Stuart Duff

Recently, I attempted to purchase a 65″ Hisense TV from Amazon UK. Unfortunately, the TV never arrived, and my experience with Amazon’s support services as a UK consumer left much to be desired. Working in support each day and having been a support team lead, it can be a real eye-opener and a great learning experience when you need to request support yourself.

Here’s a comprehensive timeline and analysis of this frustrating encounter.

Post contents

• Purchase and Initial Confirmation
• Dispatch and Delivery Updates
• Attempts To Resolve With Support
• Understanding the Consumer Rights Act 2015, Section 28(2)
• Lack of Transparency and Communication
• Summary and Reflections
• Conclusion
• Latest Update: October 25th 20205

Purchase and Initial Confirmation

• On Friday, 17th October 2025, at 12:25 am, I purchased the TV from Amazon’s listing, which promised delivery by 18th October 2025 if bought within the next six hours.
• Within minutes, at 12:29 am, I received an email confirming my purchase and reiterating the promised delivery date of 18th October 2025.

Dispatch and Delivery Updates

• On 17th October at 9:38 am, Amazon emailed to confirm the TV had been dispatched from Derby, England. The app was updated at 9:33 am, reflecting this status.
• On 18th October at 6:48 am, another email and app update indicated the item was out for delivery.
• The delivery driver arrived at my home around 2:15 pm on 18th October, but after searching his van, he explained the TV wasn’t there. He apologised and suggested the TV would arrive in a few days, either Sunday, 19th, or Monday, 20th.

Attempts to Resolve with Support

At 2:30 pm on 18th October, I called Amazon UK support to inform them that the delivery driver had arrived at my home and that the TV was not in his van. The agent apologised, stating they would escalate the issue to the delivery station and promised to provide an update by email within 2–4 hours. No update has ever arrived via email from the delivery station.

On Sunday, 19th October, the app changed to “Delivery expected today,” but again, after waiting at home all day, nothing arrived. Late that night, the status updated again, apologising for the delay and stating that delivery would be by 24th October. If not, I could request a refund the next day, which would be the 25th of October.

I also attempted to contact the seller on Amazon, OARA Distribution, but it just puts you in a loop, repeating. As Amazon is handling the shipping for this order, you’ll need to talk with an Amazon Customer Service Associate. Therefore, I’ve been unable to find a way to contact the seller directly via the Amazon website.

Escalating the Support Case

• I called Amazon again on 20th October, and was assured the TV was at their Bathgate depot in Scotland and would be delivered either that day or the next. The TV never arrived, and no further updates came via app or email as of the 21st.
• On 21st October at around 1 pm, I called again to ask for an update. I was reassured again that it would arrive, potentially later that day, the 21st, from the Bathgate warehouse, which is ironically just a 20-minute drive from my home. When I checked in again at 6 pm via another support call, the representative I spoke with now had no information about the delivery and could not provide any details about when it would be delivered.
• Therefore, I requested an immediate refund. When they refused, I mentioned that I was requesting an immediate refund under Section 28(2) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The representative stated that Amazon’s policy does not permit refunds until October 25th. I asked for a manager, who regurgitated the same script-like information and could not provide a refund due to Amazon’s internal policies.

The only update I received from Amazon on the 21st, after the support call, was an email to rate their support call and services.

Note: Do not use the Amazon UK AI Chatbot. It’s potentially the worst chatbot implementation I’ve used. You can only select predefined options, and when you do actually chat to the bot, it simply regurgitates the same information it said a few messages ago. In my case, it would simply repeat, “Come back after the 24th,” or ask what order I needed help with, despite having already discussed the correct order with me.

The screenshot below is from a chat I tried to have with it on the 21st of October, before finally giving up and calling support again. The chat was much longer than shown, but it was pretty much useless once you could eventually type responses.

Understanding the Consumer Rights Act 2015, Section 28(2)

I’m no expert on the Consumer Rights Act, but on this occasion and as a last resort to attempt to get a refund, it felt like it applied to my experience and was worth a try.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is the cornerstone of consumer protection law in the UK. Section 28(2) specifically addresses delivery obligations and is directly relevant to my situation.

Section 28(2) states: “Unless the trader and the consumer have agreed otherwise, the contract is to be treated as including a term that the trader must deliver the goods to the consumer.”

The act further specifies that, unless an agreed delivery time exists, goods must be delivered:

• Without undue delay, and
• In any event, not more than 30 days after the contract is entered into.

However, in my case, as Amazon and I agreed to a specific delivery date: 18th October 2025. This was clearly stated in both the product listing and the confirmation email I received minutes after purchase. When Amazon failed to deliver by the agreed date, specific consumer rights were triggered.

According to Section 28(6), if a trader fails to deliver goods at the agreed time, the consumer may treat the contract as at an end (and receive a full refund) if:

• The trader has refused to deliver the goods, or
• Delivery at the agreed time is essential, or
• The consumer told the trader before the contract was entered into that delivery at the agreed time was essential.

