Alli (@allisondaffron) is a TikToker who ordered something from Amazon to her family’s home. In the time that she placed that order, however, and its impending arrival, the family home burned down.
While dealing with this life-altering event was traumatic enough, Alli wanted to avoid any further inconvenience associated with a scorched home and gave Amazon a ring and see if they could change the course of the delivery.
Unfortunately for Alli, that didn’t seem to be part of Amazon’s delivery policy, and she posted a TikTok about how the online retailer decided to leave her package right outside of the decimated abode. Her viral clip sparked a conversation on other people’s Terminator-esque experiences with Amazon delivery drivers who seemed wholly committed to dropping packages off, no matter the cost, or what was happening around them.
“My family’s house burned down. you’re not going to let us change the delivery location???” Alli writes in a text overlay while pantomiming talking into the phone with an Amazon customer service representative.
The video then transitions to a picture of an Amazon package in front of a burnt-down home, surrounded by gravel and a charred-looking wooden front fence.
In the caption, she added, “Bro went behind the caution tape. I called thrice and they wouldn’t change it.”
It seems that requesting a change in delivery request is a difficult if not impossible prospect, even by Amazon’s own admission. The retailer writes on its shipping policy web page, “Note: Sellers can’t change the delivery address for you once you’ve submitted your order. If you need to update the delivery address and the item hasn’t been dispatched yet, you’ll need to request a cancellation and order again.”
@allisondaffron bro went behind the cautuon tape. i called thrice and they wouldnt change it 😭😭😭😭#greenscreen #amazon #housefire #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #foru ♬ yes, and? – Ariana Grande
However, a piece by Business Insider seems to indicate that the root of mid-delivery shipping address changes seems to be whether Amazon is fulfilling the delivery. As the retailer’s policy page states, individual sellers must be contacted for delivery address alterations. BI writes, “You can change the shipping address of an Amazon order as long as it’s being delivered by Amazon and hasn’t shipped yet.”
To change your delivery address, head to your Amazon account, click on your profile, and select “Your Orders.” Once in this menu, you should see a list populated with the order(s) you’ve placed on your Amazon account. Select the item(s) you want to send to a different delivery address and hit “View order details” and once inside this dialog box, you should see some information about your order, including the delivery address.
If the order is being handled by Amazon, then you should see a button labeled “Change” that you can click and then alter the address. If a third-party seller is processing the order, then you’re out of luck and will either have to contact them, cancel the order and place a new one, or just wait until the item is delivered to the other address and hope to intercept it somehow.
Judging by a commenter’s experience with Amazon’s delivery drivers, it didn’t seem that they were all too surprised by the way they reacted to Alli’s charred home.
“When my car blew up our Amazon driver didn’t even blink at the car burnt to ashes sitting in the driveway just walked up and left the package on the porch even tho we were all outside,” the person wrote.
Another person said the driver probably wasn’t too happy about delivering a package to a burned-down home, writing, “I just know the driver felt SO bad I’m so sorry girl.”
One user said that more than anything, they thought it was remarkable the Amazon delivery driver was able to find the correct address.
“I’m impressed they actually delivered to the right address though,” they said. “At least you have that happening.”
Someone else said they, too, had a strange delivery experience after their home burned down.
“When my house burnt down, they delivered the insurance check to the said house that’s no longer standing,” they commented.
According to another TikToker, this type of behavior from Amazon delivery drivers is par for the course. “Same exact thing happened to us!!” they wrote. “Amazon literally just threw the boxes over the caution tape.”
“A car drove into my HOUSE and Amazon delivered before they even towed the car out from the wall. Just walked around the car lol,” someone else said, sharing yet another story about the lack of reactions Amazon drivers have to severely extenuating circumstances.
One user mentioned the challenge in trying to change the delivery address, writing, “To be fair, once it’s ordered u can’t change the delivery address for it.”
Alli said in a comment reply that she tried telling one of the retailer’s delivery drivers she would’ve settled for leaving her item at a “carrier location,” but, ultimately, her package ended up at her burnt house.
One person who said that they were a former Amazon driver said there’s a reason why they so stringently adhere to address protocols.
“I used to deliver for Amazon,” they wrote. “We have to leave it at the exact location or we get in trouble. that’s why you see those crazy vids of drivers casually walking through chaos.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Amazon via email and Alli via TikTok comment.
