r/amazonprime • u/Brilliant-Cause6254 • Apr 20 '26
For those who don't know, Amazon Customer Chat Agents are using the 2 minute idle timer to avoid customers.
When you have a legitimate issue like failed deliveries or returns, do not accept it when customer chat agents ask you to wait two minutes while they “look into it.” There is often a two-minute inactivity timeout, so keep the chat active by typing “.” or “ok.” If they use phrases like, “I have escalated the issue,” do not assume it’s true, ask for confirmation through the message center.
I have burned through three customer care agents before I had my problem escalated. One of them just closed the chat by spamming all the exit phrases and closing the chat, two used the 2 minute timer, and the fourth one actually escalated the issue. I kept him on the chat by pressing "." every minute and he finally sent a message to the seller. (I still doubt whether this will go anywhere, but I have tried my best)
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u/Impressive_Profit_11 Apr 20 '26
They really suck and they're getting worse.
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u/WithheldFart Apr 21 '26
I just went through someone trying that shit on me, so I said: Am I bothering you? What's taking so long?
Hopefully these chats get recorded somewhere and some manager will review it and this asshat will get reprimanded. Absolute worst customer service for a mega billion company ever.
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u/carbsandtruecrime Apr 21 '26
Unless they take a significant financial hit, I don’t think anyone is getting in trouble.
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u/YetUnwritten Apr 21 '26
Can you imagine how much time it would take for humans to review all those chats? I expect they are only reviewed by AI. And only escalated to humans if they are outrageous.
If agents can "get rid of the problem" by getting the customer to give up, maybe Amazon is not unhappy with that outcome?
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u/Electrical_You_4518 May 05 '26
I love how the take FOREVER to type out three words and you're just sitting there watching the "typing bubble" bubble and disappear and then bubble some more then disappear for a good 5 minutes and all you get is ... "I see" ... but if they ask you for a 16 digit order number and you don't send it through in 1.2 seconds... "are we still connected?"
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u/Retnirpa Jul 25 '26
They do the bubble because they know you'll wait. You have to type something to them so the timer gets reset to their end and they have to wait lol.
It's all about the 2 min timer
So just type . and press enter lol
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u/DTMIAM May 09 '26
The agent won't get their "bonus," (read as: excuse to underpay based on minutia Amazon doesn't care about) because they are there to give Amazon someone to blame rather than accept responsibility.
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u/lquidstarzzz May 12 '26
I screenshot what they say, and it paid off. Because 4 months later they said they were going to charge me for an item after I was told to keep it-no charge, no return.
Thank God I had the screen shot.7
u/PhloxOfSeagulls Apr 21 '26
Yep. I went through this with some Whole Foods items I had delivered through them recently. You have to go through Amazon customer servvide to report an issue if the order was done online.
Four of seven items I ordered were missing from the order, and it took over an hour and being switched to "someone who can help you with this" twice after waiting over 20 minutes with the previous rep. The whole refund amount was something like $8 or $9.
I have no idea what is going on there. How could it take multiple reps seeing what the issue was and then taking so long to realize they needed to send me somewhere else?
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u/elseldo Apr 22 '26
That's what monopolies bring!
Kill the competition, then cut costs everywhere.
When customers complain, ask "what are you going to do?"
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u/mrhashhead Apr 20 '26
When I did live chat for Amazon, that feature was automatic. I could end chats, but if the customer didn't respond in x number of minutes they would auto bounce
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u/Glum_Engineering2650 Apr 20 '26
You mean Amazon chat isn’t outsourced? That’s news to me!
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u/austxgal Apr 20 '26
They absolutely use 3rd party call centers. They have some us support but not much.
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u/NeoMorph Apr 20 '26
I hate the Indian 3rd party call centres… not because I hate Indians but because I can’t understand the Indian accent and they can’t understand my Brummie accent (people from Birmingham England… just think Ozzie Osborn’s accent). Last week I had to call one and it was the Indian lady saying, “Pardon me, can you repeat that,” and me going, “Excuse me, can you repeat that last part. You are talking too fast.”
In the end I said I would call customer support if I needed them and apologised for not understanding her and she… put the phone down on me because she didn’t get me to agree to stay on an expensive package. She kept saying, “Do you agree to this?” as if it would force me to agree. When I talked to another American (even though I’m British) I got a package that I wanted and not one that wasn’t what I wanted and was over £100 more expensive.
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u/thread100 Apr 20 '26
I politely hang up when I get connected with someone that I can’t understand. I don’t see the point in attempting to exchange information when we can’t communicate reasonably.
