Need Help! Cheated by Amazon India

[zoozoo]

My sister, who stays in Delhi, ordered an Apple iPhone 5S under exchange of an old iPhone Thursday last. On Friday, the Amazon delivery boy came for the delivery & handed the packet to her. She acknowledged the receipt, took the box & gave the old iPhone to the delivery person. When she opened the box after a couple of minutes she was shocked to find a not more than Rs 800, micromax mobile instead. We immediately called up the Amazon CC team and reported the issue. She also raised a return request on the Amazon portal. The Amazon CC team has washed their hands off the case saying since it was an Amazon fulfilled delivery & the warehouse ppl has properly checked the product before shipping. So they won't be able to help. . I have also tweeted the issue tagging all at Amazon India & Amazon USA along with Delhi Police & various Government agencies. In response I'm only receiving standard replies from Amazon India only asking me fill up some useless form on their website mentioning the details about the issue. Now after 3 days we all are exhausted & don't know what to do further. Since I'm a normal middle class person with no high profile contacts, that is the reason I haven't received any response from any of the BIG guys I tweeted.

Can anyone among you guide me what more can be done now? Any way to get our hard earned money back? Such incidents are very very demoralizing & make one feel quite helpless. Sometimes it feels to runaway from India & go and settle somewhere else. But on 2nd thoughts it comes to mind that there could be other issues plaguing people in those countries. Thanks for going thru this big post. Please help wherever & however possible.

 

[sidvee]

I had a recent issue with Amazon when I ordered 12 exhaust fans which were supposed to be 9" but they sent 15". Since I didn't check the boxes right away and waited for the electrician to show up, the return period expired. However I took photos of the wrong product in the right box and sent it to their team and they accepted the returns. There was an issue with blue dart picking up the boxes also which took some more time. Anyways did your sister take a picture of the box with the wrong phone in it and send it to the amazon team? That worked in my case (though it was amazon fulfilled there was a wrong size in there).
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[plasmoid]

My sister, who stays in Delhi, ordered an Apple iPhone 5S under exchange of an old iPhone Thursday last. On Friday, the Amazon delivery boy came for the delivery & handed the packet to her. She acknowledged the receipt, took the box & gave the old iPhone to the delivery person. When she opened the box after a couple of minutes she was shocked to find a not more than Rs 800, micromax mobile instead. We immediately called up the Amazon CC team and reported the issue. She also raised a return request on the Amazon portal. The Amazon CC team has washed their hands off the case saying since it was an Amazon fulfilled delivery & the warehouse ppl has properly checked the product before shipping. So they won't be able to help. . I have also tweeted the issue tagging all at Amazon India & Amazon USA along with Delhi Police & various Government agencies. In response I'm only receiving standard replies from Amazon India only asking me fill up some useless form on their website mentioning the details about the issue. Now after 3 days we all are exhausted & don't know what to do further. Since I'm a normal middle class person with no high profile contacts, that is the reason I haven't received any response from any of the BIG guys I tweeted.

Can anyone among you guide me what more can be done now? Any way to get our hard earned money back? Such incidents are very very demoralizing & make one feel quite helpless. Sometimes it feels to runaway from India & go and settle somewhere else. But on 2nd thoughts it comes to mind that there could be other issues plaguing people in those countries. Thanks for going thru this big post. Please help wherever & however possible.

Sorry for your troubles. Last two times I ordered music from Amazon and both times got empty boxes. The packing guys are definitely responsible. Luckily the amount was less than 2K and got refunded both times.

 

[tuff]

wtf? empty boxes?...LOL! man that is ridiculous!!!

 

[zoozoo]

I had a recent issue with Amazon when I ordered 12 exhaust fans which were supposed to be 9" but they sent 15". Since I didn't check the boxes right away and waited for the electrician to show up, the return period expired. However I took photos of the wrong product in the right box and sent it to their team and they accepted the returns. There was an issue with blue dart picking up the boxes also which took some more time. Anyways did your sister take a picture of the box with the wrong phone in it and send it to the amazon team? That worked in my case (though it was amazon fulfilled there was a wrong size in there).
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Sid

Yes. We have spoken to them on phone,chatted with them & also mailed them the pics. Still nothing from their side. Please can someone suggest what other options are there besides going to the police. The local cops are not taking the matter seriously.

 

[vishal_k]

Have you made an unboxing video?? It'll be very helpful in such cases.
If not then carefully collect each and everything that came with it specially the invoice. Now also you've the option of consumer forum.

 

[moktan]

I hope this matter is resolved at the earliest.
With due apologies to the OP just want to narrate my experience with Amazon. Had ordered a Dr Martens shoe from their global store. The shoe got delivered but amazon did not update about the status of the delivery. I wrote asking them to do so. They refunded my money. I said the shoe had been delivered so I didn't need the money but wanted them to update the status to 'delivered'. They wrote a mail asking me to keep the money and the shoes. Funny I thought, such cavalier attitude. Otherwise haven't had too much to complain about them.

