Amazon takes action against vendor after hundreds of Amazon boxes sent to Virginia address
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2023
- Imagine receiving endless Amazon boxes you didn’t order, piled so high on your front step the delivery driver can’t even get to your door anymore.
That’s what happened to Cindy Smith. And she’s not alone.
“They came from everybody,” Smith said. “FedEx, Amazon, all of them were delivering boxes."
In all, more than a 100 Amazon boxes randomly arrived at her home in Prince William County. The boxes contained about 1,000 headlamps for running and biking, 800 glue guns and dozens upon dozens of children’s binoculars.
All the deliveries were sent to “Lixiao Zhang” at Smith’s address. When asked if “Lixiao Zhang” lived at the address Smith replied simply “no.”
It wasn’t the first time WUSA9 heard a story like this.
“It was two rows almost up to the covering the door,” said Liz Geltman of Northwest D.C.
In May, Geltman said this happened to her too.
“Like these big towering blocks of you know, you know, children's blocks of Legos all the way up to the covering the door of my house,” she said.
Geltman was receiving boxes of children’s sheets and no explanation from Amazon about why.
Smith had a hunch.
“We initially thought it was a brushing scam,” Smith said.
“Brushing” is when an online vendor creates a fake sale of their own product, sending the package to a random address, all so they can boost their rating with a 5-star review.
But when WUSA9 took a closer look at the Amazon packaging slips Smith was receiving, it appeared this was an entirely different vendor scheme. The packing slips showed the boxes were all “vendor returns” to Lixiao Zhang sent to Smith’s address. WUSA9 traced the addresses on all those packing slips to 15 Amazon Warehouse Fulfillment Centers in nine different states.
“It all boils down to money,” said CJ Rosenbaum, a New York Attorney that represents companies that sell on Amazon. “You have sellers located in China, who are just picking random addresses. And then when they need to get their products out of Amazon's warehouses, they're just having them sent there, because it's just cheaper for them to do so.”
After WUSA9 started asking questions, Amazon launched an investigation and discovered the seller, Lixiao Zhang, violated Amazon policy by creating removal orders with Cindy Smith’s address. =The same thing happened in Liz Geltman’s case although with a different vendor.
A spokesperson sent WUSA9 a statement:
“Amazon has systems in place to detect suspicious behavior by sellers, and teams in place to investigate and stop prohibited activity. The seller account that was engaged in this abusive activity has been closed. There is no place for fraud at Amazon and we will continue to pursue all measures to protect our store and hold bad actors accountable.”
Rosenbaum said he saw an opportunity for good in all this.
“The one thing I haven't seen, which I would love to see is for these products to be donated to charitable organizations,” Rosenbaum said,
Smith tried to do just that. An environmental science professor and conservationist, Smith was determined not to let all the items sent to her end up in a landfill.
“A lot of people told me I was weird,” Smith said. “I would drive around with headlamps and glue guns in the car. I gave them to everybody I met.”
And with dozens of Amazon boxes still stacked in her basement, Smith is relieved no more shipments from Lixiao Zhang will be showing up at her door.
WUSA9 followed up with Amazon and asked how often overseas sellers use other people’s addresses to avoid paying Amazon to dispose of old stock. The company did not give us an answer to that question.
READ MORE: www.wusa9.com/article/news/in...
Why am I never the ‘victim’ of something like this??? I would sell on eBay or the flea market.
*I feel you bro, I feel you. Why can't something bad like this happens to me.*
Same
Exactly my thoughts. I’m like “PICK ME!”
😂😂😂
Same here. Amazon, eBay, garage sale. I'd keep my mouth shut and and start up a business with those returns then send the original merchant a thank you card. 😂
"There is no place for fraud at Amazon, unless we're the only one's doing the fraud."
underrated comment!
How is Amazon itself committing fraud?
haha my words exactly! "There is no place for fraud at Amazon" Right....
/cough Amazon Basics /cough
They send out free products out of their pocket should be called "clever marketing?"
"There is no place for fraud at Amazon." 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
It's only fraud if you get caught
Lmao Amazon is fraud central
As an Amazon driver, I can confirm that 100 packages to a single address is not out of the ordinary! I have a stop like this at least once per week!
100 packages to a single family home on a regular basis, though? I can see a business that purchases supplies through Amazon doing that but with a single family home it's unlikely that they're running a home business that needs that many supplies unless they're very small items.
It's no rocket science. How many of us would in fact complain if we received 100 boxes of free stuff every week.
