r/extremelyinfuriating 11d ago

Evidence Amazon stole almost $100 from me šŸ˜”

For 3 months Iā€™ve been dealing with a return refund from Amazon. I returned a Dremel tool from Amazon on December 23rd 2024 because it was defected, purchased it initially through Klarna because at the time I didnā€™t have the funds to buy it outright. When I initiated the return, instead of sending the money to the payment method I used for the order, Amazon sends it to one of their gift card options.

I spoke with a few Amazon customer service agents to see if they could resubmit the refund to the correct card, the first two agents basically were telling me that it was not an option, but the third agent supposedly was able to do it for meā€¦

From there I started the return process on Klarna so they could confirm with Amazon that there indeed was a return submitted with a refund processed, provided them the shipping returns receipt with tracking number for proof of return as well. The Klarna agent told me the refund was never received on their end. The Klarna agent told me to see if I could get a confirmation from Amazon showing that they sent the refund to their card.

So then I went back to Amazonā€™s customer support to see if I can receive some sort of confirmation from them about the refund, explained to the agent what happened and what was told to me from the last Amazon agent, told him the money was indeed transferred out but wasnā€™t received to the original form of payment, told the agent multiple times that I can show proof of the conversation I had with the previous Amazon agent, tried everything to my knowledge to get this all taken care of. Well basically the Amazon agent told me that there was nothing they can do about it, that there was no trail to where that money went, and that the best they could do is give me a $20 promo credit šŸ¤¬ I still have to pay Klarna back that money so basically paying for a product that I donā€™t have anywaysā€¦

(Pictures of conversations and return proof attached to post)

Anything else I can do?

578 Upvotes

77 comments sorted by

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446

u/insomniatic-goblin 11d ago

dang that sucks that they did that and won't return your money.

my only advice is to keep pressing them for your money, even if it means going full Karen mode, just don't let up. call them out on social media too, kick up a fuss.

134

u/xero3103 11d ago

Thank you for the advice, definitely will keep at it šŸ’Æ

43

u/insomniatic-goblin 11d ago

good luck! hope you get your money back!

15

u/theMIKIMIKIMIKImomo 10d ago

You can do a chargeback on your credit card

8

u/WowIsThisMyPage 10d ago

You might need to reach out to your card company. Usually you have to report it and theyā€™ll tell you to wait up to 90 days, but maybe worth doing it through them instead

232

u/2donuts4elephants 11d ago

You could try filing a report with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, six months ago that almost certainly would have resolved the issue.

But since January 20th they have been ordered to stop all work. So I'm not sure it would help at this point. But you could try.

64

u/xero3103 11d ago

Thank you for the suggestion, Iā€™m definitely going to try that, wouldnā€™t hurt to do so

33

u/2donuts4elephants 11d ago

You're welcome. Let me know how it goes. You might be able to give some insight into whether or not they're still operational.

26

u/xero3103 11d ago

Iā€™ll update you here on what response I get

165

u/kaywithlove 11d ago

Purely speculation, but what if that agent did not initiate the refund, as she said, and used it for herself? Just sayinā€¦itā€™s happened before. Good luck though, if you continue to pursue this!

73

u/xero3103 11d ago

Thank you, yea thatā€™s what I felt like happened tbh.

11

u/Despondent-Kitten 10d ago

This is what I think happened :(

21

u/gay_genji_main 10d ago

The things I hate most about situations like these is you have to invest so much more time and energy than those 100 bucks are worth compared to for example spending the same time at a job

61

u/Puzzleheaded_Pear_18 11d ago

Damn so polite. I'm not that polite when someone did something wrong. I just ask what I need. No beating around the bush. Good for you, though. You have more manners than me :p

21

u/pmmeyourboobas 11d ago

The technique i use is polite, polite but stern, blunt, blunt & frustrated, then when fixed polite again

Ive gotten refunds for data plans that i was charged for before even activating the sim card & using 0 mb on, as well as getting comped $30 for time spent having to argue on the phone to them

7

u/xero3103 11d ago

Thank you lol, maybe Iā€™m too nice tbh šŸ„²

19

u/AdAwkward129 10d ago

Dispute with Klarna. Iā€™ve had to do that with fraudulent sellers before. You have the receipts.

