At this point it feels like the certainties in life are death, taxes and Amazon delivery drivers stealing pets.
If there’s a fourth, it’s Amazon’s predictably awful response to customers whose cats and dogs are stolen by the company’s drivers. Whether asking distraught customers how much the pet was worth, offering credit, or offering to send stuffed animals as replacements, Amazon has generally been unhelpful. This is a pattern going back years now and Amazon still hasn’t come up with a protocol to handle these situations.
A recurring problem is that Amazon treats the incidents like regular customer service complaints. Their customer service representatives aren’t trained for the possibility, they are apparently reluctant to go off-script, and the result is that the reps treat the missing pets like fungible products, as if these situations can be rectified by sending a replacement or reimbursing a customer.
That’s the last thing anyone wants to hear. Pets are companions, considered family by most Americans who have cats and dogs in their homes. Hearing “And how much would you say Fluffy’s worth?” exacerbates the frustration and worry.
In the latest incident, surveillance footage shows an Amazon driver picking up a cat named Sidney from his family’s driveway in Kansas City on April 20. At 16 years old, dependent on medication with his health failing, Sidney was near the end of his life, Marsha Reeves told the local Fox affiliate.
“I knew his time was near, and I just wanted him to be comfortable and at home when it came,” she said.
Because of the driver’s actions, Sidney’s last days were spent in distress and confusion, separated from the people who loved him. The driver surrendered him to a shelter the next day, and Sidney was bounced between shelters and animal control with his family frantically trying to track him when a veterinarian at a rescue group euthanized him.
“I cannot even imagine what he was thinking,” she said. “He did not deserve to die on a metal table with strangers poking him. He should have been at home in my arms when he took his last breath.”
Marsha Reeves, Sidney’s human
It’s a tragic and horrific end for a cat whose family wanted to fill his last days with love. They’re denied closure, and to add to the awfulness of the situation, Reeves said the mega-corporation was not helpful, at first not admitting one of its drivers took the cat, then slow-walking the response.
“I cannot even imagine what he was thinking,” Reeves said. “He did not deserve to die on a metal table with strangers poking him. He should have been at home in my arms when he took his last breath.”
We’ve written about this before, and previous cases make it clear: people who find themselves in this situation should not wait for Amazon (or any other company) to handle it, because it’s not a priority for them. In every case in which a family has successfully regained their cat, the common denominator was they took it upon themselves to lead the effort and were relentless in searching, posting flyers locally, rallying support online and making noise in local media. Sometimes even that’s not enough, but it increases the odds of a happy reunion by orders of magnitude compared to putting faith in a corporation and police.
In this case, there’s been no word from Amazon about consequences for the driver or changes to the way the company trains its delivery workforce and customer service representatives.
The driver “needs to come with a supervisor and face me and my family members who this has affected,” Reeves told the local Fox affiliate. “I think Amazon needs to be held accountable. I think this young woman needs to be held accountable. She needs to realize that there are consequences to her decision making.”
So far the company hasn’t admitted wrongdoing or offered an apology, which is consistent with cases in the past involving drivers who have stolen pets.
“Why won’t Amazon just come out and say ‘we screwed up?’”
Pain In The Bud 
This is absolutely heartbreaking, it makes me so sad and angry, these people are evil I hope at the very least that he lost his job
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Hey Wendy, glad you’re still reading the blog. I agree, it’s heartbreaking for Sidney and his family. Poor little guy deserved better than this.
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Unforgiveable. It ain’t rocket science to come up with a better way of responding to incidents like this.
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They’ve had years and haven’t changed a thing about how they respond despite all the negative press, reputational damage and the fact that the victims are their own customers. The executives do not care.
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Amazon again? A driver ran over a dog. Their response is still disgusting.
“
AMAZON DRIVER RUNS OVER FAMILY DOG AND LEAVES HER TO DIE On April 21st at 4:56PM, an Amazon delivery driver in Benson, NC ignored clear instructions, entered a private driveway, and ran over Sadie, a beloved dog owned by Marshall and Valerie Chavis. The driver did not stop, did not check on her, and did not notify the family. Within minutes, Sadie was rushed to the vet with catastrophic injuries, including severe brain trauma and fractures to her C1 and C2 vertebrae. She is alive, but barely, and now fighting for her life……..”
https://x.com/LoneStarChica/status/2048026052815999258?s=20
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Very sad and a predictable non-response from the company.
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My number one fear is not being there when my cat gets put to sleep. I was rushed to emergency room twice in 7 years. I am fine. But i am petrified that if something did happen to me what will happen to my cat? This situation with that poor cat being alone? This is why i was never anti-gun!!
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Yep, that’s why it’s good to have arrangements with people you trust to take care of your cat if God forbid anything happens.
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Are any of these cat owners getting a lawyer to sue these garbage people? And!i assume you know about a driver kidnapping a child and killing her? Not sure if it was Amazon.
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Keep your frickin’s pets INSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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This is heartbreaking! However, I think in light of these situations people need to do their best to keep their pets indoors or get a catio or cat fencing for cats. I think Amazon’s range of responses is appalling. I’ve hated their business practices for years and I think it would be a good time for pet guardians to consider purchasing as little from them as possible.
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Agreed. We’re talking about a company that tallies the bathroom breaks its warehouse employees take, has destroyed American retail, floods the US market with Chinese knockoff products that don’t respect US intellectual property, engages in rent-seeking behavior like adding commercials to Prime Video and forcing subscribers to pay more to remove them, and so many other shady practices.
I also like “pet guardians” as an alternative to “caretakers” which is what I usually use.
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It’s very sad that these cats have been taken, but IF THEY HAD NOT BEEN ALLOWED OUTSIDE, IT NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.
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I agree, although I’ve tried to be less judgmental of people who allow their cats outside. We all have different circumstances depending on where we live and it’s never easy keeping smart cats mentally stimulated inside.
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Back when I lived in Philly, I would occasionally let one of my cats out in my backyard for maybe a half hour so she could play Jungle Cat. For that whole half hour I would be watching to make sure she stayed in the yard. I could never in good conscience just let her out, and go back to my day, and maybe check hours later to see if she was still out there.
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Oh I agree with that, I couldn’t do it either. I’d never be able to forgive myself if anything happened to Bud and just like you, I’d be worried the whole time.
But I also try to remember living situations and neighborhoods are different. We’ve got lots of traffic and, despite that, coyotes here, so it’s out of the question for me.
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Oh this story is just so heartbreaking.
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That’s horrible. I would be devastated if that happened to Snoops. Why can’t Amazon at least make it a firing offense to steal someone’s pet?
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I don’t know if it’s incompetence or some sort of legal reluctance to admit any responsibility for these incidents. They clearly don’t care enough to develop basic protocols so these cases are handled compassionately and with common sense, since it’s been years and their response is always the same.
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