KOCHI: When a 22-year-old engineering graduate placed an order for a high-end Acer laptop on the Amazon e-commerce portal a couple of months ago, she thought it would be the fulfilment of a long-cherished wish. And she was elated when the prepaid order worth `1,14,700 was delivered to her home at North Paravoor two days ahead of schedule.
To celebrate the arrival of the highly-prized product, she decided to shoot its unboxing video on her mobile phone. But the excitement soon turned into shock as the package was found to be stuffed with old newspapers instead of a laptop. Realising that she had been cheated, her family decided to contact Amazon’s customer care. Though the woman submitted the unboxing video footage, Amazon did not help resolve the issue, the family said in a complaint lodged with the police. Instead the Amazon officials passed the buck to the seller, said an officer who is part of an Ernakulam rural police team investigating the case.
The officer said Amazon did not allow the family to contact the seller to explain their plight. That forced the family to approach Aluva Rural SP K Karthick. They submitted the video footage that the woman had clicked on her mobile, which now forms a crucial piece of evidence.
“It was in June that the woman, along with her father, came to the office and submitted a complaint that they were cheated by an Amazon seller. They also submitted video footage to prove that they received the wrong product from Amazon. Though we started an investigation and traced a Haryana-based seller, they were neither ready to admit the mistake nor refund the amount,” said the police officer.
The team constituted by the Rural SP refused to give up on the case as they had collected all evidence against the seller to prove that newspaper sheets were delivered in the box instead of a laptop. “Though we had discussions with Amazon, they were not ready to resolve the issue. But based on the evidence, we decided to take action against the seller. We have also communicated this to the seller.
Though they believed that the Kerala Police can’t do anything against them, they later came to understand the repercussions. Finally, they agreed to refund the amount and settle the issue, but only after the police froze the bank account of the seller,” said Karthick.
The police will go ahead with legal proceedings against the seller, he added. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Amazon told TNIE that the US-based company always stands for customer satisfaction and that any problem faced by customers will be resolved.