Amazon shut off a man’s smart home devices for a week after a delivery driver falsely accused the customer of hurling a racial slur via a doorbell intercom, the tech giant confirmed Thursday.
Brandon Jackson, who is black, said he found himself digitally exiled by the company on May 25 — less than 24 hours after an Amazon delivery driver dropped off a package at his home and reported him for being racist.
The homeowner, who detailed the saga in a Medium post, said he was informed of the unwarranted lockout after contacting Amazon when he realized he couldn’t interact with his smart home devices.
“I was told that the driver who had delivered my package reported receiving racist remarks from my ‘Ring doorbell’,” Jackson said.
Jackson, an engineer at Microsoft, was quick to point out flaws in the allegation — including that none of his family members were actually home when the package was dropped off.
He then reviewed footage from the various surveillance cameras set up outside his home and confirmed no such racial slur was uttered.
“Instead, the Eufy doorbell had issued an automated response: ‘Excuse me, can I help you?'” Jackson said.
“The driver, who was walking away and wearing headphones, must have misinterpreted the message. Nevertheless, by the following day, my Amazon account was locked, and all my Echo devices were logged out.”
Jackson insisted he supported Amazon taking extra precautions to protect delivery drivers, but questioned why he had to be locked out of his account for a week as an internal probe was carried out.
“Despite promptly submitting video evidence immediately upon learning of the issue, my account remained locked,” he said.
Despite numerous calls and emails, the homeowner said his account wasn’t reinstated until May 31.
“This incident has led me to question my relationship with Amazon. After nearly a decade of loyalty, I’ve been given a harsh reminder that a misunderstanding can lead to such drastic measures,” Jackson said.
“It seems more reasonable to handle such issues in a more compartmentalized way, rather than a blanket shutdown of all services.”
In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed the ordeal and said the company was working to prevent similar situations from happening in the future.
“We work hard to provide customers with a great experience while also ensuring drivers who deliver Amazon packages feel safe,” the spokesperson, Simone Griffin, said.
“In this case, we learned through our investigation that the customer did not act inappropriately, and we’re working directly with the customer to resolve their concerns while also looking at ways to prevent a similar situation from happening again.”
