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[Patrick S.]

I don't know what to do. €700 is a huge amount of money for me, which took me months to save

The chronology of what happened is as follows:

-On the 17th I decided to buy the new Zotax RTX 3080 graphics card on Amazon.de.

-I tried to use "charge my bank account" as payment method, but that was declined as I didn't have enough funds in the accout.

-The most convenient way for me then at the time was to buy €700 worth of gift cards and charge my Amazon account with them. So I did that, the 7x €100 registered fine, I changed the payment method to use the Amazon balance, which worked fine.

-The order sat till today and then got cancelled, due to "a technical error". The full €700 were available in my Amazon account again

-I decided to write to the Amazon support chat to see if they could transfer that money to my bank account, so I could buy the card somewhere else.

-The guy too a few minutes and then said "ok now I need the seven gift card numbers". I had thrown them away the before and the trash had already been picked up. I return to the chat, and now the Amazon guy had left, and I was on with another person (in the same chat window)

-Guy two says "there has been no gift card redeemed on your account at all, are you sure it's the right account? We can't do anything, there is no record of you putting funds into your account, your account balance is €0."

-I ask for a phone number to call some supervisor, and call them. The lady is away like ten minutes and says "well there is no record of you ever charging your account". I tell her that there must absolutely be records of -me charging the account with 7x €700, -using that funds to make a preorder -they refunding me because they cancelled the order -the support dude doing SOMETHING to my money. I tell her that at no moment did I ask for my money to be refunded onto the used gift cards, neither did the support guy ever ask me if I even still HAD the cards, which I didn't. They now can't even confirm that that is what the guy did, because supposedly there is no record at all, and since I originally had "charge my bank" as payment method they can't verify that any Amazon gift card funds were ever used.

-She said she'll pass the case to another department, because neither she nor her superior could do anything

-Amazon customer support just emailed me, telling me that they have no record of the cards ever being activated, and that the payment method was bank charge, and that the contract is between me and the store where I bought the cards from, so Amazon can't help, have a nice day.

-I paid for the cards using cash, and the store where I bought them won't help me.


So now I am super desperate and angry. €700 really is a lot of money, and I cannot understand how Amazon can screw up this bad. Is there anyone here who maybe works at Amazon or knows what to do? I can't afford to sue them, and I have no further proof or record of what happened. I am in absolute disbelief and would appreciate any help

 

[Hudo]

I don't know but maybe it helps tweeting the Amazon.de Twitter account about what happened. Maybe fucking Twitter can be used for good for once...
Otherwise try to get in contact with your bank and try to get your money back that way.

 

[eddie4]

Is there no record of you adding the gift cards to the account and ordering the card?

 

[nbcjr]

Send an email to bezos. Seriously. jeff@amazon.com or jbezos@amazon.com.

 

[Patrick S.]

Is there no record of you adding the gift cards to the account and ordering the card?

Not in my account history. Amazon clearly must be able to pull up this information, but they refuse.

 

[Patrick S.]

I don't know but maybe it helps tweeting the Amazon.de Twitter account about what happened. Maybe fucking Twitter can be used for good for once...
Otherwise try to get in contact with your bank and try to get your money back that way.

Unfortunately, my bank wasn't involved
Regarding Twitter, I thought about that, but wouldn't really know how and what to tweet I do have a twitter account but haven't used it.

 

[Patrick S.]

Send an email to bezos. Seriously. jeff@amazon.com or jbezos@amazon.com.

I... don't have much fate in this...

 

[Hudo]

Unfortunately, my bank wasn't involved
Regarding Twitter, I thought about that, but wouldn't really know how and what to tweet I do have a twitter account but haven't used it.

Hmm. Well try to Tweet what you have told us here (maybe in somewhat short form). It's usually that Twitter accounts of big-ass corporations are more helpful with matters like that.
Also, try to contact customer support again. It sounds fucky that they can't track that you have redeemed gift cards. Also, make screenshots of everything you can. Your account balance, possible confirmation emails you've gotten, any information you can gather regarding what happened etc.

 

[poppabk]

Don't you have emails etc from Amazon?

 

[Compsiox]

I... don't have much fate in this...

Apparently it works sometimes. Much like how you can email Gabe Newell at Valve and sometimes get a response.

