Amazon gives customer runaround after $2,100 watch missing from delivered package

Leo Chteinberg lives in the small town of Tahsis, B.C. — a remote community nestled between the mountains and the ocean on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The software engineer moved there from Vancouver four years ago. It is "one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen," he said.

Because of Tahsis's rural setting, Chteinberg says he does almost all of his shopping online.

In October, he placed an Amazon order for a $2,100 Garmin watch. Ten days later, he received a notice that his package was at the local Canada Post office and headed straight over to pick up his package.

"I opened it right away because I was looking forward to it," said Chteinberg. But the package was empty.

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He says what's followed has been "a nightmare" — many frustrating phone calls and emails with Amazon, with no resolution.

Online shopping in Canada continues to boom after the pandemic. According to Statistics Canada, sales hit $3.8 billion in August, up almost $400 million over August 2020. South of the border, Amazon dominates the e-commerce market. The company reported global net sales of $514 billion US last year.

Social media platforms such as Reddit are full of stories from Amazon customers battling over packages that weren't delivered, contained the wrong item, no item or the contents of which appeared to be stolen.

Most people with smaller orders say they've had little trouble getting their money back. But it's a different story for customers with pricier disputes like Chteinberg. Many say they have to leap through hoops to get a replacement or refund.

In an effort to weed out fraudsters, Amazon purposely makes the process challenging on big-ticket items, according to an industry expert.

"[They have] built-in obstacles," said Eddie Ning, an assistant professor of marketing and behavioural science at UBC's Sauder School of Business. "The company only has to pay those most-persistent consumers."

Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait declined an interview request from Go Public.

In an emailed statement, Agrait wrote that Amazon is "working directly with the customer to investigate the circumstances in this case."

Chteinberg says he hasn't heard anything from Amazon beyond the customer service reps who shut him down on the phone several weeks ago.

Tampered package

Chteinberg says he was recently diagnosed with diabetes and high cholesterol and wanted a watch to help with exercise and fitness routines.

He says he was "willing to pay more" for the Garmin, which monitors vitals such as heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

When he received the notification that it had arrived, Chteinberg says he raced to the post office.

"I told myself, 'I can't believe I'm going to have it in 30 minutes,'" he said. "And I guess I was right — I didn't have it in 30 minutes."

Instead, a corner of the package appeared to be torn. He left the post office and opened the box immediately. The watch box inside was empty, except for a spare silicone watch strap and some papers from Garmin.

As soon as he got home, he emailed Amazon customer service and received a reply several hours later.

"Based on our investigation and your statements, it seems that the item has been stolen by a third party," said the customer service rep. "We urge you to contact your local police department."

Go Public asked Amazon how it determined the item was stolen by a third party, but Agrait, the spokesperson, would not answer the question. Nor would she say what procedures are in place to ensure that items ordered from Amazon get shipped from the company's warehouses intact.

Chteinberg called Nootka RCMP, which oversees several jurisdictions including Tahsis, and an officer took a statement on the phone.

He then went online and filled out a local RCMP report, and sent it to Amazon.

That's when things started to get frustrating, says Chteinberg.

Later that same day, he got an email back from Amazon, saying in order for the police report to be validated, "it must be reported in the local jurisdiction … in which the package was reported delivered."

The email also claimed the police report was missing key information, such as the name of the police detachment and the date the report was created.

Chteinberg wrote back, attaching additional screen shots from Nootka Sound RCMP's website, indicating the detachment's jurisdiction and contact details.

"They can go online and verify if they want to — all the information is available," he said. "I do not control the format of the police report."

He says he sent numerous emails to Amazon but kept getting the same unhelpful response — emails saying the company could not provide any assistance.

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Featured VideoEddie Ning, an assistant professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, shares advice for how to get your money back after a delivery mishap — and how to avoid the hassle in the first place.

Chteinberg says he also made half a dozen phone calls to Amazon — each time, wading through a 20-minute process to speak to a human being — but repeatedly reached customer service reps he says seemed to just want to end the call.

"They were just telling me, 'The manager already determined that this is invalid, we're going to hang up,'" he said. "It's as frustrating as it can possibly be."

Go Public asked Agrait, at Amazon, what information was missing to move ahead with Chteinberg's complain — she declined to answer.

Ning, at UBC, says a customer's experience can often become extremely frustrating if the process of getting a refund involves outside parties, such as the police.

"There's a lot of opportunities for something to go wrong in that process. You kind of get stuck … and no one really has the incentive to push it forward," he said. "I think at that moment, a lot of [customers] have the urge to just hang up and quit."

He says a customer's decision to give up is profitable for Amazon, since the company doesn't lose money in such cases.

Making the customer experience better becomes less of a priority, says Ning. "There's no incentive to move away from [frustrating practices]."

An RCMP spokesperson told Go Public in an email that it's extremely difficult to attempt to track all the movements of a package and the people who may have encountered it along the way and said there are "no identified avenues of investigation" in this case.

The spokesperson also said Amazon has not contacted the RCMP.

Canada Post told Go Public that Canadians should trust the mail service and that reported incidents will be investigated. The Tahsis postmaster told the RCMP the package appeared to have been tampered with when it arrived.

Scotiabank Visa, the card he paid with, was unable to help because Chteinberg had authorized the purchase.

A spokesperson for Scotiabank also said purchase protection on credit cards does not cover items ordered through the mail until they are "received and accepted" by the card holder.

Some provinces have consumer protection laws that could be used to squeeze a refund out of Amazon, but in B.C. those laws only apply to online orders that companies don't fulfill — not cases of apparent theft.

The province runs an online Civil Resolution Tribunal for small claims up to $5,000, which Chteinberg could access, but says that's a hassle he doesn't think he should have to go through. He says Amazon should ante up.

"I ordered it, I paid them and they failed to deliver," he said. "So it is on them to refund me."

Meantime, he says, he'll vote with his wallet — order online from other companies and try, when possible, to shop local.

"I've been [an Amazon] customer for decades," he said. "I'm not going to be one anymore."