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[flagged] Amazon won't accept written communication
80 points by ccleve 11 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 69 comments
We had a bad time with Amazon yesterday, and I can't reach them to tell them about it.

Without getting into details, an Amazon delivery driver did a bad thing on our property, which we only discovered this morning when a neighbor brought it to our attention.

I attempted to write to Amazon, but apparently they no longer accept email at cs-reply@amazon.com, there is no way to post a support ticket, they no longer have chat, and they make it very, very difficult to find a customer service phone number. No, none of their automated support options applied to this particular situation.

Through Googling, I found 1-888-280-4331, the customer service number, but for obvious legal reasons I need to send them a written account of what happened, so I have a record that they were notified.

Short of filing a lawsuit and serving them with a complaint, how do I reach these people?

And more generally, when a large FAANG company makes it nearly impossible to communicate with them, is this not evidence of bad-faith dealing, and should consumer protection agencies come down hard on them?






Send a letter to 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109-5210 [1] with your state attorney general [2] copied. (Note the AG's Cc in the letter.)]

(If you had property damage or a crime was committed, get a police report. Now. You lose nothing by documenting. Waiting could damage the perceived quality of any testimony and seriousness of the allegations.)

[1] https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001018724/0...

[2] https://www.naag.org/find-my-ag/

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Most state AG's also have a consumer complaints division at which you can file a report, which is then forwarded to the company in question.

(There are cases, such as fraud, phone solicitations, and robocalls, in which you might prefer the firm not be contacted, but in the case of an established firm such as Amazon it's generally recommended you do.)

This both creates a record with the agency and typically connects you with a "concierge service" or similar at the company who will generally work to address the issue quickly.

Otherwise, parent is excellent advice.

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This is what I'd do. Because this is what lawyers I've known and sometimes sold services to have done when it was at all inconvenient to send a legally sufficient message in some other way.

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They have a chat.

From top nav bar -> Account and Lists -> Customer Service -> Digital Services and Device Support -> Click "Contact Us" at the bottom of the page under Start a Chat Now.

It is hard to find but its there. You start with a bot but they pop you to customer service pretty quickly.

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Yup, this works. I did not think to click "Digital Services" because this has nothing to do with digital services. But it does get you to the chat.

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Good to know - That's much more hidden than it used to be

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For sure. I dont know if that is because they want to hide it so less people use it or if Amazon just has no ability to make anything other than product pages easy to find on their website.

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Pretty simple really, I just asked their "Rufus" AI shopping assistant how to get help and got this:

"To access Amazon's customer support chat, you can visit the Your Orders section or scroll to the bottom of any page and select Customer Service. From there, choose the appropriate option that addresses your question or issue, and follow the prompts to initiate the chat."

To get help, select Customer Service ." (which is a button in the chat window)

Should work fine....

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Not sure why this got downvoted. This actually worked. Sure, I shouldn't have to negotiate with a bot, but it did get me to a human just now. (Or maybe a really convincing bot).

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Haha, thanks. I get downvoted just for showing up on this site. I have had to make a dozen different logins over 6-8 years. People just seem to hate my comments for whatever weird reason. (reference phyzome below) ;-P

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"Let Me Google That For You" was rude 20 years ago. "Here's what ChatGPT said" has almost identical vibes.

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Sorry for offending you, sir. I had no intentions of that. I am a pretty simple kind of guy and thought that would help. Have a nice day!

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chatgpt said has much worst vibes imho

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An amazon driver hit and run our car parked on the street in front of our house and did a lot of damage. we figured it from neighbor’s ring camera.

we messaged Amazon chat support. It was all very easy and procedural. Clearly this happens all the time because we were just moved through a process that took a few weeks, and we were fully reimbursed.

I’m not saying not to document everything, but our strategy was just to take extensive notes every day in case it ended up in a lawsuit. But the reality was they didn’t challenge anything and just moved us through a property damage pipeline.

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Please tell me you have your own security cameras now.

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And that they were bought from Amazon!

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And the delivery truck crashed the gate. Amazon recursion model!

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And that Amazon didn't stop supporting them suddendly!

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Amazon accepts subpoenas and other legal summons. You just need to engage an attorney.

Whether it’s egregious enough for that I don’t know, but you will definitely get in contact with them if you use one.