 

[VRavichandar]

Any big ticket item from either Amazon or Flipkart (I dont trust other ecom portals for anything higher than 500Rs), I make an unboxing video - just in case. Many of us do this and I suggest all members to do the same hereafter.

 

[plasmoid]

wtf? empty boxes?...LOL! man that is ridiculous!!!

Yup...they just stuffed packing material in the box.

 

[tuff]

I wished some one from Amazon or the likes was a forum member here to really find out how often they good up, as I am sure the percentage would be miniscule. But yes, it's sucks when it happens to us.

 

[MaSh]

Wow thats sad to know. However was the iPhone bought marked Amazon Fullfilled? Also, is Amazon the authorized seller for Apple products?

Fortunately the 6 phones I have bought from Amazon past 2 years have been excellent and no issues at all. Same with numerous other items I have bought. As a note, Always, I mean always buy Amazon Fullfilled items Only.

Hope the issues is resolved soon.

MaSh

 

[kane]

Usually with high priced items, the best practice is to always open the package in front of the delivery person. Of late the Delivery person encourages you to actually open and then sign. E-tailers also are cautious as there are fraudsters who pose as buyers as well. There are also cheats within these organisations who either are part of the packing chain/ delivery chain etc. not the fault of the company as such mal practises are noticed only when there are a series of complaints.

The best bet would be to ask them to investigate the entire chain during the delivery to you. the cops may not be able to help much as you have signed the delivery receipt. Consumer court is a long drawn process but will eventually be in your favour

 

[chandu2106]

It's very sad to know "zoozoo" ..
Even I'm not sure how can I help u...

Few months back ordered RedMi 5 phone , after few days got an sms that the phone got delivered and delivery boy phone number unreachable . Immediately contacted CC and reported the issue luckily after 2days phone got delivered.

Btw ordered Fire TV stick yesterday (Pre paid) , not sure what's going to happen.

 

[zoozoo]

Thanks all for your replies. Unboxing video idea is good & will come handy in future for any ecommerce purchase. The phone was indeed Amazon fulfilled. That is another big issue. Frauds are happening under Amazon's nose. I have heard such instances with Amazon are more frequent in the Delhi-NCR region. What I'm doing is, twice a day I retweet the issue to Amazon. I think I will continue doing this till the issue gets resolved. No other way out.

 

[Naturelover]

Found a question on Quora

How do I escalate issues with Amazon India?

Azmath Adams, FBA Specialist at Amazon (2016-present)
Answered Oct 22, 2017


If you're a buyer and want an issue escalated, contact Customer Service for a resolution. If not addressed within 3–9 business days of the issue filed, you can request a supervisor look into the matter.
If you're a seller, issues will be less escalated as sellers understand there could be certain business delays. However, if you aren't provided a resolution by the Seller Support team within 15 days of the issue filed, this can be escalated to a managerial level for an investigation.
However, should you still not get an update, you can mention anyone of the Leadership Team's name (More on Amazon's wiki page) on the phone/email and this will be directly looked by a team assigned to them.
The last resort (highest escalation) but not to be taken advantage off is to mention Jeff Bezos on the phone or write an email to [email protected]. Here, there will be a question mark (?) sent by Jeff to his immediate authority and this will be then looked upon.
If you're curious to learn more about a question mark sent by Jeff, see Greg's beautifully structured answer here: Greg Hullender's answer to What's it like to receive a question mark e-mail from Jeff Bezos, at Amazon, Inc.?

 

[efernand1]

Hi

Basic rule, better to opt for Cash on Delivery...where possible...when the delivery guy comes....insist he waits...dont sign....open the parcel in front of him....video record if someone is around....then pay or highlight the issue.

Thats what i do....so far no challenges......

 

[zoozoo]

Found a question on Quora

Thanks for sharing the Quora post. Question is how to escalate to a supervisor or the leadership team? Let me try and go-thru Amazon's wiki page.

 

[abhinaba]

Ask simple questions:
if they have done the packaging for iPhone, then asked the IMEI number. Once received, verify from apple website regarding the phone status, then lodge a police complaint against the same. Get the IMEI number through mail/written communication.

Apple Warrenty Check

 

[TheMafioso]

I normally open expensive items infront of Amazon Delivery Guy, luckily I have never faced some issue. Unboxing video is also good idea.

 

[skroderider]

As a last resort you can log a ticket with https://consumerhelpline.gov.in/ - they are a bit slow in responding but they do eventually. Note that raising a ticket here leads to the Consumer Helpline contacting the concerned party, it does not create a consumer court case or anything similar (and I am not a lawyer, but I have used this method to good effect in the past).