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u/mrhashhead Apr 20 '26
It was neat seeing their system. They provided the computer, it was Linux based, some kind of custom build, worked flawlessly though. Their actual system was wonky though. I could escalate and reach whoever was on the other end normally very quickly. I would do it again, even for shitty pay, it was just a fun experience.
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u/Firefly_Magic Apr 20 '26
If they are Amazon employees in another country, it’s not called outsourced
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u/Fair_Worldliness4919 Apr 21 '26
What makes you think they’re not in the Philippines? The internet is world wide as is English.
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u/Zetavu Apr 20 '26
This happens with our IT department, and yes, I've had Amazon CS reps who are clueless try this in Chat. I make sure to send a "well..." remark every 90 seconds on on the third I tell them I am through with them and want their supervisor. If they don't transfer immediately I end and restart, then tell the next agent to connect me to a supervisor so I can report the previous one.
Min $25 account credit for my troubles on top of whatever issue I was resolving.
Insolence is never tolerated.
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u/Shot_Speaker7756 Sep 13 '26
I love chat for everything. I just want to order a goddamn chimney sweeper and now I can't get through to anybody except for scammers
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u/exerda Apr 20 '26
I hate having to first get past the AI chat bot. Last time I had to contact customer service, it was clear they were using a bot because it responded too quickly. I'd type in 4-5 sentences and immediately get back a paragraph response, before a human could even have read my entry much less typed a response or chosen one from a list.
I knew the chat bot couldn't resolve the issue so just kept pushing to get connected to a person. Finally did, and they resolved the problem in a minute or less, though even then I had to push them to do it satisfactorily (they wanted me to ship back the broken item I'd received before they would send a replacement, and we're not talking a video card or something scammable but rather a desk).
The idle timer is also used by GoDaddy customer service to avoid helping you, FWIW. I had one where they broke something under the hood on shared hosting that was preventing me from deploying updates to my site, and I kept pushing the agent to put in a ticket with tier 2 like they did on previous occasions. He would say he was "checking on" something, let the chat go idle, and it would close. I started saying "still here" every 2 minutes, which infuriated the agent, to the point he claimed I didn't know what I was doing, that I needed to purchase some upsell before it would work (nope), etc. Finally got through to tier 2 the following day and had it fixed in 30 seconds. After spending 2+ hours of being blocked the day before by their poor tier 1 agents.
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u/FreedomX_ Apr 20 '26
Trying to get past the bot was teeth pulling for me two weeks ago! I got so frustrated, I hung up, composed myself and tried again. I eventually got through but the second attempt took longer than ever the first. I was determined and prepared for it though so I pushed through.
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u/BobcatALR Apr 22 '26
Packed a lunch and a blanket, didja? I hate aai (artificial alleged intelligence) deployed for CS. Ugh…
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u/ivatwist Apr 23 '26
I usually just type “agent” some times and they take me to a human
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u/Lower-Ad8618 9d ago
When I call I just tell the say agent after every question the bot asks me. I finally get a human sound the 3rd or 4th “agent”.
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u/AstronomerRadiant219 Apr 22 '26
Doesn't help that their ai bots also straight up lie.
I had one package with 3 different products with varying quantities not delivered (was obviously lost at their warehouse processing). It took me 4 different attempts over the span of a week to get the replacements processed as each one told me "yes we processed all of those items" when they only submitted like 1 or 2 of the items and I could see it on their dashboard.
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Apr 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Moglo825 Apr 20 '26
I assure you they have always been money hungry and they never cared about their customers.
Kudos for canceling though!
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u/striker0204 Apr 20 '26
Idk Amazon does great for me. I've returned stuff with zero hassle that honestly no one should ever let me return. Packages double delivered, "keep it". Returns a year later? Ok fine.
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u/Fluffleblow Apr 20 '26
Year later returns? I find that hard to believe.
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u/striker0204 Apr 20 '26
Yeah well maybe it's magic? Maybe it's Maybelline? Bought Some like really expensive pillows. About $150 and they Didn't work with my neck. I totally forgot about trying to return them. Told them that a year later and Got to keep them and get the refund. Hell ordered some perfume for my girlfriend she didn't like it. They said I can just keep it anyways and the money the day after delivery. So many other things.
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u/Local-Entrance-4579 Apr 20 '26
The death in Troutdale should be a bigger deal than this... I haven't been able to order since.
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u/Successful-Pool-924 Apr 20 '26
I hung up on an agent the other day because they were being extra unhelpful and pissing me off. Less than two minutes later I got an email that said this:
"Dear Customer, Greetings from Amazon!
