Man Twists Amazon's Arm, Gets It To Accept Money It Gave Away
Joshua had a problem with Amazon. He and his wife bought Kindles, broke one and went for a return/exchange, in which the couple ended up with a new Kindle and $300 of Amazon's money in its account.
Josh called Amazon to get it to accept the money back, but got no response. He tried again and has now hit the opposite of paydirt. Amazon will grudgingly accept its money back. He writes:
I called and spoke to an Amazon representative. Other then the fact that both reps wondered why I would call to report an error in my favor. Eventually it was determined that they would bill me for the improper credit and reclaim the erroneous refund.
I was repeatedly thanked for my honesty regarding the situation. But I did get Amazon to reclaim their rightful money.
It's good to know that sometimes the little guy can score a victory over an over-generous corporate giant. Let this be a lesson to any Amazon higher-ups who may be reading this: We the consumers have had enough with your money-giving-away shenanigans and won't stand by idly while this practice goes on. If Josh can beat you, anyone can.
In fact, Amazon, I personally dare you to try to give me $300 and see what happens. Yeah, I went there. Bring it on.
(Photo: funny strange or funny ha ha)
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Comments:
Good on ya Josh! That would have really screwed you over if you had used that 300 and then later found it to be deducted from your card causing all sorts of bounced fees (if debit card) or over limit charges (if credit card).
Yeah I definitely understand what Josh is thinking... $300 is a lot, if happens over 100 people, that's $30,000 lost for Amazon, which eventually gets passed along to the rest of us.
Maybe it'll get them to investigate the money leak? When I shop businesses I like (mom & pop, Amazon, etc...) I go out of my way to make sure everything's fair/square.
I went to a rotating sushi bar once and they forgot to count one of the colored plates for $2...I insisted they counted it, and the owner (dumbfounded) thanked me for my honesty.
Amazon sells kitties?!
@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: Yeah, but you need to get a full litter to take advantage of the $300 credit.
Amazon's returns dept. seems to have some mixups. I had to exchange a DVD box set which was missing a disk, and after receiving the new one, I sent back the old one and emailed them to get a tracking number to make sure they get it. They emailed me back to say they'd already received it... the same day I dropped it off to UPS, which was impossible. So ultimately I probably coulda kept the old set and they wouldn't've known. At least we don't hear about these problems negatively affecting customers, yet.
@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: Yeah, and with free shipping if you order over 25 of them and choose a single shipping address.
You'll take this random, unearned, no strings attached gift of $300 and you'll LIKE it!!
Amazon is so much better at everything than nearly everyone else. I even started buying laundry detergent and toiletries there. It's actually even cheaper than Sam's Club.
@willdude: I think it's because they always want to side with the customer even if they take a hit. Imho it's a good policy.
@MostlyHarmless: Sounds like it's my lucky day.
And in 5-10 business days from now.. the most unlucky day for my cats at home already.
@MostlyHarmless: They have a happy life.. Lots of windows to sleep in.. all the food they want.. they even have an automated water fountian and a fancy self cleaning litter box.
They'll just have to get over sharing those things with their 27 baby brothers and sisters. lol.
@TinkishDelight: Thank you sir, may I have another?!
If anyone else doesn't want their free 300 dollars, they can send it to me.
Yeah Amazon! Give me $300 bucks and I'll...
You think its over? Wait until your newly ordered Kindle shows up! :)
@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: More than kitties:
(Before anyone freaks, it's my kid, I was too exhausted to get up the stairs with her after a marathon all-night nursing session and I was starving, so I put her in a box that happened to be there (after lining it with blankets first) so she could safely doze while I could get myself some food. And then the whole thing was cute so I took pics.)
@kaceetheconsumer: My mom used to stick me in a dresser drawer (removed from the dresser, she assured me) as it was the only thing in the house that was deep enough to put me in safely but also small enough for me (I was very premature).
@MostlyHarmless: I'd hate to see the stupid-shipping gang post if Amazon messed up a shipment of 27 kitties.
$300?? Bah. Meh. I dare them to give me $500! I just DARE 'em to try!
I can't believe the reps attitude about this mistake. You can't keep money given to you in error. One day the company will take it back, so it is in your best interest to return it as soon as possible. If he hadn't fought tooth and nail to get Amazon to collect their funds, Amazon would have automatically reversed or debited his account. Maybe next month, maybe next year, without warning. Why wouldn't those Amazon reps understand that?
