- Some consumers who bought a PS5 from Amazon received a random item instead.
- Amazon refunded the purchases and offered vouchers, but customers who thought that they were getting consoles were irate and wanted to know when they could buy a PS5.
- Amazon is now emailing customers to offer them a replacement for the PS5 order.
As if securing a PlayStation 5 hasn’t been difficult enough, in a cruel twist of fate, some consumers who thought that they were actually able to complete their orders on or before launch day ended up receiving a random item from their seller instead. As IGN reported late last month, Amazon customers in the United Kingdom were getting a wide variety of products in the mail instead of the next-generation consoles that they ordered, from cat litter and George Foreman grills to bed sheets and lamps. It’s unclear why this happened, but Amazon appears to be on the case.
A few days after the publication of freelance journalist Bex April May’s exhaustive investigation surrounding the PS5 orders, some UK customers that were sent the wrong item began receiving emails from Amazon alerting them that a new PS5 had been obtained and would be shipped their way within the next two weeks.
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“We are pleased to confirm that we will be able to secure a PlayStation 5 for you as a replacement for the order that you didn’t receive,” said the email from Amazon, which was forwarded to IGN by May. “Subject to valid payment, we expect to dispatch your PlayStation 5 within 14 days of your confirmation.”
Amazon has yet to offer an official explanation for the botched orders. As such, theories began to spring up, some of which May discusses in her piece for IGN. Shortly after receiving her package, May posted a video on Twitter of what was meant to be a PS5 unboxing, but instead turned into an air fryer unboxing:
Happy #PS5 day everyone. Tried to document our one’s unveiling, but Amazon have tricked us with an unsolicited air fryer instead (after giving delivery password). Anyone else had this problem today? pic.twitter.com/99IUSzSJUU
— Bex April May (@bexlectric) November 19, 2020
After the video went up, someone responded, noting that Amazon doesn’t use clear tape on its packages. If you have received a package from Amazon recently, you know that they all use black Prime-branded tape. Other shoppers said that they encountered the same clear tape on their packages. Had someone tampered with their Amazon boxes? Had they removed the PS5 consoles and replaced them with different items? There are few products harder to get a hold of right now than a PS5, and with the resale market on fire, it certainly seems plausible.
That said, there are a number of safeguards that would make it very difficult, if not impossible, for someone working at an Amazon warehouse or delivering packages to swap out an order. There’s a good chance that we will never find out what happened, but at least Amazon is attempting to do right by its customers.
Jacob started covering video games and technology in college as a hobby, but it quickly became clear to him that this was what he wanted to do for a living. He currently resides in New York writing for BGR. His previously published work can be found on TechHive, VentureBeat and Game Rant.