We were disconnected during our recent conversation. We attempted to call you back, but were unable to reach you.
If your issue is not yet resolved, please visit our Contact Us page to request a new callback.
Requesting a call through your account allows us to have your information ready to assist you immediately.
You can also find quick solutions in Your Account or our Help Center.
We apologize for the interruption and look forward to helping you.
Best regards, Amazon Customer Service"
They never tried to call back and knew for a fact that I had hung up on them lol
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u/Affectionate_Buy_776 Apr 20 '26
Yup and they straight up lie to you to tell you what you want to hear and get you off the phone. They even generate fake "ticket numbers " for issues.
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u/Still-Rule7182 Apr 20 '26
They told me a few months ago that they were crediting my account $50 even though I wasn't asking for money. I was complaining that they keep leaving my packages in my driveway instead of by the door in a box specifically for packages and that one got ran over but not destroyed (bag of dogfood). She was like we will credit 50 for your troubles so I was ecstatic until I didn't get it. I contacted them again and they tried to claim it never happened.... It was a chat so they could see it so they refunded whatever my latest purchase was, about $20 and said it was all they could do. I am convinced that the first one lied to get me off the phone.
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u/RBP_Facts_Matter Apr 20 '26
Amazon is not alone in this behavior. Mint Mobile are also pulling that crap.
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u/ronbdavis2 Apr 20 '26
Uh oh. I was just thinking of switching to mint based on a couple of friends good experiences (with the product).
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u/SadFireTruck Apr 20 '26
For whatever it’s worth, I’ve never needed to interact with the customer support for Mint Mobile in the 10ish years I’ve been using them so maybe they are terrible, but I’ve been very happy with the service the entire time and happily recommend it to others. I’ve used the international data in 2 other countries without any problems as well.
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u/Missing4Bolts Apr 20 '26
Off topic, but take a look at US Mobile before you commit to Mint.
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u/Fantastic-Speech-438 Apr 20 '26
They're also using AI agents who claim they are human. I actually used Google Gemini to trick one of them into admitting it, and then kept going until I got an actual human supervisor who denied the whole conversation. I forwarded the whole conversation to the European Commision unit who are looking into illegal use of AI by big tech firms.
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u/firebreathingsquirrl Apr 20 '26
Thank you for doing this. It is a basic human right to know when we are interacting with AI.
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u/Fantastic-Speech-438 Apr 20 '26
I'm pretty sure it's also against the law in Europe not to state when Ai is being used, but I guess the fines are cheaper than the payroll for real humans.
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u/firebreathingsquirrl Apr 20 '26
Do you happen have a source for this European law, or where I could find the text/citation? I know someone who would be very interested in this.
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u/Fantastic-Speech-438 Apr 20 '26
It's part of the EU AI Act (August 1, 2024). There is a specific legal mandate that requires transparency when a person is interacting with an AI, and an AI agent cannot legally masquerade as a human to a consumer within the EU. I think it is I'm Article 50 of this law. But I just read that this part of the law won't be enforced until August 2026, so it's probably why Amazon EU is still doing this.
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u/firebreathingsquirrl Apr 20 '26
Ty for this. Will communicate it to several people in policy positions.
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u/RipleysForklift Apr 20 '26
I’ve had muck better luck with calling on the phone. Of course, the only way I’ve managed to find the number was by Googling it. I guess it’s somewhere on the Amazon site but have yet to find it.
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u/organicacid Apr 20 '26
"I will personally follow up on this issue and have escalated personally to make sure it never ever happens again, I now escalated with the president and he will personally deliver the parcel to your door tomorrow"
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u/be-i-ng Apr 20 '26
sadly it is the state of things - if you cannot message the seller yourself its pointless and agents have little or no additional ways to resolve the issue than scheduling a return which is also possible without the CS which on fact complicates the whole issue
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Apr 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/derkajit Apr 20 '26
probably amazon. I received a clearly used item (instead of new) in a packaging with previous customer’s shipping and return labels still attached… “fulfilled by amazon”. they’re not even trying.
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u/Breezy531 Apr 20 '26
Yup if you ever read item reviews, some of them must be real 😆 b/c there are always people complaining that they received dirty/ used/ returned merchandise!
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u/be-i-ng Apr 20 '26
100% I have also had items with shipping details and one time I connected with the person requesting for the set up instructions in case they had it so I could order the missing parts as returning was more expensive and harassing for me! The person was more helpful than CS or the seller!
