I tried to return a damaged book to Amazon. Instead, I got lambasted for living in Israel
An Amazon customer in Tel Aviv recently had customer service hang up on him because she didn’t “see” his country on the map. Graphic by Nora Berman
Dan Perry February 28, 2024
The book arrived at my apartment in Tel Aviv with a mysterious blotchy red mark spread across several dozen pages. A bunch of its 416 pages were folded, presumably by a prior reader. Amazon had promised a new copy of the novel Dear Mr. M, by the edgy Dutch master Herman Koch, which this was manifestly not.
I called Amazon’s customer service hotline, and after the requisite rigmarole, a very nice lady materialized and listened to my explanation of the situation. She hardly quibbled, assured me that she believed me when I said I had nothing to do with damaging the book, and offered to replace it at no cost. Huzzah! That was much further than you can get on Amazon’s website, which insists on a complicated and pointless physical return of the unsellable item.
Then I gave her my address: street, city, country.
I heard the very nice lady stop typing, and the line was filled with awkward silence.
“Hello?” I asked.
“I see this address is not on the map,” she said. “I only see Palestine.”
And then the line went dead.
I stared at the phone in disbelief, which is not my normal mode. Had I detected a hint of anger? Or was that slight quiver in her voice the sound of a person about to take a risky but heartfelt action?
I turned the moment over in my mind. It was frustrating — I’d have to start down the dreaded customer-service labyrinth anew — but also deeply concerning, in fact absurd.
Clearly Israel was on Amazon’s map — the company had just sent me the book! Indeed, many books before, in the two years since it began deliveries to the Holy Land, and all to this very address, with the country’s name spelled out right there on the label.
It seemed clear that this not-very-nice-it-turns-out Amazon rep had shunned me because of her personal views about the Jewish state. Had she been affected by the horrible images from the Gaza war, I wondered, or did she hate Israel always? We’ll never know.
Either way, though, when she said “I only see Palestine” and hung up, she was not just creating another dissatisfied customer, but politicizing the world’s biggest marketplace in a dangerous way.
Of course I called Amazon right back. Once more, I suffered through all the menus and buttons one must navigate to attain an audience before a human being. This time, it was a man named Naman, who told me that he was based in India, and that the woman who had hung up on me was, too. With the help of a supervisor, Naman organized a refund, and then asked if there was anything else he could do for me.
Yes, I said. Could he explain his predecessor’s actions? Surely, I suggested, Amazon does not allow its employees to deny people service based on their nationality, ethnicity, politics or address?
“We Indians are not so political and generally do not know much about these things,” Naman offered. I gently rebuffed this theory, and he did not argue.
So what would Amazon do to make sure such things don’t happen again? Naman couldn’t say. Nor have the retail behemoth’s corporate PR reps, whom I have repeatedly emailed over the last month. (Yes, I have the right email address, from Naman and from the Amazon site, and I’ve gotten no response.)
That’s the surprising part. That an employee does something stupid, or violates company policy, is hardly a shock. Individuals are unpredictable and autonomous. But companies have policies, and PR reps to respond to inquiries about them.
I have no doubt that the not-very-nice-lady violated Amazon policies. But the PR reps’ non-response suggests an indifference that is surprising — or would have been just a few months ago.
But today, Israel is being vilified all over the world because of its actions in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion and massacre. That is a complicated and emotive debate that can be informed by many perspectives and historical narratives. We cannot untangle them here.
What is not debatable is that the vilification is extreme, and that it drives antisemitism in its wake.
I still hold out hope for a response from Amazon. But I can’t help feeling that more and more companies are headed in the direction of denying service to Israel and its residents, officially or unofficially.
On one level, this is something Israel should factor into its decisions about the war and the day after; you cannot ignore world opinion all the time. But I see a bigger issue, a matter of principle. A principle under assault.
Because we live in an increasingly odd era, when everything is “lived experience,” feelings matter more than facts and one is judged by the color of their flag and not the content of their character. If we’re not diligent, if we don’t stand up for an individual’s rights in a liberal world order, this phenomenon will spread, and it may come for you.
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