San Jose woman drowns in Amazon packages owing to Chinese seller fraud

For most people, finding an unexpected Amazon box on the porch is a minor mystery: maybe a neighbor’s order, or a surprise gift. But, for, a San Jose woman known publicly only as “Kay” endured a bizarre and exasperating ordeal: her home was deluged with hundreds of Amazon packages she never ordered for more than a year, all containing the same item: faux-leather car seat covers. The packages, sent by a Chinese seller called Liusandedian, began arriving unexpectedly and soon overwhelmed her carport, driveway, and even blocked access for her disabled 88-year-old mother.

The saga started innocently enough, with Kay receiving a single box she assumed was a simple delivery mistake. She checked with neighbors, but no one claimed it. That one package soon turned into a relentless flood, with boxes arriving almost daily. “It’s just been another form of hell,” Kay told, explaining how the mounting deliveries forced her to stack boxes in her yard and made it difficult to even reach her own front door.

The root of the problem was traced to a loophole in Amazon’s return policy for international sellers. Amazon requires sellers outside the U.S. to provide a domestic return address or a prepaid shipping label for returns.

Liusandedian, instead of using a legitimate return center, had listed Kay’s San Jose address as their U.S. return location—without her knowledge or consent. As a result, when American customers tried to return the ill-fitting seat covers, their packages were sent to Kay’s home. Many customers paid hefty shipping fees, sometimes exceeding half the product’s value, but never received refunds, as their returns never reached the actual seller.

Kay’s attempts to resolve the issue with Amazon were initially met with indifference. She filed at least six complaint tickets, but the only response she received was advice to donate the packages, give them away, or take them to a shipping center herself. “Why is it my responsibility to get rid of this, when your seller is not following your rules, Amazon?” she asked in frustration. At one point, the seller even offered her a $100 gift card for her trouble, but the packages kept coming.

The situation only changed after ABC7 News launched an investigation. Following media attention, Amazon finally intervened, apologized to Kay, and dispatched a team to remove the mountain of boxes from her property. The company also pledged to crack down on such practices and, within days, the offending seat cover product was marked as “currently unavailable” on Amazon’s site.