Hey don't be talking about my house online fam 😂
@@PaulodeMelo
Well, that's the thing. The complaints aren't about getting free stuff, they're about getting so much free stuff you have no use for, don't have the space for, and it's of too low quality to be worth anything on resale.
@@VestedUTuberExactly, it is cheap copies of good products that is pumped on Amazon website to pretend to be "slightly cheaper" than the real thing, to make the scamming seller a lot of money.
I never thought I would find a scam that I would be happy to be a victim from.
What are you talking about? What are you gonna do with kids blankets and glue guns?
@you really can't figure it out?
If they couldn't get sold on Amazon what are you gonna do with all that crap?
@ Headlamps are very useful.
Sell them?@
This woman is running around giving everyone free stuff that someone dumped on her to get rid of, and people call her weird???
prolly because ppl would sell that stuff rather than give it away for free, being nice is weird you know
@@MrRulet550 to be fair if you were a random person who didn't know the story, a random lady offering a bunch of glue guns and headlamps would seem strange. It's both nice, responsible, and weird.
@@MrRulet550Selling that crap isn't nearly as easy as you make it sound. There's a reason why dozens of boxes were being returned to the original vendor.
@@CrizzyEyes Then do not sell it. Give it away.
@@CrizzyEyes Nobody said anything about it being easy, is just what most people would try, before realizing the amount of work it may probably take.
Looks like Lixiao Zhang picked one of the few suburbs with no porch pirates?
LOL, you're right!
True that!! 💯
I give her credit for handing out the products that she never ordered to people who could use them and probably really appreciate it
"There is no place for fraud at Amazon." I am laughing out loud right now! That site epitomizes the word fraud.
Exactly the same thing I was thinking when I saw that
This is why I rarely buy anything from Amazon, they are being EXPLOITED in every possible way.
Maybe they just mean there’s a right place for fraud.
If your fraud makes the news you’re doing it wrong.
A few months ago I ordered a few items of oral care that were to come from the vender, not Amazon warehouse. I received the usual email verifying the order__then, the next day I received another email from the vender stating they were out of stock on one of the items. At the same time, my husband received an alert from our bank stating there was a $300 charge from this company! All the items I had ordered only amounted to around $26, so when I double checked my emails I verified it was directly from the vender. Of course, my husband had already let the bank know it was a fraudulent charge, and I cancelled the whole order. The nerve! 😣😒
@@debracisneroshhp2827I never had delay
Been using it for 7 years always on time delivery
Amazon only started cracking down when they realized it was costing them money.
How was it costing Amazon money? I agree bad press, but this was costing the vender money to dump this crap on the lady's door.
@@rustyoilburner What if you saw the story behind it were people who are severely struggling? We have no idea what desperation may have been behind this action.
@@rustyoilburner Amazon had to pay the shipping bill vs the vendor if that stuff was sent back to him or another warehouse. The vendor defrauded the shipping policy of amazon, thus losing money.
😂😂
I'm sure a lawsuit could be in there too.
I wish Amazon would send me hundreds of boxes of stuff. Id be heading to the flea market.
I love this lady for giving everything away!
I was a "victim" of the brushing scam on Amazon well before COVID and received over 50 packages of random items.....Amazon could not tell me who was sending the items and told me that they were 'gifts' and that I could keep them, donate them or give them away. I received everything from a set of queen-sized bamboo sheets, to very nice bathroom scale, to a steamer for my clothes that was shaped like a duck, to random arts and crafts projects, a pop-up storage bin for the trunk of my car, a disco ball, a Roku, a poorly made black nightie in a size XS, Halloween decorations, and the list goes on. I gave 99% away to coworkers who were thrilled with all the gifts and were sad when the free packages came to an end. 🤷♀️
I'm curious if you tried to figure out why they were being sent.
@@VioletJoy I contacted Amazon when I received the first package. It was an inexpensive ladies blouse, not my size. I told them I received something that wasn't mine and I wanted to find out how to return it to them. They put me on hold several times and asked me questions about the outside of the box. They finally said it's a gift. And I said from whom? And they said they don't know. Which left me quite confused and I asked a number of questions. How could they not know? Can't they find out who sent it? To which they replied, I'm sorry we don't know who sent it. But it's yours, and you can keep it. You can also give it away or donate it. So I was really shocked when I got a second package a couple of days later. This went on over the course of several months and then it just stopped as quickly as it started. I Googled " getting unwanted packages from Amazon" and learned about the brushing scam. This would have been in early 2019.
@@annietiques1803 So strange! I really appreciate the reply and explanation.