45

u/MidnightTrain1987 11d ago

Call them and demand a manager. Youā€™ll eventually get one that you can understand and that can understand and help you. And donā€™t stop calling until you do.

14

u/CrappyMike91 10d ago

You should have the option to raise a Klarna dispute, using the original chat screenshots as evidence of the refund. It's not always successful, but it's definitely worth a try. It's then up to Amazon to provide evidence contrary to your evidence.

57

u/Syrain 11d ago edited 11d ago

ā€œAllanā€

Yeah right.

Can you do a chargeback?

18

u/xero3103 11d ago

Unfortunately no šŸ˜©

11

u/Augustus420 10d ago

Never spend money out of an account that you can't run a charge back for.

-9

u/shmed 10d ago

If you do a charge back you'll likely be banned from using Amazon again. While Id hate to lose $100, not being able to access the largest online retailer anymore would be even worse for me.

10

u/rlyfunny 10d ago

The largest online retailer that just stole 100$ from you.

-12

u/shmed 10d ago

I acknowledge it sucks, but I also don't think they maliciously stole the money (rather they just didn't have a great process to handle that specific scenario and the money slipped through the cracks). This means I don't think they would purposefully try to steal again from you. Again, not trying to defend them, but as a customer, I would not be willing to give up Amazon as a retailer for the rest of my life just to get back that $100

11

u/Vera_98 10d ago

I'm so sick of Amazon customer service. Several years ago I somehow got banned from using Amazon services.

I had just moved cross country and I wanted to buy a camera. I fully updated my delivery address and billing address before I bought it but the order was canceled due to suspected fraud. I responded saying it wasn't and tried ordering it again. Again canceled. I called this time and customer service said they would clear it. Ordered. Again canceled. Called again and assured it was fixed now. Attempted to order and my account wouldn't let me order anything. I deleted my account and made a new one. With a different card and everything. Didn't work.

I finally gave up on amazon all together. About a year ago I randomly wanted to make a Kindle account so I could read some books and it STILL wouldn't let me buy anything. Weirdly enough I can use my boyfriends amazon just fine. With my name and card. I just can't be the account owner. I don't even want to fix it at this point.

7

u/MermaidSusi 10d ago

That is very weird! I have never really had many problems with returns and customer service reps are always awesome! Of course I treat them very kindly, they are just trying to figure out how to help the customer!

But your situation is one for the books! Crazy! WOW! šŸ˜²

8

u/MermaidSusi 10d ago edited 10d ago

Call and talk to an actual customer service rep and tell them you want the refund to go back to the original method of payment! That is your best bet for getting it done. Don't waste your time with online representatives or "chats". Talking to a live person on the phone is the best and only way to get it done! I have done this with refunds. It works.

If you cannot get satisfaction with the regular customer service rep, escalate and ask for a Supervisor or Manager.

I am unsure how it works with Klarna, have not used that before, there may be some reason they cannot return the money to the original payment. If that is the case, you will have money to use to buy something you need from Amazon or have groceries delivered using Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods on Amazon.

4

u/ElizabethSedai 10d ago

If you don't get a resolution, I'd file a transaction dispute with your card company or something. Idk, it's a tricky situation because you initiated the transaction, so it's not an unauthorized or fraudulent transaction, but you never received your money back after initiating a refund. I'd try calling your CC company back and tell them that you tried to work with the merchant, but they have essentially stolen your money. Tell them about the customer service rep taking the funds off the gift card but not refunding the money to your CC. If Amazon has an option to open an investigation or something, you might as well try. Make as much noise as you can. Like others have said, go full Karen on them, threaten to call the police (lol I know, but it'll make a point to them that you're willing to cause whatever trouble for them that you can until you get your money.) Just don't give up! Good luck to you!

