In a slightly different vein you can actually buy twitter followers so you look more popular.
It never stops.
Fake reviews and fake products will be the downfall of Amazon.
^^^that, and if there are laws passed requiring hiring delivery people as employees and paying them a fair wage. They just started offering free grocery delivery from Whole Foods to Prime members in a few markets. It’s just not sustainable - not without raising prices considerably.
I received a package earlier this week that I did not order from Amazon. A tube of regenerizing face cream. $12 value, popular brand. I checked with all my kids to make sure they didn’t order. Was charged to my credit card. I just got off chat with Amazon - they are sending me a label to send it back and told me to change my password.
Not to hijack the thread, but yesterday I got an item I’d ordered from an online vendor. What I had ordered is backordered, so I was surprised to see it. But… they sent the wrong item (orange rug vs. brown one…). I called them, and they somehow had the right item in stock after all. I got an email saying they shipped the right one by end of day yesterday.
Then… I got an email today saying they want me to send the orange (wrong) one back. But I’m not much interested in wrestling it back into some kind of packaging and shipping it back because they messed up. It isn’t a very expensive item (the wrong one is on discount on their site for about $20). So… I told them they didn’t have a legal right to ask for it back because they sent me the wrong one, and I’m not messing around with it. They are hassling me via email…
Did you agree that you would ship it back in exchange for the correct color? Oral contracts are just as binding as written ones 
What does their policy say about exchanges?
@intparent Was this through Amazon or another online service?
“Fake reviews and fake products will be the downfall of Amazon.”
This is an issue everywhere, not something Amazon owns. I highly doubt it will be the downfall of Amazon. Have you seen their profitability lately? I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for its downfall.
From the link: "Profitability for the quarter Amazon just reported was another matter, with net income of $1.86 billion, the most it’s ever posted.
That was aided by the fact that Amazon seized around half of all e-commerce holiday season sales, which was in turn probably helped by rising numbers of Prime subscribers. Revenues from those subscription fees grew 49% to $3.2 billion, with over 4 million people signing up in one week alone."
When it comes to online reviews, whether it is Amazon, Tripadvisor, or anywhere else, look with a critical eye at the individual posts. How many are from trusted reviewers with a history of reviewing over time and assigning reviews across the spectrum of possible ratings.
“if there are laws passed requiring hiring delivery people as employees and paying them a fair wage. They just started offering free grocery delivery from Whole Foods to Prime members in a few markets. It’s just not sustainable - not without raising prices considerably.”
All kinds of grocery store in my area online ordering services, and some offer delivery, not just Amazon/Whole Foods. I used Peapod grocery delivery 20 years ago when my kids were young and I was working 60 hours a week. It’s not new and actually more and more is going to head in that direction.
Not Amazon. And I did not commit to sending it back on the phone. The person I talked to said the warehouse would contact me if they wanted it back (then I got an email the next day).
Tell them you’ll send it back if they’ll, in exchange, compensate you for your time at your going rate for packaging it back up as well as for any more of your time they waste from here on out.
@intparent - maybe tell them you’ll drop it off at UPS and let them repack it for you. Rugs are tricky to repackage.
@doschicos - Amazon has promised Whole Foods delivery in 2 hours! Seems a bit of a strain.
Just saw a news story about this scam - it’s called “brushing.”
OP here. I haven’t received any more packages. Funny that the example the link in the story gives is exactly what was sent to me–iPad case.
Huh. Someone from UPS knocked on my door for a pickup this morning. I was on the phone with my attorney working on revising my will, so didn’t answer. They left a sticky on the door that they were there for a pickup. If they come back, I’ll just stuff the unwrapped rug into their arms if they will take it. Seems silly for them to do this for a $20.99 ugly orange rug.
And now they are threatening to charge my account & send me to collections if I don’t pay. Hmm. Pretty sure under FTC rules they can’t do that.
Is this a big, well known company?
We have had to close down two credit card accounts for fraudulent purchases and both times they were ipad or ipod cases - typically two or three of them. We didn’t get the cases but they were charged to our account.
@doschicos Wayfair. Got a coupon when I moved. Ordered 3 area rugs (2 shipped right away and were the right ones, 1 backordered). The backordered one is the problem.
Might be worthwhile taking your complaint to social media like their facebook page. I had success doing so a couple times when I had exhausting other avenues.
@intparent - what do they want you to pay for? The mistaken orange rug? I assume you already paid for the backordered one that you haven’t gotten yet.
You have to be careful with rugs. They are a PITA to return and it’s impossible for the really big ones. I’ve ordered from Overstock and had to return two small, round rugs. One I paid for, and spent a looooong time getting that thing back in the plastic wrappings, but it wasn’t expensive. The other one, I asked them to reimburse me for the shipping charges since the color didn’t match their photos online. They did reimburse me ($20 or so). Red is a difficult color to photograph and the real rug was more a rusty brown than red.
Overstock doesn’t have the best “curated” photos of rugs. You may click on a 5x7 and get a photo of a 3x5 and there’s no way to tell what the scale of the pattern is. I try to always leave comments and photos to help out other buyers.
“And now they are threatening to charge my account & send me to collections if I don’t pay. Hmm. Pretty sure under FTC rules they can’t do that.”
Unless when you were signing for an account with them or making a purchase, you clicked through some tiny print that outlined what their remedies and rights are in the cases like yours and that you agree to the terms…
What a PITA. Thanks for the warning - I was going to buy something from Wayfair and now I will not.