- Report: #1342018
Complaint Review: Amazon - Internet
Reported By:
Zubin -
Vancouver, BC, Washington, Canada
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Amazon
Internet, USA
Phone:
206-266-1000
Web:
www.amazon.com
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Amazon ALERT and WARNING: Amazon will not refund FRAUD... Even to longtime customers Seattle Internet
ALERT and WARNING: Amazon will not refund FRAUD... Even to longtime customers
I'll keep this short.
This is a warning to my family, friends, colleagues and others who are planning on shopping Amazon in the future. I've not had a good recent experience with them...borderline terribel in fact...
Over the past 3 years, I've bought 177 items between Amazon.com and Amazon.ca where I've also been a "PRIME" member in which I pay $99 USD to Amazon.com and $99 CAD to Amazon.ca. I probably make 80% of my purchases through those sites, so I feel that I'm a pretty good customer.
Recently, I went to purchase a Nexus 6P phone that was being sold for a decent price of $390 USD through a 3rd party seller on their site. It turned out to be a scam and fraud. The seller had actually sent me emails that were branded identically to what Amazon emails look like including the date of when it is arriving, however, when you look really carefully at the email domains names, rather than it being '@gift.cards.amazon.com' it was '@gift-cards-amazon.com'.... very subtle and not something I'm only the lookout for, especially given my relationship with the site (177 purchases over the past 3 years). The email walked me through doing a $390 Payment through the Amazon Gift Card site - meaning my money went through Amazon.com - the site and company had accepted my money, and my bank account shows that my money went to Amazon.com.
When I didn't recieve my phone, I called in to find out what was going on. After 30 days of dealing with them to sort out this issue here is the summary:
- Amazon DOES NOT verify who their 3rd party sellers are. Any Joe-blow can start their store claiming to sell stuff.
- Amazon Cannot Track their GiftCards!!! Apparently, you can use a Gift Card to Purchase another Gift Card, and then another and then another. Amazon cannot track this.
So my money has been lost and redeemed through this ridiculous program and eco-system that they have set up, and they had said that they cannot refund me! Now, I'm down $390 USD for the Christmas purchase system, and this Multi-Billion company won't Protect me or Refund me. Online purchases are still not safe, even with the biggest guys.
It seems so funny because it feels like they do more checks on the customer than the seller... So much for the "A-Z" guarantee that they said they have to "protect" the customer.
I feel betrayed.
I've given them my business and my money for a long time. As a result, I've successfully cancelled my PRIME membership on both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca, I'm going to stop any Amazon Kindle Purchases and move over to "Kobo" E-Readers and then I'm also going to recommend all my Tech peers: don't use Amazon Cloud, use Microsoft Azure or Google Compute, or some other Cloud Company.
Thanks for listening, I hope you guys shop safe!
Cheers,
Zubin
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
Fraud...
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, December 08, 2016
So let me ask you this. In all of your 177 purchases, how many have asked you to pay them in Gift Cards?
Next, you state that they were very good at creating e-mails that "looked" like they were from Amazon even down to the e-mail address you convinced was theirs. So with all of this, how do you KNOW you went through the Amazon site? Sure it may have ended up at Amazon, but who knows the route it took to get there.
Then there is the standard "If it sounds too good to be true...it probably is". You say the $390 is a "good" price. Well in doing a quick search it wasn't a GOOD price it was a great price...about $100 cheaper than any phone I could find, and a good $150-$200 less than the average prices.
You will also find that payment by Gift Card is a very common scam, and for some reason people fall for it every day. There are scammers who call up people saying they owe on a Utility Bill and the victim doesn't even blink twice when they want immediate payment by Apple App Store cards. As the saying goes "A fool and his money are soon parted".
The reason Gift Cards are so popular...because they CAN'T be tracked and that is the reason that just about every site will not put any guarantees in a situation like this.
So not to "Armchair" quarterback, but there are several "tell-tale" signs that probably should have tipped you off.
While this is an expensive lesson, if you take anything from this is that you need to be extra careful from now on and be thankful it was for ONLY $390...there are people that have lost thousands in various scams that are similar.
