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So in terms of the timeline, I have some notes that I might refer to from time to time
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It started with hindsight, now I know, it started on December 7th in the evening, UK time
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I started to get a series of messages on my phone from Amazon asking me to confirm some
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It was clear to me immediately that there was some sort of glitch, possibly a hack or something
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So I just ignored them and cancelled them all. And then nothing more happened
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So I was like, okay, that happened, not a problem. I then went away for the weekend, and it wasn't until the morning of the 10th of December
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I was actually away from home, and I had an email alert came through to my email to tell
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me that a parcel I had ordered was due to be delivered on Monday, the 11th of December
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Well, I haven't ordered anything, so I went into my Amazon account in the UK, I looked
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for any orders, and I could see the order history. I did, because I was alert at this point, I thought, hmm, I wonder if something has
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been hacked. So I did take the precaution at that time of taking all of my card details off the Amazon account
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I changed my password, and I started two-part authentication, which I'd not previously done
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So I was a bit nervous at this point. Anyway, we then get to Monday, the 11th, which is when this order was supposedly delivered
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to my address in Portland, Oregon, which is why I knew it was completely wrong
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I checked my bank account in the morning, and it showed no funds taken, and it showed
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no pending spend. So on all counts, I'm quite comfortable at this point
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The speaker on my wife, she said, maybe you should report this to Amazon, just in case
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So I telephoned Amazon locally, or made contact with Amazon locally, and we had a telephone
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conversation with this quite helpful person. I explained what experience I had
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She seemed mainly concerned about whether I had any money taken. And I said, no
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I said, it just seems to be one of those things. Nothing bad serious would have happened
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So she said she'd reported up the line for security, and I would hear back within 24 hours
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So that was Monday, the 11th. On the morning of the 12th, on checking my bank accounts, I found that the equivalent
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of $136 US, which was in UK pounds, 110 pounds or 50 pence, had been debited from my bank account
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So despite the fact I had no audit history on my Amazon account, and despite the fact
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that on the previous day, there was no pending spend, suddenly 110 pounds had disappeared
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So I spoke to my bank immediately, explained the background of what had happened with Amazon
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and they very kindly, they cancelled my card immediately, and very kindly reimbursed me
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the money, ending an investigation. That was fine. I then went back to Amazon on the same day and spoke to a different customer service
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assistant, explained what had happened. I also said that I've got details here of the order number that was used in this
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At that point, I still thought it was maybe a mistake. So I have this order number, I passed them the order number, and I'd also found by then
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there was yet another order that had been placed but then cancelled
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But by this time, I had no bank details on the site
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Anyway, so the UK-based, well, I suppose it was UK-based guy I spoke to, took all the details
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He took the order number down, identified the order numbers as being orders placed in
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the US because they were prefixed with a 111 number, whereas the UK prefix is a 204 number
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So I'm learning quite a bit as I've been through this. He said, again, he would escalate it to security
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I would hear within 24 hours what their findings were. So again, at that point, okay, something's happened
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My bank has given me the money back. There's an investigation going on
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Everything should be fine, I think. We then get to the morning of the 13th, and I got a message back from Amazon to say, investigation
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concluded, no order history, place closed. So I thought, well, this can't be right, surely
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So I then, on a hunch, I then looked at Amazon.com, rather Amazon.co.uk, and I put my login details
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with my new password into the US-based version. And to my amazement and surprise, I could log into an account in my name with my details
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in the US. It also, by the way, had the address of the drop point in Portland, Oregon, which was
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one of these Amazon pick-up boxes, if you know what I mean
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Okay, so at that point, I thought there's something seriously wrong here, so I phoned
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Amazon yet again. Spoke to, I thought it was a very helpful person that explained the story I'm explaining
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to you now. She said she would look into it while I was online
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What she found was, based in the, or she was based in the UK market, she could not access
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the US order numbers. So she couldn't confirm, verify what I was telling her
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At the finish, at the conclusion of that conversation, she said she would give me some details of
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who I could speak to in the US, and I should perhaps have an online chat with the US market
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So that ended that discussion. I then tried to contact Amazon US
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Now, using the same method as they do in the UK, there's a box where when you finally dig
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through it, there is a box where you could leave your telephone number, they will call
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you back. It would not accept a UK number. I then defaulted to the chat version, I thought, well, maybe I can have a chat with somebody online
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And again, because it was a UK based number or something, I couldn't get through
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So the upshot of all this is, unless I was prepared to pay a toll number to the United
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States from the UK, I had no way of contacting Amazon to explain to them what was going on
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So that's where we've arrived. Nothing has happened since. I've heard nothing from my bank
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I've left the account in the US live on the basis that I still have none of my cards attached
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to it, so it can't really do any harm. But at least there is an audit trail there now of where this stuff was picked up from
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what the order numbers were, and what other action was taking that in
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So that's where I'm at. Now, in some respects, I could say maybe the situation's closed
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My bank has yet to come back to me and say whether they want to pursue anything
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I have an audit trail of everything that's gone on. Interestingly, in the US account, if I look for order history, there is no history of
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any orders based on that account in the US. However, if you look a bit deeper, look into transactions, it actually does have the transaction
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this particular transaction, $136, et cetera, et cetera. So whoever's got into this, and one has to assume it's been initiated from somewhere
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in the US, because the component that was bought went to the US address
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Somebody has been able to get into this and clear any order history in that account, but
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it still retains the transaction details. So it starts to look, unless somebody is really clever, it almost looks like an inside story
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I don't know. But that's it. So it's quite complex. Where has it left me
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Well, I'm now very concerned, and I guess nervous is the right answer, about the reliability
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and the security that Amazon have to the extent that, although I use Amazon quite frequently
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I no longer attach any card or payment details. If I want to make a transaction, I'll make it in the moment, and then I'll remove all
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my details. So at the minute, I would say it's been quite an irritation
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It's been interesting, and I would really like to know how you get to the bottom of
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this, because it just seems that Amazon either don't have the interestability or whatever
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it takes to get to the bottom of this. I cannot be the only person in the world that's been affected by this
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So I don't know. I wonder. I've got nowhere else to go
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I'm not going to spend a lot of time, happy to talk to you, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time chasing people, and certainly chasing Amazon in the US
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They have a problem. They should fix it. It's not my problem. It's their problem
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Well, I don't know. There's nothing. I'm not out of pocket. I've had a bit of an annoying time
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I could have done without the stress, but look, I'm not a litigious sort of person as such
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I would really be interested to know what have they done, what have they found out
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and what have they discovered? So it's curiosity really for me. At the end of the day, if they're not interested, I'm not interested in them
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It will undoubtedly will affect the frequency and the care with which I purchase through Amazon
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I know they will probably say, okay, it's one customer, multiple billions
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Who cares? It's a little bit of inconvenience to me, but I'm going to be very, very careful now
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because we have what's called a prime account in the UK. So we pay a subscription, and on that basis, you don't have to pay delivery charges
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So I use Amazon quite frequently, once, twice a week for quite a lot of purchases, often
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quite small things, but I'm not using them at all now. I'm going to think very hard before I at least let them have the details or post the details
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of my accounts. So it's affected my purchasing. In terms of what can they do, I have no expectations
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Frankly, I've become a bit sort of immune to the poor state of the customer service
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in this industry and a few others I can talk about. So anyway
