Amazon Refunded Me $80 for a Return That Got Lost. Here's How.

I returned a $80 keyboard to Amazon using their prepaid label. The tracking showed the package was delivered to Amazon's warehouse. Three weeks later, I had not received my refund. Amazon's system said they were still waiting for the return.

I contacted customer service. The agent said they could see the tracking showed delivered but their system had not updated. She said I needed to wait 48 hours. I waited. Nothing. I contacted again. Same story.

On the third call, I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor said she would manually process the refund based on the tracking number. The refund appeared within an hour.

Amazon's return system processes millions of packages. Sometimes items get scanned at the warehouse but the system does not update. A human can override this. Do not accept "wait 48 hours" more than once.