Amazon makes insane demand of Ohio customer trying to get refund for $120 of cat food

A pet owner claimed that Amazon told him to file a false police report if he wanted to get a refund for a lost box of cat food.

Kyle Anderson said he ordered three large bags of cat food for his seven pets, totaling $126.82, from his northeast Ohio home, but it never arrived.

Instead, he was sent a photo of the box by the courier after it had been delivered to another home, and had received someone else’s order 45 minutes earlier.

Photos of the two boxes showed they had been delivered to different homes, and he and his fiancée couldn’t find the package when they looked outside.

After shipping the package he received in error to the intended address, Anderson contacted Amazon to request a refund.

“Three separate representatives all told me that even though it was their fault, I would have to file a police report and give it to them if I was going to get a refund,” he said.

“But here’s the problem: no crime was committed. My package was not ‘stolen or tampered with’, but simply delivered to the wrong address.’

Anderson was concerned that this would not only be a waste of time for both him and the police, but that it could also be a crime as filing a false police report is illegal.

“So you’re asking me to commit a crime. Just to be clear?’ he said he told the third Amazon representative, who he thought was a manager.

He claimed they responded, “I’m not asking you to commit a crime, no, but you do have to report it to the police to get your item refunded.”

“Delivering a package to the wrong address is not a crime, so they are essentially asking me to report a crime that didn’t happen – and commit a crime in the process,” he said.

Anderson said his fiancée, Vidhi, tried to call Amazon and was told the same thing, and decided she would file a police report to get their money back.

“They came to the house, she explained the situation and apologized for wasting his time. He made a report and gave us a reference number,” he said.

However, Amazon refused to accept the reference number and demanded that they submit a copy of the police report in PDF format.

“They could have easily located that delivery and told me where the package was delivered. They could have just cut it short and given me my money back,” Anderson said.

“Instead, they insist that I waste my time and commit a crime in an attempt to get me to give up.”

Anderson argued that Amazon’s insistence on a police report over a misdelivered package was a colossal waste of public resources, especially since police had to take their statement in person.

“A police officer who takes the time to come to our house, sit with my fiancée, take the report, go all the way back to the station and file it,” he said.

‘An investment of more than an hour, in which this officer could and should have investigated actual crimes.

“Amazon is engaging in a practice designed to anticipate before the uninformed to protect their bottom line while wasting public resources and people’s time.”

Anderson said Amazon eventually relented and started a new support ticket out of nowhere, but only offered credit instead of a refund.

Patrick McCall, president of McCall Risk Group Private Investigators, said Amazon regularly required police reports, and agreed that filing a report for a missing but not stolen item would be a crime.

“We’ve seen a lot of online sellers lately requiring a buyer to submit a report and send that report to them in order to receive a refund,” he said.

“Amazon and other online retailers have seen a lot of fraud where people claimed they didn’t receive the package when in fact they did receive the package or had it intentionally sent to a neighbor or family member’s home.”

McCall said Amazon in particular went so far as to require customers to provide a copy of their driver’s license and other documents to receive a refund.

If the customer refused, he said the company would deny credit card disputes “stating that the customer had not adhered to its return policy, when the customer clearly had no control over the packages being delivered to the wrong address.”

McCall claimed that the demands got so out of hand that the police departments of New York City and Suffolk County, Long Island, refused to issue reports under such circumstances.

“Police know that filing such reports is fraudulent and that Amazon directs people to complete them to receive a refund,” he said.

Suffolk County police denied refusing to issue them.

“If someone is unsure whether an item is lost or stolen, an officer will make a report indicating that the item may be lost or stolen,” the report said.

The NYPD and the Cleveland Division of Police did not respond to requests for comment.

Amazon said: ‘We confirmed that the customer received a credit on their payment method and apologized for this misunderstanding and delivery experience.

“We handle each customer issue on a case-by-case basis and may request additional information in limited circumstances.”

TikToker Diane Smith claimed in February that Amazon made the same demand of her about four folding chairs that didn’t show up.

Smith said she ordered 12 chairs for an event but only eight arrived, despite the company claiming all three boxes had been delivered.

She said the chairs couldn’t have been stolen because the building was secure, but Amazon told her she had to report it to police.

“First of all, no one is stealing my four wooden chairs, which are literally super cheap,” she said.

“I mean, I’d lose $200 if these went away, but I don’t think anyone looking at that box thought, ‘Yes, there are chairs in there.’ I’m going to steal them.’

That’s why I filed a report with the police. And I’m like, they’re going to laugh at me and be like, ‘Is this girl serious?’

“But right now I have to file a police report to find these chairs and why they are missing, and Amazon won’t help me until the police help me as if something is wrong. This is very strange.’

Another Amazon customer in Britain reported the same problem to The Guardian last year about a £71.97 ($93.44) package that was handed to the front desk, according to Amazon’s tracker, even though their building had no reception.

The order was suddenly refunded after the newspaper inquired about it.