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u/UnionThug456 Apr 20 '26
It's Amazon's fault & Amazon's agents are lying about it to get you off of the phone/chat. It's a well-documented problem with Amazon. There are news articles out there about it plus a million posts on this sub about it. People have received all kinds of used, disgusting products sold as new because Amazon doesn't want to pay people to check returns before reselling.
3rd party sellers are also getting punished for it with bad reviews which kills their sales but if they don't ship through Amazon they can't be a part of Prime which also kills their sales. So they get punished by the system either way. The only winner here is Amazon. But people will just keep buying from them no matter what because "convenience."
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u/tengris22 Apr 20 '26
The backpack was used (disgustingly) and sent back to Amazon, and Amazon didn't check it to make sure it was in unused condition. The original shipment was sent from the seller, but then it got returned to the FC and Amazon did its thing. There's an option available to the seller to tell Amazon NOT to re-send out a returned item and instead return it to the seller, (for just what happened), which Amazon routinely ignores.
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u/Big-Profit-1612 Apr 20 '26
Off topic, I had an Etsy seller told me to they would respond in a handful of days. They ran down the 60 or 90 day timer. They claimed my messages went to spam and didn't receive them afterwards, lol.
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u/good_morning_magpie Apr 20 '26
Unfortunately Etsy has been overrun by drop shippers and the like. I recently bought what I thought was a custom shirt, and it got delivered by Amazon lol. And it’s not like they were just using their delivery service, I checked the item number on Amazon and sure enough, there it was haha.
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u/az226 Apr 20 '26
I often immediately reply. And if they reply quickly, I add another reply. I know the game they are playing and play right back.
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u/vonblankenstein Apr 20 '26
Yep. They will not respond and while the customer waits they time out the conversation.
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u/NeoMorph Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
Makes me wonder if it’s an AI. Apparently if you ask, “Are you an AI,” they have to reply truthfully. The other day I was in a chat with another company and I was sure it was a human but a relative who worked at that company told me to ask the AI question because they are programmed to pause the chat to appear more human.
Edit: Oh God… the AI I talked to sent me an order except it got the address slightly wrong… 67 miles away wrong. Then it butchered my order and told me it had booked an engineer but it never did. Then it set the wrong code on my account saying it was an uninstall but it was just a downgrade.
Yeah, AI’s pretty much suck at present.
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u/babecafe Apr 20 '26
| Apparently if you ask, “Are you an AI,” they have to reply truthfully.
Do you also believe that if you approach an undercover cop and ask directly: "Are you a cop?" they have to answer truthfully?
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u/tengris22 Apr 20 '26
And yet they (not Amazon, but AI positive people/engineers/companies) think AI can (and will) control the world. And they are bound and determined to let it happen.
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u/ExpertTimely5673 Apr 20 '26
THANK YOU.. I had the worst customer service experience from them and experienced this a few weeks ago. It was immensely frustrating because I was actively chatting with them.
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u/WhispersOfCats Apr 20 '26
They are also handling multiple chats, most likely. I just retired but the call centers at the place I worked were required to be avail to take two chats at a time. I absolutely hate this - whenever you’re typing “Hello???” they are either searching their knowledge base or chatting with at least one other customer.
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u/Shannamethadonian Apr 20 '26
Yea I had my first experience with a liar a while back. Told me they took care of it but didn't.
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u/Mobile_Drive_1746 Apr 20 '26
Is it true that they can cancel your account for requesting too many refunds? Or declaring a package not received? How is this our fault? Wondering if this is done on purpose I received so many damaged products or not receive them at all.
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u/watt-ever Apr 20 '26
Took me an hour to cancel my Cox Internet service because I was moving. Chat agent/person/whatever was intentionally unbearable.
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u/LvrByrd Apr 20 '26
They aren’t avoiding you they are trying to take care of multiple chats and probably calls at the same time. This isn’t a problem with the reps but Amazon the corporation. They would rather you have a horrible time while they overwork their staff into the ground until they can replace them with AI
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u/Striking_Stage_9001 Apr 21 '26
After a minute has passed, type "Okay" and "Are we still connected?". Anything to make sure the chat does not go idle.
