Problems with Amazon’s delivery service and porch pirates are a common story, but now Amazon has made it virtually impossible to contact them for support… and has even programmed their AI, Alexa Plus, to lie when asked about it.
[Edited 9 December 1:45pm MST:
I’m shocked to be at the top of the Trending list! Thank you all…
To those who helpfully recommend using a dropoff location or boycotting Amazon, thanks but I can’t do either. I’m disabled, so it’s difficult, and often expensive, to leave the house.]
[Edited again at 3:35 PM MST: Amazon just delivered my copy of “The Most Awful Responsibility” inside the carport as requested… and used their code to unlock the steel door! The squeaky wheel got the grease.]
Last month, we spent over $7000 to put up steel gates in front of our carport, mostly to protect our Amazon and UPS deliveries from opportunistic porch pirates who walk past our Tucson duplex. There is a door in the middle of the carport with an electronic deadbolt. We set up these delivery instructions in our Amazon account:
Please deliver packages INSIDE the steel door in the middle of the carport.
The door is unlocked during daytime hours… and we also provided Amazon and UPS with codes they could use to unlock it. Since then, Amazon drivers have repeatedly ignored our delivery instructions and left packages where they could be easily stolen.
This morning, an Amazon driver again failed to read the instructions, and left about $300 worth of packages (pictured above) out in plain sight a few feet from the sidewalk. I reported this in the Amazon app, but I wanted to contact Amazon to ask why they kept failing to deliver our orders to the secure location we spent all that money to provide for them.
Guess what: the “Contact Us” option no longer exists on their Web site. I looked everywhere, and there is NO option to contact them about anything.
After I searched for a while, I realized that I could just ask Amazon’s own AI “assistant,” Alexa Plus.
We had the following conversation (my words in italics, Alexa’s in bold):
What is the phone number to contact Amazon customer service?
I can't provide specific phone numbers for customer service. For Amazon customer service help, please visit the Amazon Customer Service page at amazon.com/help.
How do I contact Amazon customer service?
For Amazon customer service help, please visit the Amazon Customer Service page at amazon.com/help.
I'm on that page; it does not have an option to contact customer service.
On the Amazon help page, select "Help with something else" then "Something else" again to access chat support. You can also use the Amazon app's Help tab for instant chat, or try social media channels like X (@amazonhelp) for quicker assistance.
The options you recommend do not appear on the pages you send me to.
I understand your frustration. Let's try a different approach. Go to amazon.com/help, then click "Contact Us" at the bottom. This should lead you to current support options.
The word 'contact' does not appear on amazon.com/help.
I understand your frustration. Let's try this: On the Amazon help page, scroll all the way down to the bottom. You should see a "Need more help?" section there.
Amazon Alexa, that section does not exist.
I hear your frustration. Let's try one more time: Go to amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us. This should take you directly to the contact options.
There is no contact option on that page; it takes me to an AI interface, which is useless.
I understand your frustration with the AI interface. For direct human assistance, try calling Amazon's customer service at 1-888-280-4331. This should connect you with a live representative.
Alexa first stated it could not provide a support phone number, then it wasted my time sending me repeatedly to pages I had already visited… and only then, after failing to blow me off, it surrendered and gave me the contact number.
When I called it, I got an AI receptionist, which I managed to outwit. Mere seconds after it gave up, a human answered… meaning that Amazon has been largely successful in preventing people from contacting them.
The human representative claimed that contact options DID exist on their site, and tried to send me to the same Web pages as Alexa. When she realized that didn’t work, she dropped that issue without resolution.
About the delivery, her first answer was “The USPS is unable to read our delivery instructions…” so I interrupted her.
“The package was not delivered by USPS, it was delivered by Amazon.. and you know this, it’s on your screen.”
She read back the same lie: “The delivery partner is unable to read our delivery instructions…” so I interrupted her again:
“You’re just rephrasing the same line, ma’am… and I paid Amazon for the order, so Amazon is responsible for following the instructions.”
I informed her that any stolen packages would result in an immediate chargeback on my credit card… and she accused me of threatening Amazon. I replied, “It’s not a threat, it’s a fact: I will immediately initiate a chargeback on any orders that are stolen as a result of your driver ignoring the delivery instructions.”
Since this conversation, I received an Email assuring me that they would enroll my account in their “delivery compliance program” to make sure this does not happen again… I hope not.
Meanwhile, they provided me with another customer service number. As it’s hidden from the public, at least [both of] the Kossacks who read this far will be able to contact Amazon Customer Service at 866-216-1072 or 888-280-4331.
I also posted threads on Xitter and BlueSky, hoping that a few more people will get those super-secret phone numbers.
