Unordered Amazon packages pile up in San Jose home for over a year

A woman from San Jose, Calif., faced hundreds of Amazon packages of the same product being delivered to her home for over a year, even though she never ordered them. Under a pseudonym, “Kay” told ABC 7 News that for over a year packages containing a set of faux-leather car seat covers from the brand Etkin sold by a Chinese company called Liusandedian on Amazon have been delivered to her doorstep. The issue is she never ordered them, and they were all actually returns from real customers. Liusandedian had put Kay’s address in San Jose as the return address, without her knowledge, until packages started piling up on her front door. It started with just one package, which Kay thought must have been a mistake , even asking her neighbours about it but no one had ordered it. The products kept being delivered for weeks and months to come. Amazon’s policy states that international sellers need to either provide a U.S. address that the product can be returned to, agree to a “returnless” return where the product doesn’t need to be shipped back, or provide a prepaid international shipping label within two days after the return is requested. If the business can’t provide any of that, Amazon refunds the customer and charges the international seller for the return shipping, in this case to China. What happened with Liusandedian is that they did include a U.S. address, but that was Kay’s, who didn’t even know the company existed. And because the company did provide an address as requested by Amazon, the customers returning the car seat covers were being forced to pay for the return shipping, which oftentimes was more than half of the original price they paid for the product, and never receiving a refund because the products were shipped to the wrong address provided by the company. Meanwhile, the Chinese company was not losing any money since refunds were not being issued because the products were not being shipped back to the company, but rather to a random house in California that was listed as their “return center.” It also didn’t help that the company didn’t have any contact information, or even anything online that proves it existed. “This is thousands of dollars they’ve paid to send these boxes back to my house!” said the San Jose woman to ABC 7 News. Because of that, the boxes started taking up space in Kay’s property, blocking her driveway, mail box and doorway, making it even more inconvenient for Kay and her 88-year-old mother, who is also disabled. The woman had been trying to contact Amazon to solve the issue for the past year, which resulted in six tickets filed with the tech giant and none of the problems solved. She also said that Amazon suggested that she could fix the issue herself, by either giving the packages away, donating the products or taking them to USPS or FedEx. “Why is it my responsibility to get rid of this, when your seller is not following your rules Amazon?” she asked. Amazon told ABC 7 News that “they have apologized to the customer and are working directly with her to pick up any packages while taking steps to permanently solve the issue.” It seems that this story is finally about to be shipped away from Kay’s home in San Jose. On July 8, Amazon removed all the boxes that were found in Kay’s property, promising to become stricter on these practices too. The day after, the product also became unavailable on Amazon’s website .

• 'Canada 51st state' hats for sale on Amazon spark outrage among Canadians
• Amazon denies tariff label plans after White House criticism

  Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.