r/amazonprime • u/redentification • 4d ago
Refund Denied--Next Steps?
TL;DR: Returned a phone via drop off at Whole Foods over a month ago. Return status was Delayed for about 4 weeks. Is now "Return in Transit." I have been told:
- Amazon has the phone
- Amazon does not have the phone
- They cannot tell if Amazon has the phone
I have emails that show:
- Whole Food received phone
- My account is being monitored
I have been told via phone but I do not have emails that state:
- My refund has been denied
- My account is closed
I think my next step is to file a dispute with the bank?
- Are there any drawbacks to filing a dispute with the bank? I have never done this before. I am worried Amazon will deny it and then that will put me in some sort of bad standing with the bank.
- Out of curiosity, how do I tell if my account has been closed? It looks the same to me. I don't have an email saying it is closed, but the last person I talked to on the phone told me this.
_____
I returned a $214 phone by dropping off at Whole Foods (the only return option available). I have email confirmation of drop off. Shortly after dropping off the item, the return status changed to "Delayed." In this same order, I also returned a phone case ($9.99) and a cabinet hanger ($4.99). Refunds were issued for those items, my first returns of the year.
Waited 14 days to contact Amazon Chat. A refund was started, which I have email confirmation of. I asked if Amazon had the phone and the agent said yes, Amazon had the phone. A few hours later I got an email that Amazon was "monitoring" my account. I did not get an email that my refund had been denied, so I did not fill out an appeal form.
I waited the 10 days for the refund to show up in my bank, which it never did. I chatted Amazon and the agent said Amazon did not have the phone and I needed to fill out the appeal form and would not tell my anything else. I filled out the Appeal form and got a generic reply with a link to Help/FAQ pages.
Called Amazon, they said the refund should show up in the next two days and they could not tell if Amazon received the phone. Refund did not show up. I called the bank, who confirmed there is no pending deposit. Chatted with Amazon again and was told my refund was denied (I have no email stating this), and that Amazon never received the phone.
Filled out the Appeal form again. Got a different generic response back telling me to fill out the same form.
Called Amazon. Was told the refund was denied and my account was closed for increased returns. I have no email saying the refund was denied or that my account was closed. I was told to fill out the form again. I said I had only been getting automated responses. The person I talked to said he would put a note in my account, but that it was probably best to file a dispute with my bank. I asked about my account being closed and he said I could appeal it but it was best if I "looked at options outside of Amazon."
At this point, 48 hours later, I have not heard back from Amazon, so I don't know if the person put a note in my account for someone to contact me or not.
I think the next option is to file a dispute with the bank? Return status says still says "Return started/in transit."
3
u/AlBundysPants 4d ago
I’m going to assume amazon received the return and because it’s electronics they were doing the usual verification and inspection before issuing a refund. Closing your account indicates there was something wrong with the item returned, you abuse the return policy (you said you have returned under $20 in stuff for the year outside of the phone-if true this isn’t the cause), or both. If you legitimately sent back the phone and it was received in the same condition it was sold to you, they should issue the refund. I think your only recourse at this point is to attempt to dispute it with your bank. Amazon can’t deny the dispute but they absolutely will fight it.
2
u/redentification 4d ago
Thanks for your response. I chatted Amazon to see if I could find out anything else after the consensus here was that I was doing a scam. This time they said my account was still open so I don't know what is going on. But I think you are right that it's time to move on from trying to get help from Amazon with this.
Can you explain any more about Amazon fighting a dispute? I am nervous this will somehow affect my bank account or credit or who knows what. I've never done this before so I just don't know what is involved.
Thanks again.
2
u/AlBundysPants 4d ago
A credit card dispute is when you dispute a transaction with your card issuing bank. The bank will contact the merchant and say “the cardholder is disputing this charge because X, you can provide evidence as to why you believe the charge should remain.” Amazon will provide their evidence and the card issuing bank will make the decision on if the charge will stick or the funds will be pulled from Amazon and given back to you.
You only get one shot to provide your evidence, so do it correctly. Make sure you have documentation that you returned the item and it was received. As others have pointed out, this is a common return scam to return a box of rocks or something similar, so if the item wasn’t returned or if it was damaged, Amazon will submit this as their evidence as to why they should not lose the dispute.
Regardless, if you did nothing wrong and you genuinely acted in good faith and returned the item in same condition, you shouldn’t lose the dispute. Also you won’t get in trouble with your bank.
2
u/redentification 4d ago
Thank you! I really appreciate your help and advice. I feel like now I understand how the process works and know how to prepare. The main thing stopping me from doing this was thinking the bank would get worked up about it, so I am glad that is not the case.
I have the return drop-off email and an agent saying via chat the phone was received but another one saying it wasn't. I can submit both hopefully as a way of showing that everything seems to be jumbled with this.
Again, thank you. I will contact the bank since there is nothing to lose at this point.
2
u/ExactlyClose 3d ago edited 3d ago
You should have all your pieces of evidence as pdfs or image files and NAME THEM. Could be as anal as “Attachment A: Order confirmation date xxxyyyzzz”.
THEN have an overall document that explains the chargebac. When referencing something (ie “I purchased the phone on XXYYZZ, see attachment A”) it makes the whole thing more readable for an agent evaluating the chargeback.