They are probably using stolen credit cards to buy stuff from themselves, and ship it anywhere.
You're more generous than I am. I could use this "blessing" to se for side cash to help pay bills..lol.
Dang. I’d donate to schools, donate to hiking groups, moms,everyone I would run into. Good for her that she’s doing the donating thing. It’s a win/win.
If you receive items you didn't order, you own the items. I would sell the items and make money off of it.
@@vshah1010 Yes, I am aware. I’m more of a donating type of person though. I like helping people out. But sure, sell them too, if that’s your thing. These things never bless me like this lady.
You're free to donate to these groups at any time. Or do you just feel charitable when it comes at no loss to you? 😊😊
@@sneksteppy When you have a jaded heart like you do, I suppose that’s how you see others. You should work on that. 👍🏽
@@vshah1010 A professional company selling cheap chinese knock-off crap for rock-bottom prices couldn't sell them, but you're going to make bank doing it?
Okay then.
Best of luck.
Thought that was happening to us, until I saw wife’s credit card statement 😂
You’re an awesome person for handing everything out. I’m so glad she didn’t throw it all away.
An environmental science professor and conservationist, they couldn't have sent all that stuff to a better person. 😂😂😂
That’s what I was thinking. She’s the only one that would be upset about getting free crap and ruin it for everyone else.
I'm sure she was triggered.
@@BlueDart1971 👍👍👍👍
Who then winds up on tv to advertise her cause. Cheap publicity for her cause?
@@BlueDart1971 ruin what? You'd wanna get stacks and stacks of cheap children's bed sheets?
My office received 9 large boxes of Scott paper towels from Amazon last week, 18 twelve packs total. We contacted Amazon to report their mistake, they said a worker would arrive to pick them back up and return them to a nearby warehouse, but no one ever came, so we now have a year's supply of paper towels for free!
@@DontCryAboutIt you're not wrong, I've purchased several items on Amazon that were horrible, I tried to return them, every time Amazon would refund me and let me keep the item, obviously these were lost cost items.
Would have loved those paper towels. I’d never have to buy any more lol 😆
Yes paper towels are very useful I need on this address list to get free stuff asap!
For future reference... you are legally entitled to keep anything sent to you as long as it wasn't clearly intended for another person at another address.
I got several packages for the former owner of my condo. First was two large boxes from FedEx. The return address was one of those MLM health products crap, I called FedEx and they said bring them to us. I told them they’re too big to fit my car. I don’t have a way to get them downstairs. They were not being helpful so I said they can sit here and rot or you can come pick them up. Another was perfume and body spray. I emailed the company it came from out of the country. Never got a response so I kept it. Almost 4 years later, I’m still getting mail. No more packages.
Giving the stuff away was very nice and generous.
The lady who got free sheets and bedding just complained about it.
Im so glad shes not letting them go to a landfill and shes actually giving them to those who will use them ❤
That’s horrible. Hope it happens to me.
Seriously!! I love free stuff 🤣
😂
😂😂😂😅
Me too. I would love to be the victim of such a horrible scam.
Or me...😂
True story - was working at Pizza Hut in 2016 and a order for 15 pizzas came through. Usually you have to call and confirm the order for something that big and possibly take their payment but it was addressed to the fire department so the manager said shoot it’s fine cook em and send em. So there I was carrying these pizzas and they said we didn’t order any but we’ll take a few boxes and I gave them , the bar next door, people walking on the sidewalk , a car at a stop sign , and a car parked next to me the pizzas . Manager wasn’t happy with me but seeing those peoples smiles made me happy and I needed that .
Hope you still had fun when you had to pay for the pizza. That was nice of you to spend your hard earned delivery money that way, those pizzas are crazy expensive.
I work at a local pizza chain and I’ve had to do the same thing! Luckily not from a fake order, but from a vending event that didn’t do as well as we hoped. If we have extra pizzas we always just give them away. I’d rather have someone enjoy a free pizza from our shop and hopefully come back, than throw those pizzas in the trash. It’s a win-win. We just had an event get cancelled due to rain the other day and we had a bunch of XL doughs prepared, so anyone who came into the shop and ordered a large pizza that day got an instant upgrade to XL. Otherwise we would have had to throw out a lot of the dough at the end of the day. Sometimes things happen but using those as an opportunity to make someone’s day is the best way to go!
