A woman receives an endless flow of packages from Amazon, even though she hasn’t ordered anything. In addition, she is supposed to pay for the costs. MeinMMO explains what might be behind it.
What are these packages? Anca Nitu, a woman from the Canadian city of Langley, reports a flood of unwanted shipments. Almost daily she finds a new Amazon package in front of her door. In the last 2 months, Nitu is said to have received over 50 such parcels.
Most of the packages contain women’s shoes that Nitu did not order. Nevertheless, she is supposed to pay over 300 Canadian dollars in cash on delivery fees to United Parcel Service (UPS). This is equivalent to just over 200 euros. There could be a nasty scheme behind this (via 3DJuegos).
Flood of packages could be a cost-saving trick by merchants
What is going on with the packages? The exact reason for the unusual problem is not known, but Nitu suspects that third-party sellers on Amazon are using her address to get rid of their goods.
Because the Canadian realized that the packages, besides the shoes, all contained a return slip. Apparently, customers from North America wanted to return their shipments, but instead of landing in a warehouse, they ended up in front of Nitu’s door.
What is behind this? The Better Business Bureau (BBB), a non-profit consumer organization, suspects a return scheme. Merchants, usually from countries like China or India, could be avoiding shipping and storage fees by listing a private residence for returns.
Because third-party sellers using Amazon’s fulfillment centers are required to pay for shipping, handling, and returning products.
If an Amazon customer wants to return their order, merchants, according to the BBB, could try to save money by providing a private return address instead of having to pay for overseas shipping (via CBC).
For Nitu, the constant deliveries represent a huge psychological burden. “I tremble when I see packages in front of my door,” she says to CBC. “They just keep coming, and it doesn’t stop.”
Due to the stress, she has lost her appetite and has trouble sleeping. She complains about the lack of support from Amazon and UPS.
UPS behaves “unreasonably;” Amazon initiates “corrective actions”
How is the affected person proceeding? Nitu says she is contesting the fees from UPS, but they are behaving “completely unreasonably”: “I tried to explain the situation, and they were not exactly nice, to put it mildly.”
UPS did not give an official statement to CBC. However, the BBB reported that it supports the correspondence between Nitu and the central office of the package service.
The Canadian also contacted Amazon directly, but despite numerous emails and hours of phone conversations with customer service, she has been unable to stop the flow of packages.
She has already filed a report with the RCMP, the so-called “Mounties.” However, they do not know where to start with the investigation, according to Nitu. Therefore, they advised her to open and dispose of the packages.
Amazon stated to CBC that the affected person can use the form Report unwanted packages. The case is in progress, and corrective actions are being initiated. However, as of August 9, 2023, the problem has still not been resolved.
Amazon’s return system has caused problems before, albeit in a different way. For example, it indirectly led to a gamer receiving only an empty box instead of the ordered processor:
Gamer buys high-end processor on Amazon, receives an empty box for 400 euros: The mistake is obvious
