Did you recently receive an Amazon package, of something that you didn’t order?
Whether you received a random item or someone has purchased a gift for you, you may want to know who was the person that sent it.
Thankfully, there is a lot you can do to find out who sent you an Amazon package, and the process is pretty simple.
In this article, I’ll be covering how you can discover who sent you an Amazon gift, as well as what you should do if you received a package randomly.
1. Look Inside The Package For A Packing Slip
The first thing that you should do is to open up the package, and look around inside for a packing slip.
Even when purchasing items as a gift, many people don’t actually mark the order as a gift purchase. This means that the buyer of the item can be found on the packing slip that Amazon ships with the order.
The packing slip will be printed on a white piece of paper, and can usually be found on top of or below the item.
You’ll want to look for a piece of information labeled ‘Buyer Name’, which may be located in a different section than your actual shipping address.
Note that third-party sellers may use their own style of packing slips, so the exact layout may be different. However, Amazon requires them to be included, so there will be one available somewhere.
As long as the order wasn’t marked as a gift, the buyer name should be present on the packing slip.
However, if the package was marked as a gift at checkout, Amazon may omit both the buyer name, as well as the price paid for the item.
So, this is just something to keep in mind!
2. Gather All Of Your Order Information, And Contact Customer Service
Next up, you should gather as much information about the order as you possibly can. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to:
- Your name.
- Your address.
- Your phone number.
- The date the package was delivered.
- Your order ID.
- The ASIN, or listing page for the item.
- The tracking ID, which can be found on the shipping on the outside of the Amazon box.
Note that your order ID and the product’s ASIN (or listing page name) can typically be found on the packing slip, if one was included.
Once you have this information, you can contact Amazon’s customer support by clicking here.
In your message, let the Amazon representative know that you received a package that you didn’t order, and that you want to know why you received it, or who it came from.
Since the order is not tied to your account, you will need to make sure that you provide at the very least, the order ID or tracking ID on the package. This will be sufficient for the Amazon representative to look up the order in their system, and pull up detailed information on who originally purchased it.
An example message could be something like the following.
“Hello! I recently received an Amazon order to my house, that I didn’t order myself. I was hoping you can tell me who it was ordered by, and if I was meant to receive it.
The order ID is 123-4567890-5123 and the tracking number listed on the outside of the box is 9400 1234 5678 9999 5555 00. The address it was shipped to was 1234 Example St, Seattle WA 98112 USA. Thank you!”
Note that even if you provide all available information, Amazon may not be able to tell you the exact identity of the person that ordered it, in order to protect their privacy.
However, they should be able to confirm whether or not it was indeed a gift purchased for you, so you at least know that the order wasn’t fraudulent or malicious.
3. Look Up The Tracking Number On The Label
Outside of the original box the item was shipped in, you should find a shipping label with a tracking number on it.
Usually, this will be located either towards the bottom of the label near the barcode, but it can also be near the top corners depending on the courier it was shipped with.
UPS, USPS and Fedex all have different types of shipping labels, so you should scan the whole thing until you find the tracking number.
Once you do, type the tracking number into Google. Google will automatically give you a suggestion to track the package, which you should follow.
Once you land on the tracking page, you can review the tracking history to see where the product was originally shipped from.
Since you will be able to see the city in which the package was originally handed off to the shipping company, this can provide an idea on who actually sent it.
Of course, this only works if the sender was already in possession of the item, and reshipped it in an Amazon box.
So, they would have needed to order it to their own house first, and then manually shipped it out to you themselves, using the same box.
This is because Amazon ships from a large number of different locations – they have over 100 different fulfillment centers in the United States alone. Therefore, if Amazon themselves were the ones that shipped it directly to you, looking at the tracking wouldn’t be much help.
4. Ask The People Who Are Likely To Send You Gifts
Finally, your last option is to reach out to the people who are most likely to have sent you a gift from Amazon, and ask if they are the ones that sent the package to you.
Most people enjoy receiving recognition when they give a thoughtful gift, so the person that did it is likely to admit it when they are confronted about it.
By the same token, there are likely only a handful of friends and family that actually know your address. So, reaching out to people until you find out who sent it may not take very long.
If someone admits to it, your search is done!
Will You Be Charged If You Receive An Amazon Package You Didn’t Order?
Although receiving an Amazon package out of the blue can come as a pleasant surprise, it can also cause some people to worry – will you be charged for the item that you received? Will you need to pay for it, even if you didn’t order it?
Thankfully, the answer is no.
Regardless of whether the Amazon package was a gift or you received it randomly, you are not legally required to pay for it or even to mail it back – at least in the United States.
This is based on a federal law that you can read more about on the FTC’s website here.
Keep in mind that Amazon never mails out orders that have not yet been paid for. Even if the payment for the order fails, Amazon will wait to ship the order until the payment method has been revised, and the payment clears.
Of course, you can check to make sure that the package was actually supposed to be sent to you by looking at the shipping address on the label.
If Amazon ends up delivering someone else’s package to your house, the ethical thing to do is to try and remedy the situation. Thankfully, Amazon has plenty of systems in place to do that.
Why Did I Receive A Random Amazon Package?
Receiving random packages from Amazon – especially if they don’t appear to be a gift, can be quite confusing.
So, why does this happen?
There are a couple of reasons.
The first thing you should do is check to make sure you didn’t have someone else’s package sent to you by mistake. As mentioned earlier, you can do this by looking at the name the package is addressed to, on the outside of the box.
Where it gets more confusing however is if the package is addressed to you, and doesn’t appear to be a gift. For example, it isn’t something you’d normally buy, and nobody you’ve talked to mentioned sending a gift to you.
In these instances, it’s possible you may have received a package from a seller trying to manipulate their own product reviews.
Amazon sellers rely heavily on positive reviews in order to help their products sell. Unfortunately, there has been a scheme known as ‘brushing’ in which scammers and marketers have packages sent to your address, and then leave positive reviews for the products under your name.
Thankfully, Amazon doesn’t take much action against people who are victims of brushing.
While some people who have engaged in review manipulation have lost their ability to review products on Amazon, this action is taken on an account level, rather than an address level. This means that since you weren’t the one that ordered the product, nothing bad is likely to happen to you from Amazon themselves.
I highly recommend reviewing it, as the USPIS has specific instructions depending on the type of item received.
Conclusion
Often times, you can find out who sent you a package from Amazon by following the steps above.
However, if you received a package randomly and it does not appear to be a gift, you should visit the United States Postal Inspection Service’s website to learn what to do next.
Keep in mind that regardless of the situation, you are not liable to pay for the shipment.
I hope that you’ve found this article helpful. If you have any other questions about Amazon orders, please ask them using the comment form below and I’ll respond as soon as possible.
Thanks for reading, and wishing you the best!
– James McAllister