 

[Pagusas]

Don't you have emails etc from Amazon?

yeah seriously. You have to have some sort of transaction record.

 

[Compsiox]

Oh preorders do get cancelled when you change payment method in my experience. Big sad.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

Don't you have emails etc from Amazon?

That's what I was thinking. When you order or pre-order you get an email as soon as it goes though. There should be an order number in the email as well.

 

[Kittehkraken]

The gift card page for your account on Amazon has an activity table that should show you activating the cards and using the money.

https://www.amazon.de/gp/css/homepage.html?language=en_GB&ref_=nav_youraccount_btn (Gift Cards and Top Up)

 

[Sakura]

I don't get it. You still have an account balance of 700 do you not? Also yeah, you should definitely have emails every time you place an order etc.

 

[nush]

The way this story being is described is looks like (NOT SAYING IT IS) a scam to launder stolen funds. Even more so from the customer service staff when you don't have the physical cards. I'd say OP has triggered some sort of fraud protection at Amazon. Similar things have happened to me in the past.

 

[Charles Brandon]

Should definitely be an email trail for something. Either you adding the cards, changing the payment method.

I guess maybe the CS understood if you couldn't prove you had the cards, he could somehow steal the balance and you wouldn't be able to prove that you ever had it but that seems like a real stretch.

From an accounting point of view, that money must have gone somewhere.

 

[The Cockatrice]

The way this story being is described is looks like (NOT SAYING IT IS) a scam to launder stolen funds. Even more so from the customer service staff when you don't have the physical cards. I'd say OP has triggered some sort of fraud protection at Amazon. Similar things have happened to me in the past.

It's not just you, I think this is a scam attempt. For starters, OP knowingly choose a bank payment knowing full well he has no funds then he buys 7 gift cards that magically vanish for an order that was not processed. If we're wrong, well sorry OP but your story is super shady as hell.

 

[nbcjr]

Apparently it works sometimes. Much like how you can email Gabe Newell at Valve and sometimes get a response.

once I had a lasting problem with my apple id (4years) and the solution only came when I emailed tim cook. A staff member took care of my problem.

 

[notseqi]

Check if they have sent you an order confirmation with the notice of where the money was pulled from. That would never be out of thin air and a pre-order is paid for immediately as far as I know.
If you have that and Amazon won't budge go to the Verbraucherschutz (Consumer Protection office).

 

[Burger]

What a weird story. You wanted to buy thing, it cost 700 bones and you tried to charge your account but there were not 700 bones in your account? Didn't you know that?

So you went and purchased 700 bones worth of gift cards using cash? Who does this ever?

 

[GeorgPrime]

I don't know what to do. €700 is a huge amount of money for me, which took me months to save

The chronology of what happened is as follows:

-On the 17th I decided to buy the new Zotax RTX 3080 graphics card on Amazon.de.

-I tried to use "charge my bank account" as payment method, but that was declined as I didn't have enough funds in the accout.

-The most convenient way for me then at the time was to buy €700 worth of gift cards and charge my Amazon account with them. So I did that, the 7x €100 registered fine, I changed the payment method to use the Amazon balance, which worked fine.

-The order sat till today and then got cancelled, due to "a technical error". The full €700 were available in my Amazon account again

-I decided to write to the Amazon support chat to see if they could transfer that money to my bank account, so I could buy the card somewhere else.

-The guy too a few minutes and then said "ok now I need the seven gift card numbers". I had thrown them away the before and the trash had already been picked up. I return to the chat, and now the Amazon guy had left, and I was on with another person (in the same chat window)

-Guy two says "there has been no gift card redeemed on your account at all, are you sure it's the right account? We can't do anything, there is no record of you putting funds into your account, your account balance is €0."

-I ask for a phone number to call some supervisor, and call them. The lady is away like ten minutes and says "well there is no record of you ever charging your account". I tell her that there must absolutely be records of -me charging the account with 7x €700, -using that funds to make a preorder -they refunding me because they cancelled the order -the support dude doing SOMETHING to my money. I tell her that at no moment did I ask for my money to be refunded onto the used gift cards, neither did the support guy ever ask me if I even still HAD the cards, which I didn't. They now can't even confirm that that is what the guy did, because supposedly there is no record at all, and since I originally had "charge my bank" as payment method they can't verify that any Amazon gift card funds were ever used.

