A small business owner who runs a drinkware and lifestyle brand called Frosty Buddy revealed that some of his Amazon customers are trying to game the system when it comes to returns.
In a TikTok video uploaded by Frost Buddy (@frostbuddy), the company’s co-owner shows how people are trying to get away with scamming his company for free products.
The co-owner begins by saying, “People never talk about small business, the amount of returns that we get and the type of things people do return.”
He then shows viewers some choice examples of the items that people have tried to return. “Look at this! What in God’s name is this?”
The TikToker holds up a giant ceramic cup with angel wings on the side, inscribed with, “In loving memory.” It is clearly not a Frost Buddy product. “You thought you could send us this back?” he asks rhetorically.
He also shows a Camelback and Starbucks bottle that someone tried to return, saying, “Guess we partnered with Starbucks on this one. Someone sent this back to us.” He also presents a wine tumbler, noting, “Don’t even remember selling wine tumblers,” and a dog bowl from a different brand.
He remarks toward the end of the video, “I bet we get over a dozen different returns a week that they kept our product and sent a random object or item in the package so they can get their money back and still keep the products.”
He notes that it’s “kind of wild but something we don’t talk about.”
@frostbuddy People scamming us😂 #frostbuddy #fyp ♬ original sound – Frost Buddy
The video has garnered more than 1.5 million views as of this writing, and viewers shared their thoughts about the sketchy practice in the comments.
“It never crossed my mind to replace the item with something else,” one person wrote.
“Only works with Amazon,” the creator clarified.
That led another commenter, claiming to work with Amazon, to claim, “Amazon employee here. If the product doesn’t match the label that it corresponds to, then we don’t process the return and it goes to another building.”
But another user argued, “Not true. You can do it at damn near every place where they don’t check the packages. First been doing this since like 2015.”
One commenter quipped, “Going to start doing this thanks for the idea.”
Yet another was amazed at the effort it would take to pull off such a stunt. “The amount of energy I don’t have to even bring a return to the post office, much less some useless ish.” They concluded, “People are wild.”
But one person had all the other return stories beat, sharing, “Someone sent us back a live scorpion,” which led the creator to reply, “WTF” with a pair of laughing emojis.
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment and to Amazon via email.