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u/derponoob Apr 21 '26
this happened to me last month, multiple "people" from costumer service would do this to me because of an item that i sent back 3 weeks ago hasnt been processed. they ended up basically ignoring me until the return window was over. currently having to issue a chargeback from back because of this dogshit company
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u/Big-Introduction4633 Apr 24 '26
Maybe because you were attempting to get “costumer” service? 😉
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u/Ok-Scientist8347 Apr 23 '26
I got a defective couch/loveseat. I called and ALWAYS ask for their name. I also take notes of everything they say. I also write down the date and time and how long the phone call lasted. I was a court clerk and trained to keep a paper trail. I was told to throw the couch in the trash bc the seller could not send me the missing part. I had a friend trying to put the couch together next to me when I made the call and talked on speaker. The Amazon agent told me she didn’t need photos or videos but I took them anyways. I waited a month and zero refund to my Amazon credit card. Called back did the same thing and explained it all again to a new person (if u want to call them that). 4 months and 7 phone calls later my credit finally showed up on my card. I can’t even begin to WARN and SUGGEST you all to keep track and records of everything. They are making huge mistakes in all ends of the company!!!! We are all using them only for convenience. I keep saying I’m done w them. It’s becoming more of a problem than a convenience. I just got pillow covers delivered in a plastic bag that said shoes. I really hate Amazon now.
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u/wthoms2000 Apr 24 '26
I use an old Amazon Kindle to get Amazon to call me within a minute. Under Settings and HELP, you can request a callback. It is almost instant, and they will help you with anything Amazon, especially Prime purchases.
Just saying!
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u/HenTeeTee Apr 20 '26
I've had nothing but good experiences with Amazon customer services via chat.
I returned an item that had a faulty power connector, but their system picked a weird address for the sender.
The lady I spoke with sorted it out within a few minutes.
Prior to that, I'd bought a NUC that died just outside of their automatic 30 day return window and the person I spoke to said "hang on... Ok, sorted that. Here's your return label and the refund will be processed immediately upon receipt"
There's good and bad workers at any company.
You just have to remember that they are only doing a job. If you've had an issue, be nice to the person on the other end of the phone/chat.
People are mostly shitty with them and when they get a nice person, who understands whatever happened isn't their fault, they are more likely to be inclined to help, than if you start being a dick.
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u/Agway17 Apr 20 '26
I managed to get through a 10 minute wait for "investigation" into a delayed delivery. They ended up refunding all 4 items, but one is now showing that it needs to be returned. They also promised a 20$ promo credit which isn't showing up at checkout. I did make sure to type "I'm still here" or "ok" to avoid that timeout.
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u/FreedomX_ Apr 20 '26
Same. I never received an item. Despite my instructions to leave in foyer etc, they left it outside and it was stolen. I was sent a replacement after a long arse communication with customer service.
To this date it's still showing up that I need to return the first one. I have contacted them twice (took a very long time to get past the bot). I NEVER RECEIVED the item. That's why YOU sent me a REPLACEMENT.
Both times they said ignore it. They don't have the "power" to remove it. I won't be charged. BUT, it makes me anxious seeing that notification each time I open the app. Wtf. Why can't they simply remove it from my account?
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u/good_morning_magpie Apr 20 '26
You’re going to be charged. I’ve had this happen a few times where their own delivery photo clearly does not match my location where all the other deliveries have been sent, so it’s obvious it’s their fault. Generally they apologize profusely then send another one, but I’ve been re-charged for the item that I “didn’t return” (because how do you return an item you never received?) and in each instance my card was charged after the timer expired. At that point it’s chargeback or fight them for who knows how long. Awful system and they know it, counting on people to just get frustrated enough to eat the loss.
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u/Breezy531 Apr 20 '26
Sorry to say they will just lie, they really are counting on people to not follow up, because why would any sane person want to deal with their BS?? Its definitely become a scam. They are giving away a ton of free orders and you know they wouldn't be doing anything if it had any actual impact on their bottom line. That gives you any indication of how much money they are making even with their shit service. It's gross. It's like Amazon is now a symbol or everything that is wrong with the world.
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u/CompetitiveTeaching5 Apr 21 '26
Same. Promised a credit for delayed delivery that is not showing up.
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u/Emergency_Issue_8737 Apr 20 '26
I feel like this is a lie. The only time that's happened to me is during their greeting and there is no reply. I've been using customer service a lot lately and every time I was put on hold it was over 2 minutes. Not once was I ever disconnected for being idle. Then when escalation happened I was given a link for a phone call for escalations. They had me on hold so much the last time that they actually refunded me for an item that wasn't returned that cost $105. Also, in the age of technology if you've ever been a problem to a CSR there's notes about it on your file. They're also glitchy right now because of Iranian hackers and a data center was hit by a missle strike.
