In December 2021, Yelm resident Keri Beagles began receiving Amazon packages she never ordered. At first, she thought it was a wrong address or packages meant for the previous owners.
Since then, the packages have kept arriving.
Beagles has called Amazon several times, but the result was always the same — packages kept arriving.
“It wasn’t until early 2023 that an Amazon customer service rep suggested a brushing scam,” Beagles said.
A brushing scam is where a business sends out packages with very inexpensive items and then can generate a “fake” review.
“The review only cost them the price of the package plus shipping,” Beagles said. “Half of the packages were envelopes.”
Beagles said if she is at the house when the driver arrives, the driver will take them away. However, if Beagles is out of the house, the package is delivered.
“I once left to go to our local store only to find 11 packages on our porch,” she added. “They all had many stickers on them as the result of unsuccessful deliveries. They would, in the beginning, take the local post office, and they would put the envelopes in our mailbox. We tried to take those to the post office. They informed us they would not take them, and we could not throw them away. They claimed it was illegal.”
Nearly all the packages were ink cartridges for a pen, which weighed nothing and easily fit in an envelope or a small box.
“We put them all in a box and added to them when the driver slipped past us,” Beagles said.
While Amazon said the packages would stop, they never did, and Beagles said she didn’t get much help with customer service. In late September, however, a driver was sent to pick up the packages and pen cartridges. But still, the packages kept coming. Other solutions or claims that the packages would stop didn’t take place, Beagles added.
“We have dealt with many drivers,” Beagles said. “Many were the same driver over and over again. They all had to listen to our speech about why they couldn’t leave the packages.”
While Beagles said her address has been red-flagged, meaning they are supposed to not receive any packages, that hasn’t stopped the deliveries. It’s also been suggested that Beagles should donate or throw them away.
“We have inconveniently had to block off our driveways,” Beagles said. “We have put up signs, stating no deliveries. We recently invested in driveway alert sensors that let us know when someone is walking down our driveway since they can’t drive down them.”
Beagles said people still walk past those signs and deliver packages.
“We now have to go to town to pick up all our packages,” Beagles said.
