Jeff Bezos
By: Mustafa Bilgili
Tags: Amazon Selling Tips, Consumer, Jeff Bezos, Amazon, Consumer Protection

inviolable

I have two checks from Amazon. One of them is $4,90 and the other is $32,20; total value of the two checks makes $37,10. These checks cannot be cashed out in Turkey. In order to cash them, I have to pay fees about $50 per a check. It is nonsense to pay $100 of banking fees for a check of $37.

I took the checks with me when I went to US. I went to a bank in Washington. The clerk in the bank told me that these checks belonged to Wells Fargo Bank, and added “There is a Wells Fargo in two blocks ahead, go there.”

I went to Wells Fargo. The security person at the entrance put me on the spot:

For what have you come?

Do you have bank account number?

Do you have two identity cards with you?

After the interrogation of the security, I have reached to the counter.

The clerk first asked me if I got two identity cards. He said that two identity cards were obligatory. I have my passport and a credit card. Both of them is issued to my name. The clerk looked at my passport and credit card. The-two-identity issue was accomplished.

He told me to sign the back of checks. I signed. He told me to put my finger there. I did.

These are not special to me. These are the banking procedures in US. There is an inking pad fixed in front of the counter to obtain fingerprint. Then, he said that the place of signature was wrong, and told me “you must sign over the line”. I signed the places he instructed, again.

He entered the checks on the computer. He said that the dates of these checks were old and added that it is not possible to cash them.

And the story started.

I said what had happened then. He said; “call Amazon Customer Service and ask them to issue a new check”. I told, “I am a customer of Amazon, it is true. However, it is your customer either and the checks are your checks. It is proper that you call Amazon, isn’t it?” He said “we cannot call; you should call”.

I looked up Internet if there wa a branch of Amazon in Washington. The head-quarter of Amazon was in Washington. It was a place near to “Union Station”. I went there. The lady at the information desk told me that it was the administrative center and no procedures related to the customers could be done. She added “the customer center is in Seattle, call them”.

From Washington DC to Seattle takes 6 hour by plane. I went to Seattle. I had to go there, anyway.

There was no result for the address of Amazon Customer Service at Google Search.

I asked the address of customer service on “Amazon go”. The boy whom I talked to, said that he could not give the physical address and he gave me a telephone number: 800–647–3170. This line was for check issue, and he told me to call the number. I called the number several times at the hostel. The telephone did not answer.

I searched for the address of Amazon Customer Service on Google Map. The Map gave the physical address: 2021 7th Ave, Seattle. I went there.

The boy at the reception called somewhere and gave me another number to call. I told him that he should issue new dated checks for these ones. This would not go further on the phone… He was a Chinese or Vietnamese little boy. He told me to go, or he would call the security.

I left. I called the number that the boy had given. They told me that the bank could specify a new date and pay.

I went to a branch of Wells Fargo in Seattle. I told them that you could specify a new date and pay these checks. The clerk woman told me that this was impossible and gave her business card and added “they would call her”.

I returned to 2021, 7th Avenue. There was another person at the information desk. I told them that I was here yesterday, you sent me to the bank and the bank sent me here.

The girl at the information desk told me to call that number again. However, the face of the girls were saying definitely that these checks would never be paid to you… I called yesterday, why should I call again? The girl said me self-assuredly: “You have to call again. You are not from here, the checks will be sent to your address in Turkey.”

I went to the Seattle Chamber of Commerce to ask for an advice.

The Chamber of Commerce is at 15th floor of this building. A graceful lady directed me to the Consumer Protection Office.

No 800, 5th Avenue, 20th floor, the address of Consumer Protection Office in Seattle. Office of the Attorney General Consumer Protection Division, an official government office. I climbed to the 20th floor. After having waited at information section, I talked with a gentleman and his secretary behind a sneeze-guard just like in jails. The gentleman said that Amazon is a good company and they pay their checks. They passed me a form behind the sneeze-guard. They told me to fill and send the form to us. I could fill it over Internet.

Amazon is not a good company; it is a check counterfeiter, is a counterfeiter company. Amazon asked me money for selling the book “Dignity of Ararat” on its website and gave an account number. I transferred the money on the same day.

Amazon could transfer money to my account in the same way. It is such a craftiness to send checks that cannot be cashed, instead of transferring money through internet.

Amazon has more than 100 million customers. If Amazon sends non-cashable checks to one million customers like me, it makes $37.100.000. How many millions of customers does Amazon send non-cashable checks, how much they never state?

Amazon good company.