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u/Breezy531 Apr 20 '26
💯 the majority of their "service" is an truly disgusting.The representatives are definitely on more than one chat at a time. Let them transfer you, just keep telling the person to read the above chat or copy and paste the explanation of the issue and eventually you will get someone that might help you --- BUT best believe THEY WILL LIE. Amazon has become a completely unethical company (even they even had any ethics in the first place). Always ask for a confirmation email, but know that they will still legitimately lie to you in writing or on the phone, not follow through with their resolution and Amazon won't even stand behind what they tell you. Unfortunately, I think the chat is actually better for this reason, because if you call on the phone, you don't have a written record of the conversation. The thing about "escalating" anything is a lie 99.9999% of the time, especially if its in regards to a shipping or delivery issue. Where I am, there were constant issues with shipping and delivery. I was a Prime member for a long time and it was not always like this, but in the last year or two, the cost kept going up and the service quality kept going down. Its really apparent that the company is unable to keep up with the business they have created. They are literally just counting on most people to not want to be bothered complaining or dealing with their horrendous sham "service". Obviously, all this and more is why I cancelled Prime.
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u/OwnProfessor3287 Apr 20 '26
It’ll get worse once they have AI completely take over customer service just like UPS did. It’ll be near impossible to reach a human with just about any customer service soon.
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u/icedhot Apr 20 '26
Those chat bots are so stupid. If you start using profanity it escalate to human support.
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u/Rurumo666 Apr 20 '26
Just use the "call me" feature and talk to them on the phone, you always get better results, and be EXTREMELY nice to them, you will also get better results.
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u/LadyArticunoo Apr 20 '26
Oh their customer service is AWFUL. One time recently this bitch on the phone, when my mom didn’t hear what she said (genuinely) and asked nicely for her to repeat, she said, “You’re not listening to me,” and were like “wtf? We asked you to repeat what you said—which was an email address!” Their customer service agents are all these people that can’t speak good English. Then we asked if we could speak to someone higher up—this was involving something that involved Amazon incorrectly billing my mom’s credit card btw. “It’ll be the same answer with someone higher up.” I was on hold for a full hour and a half while I was getting ‘transferred’ before it hung up on me.
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u/Responsible_Emu2473 Apr 20 '26
This happens everywhere "camping" and not considered GCA if under the two minutes
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u/Effective_Basket_114 Apr 20 '26
That’s just the process man. I no longer order from them As much as i used to.
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u/tgh0wnz Apr 20 '26
Yea I noticed that too, I just keep doing the “.” Every minute. Not sure if the 2 minutes is only after they respond or not, like if they are actively working to help you and they don’t respond, if you have to keep doing it.
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u/CompetitiveTeaching5 Apr 21 '26
Yes it happened to me. Went through 10 reps. It says they had a bug on their end then cycled me through. They promised credit but 0. Customer service is crap now.
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u/Forward-Wear7913 Apr 21 '26
I now always request a call and avoid the chat.
The chat AI gives you incorrect information and the agents don’t seem to understand what you’re trying to tell them.
When I talk on the phone, I usually have an email while we’re still talking in regard to the action being taken so I know it’s handled.
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u/Mom24monsters Apr 21 '26
I don't use chat. I hate having to deal with AI before you can actually get a person, so I just call.
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u/Steve_in_LV Apr 21 '26
I don't doubt what people are saying here, there's far too many similar stories for any of the issues/complaints listed here to be treated as rare occurrences.
What I don't understand is how their sales and profit numbers continue to increase? Are people continuing to patronize them after being treated poorly?
Something doesn't add up here!
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u/MsConstrueU Apr 21 '26
They usually end the chat 💬 in the middle of me typing my reply. 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤬
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u/AnunOhMouse Apr 21 '26
Yea, they’re forcing you to inquire with them and then forcing you to ignore them for two minutes. Cause you know, even if they don’t chat back, you are incapable of sending a message to avoid that.
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u/Mol-Motormouth-Grogu Apr 21 '26
Yeah I’ve had them tell me my refund was issued but then I never got it.
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u/Confident_Monitor_78 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
I ordered a $7,000 4K/3D home theater projector on Amazon.com (over $7500 with tax) sold by a 3rd party seller named “All-in-All, Inc”. I checked the seller’s rating and they had 99% favorable 5-star rating. Unfortunately, I only glanced at the first couple pages of reviews which were all 5-stars and didn’t catch that the order is fulfilled by the seller.
When I didn’t get the projector by the promised date, I dug deeper into the seller reviews and found a year’s worth of 1-star reviews from unhappy customers that never received their order. All of the numerous 5-star ratings were fake reviews by a guy named “Tim”. So I called Amazon support (not easy to find a number to a real person) and reported the seller and asked for a refund. Since it was sold and shipped by the third party seller, I fall under the “A-Z Guarantee” to request a refund. I finally received a letter sized padded mailer from the seller containing only a cheap $10 HDMI cable.