3

u/xero3103 10d ago

Thank you for your kind suggestions! Will definitely keep on pushing onto this matter

4

u/Maverick_Walker 10d ago

Chargeback the $96 from your bank. State ā€œDid not receive servicesā€ and show the bank this

4

u/Lonewuhf 10d ago

A few things. First, the chances of them refunding the money to a gift card instead of to your card is 0. The entire system is automated, so one of 2 things probably happened. Either you selected the wrong option, or they were unable to refund it back to your card because of something on the bank's end. This part is not Amazon's fault.

Second, the rep didn't use the gift card for her own order otherwise it'd say which order it was used for. She theoretically could have refunded it to an account of her own, though, but this seems implausible.

Third, Amazon's excuse is utter bullshit. They can see exactly what you do. They can also see where the money from the gift card was sent. Honestly, what you need to do is call them. Talk with a manager. I'd demand the refund back to your card (please verify it wasn't your bank's error to begin with first, though!) plus the $20 promised to you by the other rep. This should be an easy fix for a manager, but you need to call, not do online chat.

4

u/rape_is_not_epic 10d ago

Mention anything about a lawyer with evidence and they'll probably give you your money back

4

u/nikedemon 9d ago

This is why you always use a credit card and do a charge back if they refuse you a refund

11

u/The-Final-Reason 11d ago

Steal it back. GET IT BACK IN BLOOD.

3

u/tubularaf17 10d ago

contact your bank!!! dispute the charge!!

7

u/Frankie_NYC 10d ago

buy something say you never received it and return the 2nd when it arrives and dont feel guilty doing it to a billionaire.

2

u/Despondent-Kitten 10d ago

Bwahaha I love this

4

u/Teladinn 10d ago

I've heard anecdotal evidence that sending a mail directly to Jeff Bezos sometimes sort out issues as well, might be worth a try?

2

u/GobiPLX 10d ago

That's why I always pay with a card so I can do a chargeback

2

u/Ambitious-Rate-8785 10d ago

the amount of times he said "thank you for" he must be really polite tbh

2

u/Financial-Occasion-1 8d ago

They did this to me too!! I was told I waited to late even thought THEY told me to WAIT 24hrs. Why is refund to original payment even an option if theyā€™re just going to do a GC?!?! In the past they would just change it. Itā€™s forcing you to spend your money with them. šŸ˜¤šŸ˜¤

2

u/xero3103 8d ago

Exactly šŸ˜­then basically gotta do the customer service agentā€™s job just to get your money back šŸ« 

2

u/Azzhole169 7d ago

Dispute it with your card company, they will fix it. Had something very similar happen and kept getting the run around from Amazon, so I initiated a dispute through my card , took them two weeks to get my money back after trying to deal with Amazon for two months. Send all your screenshots as well.

5

u/msgkar03 10d ago

Assuming you accidentally selected ā€˜refund to amazon accountā€™ instead of original payment. It happens. Iā€™ve done it.

In my 20+ years of Amazon purchasing and returning (and I return A LOT) Iā€™ve never selected ā€˜refund to original paymentā€™ and they refunded it to my account instead.

Regardlessā€¦. thatā€™s not really the point. Are you saying that they refunded your account and then they took the money from your account after you complained? If thatā€™s the case you probably wonā€™t see your refund for a few weeks. It takes a few weeks for money to go back to your account.

7

u/ebjazzz 10d ago

You clearly didnā€™t read OPs post. A few weeks can often be right, but this was done on January 5th. Itā€™s been nearly 3 months.

1

u/msgkar03 10d ago

I read it but I didnā€™t notice the date in the pictures. I personally would jace just kept the credit, as I plan on using amazon in the future anyways. Iā€™m not even sure what Klarna is but it sounds like a scam after seeing what the OP went through.

4

u/foreveryword 10d ago

Klarna is a ā€œbuy now, pay laterā€ sort of service, so OP returned the item, but still owes the payments for that item to Klarna. This is why returning to the Amazon account as a gift card isnā€™t really an option for OP.

-2

u/tankman714 10d ago

If you have to use a service like that for a $100 tool, you should not be buying the tool.

OP did not have the money for this purchase and this situation is 100% on OP for spending money they donā€™t have on a tool they donā€™t need.

PSA: Never use these micro-loan services ever.

