Is there any hope for refund for unauthorized AmazonPrime video rentals?

October 8, 2020 1:54 PM

I am terribly embarrassed and angry about this, but unknown someone(s) got a hold of my Amazon Prime Video payment info and rented a whooooole bunch of movies on my dime. Like, 60 of them. I was not aware of the issue until today, when I started digging into my bank statements and a discussion with my partner about movies I thought she'd rented but, as it turned out, had not.

I'm not having much luck navigating the Amazon Prime website for the right place to go to 1/report unauthorized video rentals specifically and 2/find out if there's any chance they will credit me for any/all of the unauthorized purchases/rentals.

There is a refund/cancel option within Prime Video, but that appears to be designed for cancelling accidental purchases within 24 hours of the rental. This is not that situation. I also found that the refund on the main Amazon 'Orders' section refers only to the non-video things I have ordered from Amazon. I can't find any of the video purchases under that normal 'my orders' section.

I have since removed my CC info from the Prime Video payment options, and I have also changed my Amazon password.

posted by mcbeth to Shopping (13 answers total)

Amazon customer service chat can actually be pretty useful - I'd recommend starting there.
posted by mskyle at 2:11 PM on October 8, 2020 [6 favorites]

Hey don't be embarrassed! This kind of stuff is just part of life. This happens like, daily. Just think of it as a 'living in the future' tax.

You might get some traction with Amazon. It's kind of obtuse to find it, but they do have a phone number and a service to call you back to deal with this with a human. They're surprisingly helpful and will probably just refund you. If you navigate to the "your account" page, then go allllll the way down to the lower righthand corner, you'll find a "help" line, which will give you live chat or call-back services.

I would contact your credit card company about the charges too; if they happened recently you can just ask them to refund it. They'll hash it out with Amazon.
posted by furnace.heart at 2:14 PM on October 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

Definitely phone them up. In my experience they are quite responsive on the phone.
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:15 PM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Go to this page and then click BELOW the yellow "start chatting now" button where it says "Need help over phone? We can call you." Fill out the progressive drop-down choices and have the system call you, and your phone will start ringing shockingly fast, perhaps within 10 seconds. They'll do research, probably while you're on hold, and I bet they'll make it right.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 2:18 PM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

My kid once somehow bought $300 worth of German-language Star Wars comics for Kindle (we do not speak German). Amazon hooked us up. I’m sure if it happened regularly there would hhave been a limit, but they’re not there to make you feel bad. It will be fine and you are fine.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:35 PM on October 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Don't worry about finding just the right place. Just use any help feature. Don't be embarrassed. For all you know, this was a hack of Amazon and a known problem. Have a list ready and tell them. They want to know about unauthorized use of their platform.

find out if there's any chance they will credit me for any/all of the unauthorized purchases/rentals.
I wouldn't even approach it so tentatively. Rather, "Hello, I've become aware that someone had unauthorized access to my Amazon account and used it to view X number of films. I've removed the credit card information and changed my account password. Can you please credit my account for $YY?"

Someone stole from you. You are a victim of a crime. Don't be embarrassed, but do get in touch with Amazon for anyway possible.
posted by bluedaisy at 2:45 PM on October 8, 2020 [20 favorites]

They will probably be able to identify the scammer's purchases by IP/device address, it's worth letting them know so they can shut them down to keep them from doing it to someone else. This doesn't need to be embarrassing, it's just frustrating and upsetting, because it's a violation of your account security and privacy.

It is worth periodically checking your recent orders AND "digital orders" just to watch for tomfoolery in the future, but nobody has time to constantly police all their accounts.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:00 PM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yes, there's definitely hope. I had an unauthorized rental -- nothing nefarious, a mistake someone else made -- and they refunded my rental fee as soon as I reported it. I believe I used the help chat to do it.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:12 PM on October 8, 2020

I'll tell you an embarrassing Amazon story.

I signed up for the trial month of Amazon Prime and hated it because I kept trying to watch things and would get a message that it wasn't available in my region (Australia). At the end of the trial month, I went to cancel the membership but there was nothing to cancel ("Oh, that's different. Usually this is how they suck you into having a membership.")

Months later, I'm checking my credit card statement and realise that I'm being billed by Amazon. I get in contact with them and it turns out that the whole time I had a US Amazon Prime account?!?

The customer service team cancelled it and refunded the money.

So no need to be embarrassed, since you didn't even do anything foolish. Definitely contact customer service.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 4:49 PM on October 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Seconding mskyle and others, Amazon CS via chat and phone have been very helpful to me. They will at least listen politely.
posted by JimN2TAW at 5:16 PM on October 8, 2020

It sounds like you may have already resolved this, but another vote for contacting support.

My embarrassing Amazon story:

I signed up for the trial Prime membership to get free shipping on something, or some such. I had full intention of cancelling before the end of the month, but "life" happened or something and I didn't notice until 10 days after the charge. I used the chat function and they refunded my money without any hassle.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 1:09 PM on October 9, 2020

You are dealing with a fraud scenario - very typical.
posted by oceanjesse at 5:30 AM on October 10, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks so much for the advice. I asked Amazon for a callback and no kidding, about 20 seconds later they called me back. They helped reverse charges on three subscription services (and I think the many movies were viewed under those subscription services). I found a few more unknown line items in my checking acct, but I feel much better about responsible adulting once I figured it out, and now that I have those transaction #s I can call Amazon back once more for the rest of them.

Thanks also to you for not making me feel even more sheepish than I had already felt. That helped me enormously.
posted by mcbeth at 10:26 AM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]