A woman in San Jose has been receiving unsolicited Amazon packages for nearly a year, highlighting what appears to be a major flaw in the global retail giant’s return system.
According to US media reports, the woman—who has chosen to remain anonymous—has been inundated with daily deliveries of car seat covers she never ordered. The packages, sent via Amazon, have overwhelmed her property, leaving her garage and driveway packed with boxes and obstructing mobility for her 88-year-old disabled mother.
The root of the problem appears to lie with a Chinese seller, identified as Liusan Didian, who has been selling imitation leather car seat covers under the brand Etkin on Amazon. For reasons yet unclear, the seller reportedly listed the San Jose woman’s address as the default return location for dissatisfied customers across the globe.
As a result, every time a customer returns a product—often due to poor fitting, quality issues, or refund disputes—the item is mistakenly shipped to the woman’s residence.
Despite raising the issue with Amazon at least half a dozen times, the company failed to take any substantive action for months. “It just kept coming every day,” the woman told local reporters, adding that the constant influx of boxes has left her distressed and her elderly mother virtually homebound.
It was only after local media outlets brought the story to public attention that Amazon representatives finally intervened. In a statement, the company said it had apologised to the woman and begun efforts to retrieve the wrongly delivered parcels. “We are working directly with the customer to resolve the matter and ensure this does not happen again,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Amazon officials have since visited the affected home, retrieving dozens of packages, and promised further clean-up operations in the coming days.
Interestingly, this is not the first such incident reported. A man in Woodside, California—John DeFever—encountered a similar issue last year when he too became the unintended recipient of numerous Amazon parcels tied to return mismanagement.
The latest episode underscores growing concerns about how third-party sellers exploit loopholes in major e-commerce platforms. In this case, consumer reviews on the Etkin seat covers also revealed recurring complaints about poor quality, high return fees, and buyers never receiving refunds.
As questions mount over Amazon’s accountability and its oversight of third-party sellers, consumer rights groups have called for increased transparency and stronger protections for individuals unknowingly caught in the logistics chain.