4

u/Despondent-Kitten 10d ago

This is a ridiculous comment.

Not only is it an insane thing to say, this tool could literally be an integral part of their business.

Such an ignorant thing to say.

-1

u/tankman714 8d ago

If the tool is an integral part of their business then they definitely should not buy it and they should just give up on said business, because if they are so bad at running it to the point they have to ā€œfinanceā€ a $100 tool, it ainā€™t going very well.

Itā€™s not ignorant to say, if you canā€™t afford it, donā€™t buy it. If you have to get a micro-loan, you canā€™t afford it.

Thatā€™s not ignorance, you defending it is ignorance, what Iā€™m saying is financial literacy

3

u/TheRudeCactus 10d ago

You literally donā€™t know if they ā€œdonā€™t needā€ it. Maybe itā€™s for their business and they needed it to make money. I know they use dremel tools in a lot of salons as well as wood working.

4

u/TheRudeCactus 10d ago

I hate Amazon and I hope everyone stops using them!!

I have similar horror stories. The worst is when I tried to cancel my prime for THREE MONTHS. I have a video recording of me cancelling my prime. They continued to charge me all three months that I cancelled. I literally had to delete my whole Amazon account in order to get them to stop charging me for a prime subscription.

3

u/xero3103 10d ago

That sounds horrible, sorry you went through all of that headache šŸ˜”

1

u/TouristAggressive113 22h ago

Same thing happened with my brother but not through Klarna. Contact them, send them the information and tell them not to pay Amazon anything. They did for my brother and let him keep the item since Amazon sent him the wrong thing twice then did not want to resend the proper item.

1

u/Frank_The_Reddit 10d ago

I'm not sure what I would do if I was on your shoe.

0

u/shmed 10d ago

The agent shared two transactions ID where, he claimed, used the gift card. Do they match anything in your transaction history?

2

u/Despondent-Kitten 10d ago

If you look at the screenshots, the gift card balance was immediately removed

Not sure what those IDs are but they're talking out their bums

1

u/shmed 10d ago

Yes I understand that. I'm trying to understand where those came from and if the agent can prove it happened in OP'S account. If it wasn't his account, of if they happened before the gift card was issued, then that would be strong evidence that amazon is wrong

-5

u/harrysterone 10d ago

Now you wish you kept the gift card

3

u/Despondent-Kitten 10d ago

Well fucking no obviously not because they still owe the money to Klarna and need to pay them

-2

u/Warm_Ad7486 10d ago

According to your screenshots Amazon says you spent that money and even gave you order numbers.

Is it possible your next couple orders on Amazon were paid with your $96 ā€œcreditā€ and you just didnā€™t notice?

What do those order numbers pull up on your end?

4

u/xero3103 10d ago

That is incorrect. If you see on the gift card activity screenshot (pic #5) it says on the Jan 5th transaction that ā€œgift card balance removedā€. If I spent the money it wouldā€™ve said ā€œgift card applied to Amazon.com orderā€ just like the transactions before it. Also the date reflects when the first agent initiated the ā€œtransferā€ that they said they would do.

-2

u/lexpython 10d ago

And I am going to invoice you another $100 for posting 17 screenshots that could have been 3.

-10

u/RabidPoodle69 11d ago

I don't have time for that nonsense.

2

u/Despondent-Kitten 10d ago

Then why the fuck are you here?

-2

u/RabidPoodle69 10d ago

Reddit isn't the place for essays.

2

u/Despondent-Kitten 9d ago

Reddit was literally invented for debate and discussion.

I think you're lost, go on Facebook or something.

-40

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

27

u/xero3103 11d ago

I didnā€™t spend it. If you see on the screenshot where it says gift card activity, it says ā€œgift balance removedā€. If I spent it, it would say ā€œgift card applied to orderā€.

-16

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

5

u/xero3103 11d ago

Thank you, yea itā€™s definitely very frustrating to even be in this situation. I did attempt to talk to an agent over the phone before the last two recent chats and they basically told me they couldnā€™t do anything about it which was probably not true. But now Iā€™m currently talking with Klarna about the situation as theyā€™re putting my account on hold.