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If you go that route, I’ll remind readers that they can use small claims court to avoid large legal fees or maybe even a lawyer. It’s still a good idea to consult with a lawyer before going into any kind of court. You might be able to do that in your jurisdiction too.

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It’s worth mentioning that small claims court judgments are often non-binding. Meaning, if either party is dissatisfied with the outcome, they can have an automatic “do-over” in regular civil court.

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However, then Amazon would need to start by explaining to a judges why another judge convicted them. Not impossible, but certainly not the point I'd like to start from.

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No, it’s not like that. It’s a trial de novo, meaning you truly start over as if the prior proceeding hadn’t happened. I still think small claims court can be useful, but it’s important to know what it is.

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A prior procedure going against you will not help your chances even if it was arbitration.

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You can self rep and do it yourself, but I wouldn't recommend it.

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I just went through the Amazon chat experience, quickly got to a real person and had my issue resolved. I had to start by referencing a specific order and say “No” to all the “is this a payment problem?” and “do you want to make a return?” prompts, but it wasn’t hard in the end.

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If it's sensational enough and you have evidence, you might write to your local news station. PR issues tend to get swift attention.

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In this case, the local police department would be more appropriate, but I'd like to give Amazon the chance to make this right on their own. They sure don't make it easy.

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If it’s something involving property damage or another issue requiring reimbursement, I’d recommend seeking legal advice and the lawyers can send whatever correspondence is needful.

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Let's make it top 1 ))

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That number is NOT an Amazon number. Do not call it. It is a scam. Search Google for that number and you will find numerous reports.

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I had the same issue when a driver let themselves round the back of my property, opening a latched gate by squeezing their fingers through a gap in the gate, then trying to open a door at the back. The door happened to be a bedroom with en-suite so the possibility of seeing someone naked was nonzero. The gate also can’t be closed again from the outside even reaching fingers through, leaving it open to anyone and everyone once they’ve left (I’ve since patched the holes as several delivery drivers have now done this). They dumped the package in our greenhouse, breaking a plant and leaving the door open. I only caught all this as we have a camera pointing at the back to track our cats, feeding into Frigate.

I also had trouble contacting Amazon by email so I spoke to a rep on the live chat. They put me through to someone on the delivery team who asked for video evidence. I had to send the video by email to some random Amazon address, then they credited my account with £10, apologised profusely, and said they would feed this back to the delivery driver.

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I think £10 is the maximum credit agents can offer up the chat.

I had a problematic delivery, it was listed as out every day and 'couldn't be delivered' every day for a few weeks. After a week of this I would get on the chat every day or two to complain (get told that the problem had been resolved and that it would 100% get delivered the next day) and get my £10 account credit. After I got to £50 they promised again that the product would be with me tomorrow and quietly cancelled my order and issued a refunded.

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> they credited my account with £10, apologised profusely, and said they would feed this back to the delivery driver

Fuck you with a bow on it!

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I’d normally be inclined to agree except they went to the effort of getting my video evidence, which gives me hope this did actually end up getting fed back.

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A lawyer could advise you. My guess is that getting a registered receipt for certified mail addressed to their general counsel would be sufficient evidence for the courts that you had notified them but your lawyer will know better than I do. I have occasionally resorted to sending certified mail with receipts requested and if nothing else it sends a message that I'm serious.

It wasn't my idea though, the last time I got into a dispute with the IRS they did that to me and I thought "hmm, I bet they do that to 'prove' you knew what they were asking of you."

That said, I'm really sorry you have to go through this. More and more I've been working to move off Amazon ordering for this exact reason.

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Try sending a demand letter to their legal department.

Put the words "demand letter" in gold and underlined in large font at the top.

CC your state attorney general (like, print two copies, send to both, and put CC: My AG, MY Age address at the top). You can specifically state that if they do not respond to you that you will file suit in small claims court. Consider sending certified mail. Note that you are reaching out this way because you have no other channel.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

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> Put the words "demand letter" in gold and underlined in large font at the top

Does this have legal significance?

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It helps route the mail correctly, and increases likelihood of it getting someone's attention.

Registered mail, return receipt, provides legal proof of delivery.

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> increases likelihood of it getting someone's attention

Huh, I’d toss it as spam. Addressing to legal seems more likely to deliver without side effects.

> Registered mail, return receipt, provides legal proof of delivery

These are better.

