Amazon is shutting down the customer’s smart home a week after the driver claimed to have heard racist comments
Amazon shuts down customer smart home a week after delivery driver claimed he heard racial slurs through Ring’s doorbell – even though no one was home
- Brandon Jackson of Baltimore, Maryland, came home on May 25 to find that he no longer had access to his Amazon Echo
- When he contacted an Amazon executive, he was told a delivery driver had reported hearing “racial slurs” coming from his doorbell and was under investigation
- Six days later, he would regain access to his accounts with no explanation from Amazon
Amazon reportedly shut down a customer’s smart home after the delivery driver claimed he heard a racial slur coming through the doorbell, even though no one was home.
Brandon Jackson of Baltimore, Maryland, came home on May 25 to find he lost access to his Amazon Echo, which many devices, including his lights, are connected to.
He would later learn that Amazon had denied him access to his account after a delivery driver delivered a package the day before. Jackson, an engineer at Microsoft, said “everything seemed fine” after the package arrived at his home and initially thought he had been locked out because someone had tried “repeatedly accessing my account, causing a lockout.”
But none of that was true. A representative referred him to an email he had received from an executive with a phone number to call. When he called the number, he was told in a “somewhat accusing” tone that the driver had reported “getting racist remarks” from his doorbell.
“This incident left me with a house full of unresponsive devices, a silent Alexa, and a lot of questions,” he wrote Medium.
Brandon Jackson of Baltimore, Maryland, came home on May 25 to find he lost access to his Amazon Echo, which many devices, including his lights, are connected to.
The day before, an Amazon driver delivered a package and “everything seemed fine.” However, after contacting Amazon, he found his account under investigation and was told in a “somewhat accusatory” tone that the driver had reported “receiving racist comments” from his doorbell
Jackson, who is black, said most of the neighborhood and delivery people are also African American and it was “highly unlikely that we would make comments like that.”
“Finally, when I asked what time the alleged incident took place, I realized it was practically impossible that anyone in my house had made those comments, since no one was home at that time (approximately 6:05 p.m.), ” he wrote.
After reviewing the doorbell footage, he heard the device auto-answer and said, “Excuse me, can I help you?”
He also said the video showed the driver wearing headphones during the interaction and “must have misinterpreted the message.”
The next day, his account was completely locked out and was “disabled during their internal investigation.”
The Baltimore resident claimed he sent video evidence to Amazon and heard nothing for days. When he did, he was told it would take two business days to resolve the issue.
When he viewed the doorbell footage, he found that the device automatically replied, “Excuse me, can I help you?” He said he was unable to access his devices for days despite handing over the footage
It wasn’t until six days later that he regained access to his account, with “no follow-up email to notify me of the resolution,” leading me to “question my relationship with Amazon.”
“After nearly a decade of loyalty, I have received a stark reminder that a misunderstanding can lead to such drastic action,” he wrote. It seems more reasonable to deal with such problems in a more compartmentalized way, rather than completely shutting down all services.
“Because of this experience, I am seriously considering stopping using Amazon Echo devices and will warn others about this incident.”
The University of Maryland graduate said he is now considering using Raspberry Pi devices instead of Amazon-connected devices.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Amazon and Jackson for comment.