-She said she'll pass the case to another department, because neither she nor her superior could do anything

-Amazon customer support just emailed me, telling me that they have no record of the cards ever being activated, and that the payment method was bank charge, and that the contract is between me and the store where I bought the cards from, so Amazon can't help, have a nice day.

-I paid for the cards using cash, and the store where I bought them won't help me.


So now I am super desperate and angry. €700 really is a lot of money, and I cannot understand how Amazon can screw up this bad. Is there anyone here who maybe works at Amazon or knows what to do? I can't afford to sue them, and I have no further proof or record of what happened. I am in absolute disbelief and would appreciate any help

Can you contact me via PN? I have a friend working at the customer service at Amazon.de.

She can take a look at it again this evening. She needs your email and the billing adress to check on it.

But how can you pay for 700 Euro Giftcards when you dont have money on your bank account? Did you have the moeny in cash?

Rule 1: Keep your giftcards until you got the product or at least keep the receipt that shows that you bought 7 giftcards for 700 Euro.

 

[Sebastian Suola]

What a strange story. I didn’t even know you could get money back from Amazon gift cards.

 

[Burger]

Can you contact me via PN? I have a friend working at the customer service at Amazon.de.

She can take a look at it again this evening. She needs your email and the billing adress to check on it.

But how can you pay for 700 Euro Giftcards when you dont have money on your bank account? Did you have the moeny in cash?

Rule 1: Keep your giftcards until you got the product or at least keep the receipt that shows that you bought 7 giftcards for 700 Euro.

Rule 1: Use the established banking system for large purchases.

Changing real fiat money into funny money should be reserved for something to put into a card for your brothers birthday.

 

[Alebrije]

Why no just go to the bank and add those 700 EUR to your account
? Also you get e mails when you add cards to your account.

Strange story, but if its true OP learned a lesson. Never use gif cards to such amount of money

 

[V4skunk]

If you are speaking the truth.
"-The order sat till today and then got cancelled, due to "a technical error". The full €700 were available in my Amazon account again "
By this alone there should be documentation of your transaction.

 

[Sakura]

Why no just go to the bank and add those 700 EUR to your account
? Also you get e mails when you add cards to your account.

Strange story, but if its true OP learned a lesson. Never use gif cards to such amount of money

I mean yeah, if you have 700 Euros to buy gift cards then surely you could've just put the 700 into your bank account instead...

 

[notseqi]

Some people work cash in hand, you absolute ledges. If you get docked money from your salary for getting in 'unfortunate' situations you might get that, or savings from german welfare from not-spent-money, where it happens that you have to take all money from the account or your next influx of dosh will only get topped off to the regular amount, i.e. 750 a month, 20 euro left at the end of the month, they pay 730 because you still had something left.

Why question it when that's not what this is about?

 

[Kadayi]

If the card balance was listed on your account there's a record of it.

 

[Soodanim]

This sounds terrible for OP, but far too many people have a lesson to learn in life:

If it's not a tiny amount you don't care about, keep everything. Throwing away that much in gift cards before you have the product you're after in your hands is just not worth the space saved for the potential hassle.

OP, if what you've said is true, then as others have said there should be a trail in your account and someone there should be able to confirm it all if you escalate the ticket high enough. Amazon usually have decent support, so if someone isn't helping they either can't or won't help, and in either case their boss is the next person to find.

 

[elektrokats]

OP is probably underaged, jobless and trying to get himself a free RTX 3080.

Also, Amazon didn't you screw you, you screwed yourself. As somebody who works in customer support. Customers like you are a nightmare to deal with. It's always excuse after excuse. "Oh I threw it all in the trash and the trash man picked it up already, so can I have my free money"

Lmao like come on. People pull this shit everyday at my work. If you don't want to have problems with customer service, use a secure credit card and don't throw away any of your receipts or evidence until know for sure you won't need them anymore.

 

[notseqi]

OP is probably underaged, jobless and trying to get himself a free RTX 3080.