In my situation, I believe Amazon breached the agreed delivery date of 18th October, as that specific delivery date was essential and the only reason I ordered the TV from Amazon.

By 22nd October, four days after the agreed delivery date, the TV still had not arrived despite multiple assurances from Amazon support staff. At this point, I believe that I had every legal right under the Consumer Rights Act to request an immediate refund. Amazon’s insistence that I wait until 25th October appears to contradict UK consumer law, particularly given that:

1. We had an agreed delivery date (18th October)
2. That date had passed without delivery
3. I had already been patient and reasonable in giving Amazon additional time to fulfil its obligation.
4. Amazon provided multiple subsequent delivery promises and dates, but they were all broken and not met.
5. I cannot wait at home every day between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm from the 18th of October until the 25th of October, on the off chance they may deliver a 65” TV, without any prior warning, that cannot be left outside at a front or back door of the property, should I not be home

The Consumer Rights Act was designed to protect consumers from precisely this type of situation, where a retailer fails to deliver goods as promised and then makes the consumer wait indefinitely while providing false reassurances.

Lack of Transparency and Communication

During my support call on the 21st with a manager, I requested Amazon’s official complaints procedure, but was denied. The manager I spoke with promised to escalate to an internal team but refused to provide me with any details I asked for, including the name of the team being escalated to, a case reference number for the escalation, or contact information for the team he was escalating to.

During my conversation, it was clearly communicated to me that the team the support manager was escalating my inquiry to would only use email and could take 48 to 72 hours to respond directly to me via my own email address, which I confirmed they had on file and was read back to me as being correct on the call. At the time, I was highly dubious, and I also found this quite convenient on the manager’s part, as 48 to 72 hours from the 21st of October 2025 would be the 24th-25th of October 2025.

Update from the 25th of October: Surprisingly, the escalation email I expected a response to from the unknown internal team never arrived, nor did any other form of confirmation that it had indeed been escalated. Therefore, the lack of transparency and reassurance about what was actually going on continued.

Summary and Reflections

• As of 22nd October, I still have no TV, no further communication from Amazon, no access to a complaints procedure, and the tracking timeline on the Amazon app and website has remained unchanged since 18th October.
• Speaking with Amazon support staff, who are all based outside the UK, have little local knowledge, and clearly follow scripts, has been unproductive. They are not empowered by Amazon to address or help resolve genuine consumer concerns.
• Amazon’s claim at the bottom of their emails as “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company” rings hollow when their customer service is so poor, particularly for UK consumers.
• The service came across as robotic and untrained, as it failed to grasp UK consumer rights law and logistics standards.
• Given my extensive background and experience in logistics, e-commerce, and customer support, it was clear that the TV was likely lost, damaged, or possibly even stolen at this point.
• The logistical process should also prevent such errors, as all items loaded onto delivery vans are assigned and tracked via a delivery note and, nowadays, digital scanning.
• At the very least, if Amazon had lost what is quite an expensive item, a replacement item should have been dispatched to me by Amazon, and a new delivery date arranged.

Below is a screenshot of the tracking information from the Amazon website/app, which has remained unchanged since the 18th of October 2025, when the driver discovered the TV was missing from his van during the attempted delivery.

Conclusion

While it’s true that I’m frustrated the TV never arrived, my most profound disappointment stems from discovering just how utterly inadequate Amazon UK’s customer support structure truly is. This experience has been a profound wake-up call about the gulf between Amazon’s public image and the reality UK consumers face when something goes wrong.

I’ve been an Amazon customer for years, trusting in their reputation and expecting that if issues arose, they would be resolved professionally and efficiently. Instead, I encountered:

• Support staff who were clearly reading from scripts, with no authority to actually solve problems.
• Representatives based outside the UK with no understanding of UK consumer protection laws.
• Managers who were unable to provide policy references or access to formal complaint procedures.
• A complete absence of accountability or transparency in their processes.
• Repeated false promises about delivery with no follow-through or communication.
• A systematic denial of my legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

What troubles me most is the realisation that Amazon seems to have built a support system designed not to help customers, but to deflect, delay, and frustrate them into giving up. The repeated assurances that “it will arrive today” or “it’s at the local depot and you will receive it today or tomorrow” were not genuine attempts to solve my problem; they were tactics to push the issue down the road and make it someone else’s problem.

The fact that multiple support representatives and even a manager were either unaware of or chose to ignore UK consumer law is deeply concerning. These aren’t complex or obscure regulations; the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is fundamental to UK retail operations. Yet Amazon’s support staff seemed either untrained in these basic legal requirements or instructed to disregard them in favour of Amazon’s own policies, which their staff refused to share or reference to me.

