The pandemic fast-forwarded the ecommerce industry a good few years, which in itself is good but there are some cons to it. The sheer number of orders placed everyday is so high that there is bound to be some unfavorable moments in between. Amazon package not delivered is one such problem multiple customers face, as it is a pretty common complaint. Now there could be many reasons behind the package not being delivered and in this article we will help you figure out what to do if you find yourself in the middle of such a situation.
Amazon is a major global eCommerce giant, but its market share in the US is the largest one to date. With such a huge user count, it is one of the most used services for multiple reasons. According to Venture Beat, there were around 150 million Amazon Prime subscribers in 2020. If you consider the number, no matter how great the service providers are, occasional unfortunate events do occur.
As a big name that does not want to compromise on customer service, Amazon has order tracking and other such features to help customers track their orders after they have been delivered. Here’s a guide to answer all your questions regarding Amazon’s policies and what you can do in a situation when your package has not arrived:
Amazon Map Tracking
There is a very easy process to track your package via your Amazon account. On your main account page, find Orders and go to the list of orders placed through your account, previous or current. Find the order you are looking for and click on Track order under it.
You can find all the package information there, from when you placed the order till whether or not it has been shipped. Even if you don’t remember the date or time it has been since you placed that order, you can find all that necessary information over there. Additionally, there is an option for you to check where your delivery person left your order, if it has been delivered. It entirely depends upon the person who is delivering, but they have an option to update your order details with where they left the order.
In addition to their normal manual status of delivery, there is an option for Amazon Map Tracking that lets you check the live location of your order. This is an option that you can opt for directly under your Orders. Often there is a guaranteed delivery date mentioned when you place an order, especially with Prime orders. Using that delivery date, you can go to track your order on the day of your delivery and monitor the progress of where your order is headed from. Usually, drivers have multiple locations to make stops at before they deliver your order, and you can monitor all of that using this option. This is a great way to make sure you don’t miss your order coming if you are too concerned about it.
But there is a limit to which packages you can track using the map tracking. Amazon’s advanced creative features allow people to make wishlists that others can use to send gifts to them. This is an exception in the map tracking feature, because the recipient’s address is protected for privacy reasons. Therefore you cannot track a gift order to keep the recipient’s address private.
For those interested in tracking their address, they can do so from the shipping confirmation email, your Amazon account or the Amazon app. You can get a direct link for the tracking if you have it enabled. That is not all Amazon does for its customers and the delivery process. The delivery people who are responsible for bringing in products have an option to take a picture of where they leave your order. This is an option available to all delivery riders to have as proof of their delivery. If you are someone who does not prefer pictures being taken of your property, you can opt out of it using customer support.
This is mostly done when the package is delivered without any attendant to receive it. The picture appears when you go to Track your order from within Orders. Those who don’t prefer to get the pictures to have their address confidential. Outside of those, all the other orders are track-able as soon as they are shipped.
Late delivery or stolen package
There are two main routes a missing package can take, it’s either just late or it is stolen. In case of a late delivery that does not reach you when you actually need the product, you can request for a refund. The guaranteed delivery date on any order is there to ensure you of a certain time period in which you will get your package for sure. In case that date is surpassed, you can easily claim a refund by following Amazon’s policies.
Apart from Amazon’s regular delivery, Prime members might get some store credit for their late delivery. On top of that, they also receive a refund for the delivery charges for a late delivery. There are also chances your package is missing because it was stolen from where it was left. In this case, make sure you ask Amazon to send back that order either yourself or ask for a refund. Also register a police report for the stolen package.
Those who do not want a repeat of the stolen package can opt for Amazon’s Key App. It is a phone app that allows you to control your house entries with your phone, and keep a track of who goes in and out. Using the Key App, you can get your products delivered in your house, garage, or anywhere you would like, with the in-home delivery option. It is, however, limited to some cities, you can check which ones on the website.