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A hand-addressed letter with that labeling tends not to be instantly discarded as spam.

Routing mail within large organisations is its own complex problem. What "demand letter" indicates is where the letter should go, and to whose attention it should be brought.

Any organisation of even a fraction the size of Amazon, Inc., will have staff whose job it is to assess the credibility of such claims. Your heuristic is unlikely to be followed by them, and would present significant risks if widely practiced. Courts and juries in particular tend to frown on ignoring such communications.

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They list a postal address in the Conditions of Use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

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Per https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/amazon/ you can email cs-escalations@amazon.com or an exec listed there.

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If you can find some way to message the CEO (email address etc) most large e-commerce sites have an "office of the president" that have experienced customer service reps that deal with such correspondance.

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Live chat exists, it just takes few hops to get to human through chat bot. Email works, but it only for cases when they ask you to email them photos or something

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How do I get to live chat? If I search for "customer service", click the link, and keep clicking "Help with something else", I get circular links that go nowhere.

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Try a different browser. Maybe your ad blocker is breaking their website. I just clicked "Help with something else" > "I need more help" > a chat popup window appeared, I typed "human" > I clicked "Yes" > I clicked "Connect with a Customer Service Associate" . Easy. I think a form of Hanlon's razor applies here "Don't attribute a wildly sensational change in policy from a famously customer centered company, what could more easily be explained by a browser glitch".

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From top nav bar -> Account and Lists -> Customer Service -> Digital Services and Device Support -> Click "Contact Us" at the bottom of the page under Start a Chat Now.

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Can you reach out to their support chat through an order (dispute an order or something) and ask to be rerouted to the right support team?

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So far as I can tell, support chat doesn't exist.

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Support chat exists, you need to jump through hoops and always select "other" and "I have a problem" and stuff like this. I've talked to them multiple times

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When I buy products from Amazon, there's some "Get help about this order" button when I see order details. If you pick correct choices you escape the automated chats and they put a human on the chat with you.

You can then explain your issue.

Amazon always fixed my problems, including refunds, replacements. Their chat support is so good I tend to buy with them even when they don't have the best price.

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Can you try from Amazon app, there is an option to click to customer service after the click the second button (from the right) on bottom nav bar.

Then you will have many options, scroll down to something else and you will find chat with customer service and then you want to tell the bot straight that you want to be redirected to an agent. From there you can talk to actual human and ask to be redirected or even ask for a call. Though I am not sure if this will be different if you are not prime member. Also there is a way to do that from website but steps would be slightly different.

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I had an item vanish in transit to me (in the UK) and support chat (after fighting through some robotic stupidity) very quickly and without fuss gave me a refund on the spot. So humans do still exist and have agency and are reachable in parts of Amazon at least...

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I chatted with them recently but it’s like a maze finding how to reach an agent.

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It surelly used to exist, I have settled returns, refunds and reacheduling of deliveries through their chat in the past. Last time was 5-6 months ago

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I remember people could email Jeff Bezos to escalate issues. Is there such a thing for Andy Jassy?

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This no longer works. The just kick it down to a support person. I don't think the question mark emails exist anymore for customer facing issues.

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Likely always had. It wasn't "Jeff's email", it was "report an issue".

(Bezos likely could and did review some of the mail, but reports were connected to the relevant department.)

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That’s disappointing. So they just don’t care to provide that amount of customer service anymore?

Didn’t Apple have something like this in the Steve Jobs era?

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but for obvious legal reasons I need

to use a lawyer...because there are obvious legal reasons.

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Would sending a physical letter to their hq be ok?

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Sure, but it's a hassle because you've got to go to the post office and fill out a return receipt requested form, otherwise the letter could just go into a black hole. Plus, who knows how many weeks it would take to get a response?

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I'd strongly recommend you accept that level of hassle.

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Registered mail, return receipt.

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You should rent a tractor and eject horse manure at their offices, this might make them slightly more inclined to look into it.

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It would likely only result in him being charged for something, and some poor underpaid employee have to clean it up.

Against these kind of companies there are three ways to make them change; legal action, regulation and financial loss.

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I mean technically any company with a legal department accepts written communication, and if they're out of state you can serve them through your state's department of state

they fact that they have invented a byzantine system for complaining to them doesn't mean you have to make more than a token effort to comply with that system

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Talk to the cops and your lawyer, not the internet.

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