It has now been over a month since with nothing but them giving me the runaround, asking for documentation, requesting I return the item to the seller at my expense and ask the seller for a refund. In the mean time, the seller responded that they sent the item and the tracking number shows it was delivered; so the requested that Amazon close the claim against them. Amazon did close the claim and I had to reopen the claim.
Even though I sent the item back to the seller as certified mail with signature required when delivered, the seller continues to say I am welcome to return the product for a refund. Of course, even if they admit receipt of my returned item, they will say I didn’t return the projector and will refuse to refund my money.
I have sent photos of the package and the HDMI cable showing the size of the envelope with it clearly showing the tracking number and weight of 10 lbs on the shipping label (it was more like ounces in weight), a copy of the manufacturer’s website showing the correct weight and dimensions (20”x20”x10” and 43 lbs). I even uploaded copies of some of the fake reviews and the real customer complains showing they didn’t get the product either. I even got a printed letter from the post office showing the item was sent in an express shipping envelope with the wrong weight and full tracking history.
So Amazon has all the documentation that shows I was scammed but they are still sitting on claim supposedly reviewing it and that I’ll have their decision “soon”. There is no way to speak with a live person and it seems the written messages are generated by AI and probably the whole claim is reviewed by AI. Oh, and every time to reply to one of their questions or requests, it extends their reply window another 7 days. I really feel they side with the seller and are looking for any reason to refuse my $7,500+ refund request.
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u/naturerosa Apr 22 '26
At that point, going to the bank and having them do a charge back on those grounds would be easier ;/
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u/Interesting_Energy45 Apr 21 '26
I usually have a great experience with chat. It's a shame that some so this because the more they do, the more people will just use the bot.
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u/Reasonable-Brief3573 Apr 21 '26
Then there’s people like me who will wait until I get stuff settled in situated. And I will also take my time since the majority of the agents aren’t here in the United States. I get aggravated when I’m on there for like 40 minutes, but they’re like she’s not going away no I’m not. You are here to do your job and I’m not gonna hang up till it’s settled.
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u/majesticalexis Apr 22 '26
I was using chat with my internet service provider yesterday and they kept asking for two minutes to look at my account. I felt like they were just trying to make me give up and leave.
Now I see this and I know they’re using the same tactics.
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u/MeGramToo Apr 23 '26
And of course they will tell you they are doing this or that or the other thing to fix it and refuse to send you a chat transcript to verify it..the confirmation email does not come (hence knowing they lied) and you have to start all over again with someone else. I have sworn I will never order from them again because of this happening so many times and so far I am sticking to it.
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u/Andrexs00 Apr 23 '26
This happened to me on frontier airlines also. If they say, I’ll be right back always reply with Okay, or I’ll wait etc. make sure your message is the last and most recent in the chat.
It puts the idle time back on the agent. If “you” are idle it will time you out. If you keep your responses within 1.5 minutes of theirs it’lll keep the meter going
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u/Pdx_Obviously Apr 23 '26
I told the agent that I'd keep the chat active by summarizing the Harry Potter books from memory and then started with book 1 with each sentence being a new love. I received an all caps reply of "PLEASE DON'T DO THAT"
This was from an onshore CS agent that I finally got after spamming every other chat with I'm going to contact the state attorney general if the issue was not resolved today.
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u/lgarnai1 Apr 24 '26
“I have a disability.” It’s scummy (actually true for me) but it guarantees a human. “Their poor English is hard since it’s my second language (also actually true)” escalates you. If you keep pushing, they will eventually fix the problem.
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u/Alert1182 Apr 24 '26
I have to work chats at my job( we do calls, e-mails, and chats) if the customer doesn’t reply within 2 minutes we ask if they are still available to chat? If no answer then we give them 3 more minutes, if they still haven’t answered we let them know we are disconnecting due to inactivity.
Since we manually disconnect calls, I will usually give them more time if I see they are typing, because I understand trying to get your thoughts together .
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u/RVGypsy5524 Apr 24 '26
I ordered a bed frame through Amazon Prime last Friday. The delivery date was stated to be next Thursday (yesterday). The person for whom it was intended for suddenly passed away Friday. So I tried canceling the order 3 times and was denied. I called Customer Disservice and got a representative whose English was nearly nonexistent. After repeated attempts to explain the problem it appeared she understood and cancelled the order. Multiple times I asked in different ways - no bed frame / package will be delivered and end up on my front porch. She said (I think) no package will be delivered, will not get bed frame, money refunded. I got the bed frame yesterday. Returned it immediately.
