u/shlokrshah

Hi, just wanted to share my experience buying an iPhone 17 Pro from Amazon as a PSA

My brother shattered his phone a few days before going on a 6-week long trip so we bought an iPhone 17 Pro Renewed from Amazon since it was able to deliver the next day and came with 90-day returns so if he decided he didn't like it when he got back, he could return.

They delivered the package, took the code, and everything seemed normal. My brother opened up the package maybe 10-15 minutes after receiving it only for it to have 4 tubes of Briogeo hair products inside.

We contacted Amazon, followed their claims process, submitted photos of the packaging and contents immediately. To be clear, I'm well aware that this can be a huge risk with third party sellers but this was sold & shipped by Amazon so figured we were safe.

Amazon gave no update for five days and said we would need to wait along the way when I followed up. When they finally gave their decision, the automated system said that we could start a return. I called their customer support to figure out what they meant since there was nothing to return (besides the hair stuff).

They said that the photos they received we invalid because photos of the box weren't submitted (they were, see above). They claimed that the items in the photos weren't even stocked at Amazon's Warehouse (they're right here https://a.co/d/0ffjqtbr) and threatened to restrict or ban the account if more fraudulent claims were submitted.

After I told them that packaging photos were submitted and showed them the wrong item listed on Amazon, they said that the only remaining option was returning the product but the person said they would charge the full value of the item ($1100+) AGAIN if they did not receive the correct item back.

They explicitly said it would be a penalty charge so $2200+ total. I also asked them if she meant the iPhone or the tubes and she would not clarify, just kept on repeating the same thing. Spoke to another CS rep after and they said the only option they had in their system was to start a refund.

Crazy experience, I've been dealing with Amazon CS for years and they've never stone walled me this hard even on $200-300 orders. I've bought a few $800-1000 items from them before but this will be my last time.

My current theory is that a warehouse employee knew what the expected box weight was supposed to be and swapped the phone with these.

If anyone has any other suggestions for how to escalate this, would be appreciated!

Edit: Realized I said Amazon twice in the title, oops.