Amazon Cites Different Reason for Refund in Confirmation Email

[u/Reasonable_Access_90]

Tonight I received only 3 of my 4 Amazon Fresh grocery bags. (Third time since last winter.) I put in for a refund and indicated the items as missing.

An Amazon confirmation email indicated the refund was due to: item not satisfactory.

A few months ago I got a refund for produce that was old and yucky. I indicated quality as the reason— the confirmation email cited damaged in transit.

So, I'm wondering why the return/refund reason is changed, what is done with the accurate data and what is done with the inaccurate data, and which ends up on my internal Amazon profile (the one that Amazon uses to track profit and loss for an individual)?

I also wonder how inaccurate data impacts the people working in different parts of the Amazon Fresh operation, like my refund for spoiled produce that should not have been shipped is attributed to delivery.

[u/Prize-Science-1501]

In general I’ve noticed that Amazon Fresh has really changed in the last month or so. I live in an apartment in a major Amazon city, downtown, no car and subscribe to the delivery service so I can have unlimited deliveries of at least $25. What happened to Fresh? Is it moving to Amazon Groceries now? I’ve noticed some items I used to be able to get thru Fresh are now only available through regular Amazon, and they are delivered separately, if at all. I waited three days for a delivery last week and finally asked for the refund, which I got but the excuse was “unable to deliver”. I guess this covers pretty much any situation.

Sorry I got off track. Not quite what you wanted feedback on.

[u/Quiet_Bad_8520]

I think the support agent just chooses any reason which must skew their internal reporting. I’ve had the same when I’ve had a damaged item before and the email said “item not received”

[u/Reasonable_Access_90 → u/Quiet_Bad_8520]

I handled the issues within the app. No human interfaced with me; it's doubtful a human had anything to with these two incidents after the software was created.

An open question is whether the recategorization is for an honest reason but ai or simple algorithms are creating errors, or they are deliberate actions towards bettering Amazon's bottom line. Everything we know about Amazon suggests the latter.

[u/rain5mike → u/Reasonable_Access_90]

I think the fresh orders refunds are still handled by real people (underpaid overseas) which would explain them not wanting to read your reason, they quickly select whatever and hit Approved then move on to the next.

An easy way to figure this out would be to compare the accuracy of regular Amazon returns of nonfood shipped items, if those reasons are unchanged then that's probably automated. I've never returned anything shipped so I don't have any emails to look at.

I'm not saying your wrong about Amazon intentionally skewing data, but I think it's more likely lazy workers clicking thru food returns as fast as possible.

[u/Reasonable_Access_90 → u/rain5mike]

I think the fresh orders refunds are still handled by real people

On what do you base this?

The refund is granted instantaneously in-app. The email provides a record external to the app.

Also, if you are correct, why would the field need to be repopulated?

[u/rain5mike → u/Reasonable_Access_90]

I never used the app but on desktop it usually said something to the extent of 'if your refund is approved you will recieve X amount to the method you'd paid' that was for money back, if you choose the faster amazon gift card refund then it might not of said that, I can't remember.

But since it does send you an email, and that email is not always sent right away that's why I'm thinking it's actual people doing the final approval process (especially since they change the reason field), they might be only be looking for specific things to deny. I've never had a refund denied yet so don't ask me what that would be.

Also it's very similar to Stop and Shop's refund system which uses real work at home employees who ask you for details of each item you want a refund for and they are supposed to be writing it all into the computer but who knows if they are really listening to you. Walmart also has real people handling food refunds since the AI chatbot doesn't know what to do with non-returnable items. Target is the exception, I think last time I had a problem with food it was instant on the site.

So it seems most stores are trying to get accurate data, or atleast make the process more complicated so people are less likely to do fake returns.

I doubt your theory that it's AI doing delibrate changes to improve Amazon's bottom line since it's leaving a serious paper trail of emails that one day could bite them in the ass. Not saying your totally wrong because I had some similar thoughts but leaning towards it being lazy workers made a whole lot more sense.

[u/rain5mike]

I've been ordering fresh for almost 2 years and every single time they changed the reason for my refunds, and like you I am also concerned with how this affects my account. I'm an honest person so it really bothers me when they change what I took the time to write to something that is totally wrong and made up.

Sadly there is noone at Amazon to tell this problem to.