CONSUMER ALERT regarding Amazon Key Delivery
If you shop on Amazon and own a garage equipped with certain smart garage door openers, this is something you need to know.
I just returned from Las Vegas where I covered CES 2025 — the Consumer Electronics Show.
My booth visit with one of the exhibitors resulted in a major headache for me that involved my home security company, my neighbors, and potentially the San Diego Police Department and damage to my home.
On Thursday at CES I was visiting an exhibitor — Leisure Hydration — that was offering taste tests of their new non-carbonated, “Electrolyte Refresher,” “nutrient enhanced water beverage.” I liked the taste of all three flavors so I ordered their show special at a 20% discount. The company’s representative helped me use my iPhone’s camera to shoot their QR code and place my order through my Amazon Prime account.
Amazon Prime frequently gives me no-charge one-day delivery but I did not want the beverages that I ordered to sit in the sun outside my house from Friday until my return late on Sunday, so together we looked at my Amazon shipping options. The furthest day out for delivery was Sunday, so I chose that.
Afterwards I went online into my Amazon account to verify my order. The 20%-off price was correct but I noticed that instead of my usual Amazon Prime delivery by my front door, the shipment was set up to be delivered by “Amazon Day with Key Delivery” — whereby Amazon would place the order inside my closed garage.
I was aware that this service existed but I had never used it, since I do not want strangers going into my garage when I am not home. When I go away on a long road trip, as I did to cover CES, I arm my home security system and I lock the garage doors. My security system is monitored by a security company. Once it is armed, if someone enters my house or garages, my security company is automatically notified, and loud exterior and interior sirens sound.
I used to use the physical sliding lock to lock my garage doors, but I stopped doing that after one time when I mistakenly tried to use my garage door opener to open the locked garage door. It jammed and I had to get it fixed by a garage door repair service. Since then, I’ve instead been pressing the electronic ‘LOCK” button for my Chamberlain garage door opener.
Early Sunday afternoon I received an urgent phone call from my security company, telling me that my home alarm had just gone off. If I had not answered, they would have called the San Diego Police Department to dispatch officers. We tried to figure out what had caused the alarm, since they told me that none of my house’s motion detectors showed movement inside my house.
Then I remembered that Amazon was supposed to deliver my recent order outside of my house on Sunday. Had they not heeded my confirmed demand to change to Amazon Prime Delivery? Even so, I’d electronically locked my Chamberlain garage door opener.
A concerned neighbor told me that my loud exterior siren had sounded.
I then checked my Ring video cameras. Sure enough, a recorded video showed an Amazon delivery driver using my Chamberlain garage door opener to open my garage door so that he could put my order inside.
I phoned Amazon to complain. They said they could see my Friday chat, which clearly stated that I did not want Amazon Key Delivery and to change it to Amazon Prime Delivery, and that the Chat agent had acknowledged my request.
However, Amazon then told me that I had not been chatting with a live person, but rather with a computer (AI), and that it was actually not possible to change a delivery from Amazon Key Delivery to Amazon Prime Delivery. Furthermore, they told me that their drivers can override the LOCK button on my Chamberlain garage door opener. That’s how they got in and set off my alarm.
If you choose Amazon Key Delivery, be sure to turn off your security system and do not physically lock your garage door.
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Copyright © 2025 by Jan Wagner – AutoMatters & More #867
Jan, so your Chamberlain control is inside the garage door, and Amazon could unlock it remotely! Shocking! You can see, Bots are not reliable and nothing that say would stand up in court. David.
Yes, I was totally taken by surprise that Amazon could remotely unlock my garage door that I had locked from the inside, and then open it. Furthermore, if I had physically locked that garage door with the sliding bolt at the bottom of it, and then Amazon had tried to open it remotely, they would’ve broken my garage door opener — literally making them guilty of breaking and entering, since I had not only not given them permission for this Amazon Key Delivery, but specifically denied them permission from doing what they did.
Jan
Jan, I hate home security systems…the more complicated they become, the more glitches. Shouldn’t the Chamberlain control be inside the garage where it’s tamperproof? (I guess then you would have to back your car out, close the garage door while inside, and exit through the front door) big hassle!
I never trust the Chat feature on any website. Unless it specifically says it is a live person, you can be sure it is a Bot. Bots normally can’t make difficult decisions because the AI used is rudimentary. My PhD son specializes in AI, so I try to keep in touch. I did enjoy your article.
David.
David, a relevant weakness of my Chamberlain garage door opener is that even though I electronically ‘locked’ my garage door by pressing the physical lock button inside my garage, and then exiting on foot through my front door after arming my security system, the Amazon delivery driver was able to (despite my explicit instructions not to) override my LOCK command and gain (unauthorized) access to my garage, setting off this chain of events. After I called and spent quite a bit of time on the phone with non-U.S. Amazon so-called Customer Service — including one time when I had to call back because Amazon accidentally (I hope) disDavid,
A pertinent weakness of my Chamberlain garage door opener is that even though I electronically ‘locked’ my garage door by pressing the physical lock button inside my garage, and then exiting on foot through my front door after arming my security system, the Amazon delivery driver was able to (despite my explicit instructions not to) override my LOCK command and gain (unauthorized) access to my garage, setting off this chain of events. After I spent quite a bit of time on the phone complaining to non-U.S. Amazon Customer Service — including one disconnect, I asked for a callback from an Amazon U.S. senior supervisor, but they never called me.
Jan