Delayed Amazon checks by mail. I have first hand experience in this area. For Amazon associates based outside the US of A, the only way to get their commissions is through checks via mail. In my case, it arrives a month, more or less, after it was sent my way by Amazon. Snail mail.
One particular check that got me worried was the one I earned in February this year. Based on the time frames of the first two checks I have received, I am supposed to have received it sometime around March 28, give or take a week.
April came, and went. No check. By April 28, I became doubly worried as I should have received also the check for March. On April 29, a check arrived – the check for March. Where is my February check? With morbid thoughts of things going wrong, my mind began to conjure several possible scenarios that could have happened to my mail:
- A human Amazon employee misplaced, or, worse, forgot about my check.
- My check got lost in the mountain of mail that postal employees sort through everyday.
- My mail accidentally slipped off and got tossed and landed on another mail cart bound for the opposite side of the world.
- The huge mail bag got ripped as it was dragged in the plane’s cargo hold and my mail (of all mails) fell off the plane as it was cruising 30,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean.
As I was imagining these and other far crazier scenarios, I thought of checking out the Amazon associates page to see where I could contact Amazon Support.
On the upper right corner of the Affiliates page is a link for ‘Feedback’. Clicking this link brings one to a page where one could send a message to Amazon support. So, I sent a message about my concern which immediately got a response – an automated response saying my problem will be attended to within 24 hours. Three days later, there was still no response.
On the fourth day, I again sent another email, this time asking for a re-issuance of the subject check. Two days afterward, I finally received a response from Amazon which looked human (not automated). It promised me that they will check their records for that particular check and that if they find that it has not been cleared/encashed yet, they would promptly cancel it and re-issue another one. Wow! That sure was a saver, because I was about to lose faith in Amazon affiliate support.
The next day, my wife, who was on leave, called me from home to inform me that an Amazon check just arrived. It was the problem check. Promptly, I emailed Amazon telling them to disregard my 2 previous complaints as I have just received the check.
I still cant understand how this happened. It may just be a case of my check being misplaced somewhere in the post office system. I’m sure though that, if that be the case, the delay happened in the US side of the postal system as the date stamps from my country showed very recent receipt dates.
Lesson learned: Patience (because delayed amazon checks by mail do happen). This virtue btw is not one of my best, so hopefully the next delays, should it happen again, will not be something longer than this.
If you experience delayed amazon checks by mail, wait it out for a while. The Postal System is not perfect. If your patience gets tested beyond your threshold however, you may contact support and inform them about it. Amazon Support is also not perfect. The delay may just also happen to be their fault.