Amazon.ca Currency Converter WARNING - Selected CAD but charged USD
This is a warning to all Amazon.ca (CANADA) customers to check your credit card statements.
Amazon.ca has introduced this "Currency Converter" feature that provides you the option to be charged in USD, when shopping on Amazon.ca (CANADA).
Most RFDers will see this as yet another scheme for Amazon to make more money in currency conversion, when credit cards will offer a cheaper conversion.
For my most recent order, I am 100% certain I selected the CAD option, but it still showed up as USD on my Rogers MasterCard online banking.
All items purchased were 'Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca'.
E-mail confirmation shows CAD and then USD in brackets. Images:


Note: The new garbage Rogers MC website no longer directly shows Forex in the normal account Transaction History listing. You have to look in the rewards points listing.
As you can see in the following image, I am getting the FOREX bonuses from Rogers MC, obviously from the FOREX charge:

I phoned Amazon and reached 'Leadership Team' support and spent over 45 minutes on the call - Amazon Leadership Team is adamant their software shows I was charged in CAD. Now they are telling me to call Rogers MC to ask why it is USD.
Obviously what will happen is the bank will say Amazon.ca charged in USD, and I have to contact Amazon to resolve it.
I am going to contact Rogers MC and then contact Amazon again to see what comes of this. I am not optimistic.
This is a matter of less than $2, but I am absolutely infuriated about this because it's probably worth millions of dollars to Amazon.
This is clearly garbage.
Everyone, please check your credit card statement and if you saw this, please complain LOUDLY to Amazon.
***
Update 2019-FEB-14:
- I called Rogers Bank and confirmed that Amazon initiated the charges in USD and they came from Washington. It was Amazon who billed in USD. (This should be absolutely zero surprise.)
- I phoned Amazon again and went to their supervisor, who then confirmed all of this with her supervisor. They claim they checked everything and saw of evidence of be being billed in USD, and all of their information shows I was billed in CAD. They refused to take a scan or photo of my credit card statement. (Not surprised here either.)
Next steps, I'll consider jeff@amazon.com. And I'll consider something like CBC MarketPlace.
I probably won't go as far as a chargeback since this is only for under $2, and I don't want to get my amazon account blocked over a relatively small amount and then lose all my Kindle books, etc.
***
Update 2019-FEB-18:
I have filed the BBB complaint. We shall see what comes of this.
Also, I have thought of a few possible causes for this Forex issue:
1. My Kindle Store setting is USA, not Canada. (This is because of more frequent deals on the American kindle store.)
2. I did change the shipping options between 'ship when everything is ready' and 'ship as soon as possible' 2 times. Maybe this broke something in their software.
***
Update 2019-FEB-20:
Received response to BBB complaint. Appears to be from some Amazon India drone who didn't even read the complaint.
Now they are claiming that I *did* use the Amazon Currency Converter to request USD, and therefore can't get a refund.
This response totally contradicts everything their leadership team told me.
I'm going to apply Occam's Razor here and assume that the person who responded was just an idiot, and I have to slog through first tier drones before I reach anyone competent.
I rejected their resolution. Fortunately the 'rejection' interface allows you to send an attachment, so I made up an image clearly showing my credit card and the Amazon invoic side by side, with relevant parts highlighted.
I'll keep updating here.
Also see the full text of Amazon's response in Post #36.
***
Update 2019-FEB-24:
SUCCESS!! Amazon refunded me for the Forex billing error!
I suspect it was my document, showing Amazon's bill and my credit card online billing info side-by-side, with highlighting, which finally got the message through.
There was apparently no way for me to send this document directly to amazon as they refused to look at my CC billing. It's a good thing the BBB provides this facility.
I was refunded US $1.77 so I am happy with the outcome.
Amazon.ca has introduced this "Currency Converter" feature that provides you the option to be charged in USD, when shopping on Amazon.ca (CANADA).
Most RFDers will see this as yet another scheme for Amazon to make more money in currency conversion, when credit cards will offer a cheaper conversion.
For my most recent order, I am 100% certain I selected the CAD option, but it still showed up as USD on my Rogers MasterCard online banking.
All items purchased were 'Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca'.
E-mail confirmation shows CAD and then USD in brackets. Images:


Note: The new garbage Rogers MC website no longer directly shows Forex in the normal account Transaction History listing. You have to look in the rewards points listing.
As you can see in the following image, I am getting the FOREX bonuses from Rogers MC, obviously from the FOREX charge:

I phoned Amazon and reached 'Leadership Team' support and spent over 45 minutes on the call - Amazon Leadership Team is adamant their software shows I was charged in CAD. Now they are telling me to call Rogers MC to ask why it is USD.
Obviously what will happen is the bank will say Amazon.ca charged in USD, and I have to contact Amazon to resolve it.
I am going to contact Rogers MC and then contact Amazon again to see what comes of this. I am not optimistic.
This is a matter of less than $2, but I am absolutely infuriated about this because it's probably worth millions of dollars to Amazon.
This is clearly garbage.
Everyone, please check your credit card statement and if you saw this, please complain LOUDLY to Amazon.
***
Update 2019-FEB-14:
- I called Rogers Bank and confirmed that Amazon initiated the charges in USD and they came from Washington. It was Amazon who billed in USD. (This should be absolutely zero surprise.)
- I phoned Amazon again and went to their supervisor, who then confirmed all of this with her supervisor. They claim they checked everything and saw of evidence of be being billed in USD, and all of their information shows I was billed in CAD. They refused to take a scan or photo of my credit card statement. (Not surprised here either.)
Next steps, I'll consider jeff@amazon.com. And I'll consider something like CBC MarketPlace.
I probably won't go as far as a chargeback since this is only for under $2, and I don't want to get my amazon account blocked over a relatively small amount and then lose all my Kindle books, etc.
***
Update 2019-FEB-18:
I have filed the BBB complaint. We shall see what comes of this.
Also, I have thought of a few possible causes for this Forex issue:
1. My Kindle Store setting is USA, not Canada. (This is because of more frequent deals on the American kindle store.)
2. I did change the shipping options between 'ship when everything is ready' and 'ship as soon as possible' 2 times. Maybe this broke something in their software.
***
Update 2019-FEB-20:
Received response to BBB complaint. Appears to be from some Amazon India drone who didn't even read the complaint.
Now they are claiming that I *did* use the Amazon Currency Converter to request USD, and therefore can't get a refund.
This response totally contradicts everything their leadership team told me.
I'm going to apply Occam's Razor here and assume that the person who responded was just an idiot, and I have to slog through first tier drones before I reach anyone competent.
I rejected their resolution. Fortunately the 'rejection' interface allows you to send an attachment, so I made up an image clearly showing my credit card and the Amazon invoic side by side, with relevant parts highlighted.
I'll keep updating here.
Also see the full text of Amazon's response in Post #36.
***
Update 2019-FEB-24:
SUCCESS!! Amazon refunded me for the Forex billing error!
I suspect it was my document, showing Amazon's bill and my credit card online billing info side-by-side, with highlighting, which finally got the message through.
There was apparently no way for me to send this document directly to amazon as they refused to look at my CC billing. It's a good thing the BBB provides this facility.
I was refunded US $1.77 so I am happy with the outcome.
Last edited by Jucius Maximus on Feb 24th, 2019 9:36 am, edited 10 times in total.
What if there were no hypothetical questions?