@@larsonfamilyhouse”yeah let me just bring them back and throw them away because im a pitiful human being” 🤡
I did the opposite because my boss was a grinch. Worked at this pizza shop in Brooklyn, at the end of the day he would have us throw all the pizza in the bathroom trash which was full of everything disgusting you can imagine. He said he wanted to stop the homeless from eating the pizza from the trash. He later won like 400 grand on a scratch off lottery ticket. That's life for ya.
@@larsonfamilyhouseMaybe next time the manager shouldn't ignore store policy and verify large orders like they knew they were required to do.
I really hope there are many other people who have this done to them, and seize the opportunity to make some extra money where no one was being harmed
Why can't this happen to me? I'd be selling at flea markets and EBay. Damn... Lucky people
As an Amazon seller, I don't understand why the vendor did what they did. There is an option to donate your unwanted inventory to charity. If the seller was trying to disguise these as sales to boost their sales rank, they would not send it all to one address, it would create too much suspicion
So Amazon *do* have a _„Disposal (Donate to Charity)“_ option for unwanted FBA stock? That's good to know! 🙂
But one question does come to mind: What happens to the stock that no charity would be able to accept (Adult toys, for example)? Given how Amazon do things, I'm going to guess it's landfilled, or worse... 🌭
I'm pretty sure there are regulations on what you can donate, that product is junk it will end up in the landfill either way.
Headlamps aren't junk. I heard the lady got lots of those which could be useful for camping or in areas that have power outages due to storms.
"There is an option to donate your unwanted inventory to charity"
Ah this is why thrift stores are swamped with 6.5 yards of new in package sunglasses cases, 50 cent flashlights, and keychain tassels
I'm also a small-time FBA/MFN Amazon seller based in Washington state (i.e. not overseas). When inventory stays for 60, 90, 180-days they start charging storage fees, so it's cheaper to create a "Removal Order" and have it sent back to your address (or in this case, some random US address for these Chinese sellers). When creating FBA removal orders, there is an option to donate it to charity (they used to have one where you could Liquidate it, selling them for 5 to 10 cents an item to a Liquidator who then resells them for profit back on Amazon or eBay or FB Marketplace or CL, etc.).
I saw someone on Tiktok get a bunch of clothing sent to their address like this. They donated it to a women's shelter and gave it away for gifts and such.
Y rnt u sending them back to sender u cant give away other ppls mail thts illegal
I would love that! She must have had so much fun donating all of that!
This is so informative! There are many ways to donate these items!
I wish they used my address. I'd sell all that stuff cheap. Pure profit, free business.
He'll yea
Me also. Except not many want children’s binoculars, or children’s sheets, and glue guns?
You would end up in jail. You realize tampering with people Mail that's not yours is a federal crime
@darrellbruce3212 That's true if you go into some else's mailbox and take their mail. But if it's sent to your address and you tell Amazon to stop and they don't stop you can keep it. And they told her she can keep it. But she decided to give it away instead of having a yard sale.
@@SpeedDemonExpress you are wrong you can not take Mail that doesn't belong to you period. People in the same household cannot open each other's mail. They clearly told her in this scenario she is good what you are suggesting is a felony.
I would see that as a blessing and sell them online myself. I could sure use the money.
Exactly my thoughts. Where do we sign up?
Sent those to us 😂
You're not gonna make much selling that Chinese JUNK.
If they couldn't sell them on Amazon, what makes you think you could do better?
@@tooolboxxthere are other selling platforms lol😅 they do very well
Yup. Sign me up!!! I ain't gunna be calling the tv station about it. LOL
The mispronunciation of "Li Xiao Zhang" is sending me 😂😂😂😂
Wow those are some of the headlamps I use as a Technician, wonder if she can send me a box home lol
Amazon talking about being a "no place for fraud" is top tier irony
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who caught that
Amazon doesn't sell the fraudulent items you're referring to, 3rd parties do.
@@josh_m Amazon is responsible for policing their site and they fail often
@@josh_mBut Amazon allow them onto the platform and do not remove them even when exposed as scams.
Good to know. A woman in an apartment building had this happen to her and she was flooded with boxes from Amazon full of stuff and she had to call a local mews team to tape it and do a story and get help. Amazon in that case was wrongly shipping to her address instead of a retail reseller. The address got screwed up in the Amazon computer system. Thank you for helping that lady. Most of the stuff she got was made in ChiCom junk.
From Amazon who refuses to collect parcels delivered to the wrong address
Why can't this ever happen to me 😅 I could use a few head lamps. Our church also does Christmas shoeboxes for Samaritans purse. We could stuff those boxes with a few head lamps, sunglasses, tools, etc.😅
Clealry it wasn't given to you. It had another name on it. You would be giving stolen goods to a church..
