Honestly, I am a little confused too. Amazon absolutely knows if something has gone to a different street address. I sent a friend of mine a baby gift, and after 4 failed delivery attempts the delivery driver called me and we realized somehow Amazon had transposed two numbers in the address. He was across town trying to deliver to a building that didn’t exist. And then this item was signed for by someone who clearly didn’t live at the guy’s house. AND … I’ve received a totally different item than was ordered by mistake. I was told to keep the wrong item (because it was a small thing, like baking mats, just some lingerie bags for laundry) and they re-sent the correct one.
I guess if you’re a new third-party seller you can get around a lot of Amazon’s protections at least once or twice, but I’m amazed Amazon didn’t try harder to fix this.
I agree it was a bit confusing but TFA is pretty clear: buyer orders something from 3rd party seller on Amazon. Seller intentionally ships a different item to another address. Buyer tries to get money back and is stonewalled because the package showed as being received (even though it went to a different address than the buyer).
This story does not make any sense. With USPS Signature Confirmation, the address of the delivery should be printed below the signature. This would not match the shipping address specified by the buyer. All the buyer needs to do is present this to Amazon and they should honor the claim. The signature confirmation card can be requested from the USPS via USPS.com. They will e-mail it a few minutes after it is requested.
Every delivery has gps, Amazon can find the delivery address and where it was delivered quite easily. The postal inspectors could shut this down in a day or two. Amazon could dig deeper and solve this in 5 minutes each case. So easy to solve.
I love now at banks and hospitals, they present a signature pad disconnected from anything. Sometimes not even showing you what is on their screen. “I need you to sign this pad three times.” Um?
I long ago concluded signatures are not to prevent fraud, they’re forensic evidence to divert finger pointing when fraud occurs. “See, someone signed for it!” On those electronic pads at the market I just draw a line, and no one has ever cared.
Something about this is not right. It is exceedingly rare for Amazon to take a hard stance against a customer like this. Possibly this particular scenario lines up with a fraud pattern that Amazon watches for.
Step one:
Brand new seller registers account and makes a small sale or two to get past the initial seller screening hurdles.
Step two:
Seller lists a big ticket item, and seller’s accomplice orders it immediately prior to scheduled AMZ payout. Seller intentionally ships to the wrong address so that AMZ will include the order in scheduled payout, then closes account(s) so that AMZ can’t claw the money back, pockets the money, and disappears.
Step three:
Buyer files A-to-Z claim for the very obviously erroneously delivered item. Since AMZ can’t claw the money back from the buyer, it would have to issue the refund from its own funds.
Step four:
Buyer and Seller split the refund.
I’m not saying that this buyer is engaging in this kind of fraud, but Amazon may think the buyer is nonetheless.
Anybody with a bit of determination should easily be able to force a refund, in this case. You didn’t deliver it to my listed delivery address in your own records, eh? Sorry, NOT paying, and small claims court will easily enforce that action. Don’t put your name on services you can’t guarantee, that simple.