Also, Amazon didn't you screw you, you screwed yourself. As somebody who works in customer support. Customers like you are a nightmare to deal with. It's always excuse after excuse. "Oh I threw it all in the trash and the trash man picked it up already, so can I have my free money"

Lmao like come on. People pull this shit everyday at my work. If you don't want to have problems with customer service, use a secure credit card and don't throw away any of your receipts or evidence until know for sure you won't need them anymore.

Thing is, we don't know. You can advise him to take the appropriate steps. But no, you are going full dingdong.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Amazon is good they’ll come up with a solution

 

[alstrike]

Hopefully you'll get your money back but if it was up to me you'd get your 700€ back in Amazon credit.

 

[MilkLizard]

OP shady af

 

[prinz_valium]

The gift card page for your account on Amazon has an activity table that should show you activating the cards and using the money.

https://www.amazon.de/gp/css/homepage.html?language=en_GB&ref_=nav_youraccount_btn (Gift Cards and Top Up)

This.
Is has to look like this:

They even show the last digits of the card you redeemed.
If you don't use a gift card, it shows the order number of your charge

 

[GHG]

I don't understand how you didn't have the money in your account but then can magic up the same mount of money to buy €700 worth of gift cards immediately in order to proceed with your order?

Where did you buy those gift cards? From Amazon or elsewhere?

If they are from amazon then there would be a record of you purchasing said gift cards. If elsewhere online then there will also be a record.

But from a pure accounting perspective, even if the money from the gift cards remained in your amazon account balance there is zero chance they would allow you to transfer that money into your bank account. That was never real money as far as amazon were concerned if you purchased the 7 x €100 cards from an external source, amazon got that money when those gift cards were sold to whoever you bought them from (if legit) - that's the end of any cash transaction related to those gift cards. You should never have asked for that account credit to be extracted into a bank account, it's just not possible and you just needed to wait until the 3080s were next in stock.

If what is written in the OP is truthful then I hope they can resolve the issue, there might have been an issue with the gift cards registering correctly on their system due to the website getting hammered at the time those GPUs went live. However a lot doesn't add up and I'm not sure why you're even posting this here if you are attempting to swindle them.

 

[eot]

-The order sat till today and then got cancelled, due to "a technical error". The full €700 were available in my Amazon account again

-I decided to write to the Amazon support chat to see if they could transfer that money to my bank account, so I could buy the card somewhere else.

Why not just buy it on Amazon again?

This whole story makes no sense.

 

[GHG]

Why not just buy it on Amazon again?

This whole story makes no sense.

Also the 3080 is not in stock anywhere.

By the time you've faffed around asking amazon to transfer that money to your bank and then waiting for it to become available in your account any stock you might have found at the time will be long gone.

 

[Nikana]

Im lost at the part that says you saw the 700 in your account after the order got cancelled. Now you are saying its 0? Theres something missing here or I am just missing it.

 

[Sakura]

Im lost at the part that says you saw the 700 in your account after the order got cancelled. Now you are saying its 0? Theres something missing here or I am just missing it.

The story was confusing to me as well, I thought he still had 700 Euros in his Amazon account because he says

The full €700 were available in my Amazon account again

but then after he says

I tell her that there must absolutely be records of -me charging the account with 7x €700, -using that funds to make a preorder -they refunding me because they cancelled the order -the support dude doing SOMETHING to my money. I tell her that at no moment did I ask for my money to be refunded onto the used gift cards

I think he is saying that after he talked to the first guy, the balance of his account became 0, and he thinks the guy refunded it back on to the used gift cards? I'm not sure if such a thing is even possible, especially considering the support guy asked for the gift card numbers and OP didn't know them.

In any case none of it really makes any sense to me. He should have emails whenever he ordered something from Amazon. There should be a record that he can see. It should show how he paid for it etc. Like, just give the order number for the order that was cancelled due to a "technical error".

 

[eddie4]

Just be honest, you bought those gift cards on the black market using bitcoin, didn't you.

 

[Nikana]

The story was confusing to me as well, I thought he still had 700 Euros in his Amazon account because he says but then after he says
I think he is saying that after he talked to the first guy, the balance of his account became 0, and he thinks the guy refunded it back on to the used gift cards? I'm not sure if such a thing is even possible, especially considering the support guy asked for the gift card numbers and OP didn't know them.

