Amazon – getting sloppy?

I buy plenty of stuff on Amazon, and it is generally a very satisfactory experience. There have been delays more recently, so even Prime orders are normally 2 days+ rather than next day, but largely it works well. One item had been missed out of a box, but that was easy to sort out via chat with a bot, and a replacement soon came through. But I’ve had two experiences now which makes me feel less confident in using the merchant.

First, I ordered an item that really isn’t fit for purpose – some “running” shorts with no internal banana hammock. Unpleasant-looking things in real life. I triggered the item return, printed the Hermes label, stuck it to the package…and then waited. How do Hermes know when to come? How do I know when they’ve tried to collect it? Have I missed them? Have they never been? Impossible to find out more – my choices are a) give up b) restart the return procedure (print out new details, open the envelope, replace chit inside, stick new label on outside, hope for the best again) or c) take it to the Hermes drop-off place a mile away. It’s between a) and c).

Secondly, and far more mysteriously, I received a package today via Yodel, from Amazon, addressed to me. Contents: a universal charger for Xbox controllers. I do not have, and never have had, an Xbox or controller for same. Weird. I definitely didn’t order it – I checked on amazon.co.uk then realized the receipt inside (which presumably mean somebody didn’t buy it as a misguided gift) is in $, so I could indeed find the order through the Gift Returns search:

So I figured – may as well return it…but on triggering that, I got this error:

So pretty clearly, the label’s been stuck on the wrong envelope. I AM waiting for a delivery, which I ordered over a month ago and clearly has gone badly AWOL. Is this Yodel’s fault? Amazon’s? How would an Amazon.co.uk address label end up stuck on an Amazon.com delivery? There is a label underneath my label, but not sure I can get to it and it be legible afterwards, maybe I’ll try. (I can see it’s a DPD label…the plot thickens.)