Ordered SSD from Amazon. Recieved Empty box. What now?

March 5, 2024 12:25 AM

I ordered a 4TB SSD M.2 NVMe SSD from Crucial using Amazon. Amazon sent the order via a courier which required a password for delivery. I received what looked like a non-tampered with envelope. It contained a box for the product which had had its seal opened and which contained no SSD. The value of the SSD is over £200 so I am keen to get my money back. However I am trying to work out the best way of proceeding - given that I have no item to return.

It looks like I was either sent out a previously returned item or that the ordered SSD packaging was opened and the item stolen. In terms of weight: Amazon specifies that the SSD weighs 7grams. The weight of the empty box is 32g. My guess is that it should thus weigh 39g with an SSD in it. I am in the UK. The device was bought on a pre-paid credit card. I can complete a return on the item and explain that it was delivered empty - but I suspect Amazon will dispute that and not offer a refund. This is the item on Crucial's site.

posted by rongorongo to Computers & Internet (16 answers total)

I suspect Amazon will dispute that and not offer a refund

I would try calling them first and seeing what approach they take. This is a known problem with Amazon purchases, so maybe they have a better resolution process than "tough luck".
posted by trig at 12:43 AM on March 5 [5 favorites]

Yes, talk to Amazon first. In my limited experience they're often ok giving you the benefit of the doubt, particularly if you're a first-time complainant.

If Amazon won't help then you'll probably want to raise a chargeback via your credit card. However, they'll only help if you have attempted to resolve the issue with Amazon yourself first. So either way the first step is to talk to Amazon.
posted by dudekiller at 1:33 AM on March 5 [6 favorites]

If you get no joy from Amazon, contact [e-mail]. That column often gets good results for consumers - here's one example.
posted by essexjan at 3:01 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

I've had Amazon refund me over AU$1500 for a delivery that never happened, so they can definitely do that. I'd be surprised if they fight you super hard for your two hundred quid.

Much like credit card providers, Amazon makes only the most cursory effort to prevent fraud and instead just bakes the cost of dealing with it into their business model. It seems that a cursory effort is all that's required to limit fraud to a level that most people will happily if unknowingly keep on funding.

Do, though, prepare to spend quite irritating amounts of time on jumping through the hoops their dispute resolution process will present you with. As well as diminishing returns on fraud prevention per se, they'll have calculated down to the last fraction of a cent where the point of diminishing returns is on not pissing off customers affected by it.
posted by flabdablet at 3:20 AM on March 5 [3 favorites]

Just echoing what others have said, talk to Amazon first of all. I've actually had reasonably positive interactions with there customer servvice in a similar case so wouldn't go in with negative expectations.
posted by Alensin at 4:13 AM on March 5 [4 favorites]

On the one occasion that I actually called up Amazon's customer service (several years ago now) they were extremely helpful and willing to give me the benefit of the doubt.
posted by snarfois at 4:22 AM on March 5 [3 favorites]

Yeah, ditto. I'm at 134 and the package was meant for 143, I contacted them, they told me to just keep it and thanked me for telling them, they were just going to send it again. Cost them more to fix than just redo. Random shit like this happens and if you're not a perpetually repetitive problem thing you'll be swept under the rug as cost of business.... shit happens.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:27 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

And not to put a too fine a point on it, they'll figure out that packer #129 or driver #34 has extraordinary amounts of missing things or miss-delivered packages. If anything is going on... it's probably not you.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:33 AM on March 5

Granted that the item I'd bought was a book as opposed to computer equipment, I had this happen to me. I simply followed the process for requesting a refund and selected "damaged item and packaging" as the reason. My local UPS shop has a kiosk where you can bring the item there and seal the item you're returning into a plastic bag and print out a label directly onto the bag - I printed out a copy of the confirmation, hand-wrote "item itself was missing from envelope" on it and shoved the envelope and my note into the bag, and sealed that. It worked just fine.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:37 AM on March 5 [2 favorites]

I can't imagine I'm the only mefite thinking we're finally going to get to hear what became of airnxtz.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:09 AM on March 5 [14 favorites]

I would start by contacting the seller through Amazon. If you get no joy there, then complain to Amazon itself. Document everything so if you still get no joy, you can do the credit card charge back.

If the seller was a Crucial itself, I would be astonished if they did not just offer to resend it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:24 AM on March 5

Response by poster: Many thanks for all the replies here. This particular order was fulfilled by Amazon. I called up customer service and explained the issue. I was asked whether I wanted a refund or replacement and said a replacement would be OK. Was put on hold while the call was escalated to a supervisor and then notified that the replacement had been ordered for delivery tomorrow and that please could I return the empty package. They also told me that, if I was simply going to return the item - that it would be better for them to add a note of the call we had had so that this would help them process the refund. I'll let people know here if the replacement fails to turn up. I did find this thread on the UK's Money Savings Expert about the issue if anybody is searching for this later.
posted by rongorongo at 6:27 AM on March 5 [4 favorites]

Never had seen that If only I had a penguin. That was like plannedchaos levels of awesome.
posted by Windopaene at 10:06 AM on March 5

I can't believe I missed that thread on the eBay scammer, but then when I looked at the date, it was at the time my bf died. Still, it's been a delight to catch up on it, so thank you, If only I had a penguin.
posted by essexjan at 9:39 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I waited around for the delivery of the replacement today -signed for it on arrival and I now have...another empty box! Will be on the phone to Amazon again. Sense some kind of grift very much in action here.
posted by rongorongo at 10:54 AM on March 6

Response by poster: After another call with an escalation, I have a refund from Amazon. It looks like they have somebody handling the picking of this item who is opening the packages, helping themselves to the SSD and sending them on to the customer. Maybe something weighing 7g might not be detected by its absence. Hopefully events will catch up with them.
posted by rongorongo at 11:20 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]