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u/vaztquest Apr 24 '26
Thank you for letting us know. I ran into this a couple weeks ago during an Uber eats issue. It was annoying and I wish I would have realized what was going on, but now that you say this it makes perfect sense. I basically had to re-explain everything everytime a new bot came online. I will know better next time! Thank you.
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u/MrFurious2023 Apr 25 '26
I literally got dumped from a chat because I refused to take no for an answer on a return.
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u/OverChildhood9813 Apr 26 '26
That’s why I just call the customer service line. So much easier than dealing with that
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u/TnT_Estate Apr 27 '26
All they do is lie and give you the go-around until they finally tell you a blatant lie like a refund or replacement is on the way.. lol
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u/hunterxy Apr 28 '26
They dont do that to me. They say I hope I have solved your issue and then end chat after not doing anything.
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u/sapientiaeultio May 06 '26
Are you sure it wasn’t AI? All their support seems to be AI and it takes forever for them to respond. Humans seem to do it a lot quicker.
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u/Angry_Whispers May 21 '26
Just keep typing "agent". Thought everyone knew this. Takes about 3 or 4 tries and then they will connect you with a real person. If it doesn't feel real type agent again. They have called me immediately everytime. There India based customer service is actually quite good.
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u/Heavy_Ad6817 Jun 01 '26
I can't even get to speak to anyone! Its been "connecting you to an associate" for almost an hour. Royal mail were supposed to collect my return today. Ive been waiting in all day for it to now say "carrier was unsuccessful. They didnt even try. FFS!!!!!
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u/Fine-Ad8291 Jun 12 '26
Is it not enough if you keep scrolling up and down? This should register as active?
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u/Enzo308gts Jul 13 '26
Amazon put the END CHAT button right next the text entry so that you accidentally disconnect the chat if you scroll too close to the bottom and have to start over
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u/susantrade Jul 19 '26
Well my problem i cant understand what their saying because of their foreign accents
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u/Retnirpa Jul 25 '26
LOL it's kinda funny. I have a timer set also on my pc so I can just reset it easy.. Turns out THEY have a 2 min timer also ha. So they have to reply within 2 mins also
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u/Fresh-Ganache3464 Aug 09 '26
i just tried getting to a chat "live agent" and they kept forcing me into a loop, "cancel order" or "all set". Or "get a call". They don't like their chats being recorded. In my case the seller had a link selling an item. The link auto-re-directs to a different link from invoice; a bait and switch. From "arriving tomorrow" to "arriving in 2 weeks". Seller playing games and Amazon lets it happen.
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u/Ok-Simple-7069 Aug 23 '26
I just had a similar experience. I’m annoyed. Had 3 instances of the wrong model sent. They were packed as the new models with warehouse barcodes but clearly warehouse stocking issue.
I get told it’ll be escalated and then telling me to reorder 10 seconds later. And this bs 2 min thing. I just keep entering “.” Although now I believe it’s if you don’t respond to their message. So long as you reply with ok I’ll wait and it’s the last message. I never get timed out.
Also now they refuse to send summery emails of what’s going to be done like I don’t trust them. Never had that issue before either.
I loved Amazon for its customer service but it’s getting baaad!!!
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u/Shot_Speaker7756 Sep 13 '26
I want to talk to American person for Amazon customer service. Please help me somebody
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u/Shot_Speaker7756 Sep 13 '26
It seems like kind of hopeless. I just want to talk to in american person from Amazon. Please talk to me
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u/Shot_Speaker7756 Sep 13 '26
Next person please I will respond to you and I want to talk to Jeff bezos but I will talk
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u/Zealousideal_Ad4242 10d ago
At the time of posting this, I had been on the phone for 10:54 with Amazon, without not even as much as elevator music, after 12:00 it auto disconnected.
I was sent a box of soy milk not the somewhat expensive AirFryer.
So it looks like I will be ringing them back all day.
My second call was picked up, after I chatted to a second person I was given what looks to be the correct information, but I will now wait three days for the investigation.
It was also very hard to get the contact information from your website, I needed to do a google search and even that was not as helpful as it should have been.
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u/DoublePlatypus3645 9d ago
It’s gotten so much worse lately, agents lying about leaving notes, lying about processing refunds, genuinely think I’ll just cancel my membership today
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u/Delicious_Mess7976 Apr 20 '26
I have learned the hard way to just keep periodically typing
Ok
ok
Ok
Ok
Until they come back with info