The saying goes happy Wife, happy life. My Mother In Law is very upset, which upsets my Wife, which upsets me. Over the holidays I got pulled into a dispute between my Mother in Law and Amazon. The short version is my wife placed an Amazon order on behalf of my Mother In Law. Part of the order got delivered as it should, but part of the order was delivered to lord knows where. We do know it never made it to the address specified on the order.
We have spent the last few months arguing with Amazon, whose Lawyers gave us the proverbial finger last week. It seems that Amazon, who according to its 2023 financial statement has revenues exceeding $523 Billion Dollars, is now resorting to credit card fraud to fuel its growth.
Rather than address the issue of mis-delivered packages by their employees/contractors/agents, Amazon has chosen to hide behind a byzantine labyrinth of Amazon policies and a wall of Lawyers. They have made it very clear that we are on our own, no refund will be forthcoming, and should we resort to litigation we face a brutal slugfest. In short we are responsible, according to Amazon, to chase down the errant shipment. They have even gone so far as to demand that we file a police report for what in essence is an HR issue within Amazon.
So it has come down to this. A retired senior citizen on a fixed income, a Mother and Grandmother, against one of the countries largest corporations. Literally Grandma vs Goliath. Least you think this is a one off, a simple internet search for “Amazon Class Action” yields a number of articles on current FTC and Class Action Lawsuits against Amazon for their dubious business practices.
We have a historic opportunity to balance the scales of justice. With the incoming Trump administration a number of key appointments will be put up for confirmation. Two of these appointments have significance to Amazon. The head of the FTC and the Head of the NRLB, both of which have pending matters regarding Amazon enforcement actions.
I urge you to contact your elected officials and insist that every Trump appointment answer how they propose to rein in Amazon before they are confirmed. Additionally we the people should demand the following actions from our elected representatives until Amazon changes their ways:
No more permits for expansion, new construction, data centers, connection to power grids, new distribution centers, etc.
No more tax breaks or concessions.
No more Federal or State contracts be awarded to Amazon.
Divestiture of all retirement accounts and pension plans of all Amazon holdings. The hard earned retirement monies of the citizens of this community should not be used to further the growth of this evil corporation.
Existing regulatory agencies should audit Amazon for compliance with the law.
The FTC should open an anti-trust investigation in Amazon and consider breaking them up.
Legislation should be made to regulate Amazon polices.
I urge you to let Amazon know on Social Media that We The People are disgusted by this behavior and demand change. #JusticeForGrandma
Robert Causey
Tillamook, Oregon
