Amazon reportedly shut down a customer’s smart home devices after a delivery driver falsely claimed that the customer made racist comments through the home’s doorbell camera.
For nearly a week, Baltimore, Maryland resident and Microsoft engineer Brandon Jackson was locked out of his smart home features, an “unwanted” form of “digital exile,” he explained.
On May 24, Jackson received a package from Amazon, which was a routine order and drop-off, and nothing out of the usual. However, the following day, he realized his Echo Show was unresponsive. After attempting to troubleshoot the problem himself and confirming that he had not been the unfavorable victim of a hacker’s scheme, he contacted Amazon to help resolve the problem.
“Puzzled, I followed the advice of the Amazon app and dialed the customer service number it provided. That’s when things began to take a surreal turn,” Jackson explained. The representative who spoke with him said that an email was sent which contained a phone number that he would need to contact.
“As I dialed the number provided in the email, I half-wondered if Amazon was experiencing some issues and I was unwittingly falling into a scam,” he recalled. The person on the receiving end of the call was an Amazon “executive” who asked if Jackson knew why his account had been locked.
“When I answered I was unsure, their tone turned somewhat accusatory,” he explained. “I was told that the driver who had delivered my package reported receiving racist remarks from my ‘Ring doorbell’ (it’s actually a Eufy, but I’ll let it slide).”
Jackson insisted that, for several reasons, the accusation was false. “Most delivery drivers in my area share the same race as me and my family,” he said. Jackson and his family are black Americans. He also specified that he had several camera running at the time of the delivery, and not a single one recorded any of the alleged “racist” remarks.
The doorbell camera had given an automated response, which simply asked, “Excuse me, can I help you?” Jackson said that the driver, who was walking away and wearing headphones, “must have misinterpreted that message.”
Though after submitting video evidence to Amazon, his account and devices remained locked as the internal investigation ran its course.
Nearly a week later, his account was restored; however, Amazon did not immediately send an email apologizing for the inconvenience. A company spokesperson eventually issued the following statement, confirming the customer’s allegations:
“We work hard to provide customers with a great experience while also ensuring drivers who deliver Amazon packages feel safe,” Amazon spokesperson, Simone Griffin, said. “In this case, we learned through our investigation that the customer did not act inappropriately, and we’re working directly with the customer to resolve their concerns while also looking at ways to prevent a similar situation from happening again.”