Be careful what you ask for. lol
I know right ? ..me too..pick me pick me 😂
You sound like Satan
I receive a random item that I had no use for. It was an air filter, but not the right size for any air filter that I could use.
I called Amazon and Amazon told me I can keep the item. It took me more work to dispose of the items that I couldn't possibly use. How come I never get an item I can use?
I would be delighted to be a "victim" of something like this, I'm semi-retired and not much to do all day, so having a crap load of free stuff dumped at my door, I would sit on the front porch and have yard sales where it would all be a buck or two.
I love that she chose to give these things away. God hearted person. ❤
Why doesn't she bill Amazon for storage costs?
I've heard of way worse 'frauds' than this. Glad no one was truly harmed.
Except Amazon...
@@josh_mthe seller lost considerably more than Amazon.
Amazon tried to grab some money from the seller, he shared the goods...
That woman could have give It ALL to charity, but she enjoy the spotlight .
@@fabiosprint1 when an out of country vendor wants to ship a container to the usa they need reasons. most likely this has something to do with smuggling customs really only searches things that dont look right we dont have the man power to search everything
@@fabiosprint1 But Amazon still lost money. The seller made an agreement with them to pay storage fees and they lied to Amazon to get out of paying them. That's fraud.
@@Anthony-uz5tj What does this have to do with smuggling? Unless I heard the video wrong, the items were already in Amazon's warehouse. They had already cleared customs.
Some school teachers could definitely use some of this stuff!
I'm glad that she's donating these items! I know a lot of art teachers who would love a supply of glue guns!
Glad to see I'm not the only one! I called Amazon about it and thought it was over... Then another came!
I received a large package of the pads they put under a woman after she gives birth. I remember opening the giant box, seeing them and getting confused 😂. I double checked the name on the box bc I thought I had accidentally opened someone else’s package. My name was on it. I called customer service and they said too keep them. I don’t think it was from Amazon though. I can’t remember who I gave them to but the person was very happy to have them bc apparently they were expensive.
I would so love to get a ton of free stuff. I would even do reviews. I have done several really nice reviews, many go unnoticed.
Of the one person that I got some money for doing a review they had a whole list of things that I could buy and then review and if it gets posted then you would get the money.
Yeah I am not wasting my money on things I do not need and most of it was computer stuff. Though the board I did the review on lasted several years and all of the keys wore off. I spent 80 bucks on my K55 and it has not even been 6 months and the damn space bar is now wearing.
They love those at shelters for kittens and puppies 🐶
So they're just trying to get rid of these things and they can't find somebody to voluntarily take them? It doesn't make any sense!
The products are in Amazons possession. If you’ve ever ordered from Amazon you’ll see the vendors name, but shipped by Amazon. They can’t give them away because Amazon has them. They’re trying to avoid having to pay Amazon to get rid it, so sending to this lady’s home is there way of getting over.
@@CougarLyfethat makes even less sense. They're paying Amazon to store these things in their warehouse. When it's time to ship them, it cost them the same whether they send it to a customer or send it to another business. Even if it's not that simple, just find somebody that'll let you use their address to take the stuff. It's not that big a deal. There's thousands of people that would happily take whatever extra stuff they want to send and then try to figure out a way to sell it.
Actually come to think of it, that has to be what they're already doing. The reason we don't hear about this happening very often is because they do send it to somebody who's agreed to take it. I would guess that two instances in this video and any other are just mistakes. Somebody transposed the number on the zip code or an address or something.
Either way, I don't see how they could call this fraud
@@JonDC70 I don't think its fraud either but I don't think they find anyone to agree to take the items. They just dump them on some random person. I've seen this type of video before.
They are in China, their products are stored in the US. What would you do?
Amazon really needs to go out of business altogether. idk why people still buy from this Predatory company if any other options are available.
Ha ha ha! “No place for fraud at Amazon”. Best joke I’ve heard all day!
There should be a sign up site for people willing to receive this stuff. Win win for everyone.
... that would turn into a nightmare overnight 🤨 they didn't mention the couple who got over 1000 packages sent to her house. They were stuck with the mess and a clean up bill, someone has to pay $$$
One way or another 🤔
Amazon Vine Voice Program.
This has been going on for years. A business I used to work for would get packages like this as well as brushing packages. My "favorite" was bubble envelopes with one plastic fork in them. At that time Amazon wasn't interested. I am glad they are starting to pay attention.
I wish I had a plastic fork.
Some people are born lucky.