@Xerloq speaks Portuguese, too...: And can you imagine the comments? A pic with 27 kittehs, all playing in assorted boxes. The only comments that would tangentially deal with the post would be:
"OMG!!! SO CUTE!!!! Cutest case of stupid shipping ever!!!"
@henrygates: I suspect the Reps do understand that. They're probably just not used to customers who understand it as well.
Yep, he definitely did the right thing from both a personal and practical standpoint.
I used to work for insurance billing. One thing you might not know about home insurance is that, when a mortgagee sends us checks, they send a huge honking list of them all at once. Another thing you might not know is that they get the numbers wrong with fair regularity.
So, we'd get an extra mortgagee payment on an account that was already fully paid. Since it was paid, we'd refund this money to the person whose account it ended up on. Now, it might take a few weeks - like, when the policy which the money was meant for starts to cancel - but eventually it'll be noticed.
You might be amazed at how often people will just cash a refund check for $600 and spend it all without thinking, "Gosh, I have no idea why I got this. Maybe I should call my agent..." And if it's spent, we bill for it. If that's not paid, it's collections time.
@coffeeculture: Restaurants are different. I know very few people who have accidentally forgotten to ring in something on someone's order.
I'll not charge for drinks, coffee and sometimes dessert to certain customers who don't ask for much or are regulars. Most things in restaurants are marked up 300-500%
@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: It's a good thing you have one of those fancy self-cleaning litter boxes. With 30 kittehs, that'd be a lotta poo to scoop! You may want to consider >1 litter box...
@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: And the stinkiest smelling shipment you've ever received. 27 kittehs boxed up for 5-10 business days...phew...
@henrygates: Maybe, maybe not. This isn't the first story that's recently been posted here about Amazon mistakenly refunding - in the other instance, they let the person keep the cash instead of take it back
@dwarf74: I still think this is stupid. Of course just because someone receives money doesn't make it his, but if I go out passing around money to strangers, I don't have any legal recourse for getting it back after I've given it away.
It's almost as if companies could develop systems which allow them to keep track of what funds belong to who.
@subtlefrog: Ewww.. stop clouding my fantasies with your silly reality and logic.
27 shipped kitties are the cutest thing ever!
@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: Sorry! Sorry! you're right! Fantasy kittehs are the cutest and never leave odors or stains!!!
I was mistaken!
@henrygates: I doubt it. It is possible that they would have called or contacted him about a correction in the short term, but discovered further down the road I doubt they would have done anything. Amazon doesn't behave quite like most other companies in this regard.
@kaceetheconsumer: Aww thats so cute :D
[Pic wasnt accessible from work. Checked it out at home at lunch. Totally made the rice and pasta sauce taste much better.]
@CompyPaq: What's nice is that they are so large they are willing to take a hit. Unlike the Best Buys of the world where you can't even return a broken product with their worthless extended warrenty (personal experience).
@JulesNoctambule: My husband recalls one of his siblings being temporarily put in an apple crate in a similar situation.
You do what you gotta do!
@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: If only...I'm sure we could have got a better discount on Amazon and possibly applied it to my associate account and got 6% back on the $25,000 it took to make that kid!
@dwarf74: I don't see how a check made out to me, mailed to my house, shouldn't be considered mine.
Maybe the mortgage company should keep better track of their payments and refunds?
@UGAdawg:
Responsible people wouldn't have a problem...they'd leave some wiggle room in their accounts and not max out their credit cards.
@henrygates:
I still don't quite understand this:
When a bank or company take your money in error, it is YOUR responsibility to inform them, WITHIN a certain time frame, or their POLICY say the money now belongs to them rightfully.
How is it not the same when a bank or company give me money in error? Informing the company once should be just extra honest, not obligated.
If amazon was giving him so much trouble... he could of donated to me.
-Steve
[comptechkuze.blogspot.com]
@MostlyHarmless: Not for me or my husband, just all the fertility center staff!
We figured it could come out of her allowance, but a friend said that wasn't fair since she didn't ask to be made, so now we say we'll apply it against the inevitable therapy bills she'll charge us for being such weird parents.
@oblivious87: Yeah I've had that happen with soda and such...I'll bring it up but I know that it cost them like <$.25 to buy a can in bulk, so I'll thank them for their generosity on that.
But I love sushi, so I felt funny getting a freebie plate of salmon. Plus, if I'm given a benefit by a server, I feel obligated to add more to the tip as a result.
![[img.photobucket.com]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/kacee4/008-specialshipment.jpg){kind=link}
Curse you Amazon! You never did this for me.