How did my stuff end up back at Amazon?

July 23, 2023 7:49 PM

I ordered a few things from Amazon that never arrived. Today I got an email from Amazon saying they’ve received my returned items and are confirming my refund. How did my package end up back at Amazon?

I don’t buy from Amazon all that often so I’ve never had this happen before. Did someone else get my package and then take the time to mail it back? Or is there a simpler explanation here?

I’m certain the package was never delivered as I work from home and also have a doorbell camera.

posted by rodneyaug to Shopping (19 answers total)

Chances are it's mis-delivered and the other person simply refused to accept them.
posted by kschang at 7:50 PM on July 23, 2023 [10 favorites]

I've had this happen a few times, where things were marked as "undeliverable" according to the shipping status and I'd get the refund as soon as it made it back to Amazon. I always assumed it somehow got completely destroyed in transit so the driver marked it as such and sent it back.
posted by cgg at 7:56 PM on July 23, 2023

Response by poster: Not trying to chat but genuinely don’t know how this would work - how would one refuse to accept an order if there’s no signature required?

This is like a $60 order, the kind of package a delivery person would toss on your doorstep then promptly leave behind.
posted by rodneyaug at 7:57 PM on July 23, 2023

I get stuff misaddressed feom time to time, and I just write on it saying not at this address, often picked up the next day
posted by Carillon at 7:59 PM on July 23, 2023 [5 favorites]

This is pretty weird because when I have decided I didn't want something and sent it back to Amazon, I had to let them know this on the website, get a special label printed, put it back in the packaging or repackage it with the label, and then physically take it to an Amazon locker or UPS store. There was notification from me that I didn't want the item, and Amazon was aware of it. It's never been just "oops, it got returned, here's your refund automatically."

I'd say contact Amazon and ask, but the last time I had a package issue (they claimed it had been delivered, it had not) I had to talk to a chatbot, who claimed that sometimes people just mark off as it was delivered when it was not (????), and then the bot arranged to have it re-sent to me, and then I ended up with two of the things. So I'd say complain to Amazon for sure, but you may end up with a chatbot situation as well.

I have zero explanation for your situation because god knows I've never heard of this happening before, but that is NOT how my interactions with Amazon have gone at all.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:13 PM on July 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

The only explanation I can think of, and it is unlikely, is that the driver could not, would not, or simply did not make the delivery and when they returned to the distribution center at the end of the day and said something about it being returned rather than admit they missed the delivery. But most Amazon vans have cameras so I doubt it
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:59 PM on July 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Lots of stuff could have happened:

The Amazon driver put your order in your actual mailbox and your mail person took it back to the post office so they could request postage from Amazon, which is the official protocol from USPS for items illegally (only USPS has access) put in your mailbox.

Amazon driver gave it to wrong house, and that person wrote No Such Name and it got sent back.

USPS often does last mile of the delivery (especially on Sundays) and the Amazon delivery person went to the wrong PO/was a dick/showed up too late/etc and the mail person involved didn’t let your package problem become their problem.

Amazon driver was too far behind on deliveries and just marked a bunch of stuff “could not be delivered” to catch up.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 9:17 PM on July 23, 2023 [5 favorites]

I think that drivers, not necessarily Amazon’s own but those working for some of the last-mile services they contract with, not infrequently claim to have attempted delivery when they simply haven’t. I’ve had this happen on multiple occasions and most of the time it then gets delivered the next day, so I assume it’s just a way of juking on-time delivery stats. But I would guess that some less scrupulous companies may instead send packages back in this scenario.
posted by staggernation at 9:33 PM on July 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

People have suggested a lot of ways a package might be undeliverable, but one thing you could double check is if the shipping information you gave them was correct. Might save you some trouble in the future if you find a typo.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:36 PM on July 23, 2023

Best answer: I just went through a certifiable nightmare with Amazon where they were delivering to their very own Amazon locker for me to pick up, and THREE TIMES IN A ROW I ended up with an undelivered package and the same "we've received your items back, here's your refund" emails. I'm absolutely certain it's a problem with their last-mile delivery system, because the Amazon locker is located inside a business that's open 24/7, so there's literally no time any day when they wouldn't be able to deliver it, and internally they can always tell when there is locker capacity for my item.