That’s really forked up
Amazon is only interested when the media is involved 😂 This lady probably contacted amazon numerous times and they didn’t care
Company sends 100's of items to a random location. Since its a verified purchase they can 5 star the item.
I had this happen to me with Lootcrate, but not to this extent. First I kept getting boxes when I didn’t order them, (I wasn’t charged) for a few months. Then when I thought it was over I got one last hurrah. 5 separate boxes, and one large box with 3 more inside. I had a lot of happy friends that Christmas.
As someone in the industry, we see this so frequent. Must be hundreds of local news stories across the country over the past few years
Why can't stuff like this ever happen to me?
I know right!
This is worthless junk though lol it’s not like head lamps and glue guns have resale value. It’s not like it was iPads and iPhones or things that people want to buy.
@@lexa_power 0.99 a whatever on probably 1000 things thats a thousand dollars in your pocket with little effort still good
The Law is if a company sends you something you didn't ask for it's yours to keep. It's considering a "GIFT" Look it up.
Keep it all, throw it away, it doesn't matter it's yours to keep.
You should contact him if you face the same problem
Won't it be funny if she turned around and sold them again on Amazon or better yet eBay. That would be hilarious. "They keep sending me stuff and I just keep turning a profit"
eBay sucks you dry with fees
@@Jame6999 doesn't matter. If you sell it for $5 and eBay takes $2 then you still made $3 profit.
That’s what I would do 🤷♀️
@@Jame6999 But if your overhead cost is $0. Any profit is a positive
Girl you can start an online business and resell that sh*t!
😅😅😅
Man look here! That's what I'm talking about. Drop shipping inventory delivert by the lord 😅
She can't because its obvious scam/fraud and reselling merch you didn't pay for is a very quick ticket to jail.
Maybe she has no interest in that and does not need the money.
@@jayruben6082 hahaha Amen!
So you're having piles and piles of boxes of free stuff put on your porch and then you call someone to complain about it?
I love that she would drive around with the items giving them to people! how fun....
What a great way to meet people. ❤
That's a heck of a lot better way to donate them then actually giving them to a charity place. Because regular people are actually benefiting from the donation the way she's doing it
It would be like Christmas 🎄!
I love selling on Amazon but removals are a pain. All he had to do was donate his excessive inventory through Amazon or have it discarded.
Is that harder to do than just pick a random address? Or maybe this is their way of donating them. They pick a random address in hopes they’ll do what this lady did and donate them and give them away for them then they don’t have to do it!
@@S.E.C-R it's cheaper to have them discard it actually.
@@TheCatD Then it all just ends up in a landfill or does Amazon donate it or recycle or anything ?
@@S.E.C-R if they are located in China and Amazon tells them to remove their inventory...it is difficult and expensive to return the products to China. Especially if they have no storage or help here in the USA. However, when I was removing one of my products I donated them and liquidated some through Amazon.
@@TheCatD Do you have a conscience?
I bet if she had a free garage sale all the stuff would be gone in an hour.
She shouldn’t file a complaint about it and keep donating the products or resale and donate the funds to charities.
The irony is there are lots of people who would love to get these returns for free.
Amazon can simply donate them to charity directly, vendors do not have to pay extra and no more fraud AND charity will thank you.
It's a gamble. Who knows how human nature works? It might create an incentive in someone's thoughts to dump items on Amazon. And, Amazon will still have to pay employees even if they donate the items. And, Amazon may end up losing money on such a policy.
Another issue is that they create liability and potential for lawsuits if they donate seller's inventory. And, it may lead to bad press. Sellers might not want to do business with Amazon if their items end up being forfeited by Amazon to a charity.
Also, who currently pays the penalty? Answer: the seller pays the extra fees, not Amazon. So, it's safer for Amazon not to do this.
I’ve worked in the nonprofit field for a long time with different groups and I can’t think of one charity that would want to take these things on. The amount of money they would make vs the time and effort isn’t worth it. Goodwill is the only one that might work, given they have a store set up.
only a tiny fraction of the stuff sold on Amazon are Amazon's own merchandise. Leasing space/ selling services to venders is how Amazon makes money. Venders/suppliers do not want to devalue the products in the particular market and disposing through proper channels costs more money. Sending "free" stuff to random strangers is the cheapest option. The so called charity organizations/stores are actually "non-profit" ,
@@Happybidr And are not a charity there a for profit INC that makes you think there a not for profit there is no goodwill at goodwill
"simply donate" cost money Amazon don't want to spend...
