I ordered a £544 phone from Amazon. A tracking update later informed me that it “may be lost” and I could request a refund. I pressed the refund option and was directed to customer service, which insisted I wait a week to claim.

A week later I was told I needed to file an incident report from the email address associated with my account. When I complied, the report was rejected as coming from an address that “didn’t meet certain security standards”.

I am now in the paradoxical situation that if I use the address associated with my account, it doesn’t meet their standards, but if I use a different address, it is not the one associated with my account.

Now, when I check the order page, it says I requested to return the item (I didn’t), and that it will issue a refund once I do so (I can’t, as I never received it).

Amazon has taken the first two monthly instalments of £108, while I remain phone-less.

SH, London

The company’s apparent contortions to avoid a pricey payout are, in my opinion, shameless, and it is by no means to its credit that it stumped up instantly when exposure loomed.

It issued a refund within four hours of my getting in touch, and gave you a £50 voucher as “an additional gesture of goodwill”.

It says: “We are sorry for the inconvenience our mistake has caused.” .

Others left empty-handed and hundreds of pounds out of pocket can, when all else fails, make a chargeback claim for the sum from their debit card issuer or, if they paid by credit card, ask for reimbursement under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

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