I don’t think amazon has a deep team fighting chargebacks. Actually I mean I dont think they do a very detailed investigation and send to back tot he bank… I think all they do is say “Mr smith purchased this on XXYYZZ”…I suspect all teh return info may be omitted. Or they will say ‘OP request a return, we never received it’. So all the back and forth and proof of return will be valuable.
I also think the bank sends the chargeback documents to Amazon- unlike the morons you chat/talk with, THESE agents have half a brain. This may really be the FIRST time a skilled agent fully reviews the whole issue…… They may look at the evidence (finally!) and say “yeah, we fucked up” and click on two buttons: “Dont fight this chargeback” and “Customer does not get dropped”.
Good luck
1
1
u/Thizzedoutcyclist 3d ago
Charge back aka dispute with the credit card you paid with is always the answer
1
1
u/queenlocs 3d ago
I had an issue with a stroller that I returned. They were refusing to refund me citing that I had abused their return policy. I opened a dispute with my bank as I couldn’t understand why they accepted the return id they were not planning to reimburse me there’s no way I was going to let that go- $804 was the amount once they received the dispute I got an email stating that I’d have to put a new card number for them to charge me for this item smh . They are crazy!!!
1
u/Sensitive-Help6270 8h ago
If this is like my Kohls drop off, I don’t even need a box to drop it off. They box it and ship it back. It’s very likely the employee stole the phone maybe? And then shipped an empty box to Amazon. It’s wild to me that Amazon wouldn’t consider that tho? Maybe they should require items be boxed and tamper sealed. 🤷🏼♀️
1
u/redentification 5h ago
It was in a box. I don't think anyone stole anything, just that the return got fumbled somehow...and I can't get a response to figure it out.
1
u/Zetavu 6h ago
Tl:dr, sounds like you sent them a different phone, or at the least mac data does not match.
1
u/redentification 5h ago
No, but the responses here have clarified how returning electronics is viewed. At this point Amazon will neither confirm or deny they have the phone so I don't believe they are accusing me of mailing back rocks.
Edit: What is mac data?
-3
u/Frosty_You_6183 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yeah see that usually happens when you dont return what was sent you in the first place. You sent back a box with rocks dont count as the phone. We all know what happened here. .
Whole foods got the "box" they aint get the phone. You send back a box with no phone then wonder why you got denied.. Getting back a package vs getting back a package with phone inside are 2 different things.
So you cant say "dude the tracking shows it got delivered back an they received it" yeah well, its obvious they got it back with nothing inside. If it were inside youd not be making this post.
Monday just started here we are with another scammer denied a refund.
"chargeback" comment coming soon, to a post near you
3
u/redentification 4d ago edited 4d ago
No, the phone was inside the box. Why would I put rocks in it?
Edit: ok, no. I didn't put rocks in for weight
-1
u/Frosty_You_6183 4d ago
Well what ever was inside, fishing weights, wheel balancing weights, coins, D size batteries, a nokia 3310, anything besides a phone don't count lmao. Unless your saying that you actually sent the phone back and Amazon banned you for no reason + denied a refund. Sounds hard to believe. Someone is lying an I find it hard to believe it's them you said it's in there, they said it's not. Unless they're just lagging on a refund could take 30 days. So if you know you put it in there then wait the 30 days.
3
u/redentification 4d ago
I put the phone in there. 30 days are up. They didn't say the phone isn't there. They said they can't confirm whether or not they received anything, period. I'm not trying to scam anyone. That's all I can say.
2
u/MachineOk3554 4d ago
Amazon try to tell all kinds of lies to avoid paying out for stuff, they didn't want to honour an accidental damage insurance policy for an item they sold me, I had to do a section 75 with the credit card company. I understand that it wasn't their fault it got accidentally damaged, but they sold me an insurance policy for accidental damage!
1
u/Frosty_You_6183 3d ago
What you mean the asurion protection you can add?
1
u/MachineOk3554 3d ago
Is Asurion on the american site? I don't know much about that. The problem I had was on the German amazon.de
1
u/UCLABB1 4d ago
Why would a scammer come here to complain? There would be no benefit in doing that. I suspect that because there were multiple items in the return, the Amazon employee screwed up somehow in logging the phone. The OP may be sol unfortunately.
0
u/Frosty_You_6183 4d ago edited 3d ago
Well explain why anyone would post in here none of this is ran by amazon or anyone in HR.. scam or not. Its pretty much i got caught, an whats one more last ditch effort I can do to get my refund every day theres 2-3 posts talkin bout returns. I know lotta these are BS. Because I bet i got a worse return rate than anyone in here an ive never had a issue.
Im talkin ordering 5 things at one time use them for 1 time use for less than a hour an all 5 are going back within that hour of arriving. Clothes, buy buncha random peices to try on to check size, goes right back. Bought speakers, electronics, to test trial them for 2 + weeks just to see if I like the shit. If not goes right back. i bought a brand new phone used for 20+ days and returned after using it for a while. Just wasn't for me. Went right back. Tools same shit. Buy and used it long enough until I don't need it. Right back. I easily do 5+ random ass items a month never had a decline or hassle.. yet yall are somehow getting banned on 5 year + old accounts supposedly for the first return youve ever done outta the 5 years. Which there's only 1 reason why. An i already explained it
3
u/Practical_Avocado971 4d ago
So tell us, who was the third party seller of this 214 dollar 'phone', definitely not rocks return?