Yep - happened to me but only with one box of something I couldn't figure out what it was used for. Lucky me.
If I got all those packages, I sure in the hell wouldn’t be complaining about it
Funny thing is, if those vendors used the same internet search to find a homeless shelter or other kind of charity that would gladly accept those items they could have saved themselves some legal trouble.
But of course, doing things honestly is a lot to expect from a amazon vendor in china.
Why would a Chinese national (most likely) get involved in a US charity? That gets kind of complicated. It's unnecessarily complicated even if you live in the US.
@@vshah1010 they don't have to get "involved". They can have those items sent to the office of a charity or shelter the same way they found some random US citizen's address to use. By getting the address off the internet. At least then it would have been less bothersome and they may not have been investigated and shutdown if the recipient didn't question it too much.
this barely counts as fraud, just a typical news media jumping on the china hate bandwagon. the story here is, these stores are no longer in business, and they have to return the products to the origin, problem is, it costs way more to send them back to china, so they just give them away for free to random americans. HOW IS THIS EVEN FRAUD?.
P.S. you're also another fine example of a racist jumping on the chinese hate bandwagon, just look at what you said, somehow it's not enough that this chinese vendor had to give away his goods for free and at a lost, but he also has to do your charity for you... can't you do something about your own beggars and homeless lol.
So ultimately, not only your big corporations outsourced their production to China, now even people like you would like to outsource your charity to China.
The issue is this would require minutes of research. And why do that when you can just find a random address.
@@vshah1010 Truth. Everything China does for their people is just a photo op.
God on this lady for giving the things away. Those children’s binoculars would be great to give to a school. Teachers could have classroom sets that kids could use for outdoor environmental science lessons and a few pairs could be available for kids to use during recess.
The headlamps could be donated to an animal shelter and be part of “new parent packages” for people who adopt dogs.
Well, keeping all that stuff she has no use for would only have turned into clutter in her house.
You can't give away things that not yours and that you did6 paid for in the first place
That's is no different than a thief porch pirate taking your package off your porch and donate or selling it
@@jeffparks25, the seller randomly chose her address and off-loaded their excess inventory on her! Absolutely the opposite of a porch pirate! A porch pirate is stealing what the customer ordered and paid for. This lady didn’t order any of these things. The seller was trying to skirt an Amazon policy. What she chooses to do with it is up to her since she already contacted Amazon. They weren’t asking for it back. Did you actually watch the whole video?
@@jeffparks25 Yes it is its my porch and my countrys rules are if its on your land its yours now so too bad so sad Amazon has insurance they'll get the money back
I still don’t understand how this scam works
Yes, donating the items to needy people is great! Good for her!
If you think that is wasteful, you should see how much Amazon routinely throws to landfills just because the box an item is contained in is damaged. My son works in an Amazon center and this happens all the time as it is his department duty. They won't let anyone have any of the merch either. It all goes to the dump; food, clothing, electronics, hardware etc....
Only solution I can see is tax credit for donated goods, but they will probably abuse that
I can believe it cause the catch 22 is despite being companies trash, if an employee takes it its internal theft like they count value out of it if its hot their trash. Yeah its horrible and people dont relize companies Do actually do this.
Most of it is not thrown away, thats not true. It gets bought buy liquidators. They buy and sell pallets of returns and overstocked items, including damaged/opened products. I work for a liquidator, thats how we get all of our stock.
It does NOT go to the dump.
Even the stuff we think is trash after sorting gets bought by another liquidator.
That’s because capitalism is very efficient and effective.
It happened to us, too. We got 13 packages last year addressed to a person who didn't exist at our address as well here in Chicago!
"There is no room for fraud in Amazon" - I haven't stopped laughing yet.
the reason why he sent them there is because, as a seller outside of the USA, youre forced to provide a US address to handle returns, removals from warehouses, etc, otherwise amazon often charges you... amazon is ridiculous.
I would have no problem with them sending me all the stuff they don't want.😂
If the sale is not in your name, you can't return them. Worse than that, you can't contact Amazon to let them know this is happening. In Australia, at least, Amazon has removed any means of contact if you need help with anything. They just say to contact the vendor, which you can't do if you haven't actually bought the items!
Another problem is that many of these 'suspicious' vendors just shut down that account and then start a new one.
I've seen the same problem over and over on Facebook Marketplace. If you report or block someone for being a commercial entity, they just close that account and start another one. You see the same product and details come back over and over. Just look at how many vendors are now using profiles that have just a few 'friends.' You can bet that's a false account. There's no reason for other large e-marketplaces to have the very same problems.
