Into Amazonia - double negative scenarios

I had an interesting experience while shopping at Amazon which got me thinking if we all are doing enough in designing our products and solutions keeping in, what I call, the double negative scenarios in mind. 

I had ordered a desk for our home using an Amazon gift card instead of my credit card. After the desk arrived, I started assembling the desk. When I was almost done I noticed that one of the parts was defective. So I decided to ask for a return and replacement from their website which as you all know is so easy to do at Amazon.  Later in the day I realized that the desk I ordered was not the right one I was looking for.  So I cancelled the replacement order (yes there was a button for it!) and ordered a totally new desk (via a new order) which I liked better. I also dropped off the original desk at UPS with the return shipping label that Amazon provided. 

This is when things got interesting. I noticed that I did not get a return/refund notice either on the website or email for the original desk that I returned. I also checked the gift card balance as well as the original order and there was no trace of it being returned or cancelled. 

I decided to give it a few days time but still there was no trace of the refund. I decided to report the problem but I saw no place to report issues with refund of a cancelled ordered on the website. After clicking on a few unrelated links I got a chat window to a customer service representative. I presented the problem to the representative who was a bit perplexed. He mentioned that I had already ordered a new desk and so I won't be getting a refund. When I pointed out that they were totally different orders with different amounts, he realized the problem. After researching the problem for a while he said that he created a ticket to refund the amount back to my gift card. He also mentioned that it would take a few days to process the refund. 

Later that evening, I received an email from Amazon saying that they were sorry that there was a problem with the original order but they needed additional information. They also provided a link to call back to my cell phone and connect me to an Amazon representative. I decided to wait for a few days to take any action on it. 

After three days, I decided to click on the link (they had provided via email) just in case they needed additional information to process my refund. I got connected to an Amazon services representative and after I explained to her about the problem with the refund she didn't quite get what the issue was. She decided to get help and the supervisor who took over asked me about my issue again. When i told him about the email I received from Amazon to provide additional information, he mentioned that Amazon never sends emails like that and that it might be a scam. When I read through the email to him and mentioned that it was legitimate, he did some more research and said that the refund will be processed in three to five days. After the call, I finally noticed on the Amazon website there was a "Return started" status against that item.  

While it is very common for people to return a product and either ask for a refund or a replacement, it appears that the designers forgot about someone asking for a replacement first but then changing their mind and cancelling the replacement and requesting a refund on a gift card instead of a credit card! And of course the Support organization forgot to account for expecting such scenarios while handling support calls.

While I have no doubt that Amazon will eventually issue a refund, this whole process got me thinking if leaders and individuals are doing enough to think about the double negative rainy day scenarios while designing their products and solutions. While it is common to account for the "cancel" scenario, we often forget (myself included) to think about scenarios which have another action associated with the "cancel" coupled with a not so normal usage scenario.

This is just a reminder to myself to think about this while working on building products with my team. As they say if you give a button to users, rest assured, there will always be that user out there who is going to click it when you least expected it and will make that support call when things don't pan out!