Annoying as hell.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:02 PM on July 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

Best answer: It's likely that the package got lost, misrouted or damaged within Amazon's operation, or that of a last mile contractor. There's a million ways this can happen - it's possible for the employees/contractors to be badly trained, make mistakes, not give a shit, do funky stuff in order to game their performance stats, or in order to avoid work or get off shift on time. There can be a lot of new or temporary staff learning the ropes. Amazon deal with an astonishingly high volume of packages per day, so some of those packages will always get lost.

A package that gets in the wrong sack or on the wrong pallet can go pretty far before someone empties out the sack or pallet and discovers the error.

Sometimes a missing parcel is found wherever it ended up. At this point it needs to be restocked in the warehouse, and the way to get it there is to put it into the returns stream.
That's the mechanism for single items to get restocked so they can be sold again, as well as how you rightfully get refunded. It's not always possible to just reattempt delivery directly from where the parcel was found - it might not be in the right place or it might have got smashed up.

When the package gets back to the warehouse, there may be an option for an operator to select whether the package is a customer return or lost and found, so that you the customer get a more useful message explaining what happened, or maybe so the system can organize you a new parcel. It's possible that the operator could get this wrong and call it a customer return when it's not.

Disclaimer: I know about logistics but not specifically Amazon logistics.
posted by quacks like a duck at 10:53 PM on July 23, 2023 [6 favorites]

I've had delivery services state they had attempted delivery when they haven't - I know this because I work from home, my desk is right by a window facing the road and next to the front door . Typically they haven't sent it back but I get a message to re-arrange.
posted by koahiatamadl at 11:51 PM on July 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

My guess would be the package got damaged or lost within Amazon’s system, their tracking system noticed, and marked it as a return and ordered and new shipment. The email you received is more pleasant than “we dropped your stuff and it broke, new one on the way.”
posted by Mid at 5:21 AM on July 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

Or, they have had some trouble with this particular item/seller - like a giant return rate or complaints or fires (who knows) - and they just canceled all pending orders in the system and refunded.
posted by Mid at 5:23 AM on July 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I have had some stuff get borked in the system and returned in this way. It likely either got left in the loading center (where it is supposed to get put on the trucks), put in the wrong truck and so came back to the loading center at the end of shift, or your usual route driver is so backlogged that it came back at end of shift however many times triggers a response on Amazon's end. It may not have actually been returned, it just wasn't delivered in the service-level-agreed timeframe and it triggers the refund process.

As someone else noted, this is incredibly common with Amazon Lockers but it happens on residential deliveries too.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:23 AM on July 24, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the thoughtful answers! Obviously I’ll never know exactly what happened but it seems like this is not terribly uncommon.

A few things I can rule out:

- my address was entered correctly on the original order, so at least it’s (probably) not my error

- in my region in Canada, outgoing mail needs to be dropped off at a Canada Post mailbox, and packages must be dropped off a Canada Post depot. So there’s no way it was picked up off of my or someone else’s mailbox or doorstep. Anyone who got my stuff by mistake would need to put *some* effort into returning it. Not impossible that someone dropped it off at a depot with a Return to Sender label, but it seems like a lot of work!
posted by rodneyaug at 7:38 AM on July 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Possibly the address label became damaged, making the package undeliverable, or it just got put in the wrong bin so it looked like an undeliverable package when it shouldn’t have. I have very occasionally had a package get returned to sender for no reason either of us could see.
posted by kite at 9:22 AM on July 24, 2023

→ in my region in Canada, outgoing mail needs to be dropped off at a Canada Post mailbox

Amazon Canada uses its own delivery system in much of Canada, even if Canada Post has the delivery monopoly on all packages of 500 g and under. Maybe the delivery driver forgot your packages and marked them as returned ratehr than attempt a delivery?
posted by scruss at 10:10 AM on July 24, 2023

I've had this too, same as others: there was something that went wrong in the supply chain and it doesn't seem to have gotten close to my house. In my case it would have been Amazon-delivered, but I'd put money it got nowhere near the truck. I just reordered and got it second time around.

You can usually haggle a month of free Prime or a gift out of missed delivery promises if the product page and order said it would be delivered by a certain date. This only requires 5 minutes of customer service chat. Don't mix it up with 'what did you do wrong', just go for the 'you owe me restitution' aspect. Whether it's worth your time, you'll have to judge.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 1:22 PM on July 24, 2023 [1 favorite]