Troy Stiffler

Those mailers typically have a 'pull here tab' that isolates the paper-only area, and doesn't release any recycled paper stuff.

Viper187

I couldn't find one on the one I got. It looked cheaper than a cheap bubble mailer. Piece of shirt.

Noonan

Damn them for using recyclable material rather than plastic!

Viper187

Fork the planet.

rduncan

Received an order that seemed to be broken prior to even shipping. Placed in decent box but with minimal packing but box looked fine. This is one I felt bad exchanging since it was a 3D printed item by an individual that I could have possibly repaired. I'm hoping the second attempt arrived intact.

Troy Stiffler

kefrank

That's beside the point. It's perfectly possible to design a mailer with recyclable material that doesn't make a mess when you open it. I got one of these mailers the other day as well and there was no tab isolating the paper-only part. They need to use better-designed recyclable mailers.

funkyryno

After several complaints to Amazon and some refunds on their part, I've noticed more packages are starting to arrive packaged better. I wonder if it's just a fluke or maybe some kind of flag has been put on my account so handlers to alert order pickers and packers to take a little extra care (I sort of doubt that's the case, but maybe).

Viper187

Why the fork has Walking Dead season 7 BD been out of stock on Amazon for forking months now!?

Josh-da-man

And sometimes, with those "gray fuzz" envelopes, they put the address label over the pull tab.

JeffTheAlpaca

When are they going to have Dumbo (2019) Blu-ray available on their site?

stvn1974

Dumbo is a Disney title so...

rduncan

Not really a complaint about Amazon but anyone else waiting to buy anything from them until Prime Day(s)? Not sure how their "I just bought it a week ago and now it's on sale" works but I'll add a few things to my wiah list and check back.

Sonic

Hope for Prime Day I can find some very cheap Blu-ray Van Damme movies.

Josh-da-man

I'll sit out Prime Day. Still have half of my fifty gallon barrel of sex lube from the last one, so I should be good until next year.

Sonic

Shannon Nutt

If memory serves, the last couple of PRIME days have offered very little for the movie fan. Seems to just be a couple of days for Amazon to push their homegrown products, like the Alexa and Kindle.

BobO'Link

^ IMHO you could have stopped after "offered very little." I can safely say I've never ordered anything during "Prime Days" as they just haven't offered anything my family needs or wants. It tends to look like a huge flea/junk market type clearance of stuff that's clogging the warehouse space. I don't expect it to be any different this year.

Sonic

Yeah you right. I have in my cart Samsung Galaxy Buds but I don't think they going to get cheaper than $127.

kd5

I have 60 items in my cart, saved for later, I'll bet none of them go up or down, on Prime Day, more than the few cents that they usually do each day.

rduncan

So do cart items automatically drop if "saved for later"? Anything change on your wish list?

grundle

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/201907110011

College student was late returning a textbook to Amazon, so the company took $3,800 from her dad

July 13, 2019

Amazon.com Inc. tells customers that renting textbooks instead of buying them can save up to 80% off the purchase price:

“Get your textbooks delivered to your door and save both time and money.”

What Amelia SanFilippo, a thrifty college freshman, wasn’t expecting was that the Seattle-based online retailer would withdraw nearly $4,000 from her father’s checking account because she was a few days late returning the book.

Amazon is not your local library branch.

In February, Ms. SanFilippo, 19, a cognitive science major, used her father’s debit card to rent Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age for the spring semester at the University of Delaware. Cost $62.70.

The book was due back June 24. She had asked her father, Anthony, to mail it for her. But it slipped his mind while he was packing for a weeklong trip. On June 28, she received an email from Amazon with the subject line: “Your Amazon.com rental has been purchased.”

“The item is now yours to keep,” the email stated.

Cost: $3,800.60 — more than 30 times the price of the textbook.

“I was shocked,” she said. “That’s a big chunk of change, especially when the book is $100 to buy.”

When she called her father in a panic the next day, he told her not to worry. They’d never actually charge him that amount, and he’d be home in Springfield, Delaware County, in a day and would return the book then.

“So imagine my surprise when I went to the ATM on Saturday night and saw there was a large sum of money missing,” Anthony SanFilippo said. “I was like, ‘Holy s—, what happened?”

Mr. SanFilippo, a writer for a political marketing firm, called Amazon customer service on Sunday, assuming it would recognize the $3,800 mistake and correct it. But company representatives refused to refund the money until they received the book. He’d shipped it that day and gave them a UPS tracking number.

