Amazon customer 'furious' after receiving toy instead of Samsung tablet

06 November 2023 , 15:51

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Lee Loakes struggled to rectify the mix-up with customer services (Image: Lee Loakes)

A man has slammed Amazon after he was sent a toy dog and lightbulbs instead of the expensive Samsung tablet he ordered on Prime Day.

Lee Loakes, 47, from Narborough, Leicestershire, found himself £100 short when his Prime Day order went wrong. He was left even more angered after his complaint reportedly fell on deaf ears when he contacted customer services. He was told to reorder the tablet at a higher price as the special offer had ended, with Amazon allegedly refusing to cover the extra cost.

His ordeal began when he ordered the high-tech equiptment during the last of Amazon's Prime Days on October 11. "Obviously I was quite excited about getting the new tablet," he explained. "My wife told me that there were quite a few stories going around about people getting sent the wrong electronics from Amazon on Prime Day. I was a big Amazon user and when I opened the box I thought she is going to have a field with this." He added: "But again, Amazon has always been good in the past. You would expect from the items in there they would know, actually we have had the wrong items delivered."

Mr Loakes was expecting this tablet to arrive (Amazon)

Mr Loakes then found himself being "passed from pillar to post" over several days, involving numerous phone calls with different customer service departments, reports Leicestershire Live. He added: "I spoke to someone on the phone and they did not really understand what I was saying. They had to keep checking with a supervisor and come back to me. Once they did that they said I needed to return the items until I could have the tablet redelivered. The first thing that came into my mind is that because I ordered it on Prime Day, it was now £100 more. They said you will not be priced more, don't worry about it, we will refund you the difference."

Lee continued: "I went to the Post Office and returned the lightbulbs and action figure. They said they haven't received a tablet and I said no I sent you an action toy. I did explain again that it wasn't the tablet but I just went round and round in circles. It took about six phone calls over a period of two hours. I then reordered it and the correct item was delivered on the following Sunday (October 22). I was then waiting for my refund to come through. I had to keep waiting on hold while they checked with supervisors. I went through to the credit department and they were just repeating the same thing over and over."

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"'We don't refund the difference'. He wasn't even listening. Eventually he hung up on me. I was then passed from pillar to post, and a different department told me I would be refunded within 24 hours. I had been backwards and forwards with customer service to finally get reimbursed over the original package and I thought, great this is finally sorted. I then had a supervisor tell me you are never going to get a refund. You are not getting your money back. I am absolutely furious. The way that I was handled. I was a longtime Prime member and I have now cancelled my membership. When it came to Christmas or my birthday I always used to tell people to buy me Amazon gift cards, now I will be walking down the road to Curry's anytime I want to get something electrical."

After being contacted by LeicestershireLive, Amazon has since apologised to Mr Loakes for its customer service that "did not meet the high standards we expect." It has also refunded him in full. An Amazon spokesperson said: "We work hard to protect customers, selling partners and Amazon from abuse and we have systems in place to detect suspicious behaviour. Customer satisfaction is our utmost priority, and we're sorry that customer experience in this case did not meet the high standards we expect. We have apologised to the customer, honoured the promotional price and refunded them in full." The Mirror has contacted Amazon for comment.

* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can report any errors to [email protected]

Ben Carr