Perhaps most disappointing is Amazon’s refusal to provide access to a formal complaints procedure. When pressed, representatives simply stonewalled, offering vague promises of “internal escalation” while refusing to give any contact information, reference numbers, or timelines. This isn’t customer service, it’s a deliberate barrier to accountability.

For a company that positions itself as “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company,” this experience has been eye-opening. Amazon’s customer-centricity appears to exist only when transactions go smoothly. The moment something requires actual customer support, the façade crumbles, revealing a system that treats UK consumers with indifference at best and contempt at worst.

It seems my only recourse now is to wait until the 25th of October to request a refund, despite having every legal right to demand one immediately. At this point, I am 100% confident the TV will never arrive. But more significantly, I now know that Amazon UK cannot be trusted to honour their commitments or respect consumer rights when problems arise. That loss of trust and realisation is far more valuable to me than any TV would be.

Update: 25th of October 2025

So today the Amazon app updated, showing a new message: “Delivery date currently unavailable”, and that I could now request a refund. Great news, right? This should be pretty straightforward, and I can get a refund and now move on from this frustrating experience.

However, after clicking the Get a refund or replacement button on the Amazon website, I was now met with this message below to contact Amazon. I’m also unable to access the A-to-z Guarantee service of Amazon, as there is no ability for me to select the Problem with order option anywhere on my TV order.

To request a refund, I had to call Amazon support again. When speaking with the first support representative, I explained that I now wanted a refund, only to be told that it would not be possible because they did not have the technical capability to process it, or because it would not allow them to do so from the systems they had access to.

I reiterated that I wanted a refund and asked them to connect me with someone who could assist me. They brought their team lead/customer service manager onto the call, who reiterated the same script and said they could not initiate a refund. I was told I would have to wait until the 1st of November and call them back to see what they can do if the TV still doesn’t arrive.

I explained to them that this was unacceptable and stated clearly that I no longer wanted the item. Instead, I wanted them to cancel and refund me, and I had been reasonable and patient.

I also told them that their website showed I could request a refund or a replacement, and I was also within my legal rights to do so under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. They reiterated that they could not process a refund for the item because it was showing as in transit, and that I had to wait until the 1st of November and contact them again to see what they could do.

Note: The item is not showing as in transit anywhere for me, and no further updates on the TV’s location have been provided by their website or any of their support staff. Below is the tracking status from today, the 25th of October 2025, which shows precisely the same information as it has since the failed delivery on the 18th of October 2025.

As you’ll see, there have been no changes or updates since the 18th of October, when the TV was not delivered because it was not on the delivery van that arrived at my house on that day.

I communicated that I was extremely unhappy with their answer and requested that a refund be processed immediately or that I be connected with someone within the company who could initiate that process today, the 25th of October 2025. After another two minutes of polite back-and-forth, the support manager said there was nothing else he could do, that no further escalation path was available to me, stating he was the highest-level employee I could discuss this with.

He then stated that if there was nothing else I needed help with today, he would be terminating the call.

Which he did almost immediately, hanging up and terminating the support call.

It’s exhausting to be left in limbo despite having followed every recommended step and being patient throughout this ordeal.

Below is the email I received after this call with Amazon support on the 25th of October 2025. I feel a telling statement in the email that shows what I’ve been experiencing is: “I’m unable to offer additional insight on this matter.”

In other words, I’m translating that as: don’t ask us where the TV is, when or if it will be delivered, or whether and when you’ll be able to receive a refund for this product, as we don’t know. We also cannot provide you with further information on any of these questions or offer any tangible assistance!

Having to wait until the 1st of November to see if a TV magically appears, with no further information about its whereabouts or expected delivery date, is wholly unacceptable behaviour and a complete failure of customer support and relations. Not to mention that continuing to refuse to process a refund potentially remains in breach of the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015.

The Amazon chatbot also now showed a different message on October 25th that the package might be lost. I’ve never seen this message before when using the chatbot. This is also the only location on the entire Amazon website which is showing this message, and it’s only displayed when I’m prompted to select the order I require assistance with.

Summary as of the 25th October 2025

• Amazon support is unwilling to help further.
• I have no way of contacting the seller of the item directly, and I’m being told to contact Amazon.
• I have no way of using the A-to-z Guarantee service of Amazon for this order to attempt to get a refund.
• Amazon support is refusing to process a refund after numerous discussions with them.

Therefore, it seems I may now have no alternative but to open a payment dispute with my credit card company in an attempt to recover the funds for this undelivered purchase.

I’ve also sent a formal complaint email on the 25th of October to the email addresses of managingdirector@amazon.co.uk and ecr-replies@amazon.co.uk. I’m not holding out hope that I’ll be replied to, but I’ve read online that it’s an approach worth trying as a final throw of the dice with Amazon UK.

While my expectations are low after this experience, I remain open to any genuine attempt by Amazon to resolve the situation or provide meaningful updates about my order.