they have no right to do so right? They claim they’ve noticed some suspicious behavior on my account, but all I did was order a product, pay for it in advance, which they decided not to ever deliver to me. It’s not me who’s being suspicious here.
Anyone else had this experience? This a clear dealbreaker for me. I feel shame for ever having bought something from their store.
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I’ve been sending Cesse & Desist to companies that waste my time with their unhelpful support (including once to Amazon). It costs 15$ for registered mail, immediately gets the attention of their legal department (and real support staff) that usually want to resolve the issue ASAP as I’m wasting the time of their precious lawers. Highly recommended.
How to do this?
That would vary from one jurisdiction to another, but I’m sure you can find guides best suited for your local laws. As inspiration, here’s what I sent to Amazon & Samsung last year (in a formal cease & desist format):
Amazon .com .ca ULC 40 King Street W 47th Floor Toronto, Ontario M5H 3Y2
Samsung Electronics Canada Inc. 2050 Derry Road West Mississauga, Ontario L5N 0B9
Montreal, April 26, 2024
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
Dear Madam or Sir,
I purchased a Samsung 980 PRO SSD 2TB drive (model MZ-V8P2T0) on Amazon .ca on March 3, 2022, which broke on April 4, 2024. This product was used under normal conditions, and I believe it should be covered by the manufacturer’s 5-year warranty.
Several chat sessions with Amazon and Samsung support have failed to provide a solution, with each party referring the matter to the other.
I am requesting that you repair or exchange the product under the Consumer Protection Act regarding the legal warranty of the reasonable durability of a product. I am also requesting reimbursement of $25 to cover the cost of sending this letter.
Therefore, I am formally notifying you to resolve the above-mentioned issue within 10 days. Failing to do so may result in legal action against you without further notice or delay.
Don’t forget the “WITHOUT PREJUDICE” magic law words otherwise their lawyers will construct the letter as blackmail.
You paid for something and never got it. Initiate chargeback with your bank. Amazon may close your account for this, but fuck them.
this only works if your bank isn’t a pos; both chase and cashapp told me to pound sand the last 2 times it happened.
Chase bank is a scam. Minimum balance of 1500 or 500 direct deposit monthly or that charge 12 dollars a month to have an account. They bill it yearly. So when 144 comes out of your account randomly and you call removed. That’s when they tell you.
Fuck chase bank.
Do not stop contacting Amazon customer support. Occupy their resources to the maximum.
Phone > Chat > Email
Record time spend and demand immediate compensation at your billing rate. Never accept contacting them back again at a later date.
Always demand their names, transcripts and email confirmation of any promises with exact match wording and check before hanging up. Then, use their own words against them.
Chargeback through your bank.
Won’t that blacklist your address from ever buying from amazon
(unless you go beg for mercy at the altar of Bezos)
The “one time one free gift” from amazon policy !Yeah, maybe. But it sounds like OP is pretty fed up with Amazon at this point anyway, so maybe going nuclear isn’t the end of the world.
AH yes ! Then it’s good bye gift ! I recommend a very high quality laser projector !
Won’t that blacklist your address from ever buying from amazon
So, win-win.
In that case, op gets to avoid similar situations in the future
I’m not sure how “suspicious behavior” could be relevant to a seller issuing you a refund. Nor do I understand why a government ID would help with that kind of situation. If they are saying it’s because the credit card might be stolen, that doesn’t really make sense for a refund. If they’re saying the account might be hacked, then again, I can see limiting purchases, but not refunds. Are you sure this was a real email from Amazon and not a phishing email? I’d contact them again to verify, first. Then if you can’t resolve it, go to your bank and ask for a reversal of the charge.
I’m not sure how “suspicious behavior” could be relevant to a seller issuing you a refund.
“suspicious behavior” is just a BS term used for switching the blame back to the consumer. Kind of like “for your convenience, we are [removing a capability]” or “for your safety, we are [taking away a right.]” You are correct that it makes no sense.
Amazon has a non-existent customer support, so you may have limited options.
If they had customer support, I’d suggest contacting them and tell them to either refund, or else you’d give them the ID immediately followed by a GDPR request to purge your data. That might have gotten some movement, because those GDPR requests have the force of law, and are also a fair PITA for Amazon. However, there’s no way to give them a shot across the bow. I think your options are:
- process a charge-back, as someone else suggested, which might result in an Amazon ban
- take the loss (that’s entirely your call, regardless of anyone else’s opinion)
- give them the ID, get your refund
- you can still initiate a GDPR purge request. I’m going to guess it’s going to result in a block, but maybe not. You might be able to recreate your account
The happy news is that you are protected by GDPR. Many of us are not, and don’t even have the option to demand they purge the information.
If you used a credit card, get a charge back. Merchants try to power play but CC will enforce contract law to a degree. So if you paid and no product, that’s fraud. Tell them you never got the product.
Ask the electronic frontier foundation