We has this issue at our old house, but it was not this much. We got about 2 packages a week for year. We used a few things but trashed the rest, it was stuff not even worth reselling. We did gift some stuff to friends and when my sister and mom found out at the end of the year, they had a lil garage shopping spree.
Good that it went to her adresse,she gives the thing to everybody who needs.She's not crazy,she's a nice lady.
I would love for them to send this free to my house.😊
It looks like it was a cursed but at the same time this was a blessing. Time to donate and do a yard sale.
I'd be glad to have a bunch of free stuff to give out to people and charities.
Wish Amazon would send me all those boxes 😂 There are shelters and hospitals that could use free stuff 😂
Glue guns and children’s binoculars?
It's not Amazon's items. It's the sellers. And, both the seller and Amazon have a right to make money.
@@vshah1010
The problem is the seller decided to pick some random person to be responsible for disposal of their excess merchandise.
@@vshah1010 They are probably doing Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA), where they send the goods to Amazon, and when they're sold, they get shipped to the customer by Amazon. The problem is that Amazon charges monthly storage fees for the items. If the products aren't selling, depending on how many things a seller has in Amazon's warehouses, this gets very expensive. I used to sell used books on Amazon, and it was cheaper to have them destroy the books than send them back to me. Also, if the sellers are in China, I'm sure they don't want to spend money on return shipping for items that aren't selling.
@@vshah1010🤡
I would be so happy if this happened to me. I would be able to donate to my neighbors in need and give things to people that needed them.
what homeless person needs headlamps and automatic drills?
Headlamps are useful! Imagine at night how that could help if you were in the woods! Why knock the headlamp!
This is crazy
I would never ever ever throw that stuff away.
Maybe Amazon should set up a volunteer removal register where people can submit their address for overseas sellers to use. Edit: and people/organizations could register under the different classifications: toys, clothes etc. that they can accept.
That would be a good idea 🥰🥰🥰
That makes a lot of sense!
Amazon is too soulless to do something like that. Because they wouldn’t get a pay cut or tax write off out of it.
I was thinking the same thing! It would be a great way to remove excess, and help those in need.
@psychedelicpayroll5412 I dunno about the tax write off thing...
I just received an Amazon package of small rubber buttons to quiet the closing of cabinet doors. Original order was received a week ago and now this shows up unexpected. Glad it wasn't 800 boxes of these items, as I think it would be hard to even give away.
Hey , You're free to leave all your unwanted stuff on my porch. I'll have one hell of a yard sale . Won't hurt my feelings at all and we even have an eco-friendly disposal center nearby for the packaging.
Amazon sent me a brand new $3000.00 Alienware M17 laptop about a year ago. I didn't order it, and they said I could keep it for some bizarre reason. I scored on that one.
Lots of places could use the items depending on what they are. Theyre also easy to get rid of. Have a free "yard sale" or post to craigslist. Birders and ornithology groups will likely take the binoculars, especially small, community ones. Sheets are great for homeless and womens shelters
Or you could return them because THEY DONT HAVE YOUR NAME ON THEM!!
@@jasondavis4421 return them where? To the seller using fraudulently using your address? Gtfo
We didn't need all that plastic crap from China in the first place. Stop ordering from those vendors.
@@jasondavis4421 if you listened to the story the women tried several times to return it to Amazon . They also made it clear numerous times to Amazon that the person didnt live there and that they wanted the packages to stop but Amazon continued to send them .
@@jasondavis4421please relisten to the video again. Fyi...they will not accept the items back. I know this happened to me
Li Xiao Zhang lives at my address, please redirect them this way. 😂😂
I sure could use one of those glue guns right now
Omg this lady is so sweet! This couldn’t have happened to a better person ❤️
🤢
Just donate it. It would make someone's day.
Imagine being mad about something like this. You would never catch me on the news complaining about getting free stuff.
That happened to me and I raised holy cain with Amazon, I was afraid I was getting billed but turned out I wasn't. I received many things I donated to schools, such as paper, pencils, and other school supplies. Some things I kept because they were useful but donated the rest.
I’ve had this happen to me twice when a vendor gave my address to a customer as the return address for their product. The first incident the customer lived a few miles from me and I went to them to return the product and that’s how I found out what happened. The second incident the person lived in NC and I was able to trace their address because part of the original label was still on the box. Both occasions I emailed Amazon and they got rid of the vendor.
Look at that Ring doorbell, LOL!
Free stuff to sell, and they complain to the media about it. Shut up and enjoy the extra money.