“That wasn’t good enough for them,” he said.

Mr. SanFilippo said he was told by Amazon that UPS ground shipping usually takes seven to 10 days and that his refund should appear two to three days after that. Not wanting to wait that long, he asked to speak to a supervisor, who would identify himself only as “Mr. Joseph.”

“When I pointed out to him that the sum was exorbitant, he kept apologizing that I was frustrated, but that this was Amazon’s policy,” Mr. SanFilippo said.

The saga continued into the next day. And the next. He spent hours on the phone.

On July 1, the SanFilippos received an email from Joseph saying that he had been unable to reach them by phone.

“We look forward to seeing you again soon,” the email stated. “Thank you for your inquiry. Did I solve your problem?”

Anthony SanFilippo promptly clicked the “no” button in the email, and ended up speaking with another customer service supervisor who identified himself only as “Bon.”

“I went through the whole rigmarole all over again,” he said.

When Bon turned out to be no help, Mr. SanFilippo tried to go over his head.

“I said I would call Jeff Bezos’ office if I have to,” Mr. SanFilippo said, referring to the Amazon founder and CEO. “You have to get me somebody above you. He said, ‘Sir, I cannot do that.‘”

Amazon asked the SanFilippos to email photographic evidence the book had been shipped back. But their emails to that address all bounced back. That email address did not accept incoming messages, it said.

Mr. SanFilippo then turned to his bank to dispute the charge, but had no luck. The following morning, July 2, the $3,800 pending transaction cleared and the money was officially gone from his account.

With Amazon refusing to acknowledge it was an error, Mr. SanFilippo started to wonder whether he had stumbled onto some sort of extortion-type scheme aimed at college students.

“What if it was more than one book that was late?” he asked. “What if it was four, five, or six books. Would the tab be $20,000?”

And what if students lost their rented books or had them stolen?

Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. SanFilippo checked his bank account balance and saw that $3,800.60 had been returned. He never got an explanation from Amazon. But his daughter found an Amazon email from February, when she’d first rented the book. Sure enough, the “buyout” price was listed as $3,831.40.

Contacted Wednesday by The Inquirer, Amazon declined to explain how that number was determined.

“This was an error that we quickly resolved directly with the customer, and we have issued a refund,” an Amazon spokesperson said. The spokesperson requested anonymity.

The problem does not appear to be widespread, according to consumer advocates in Washington, where Amazon is based.

David Quinlan, vice president of marketing for the Better Business Bureau, said Amazon is an accredited business that meets standards for resolving consumer complaints.

He advised online shoppers to use a credit card — not a debit card — because they provide more protection against unauthorized charges. “That way you could easily dispute the charges and get the money back,” he said.

As for the SanFilippos’ experience, Mr. Quinlan said: “That’s crazy. I’ve never heard of something like that.”

Troy Stiffler

joe_b

My little cousin is visiting from out of state, so I ordered him an action figure for $10. I'm on a Prime trial and ordered it with two day shipping on Tuesday, so I was certain I'd have it delivered in time to give it to him on Sunday. Well, they missed the delivery deadline on Friday. It was finally delivered around 2PM this afternoon and it looks like the damn thing got caught in a sorting machine. They shipped it in a thin bubble mailer that looks like it was wadded up in ball. The card the figure came on was heavily bent and the bubble was crushed. I know the kid will just rip this thing open and play with it, so it's not a huge deal. Still, I was a bit pissed at the condition of the "new" item I had paid for.

I contacted customer service this afternoon. I made sure to mention a replacement wasn't necessary since it wouldn't arrive in time, but that they need to ship something like this in more appropriate packaging. They didn't offer any resolution, just a canned response mentioning they use software to determine the appropriate packaging for each item and that they missed the mark in this case. I opened a chat afterward because I felt this justified at least a partial refund adjustment given the circumstances. All I got was "We'll pass your feedback to the appropriate department" BS. I think now I'll just return the damn thing on principle.

I also didn't realize the Amazon driver was taking photos of my front porch after dropping off packages and uploading them to my account. These drivers never ring the doorbell to try to hand it off directly and it looks like my front door was wide open (with the screen door closed) in one of the pictures. I get that it's a security measure, but I find it a little invasive. Never noticed they were doing that until this weekend.

BobO'Link

I have a suspicion that those delivery photos will one day turn into "The delivery photo shows it was at your door. If it's missing then you need to file a police report." type canned response and you'll be stuck with the loss.