Have you received a random Amazon refund?

Something strange happened last night – I received an Amazon refund for some printer ink cartridges I bought last week. The ink cartridges are sat right in front of me. I hadn’t asked for a refund. Why had Amazon decided to hand me the thick end of £40?

Maybe this is their way of making good on the tax thing.

— Darien Graham-Smith (@DarienGS) August 10, 2017

I like Darien’s theory, but it lacks credibility. So gawping at the gob of a gift horse, I decided to ring Amazon to check there was no funny business going on.

The support chap sounded somewhat shocked that a customer had rung up to complain about a refund in their favour, but once he’d got over that, decided to check the transaction logs.

It seems Amazon’s automated delivery system had decided the package was undeliverable and had processed a refund. To thank me for my honesty, Amazon let me keep the refund and the ink cartridges, which is jolly decent of them.

Not least because Amazon is normally spot on when it comes to customer service, it’s probably a good idea to give them a call if you do notice a strange refund in your favour. According to the t’internet grapevine, there is a scam where fraudsters demand an Amazon refund on the most expensive item they can find in your order history, and then have themselves sent a gift card. That’s the kind of thing that can lead to accounts being blacklisted or worse.

In the meantime, I’m off to order a new MacBook Pro, a De’Longhi Coffee Maker and a Raymond Weil watch…