In any case none of it really makes any sense to me. He should have emails whenever he ordered something from Amazon. There should be a record that he can see. It should show how he paid for it etc. Like, just give the order number for the order that was cancelled due to a "technical error".

I was always under the impression even when you use a giftcard on amazon to add to your account it doesnt actually transfer the account. So lets say I added 5 $100 card to my account. My balance is $500 but that money is still on the card. I simply have that card linked to my account and I can see the total.

Then when it comes time to purchase is simply uses those gift card numbers to make the transaction.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

-I tried to use "charge my bank account" as payment method, but that was declined as I didn't have enough funds in the accout.

-The most convenient way for me then at the time was to buy €700 worth of gift cards

 

[Sakura]

I was always under the impression even when you use a giftcard on amazon to add to your account it doesnt actually transfer the account. So lets say I added 5 $100 card to my account. My balance is $500 but that money is still on the card. I simply have that card linked to my account and I can see the total.

Then when it comes time to purchase is simply uses those gift card numbers to make the transaction.

Ah, maybe. I've never used Amazon gift cards before. If that is true, then throwing the cards away was probably not a great idea. In any case, I don't see how sending the money to your bank account would be possible. You can't turn gift cards into cash from what I understand.

 

[Nikana]

Ah, maybe. I've never used Amazon gift cards before. If that is true, then throwing the cards away was probably not a great idea. In any case, I don't see how sending the money to your bank account would be possible. You can't turn gift cards into cash from what I understand.

Correct. Once OP purchased giftcards that money is not cash anymore.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

Considerng OP's username, this Popstar reference seems appropriate

 

[poppabk]

I have to guess that he had like 400 in his bank account and then 400 went on a credit card. Honestly if you are at that point maybe don't buy the graphics card.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

I have to guess that he had like 400 in his bank account and then 400 went on a credit card. Honestly if you are at that point maybe don't buy the graphics card.

Surely the most logical thing would have been to transfer the funds over if there were insufficient funds in the first place?

Does sound like he can't really afford it but hey, most of this story makes no sense at all

 

[Patrick S.]

I had €800 in my PayPal account. As the card went up on Amazon, I wanted to buy it, and didn't realize Amazon doesn't accept PayPal. So I went to my PayPal account and transferred the funds to my bank account, and placed the order at Amazon. I knew that the PayPal money would take a day to arrive in my bank account, but didn't think Amazon would actually check the bank account for funds at the moment of purchase, because AFAIK they only charge you when the product ships. I dunno, but I don't have a lot of experience with that, because I always have enough funds in my bank account to pay for the purchases I make.

So now that bank payment was rejected I got an E-Mail from Amazon, saying that I'd have to add a credit card to my account, or top up with gift cards. I have no cc, so I decided to buy gift cards. A work colleague of mine said, "hey I'll lend you the €700, just pay me back when the bank transfer from PayPal arrives, that way they won't cancel your order."

I went to a local store, got the cards, added them to the account through the android app, and I could see the €700 in my Amazon account. I changed the payment method for my €699 purchase to use the funds in the Amazon account, and could see €1 remaining in funds. I got no E-Mail at this point, though.

When Amazon cancelled my order, the €700 were available in my account again.

It wasn't until after I hit up the Amazon support chat and asked if they could refund thoese funds to my bank account, the first support rep left and the second rep came on, did the second guy say "funds? What funds? You must have charged the funds to another account, there is no record of you ever redeeming those gift cards in you account. Can't help you!" that the funds had vanished.

Obviously I was speechless and checked in the account history, and indeed there was no record of me redeeming the cards, which is completely uncomprehensable for me. I had thrown the cards and receipt into the trash, because I didn't think I'd ever need the receipts or the used gift cards. I mean, the €700 were in my account, how on Earth would I ever think of a possibility of that money just vanishing without a trace?

Two positives: the guy at the store where I bought the cards is helpful, and he said he'd try and get copies of the receipts and/or card activations through his IT or financial department, I guess, and get back to me tomorrow. Also, I did mail Mr. Bezos at Amazon, and he DID escalate the matter, because I got an E-Mail from a senior support executive who is on the case now.

I'm really speechless, I'd never have thought something like this could ever happen, and at the very least, it'll be a lesson.