People who are not comfortable with in-home delivery either can choose to have Amazon Lockers. This is a great service Amazon provides for users to have Amazon-managed lockers where you can get your products delivered and then retrieve them whenever you want. This locker is protected by a code known only by you, so there is no way the products could get lost or stolen. You can use your ZIP code to locate a locker nearest to your house and get your products delivered there.
How and whom to contact?
In case there is a missing package, there could be many reasons behind it rather than it being actually missing. If your delivery status shows delivered but you cannot find the package, here’s a few things you can do before registering a complaint:
- Start checking your package details. Make sure the personal information such as the address is correct and complete. Often the issue is with a misworded or incomplete address, due to which the delivery driver is unable to find your residence.
- Secondly, you can check and recheck all the nearest spots to your house where your package could have been delivered. If your mailbox is farther up your house or the street you live in, make sure you check that too.
- Lastly, ask anyone in the house or your neighbors even if they took the order in your absence. There is a possibility that might be the case, therefore make sure of it before you lodge any complaints.
In some cases, the status shows ‘arrived,’ while the order is still in transit, wait a while for your order to arrive in this case. This often happens when your delivery status shows delivered up to 48 hours prior to the original delivery date.
In case you still don’t get your package delivered within a day or two of that status, you can contact Amazon customer care for details. But that is not true for all cases, as delivery details are not always dependent on Amazon. At this point, you need to consult your package delivery details again to identify whom to contact for further details or file a complaint.
The tracking information available to you will show you who to contact for your order delivery delay. You will need to contact either Amazon, the third-party seller who is responsible for their own delivery or the courier service in some very rare cases. Either of these three will provide you with information regarding your Amazon package not delivered. Here’s how to deal in each of those cases:
Amazon
In case Amazon has your package for whatever reason, you will have to contact the customer service representatives. You can either do this with the chat or call option. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
- Go to Amazon’s Contact Us page from your account.
- For people looking to chat, click on Start chatting now
- For people looking to talk over call, go to your orders and find the order that you are concerned with. Beside the order details, check the box that says Missing item
- Click on ‘Tell us more’ to get a list of menu
- Proceed by clicking on “Where’s my stuff?” and then “Tracking shows delivered but shipment not received”
- At last, you will get a Phone button to enter a number so the representative can reach you
Third-party seller
In case your product was shipped by a third-party seller and they were responsible for its delivery too, you will need to get in touch with them directly. Amazon has a system set for people to contact sellers directly through Amazon. Follow these steps to contact the third-party seller you ordered from:
- Go to your order/product and click on the seller’s name
- You will get a ‘Ask a question’ button, click on that
- From the next options, choose ‘I need assistance with’ and then “An order I placed” to proceed
- At last, you will get to “Where’s my stuff?,” click on that
- This option will take you directly to the tracking information for your order. The seller has an ultimatum by Amazon to respond within 48 hrs. In case they don’t, you can file your complaint with Amazon
Amazon is known for its customer-centric policies, which is why in case the seller does not respond or refuses to compensate, you can get a refund from Amazon. It is called the A-to-Z Guarantee by Amazon. Their policies in terms of selling on their platform are strict in order to make sure people maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction. This works in case of product quality upon delivery and the delivery itself as well.
Here are the scenarios in which you can request for a refund from Amazon:
- The order you received from the seller is different from what is shown on the website or below any standards that Amazon has in place.
- Three days have gone by since the guaranteed delivery date and the order is still not delivered
- The delivery status shows delivered but the order has not been delivered even after contacting the seller
- And lastly, in case you sent back an order for return and the seller has not issued a refund
Usually it takes a week before the refund request is processed by Amazon and your money reaches you very soon after that. You can check the status of your complaint/refund request through that same order in your account.
There are many instances of lost and stolen orders, which could explain the Amazon package not delivered fiasco. But the important thing is you as a customer either get a solution for the issue or get compensated properly if the package is lost due to the seller’s mistake. Hope this guide helped you out in your next steps after a missing package