TLDR: Amazon is promising refunds in support chat that never get refunded.

I’m not posting this lightly. I’ve spent a lot of time tracking a disturbing pattern I’ve encountered repeatedly with Amazon support, and it’s time to bring it into the open.

Best-case scenario: this is a widespread failure limited to customer service agents that Amazon is actively working to fix.

Worst case: it’s a deliberate company policy designed to save Amazon millions by quietly avoiding refunds it claims to issue.

Either way, it deserves a clear and public response from Amazon.

What Keeps Happening

Whenever I’ve contacted Amazon support about a return — whether for a late delivery, a defective item, or an accidental order — I’ve noticed a consistent pattern. Instead of processing a normal return, the agent often says something like:

• “We’ll refund the product, and you can keep it.”

• “We’ll issue a partial refund.”

• “Once it arrives, you can keep it and we’ll refund you.”

Over time, I noticed this was happening every single time, even when I didn’t ask for a refund. Support would steer the conversation in that direction — and I’d walk away thinking it had been resolved.

But one day I realized… I never actually checked if those refunds were processed.

So I went back through my order history — and found that I couldn't identify that anything had been returned by looking at the orders. So I contacted support to ask if they had been.

The Bigger Problem

Here’s where things get serious: Amazon doesn’t let you access your support chat transcripts. That means any record of what the agent promised — is gone.

When I realized this, I contacted support again and asked for copies of my chats. I just wanted to verify what I’d been told over the years.

What followed was probably the most annoying support possible.

• I was passed between six different agents

• Each one spent 20–30 minutes with me, then disconnected before resolving anything

• Eventually, one admitted: no, they won’t give me my chat transcripts

• They would only look into it if I gave them the exact order number — which is impossible for a pattern that spans years.

What I Discovered

Eventually I convinced one of them to trust me and that if we checked my past support logs he would see a promised refund and that no refund was given.

It was a slow and painful process, but every single order we reviewed showed that a refund had been promised in the chat — and none were ever issued.

The support agent acknowledged this.

In just the first 4 cases we checked, I found over $350 in missing refunds. I’m confident there’s more, but without access to the transcripts, I can’t verify it unless I spend more hours fighting with support.

To make things worse, instead of offering to fix the situation, the agent simply offered me a $20 Amazon gift card.

I refused. I told them:

You already owe me far more than that — and offering a random gift card after confirming missing refunds makes no sense.

Why I Think This Is Intentional

This doesn’t feel like a few rogue agents taking shortcuts. I believe it’s a company policy. Why else would it be setup in a way where

• Customers cannot verify their refunds from their amazon account

• The place the refund was promised the customer cannot access

• Support agents dropping the chat when pressed

The only reason this would be done by amazon is to save return costs and they know that customers are not likely to verify the future refund goes though and even if they did want to check or verify it they can't. This approach likely saves Amazon millions.

What I Want Amazon to Answer

1. Why are chat transcripts not available to customers if that is the sole place a customer has proof a refund was promised?

2. Why are support agents promising refunds that never happen?

3. How is a customer supposed to track or verify these refunds take place?

4. How can I get my whole chat log and then get the refunds that were supposed to be issued and never were?

If You’ve Contacted Support — Go Check

If Amazon support ever told you they’d refund something — go back and verify that it actually happened. Don’t assume it did just because they said so in chat.

And if something like this has happened to you, please comment or message me. I’d like to hear more real-world examples.

This issue is bigger than just my account.

Dear all,

I placed an order for a Gimbal on amazon for $600. A week later, I realized that it was the wrong model I needed. SO I placed a return for pickup. But didn't leave the order for pickup and waited for a few days to let the return get cancelled, so that I can place a new return request where I can just hand it to UPS. But now I opened Amazon, it says that the item is returned successfully and the refund is issued to my credit card.

What do I do now? I don't wanna feel lucky because what if they charge my credit card and request for the product and they might not accept the return request because it is over return window.

EDIT: I would take free $600 anyday. It’s just that fear I have “what if they find out about this after May 22nd (my return window end date) and will they even ask me to return the product or will they just charge me without any return options?”