Amazon, Trousers and the Nature of Reality

I have to write about a recent experience with Amazon's customer service. What does it have to do with consciousness? Well, it has to do with attention. And with systems. And with technology versus reality.

The fact that I ordered two pairs of blue trousers on Amazon is another topic. The fact that only one pair arrived and that one wasn't even blue but brown is the point around which my entire story circles. And it unfolds like this:

Amazon parcel arrives. Sticker says 2 items. Inside: 1 item. I had ordered: two blue trousers. Reality: one brown trouser arrived. I request a return. Courier arrives. Looks at the online catalogue image. Looks at my trousers. Refuses trousers because trousers are brown and catalogue says blue. 

The system's representation of reality becomes more authoritative than reality itself. So the brown trousers stay with me and I have to contact Amazon customer service again. 

I spend what feels like half a day in the amazon online chat with Karan, Krishna and eventually Bhavna. A lady who knows how to send preformulated reassurance statements to her customers. Sharing a few extracts of our exchange:

Karan: So in this you need not to worry, he will reach to your location and pick the item from you. 

Karan also: So please don't worry.

M: I do worry because you guys told me already the item would be picked up.

Karan: Otherwise the agent is out for pick up and today the item get picked from you. So please don't worry.

M: No the issue is that he expects blue trousers! He kept showing me the profile photo.

Karan: For this return the verification is removed. It will be picked up today. With no questions asked.

also Karan: Marina you got confused let me clarify.

M: I got confused??

At some point I begin to wonder whether I am talking to a person or a system.

And then comes the exchange that sums up the entire problem:

M: He was already here and rejected it.

Karan: When? There is no update on the tracking.

M: He was here to deliver an item.

Karan: Because there is no such update.

M: What to say? He was here, delivered one item but rejected the pick up.

The courier had physically stood in front of me. But there was no such update.

By now Karan has left the chat and Krishna from the specialist team has joined. He takes two minutes to review the previous correspondence and comes back with:

Krishna: Jockey Men's Premium Printed Full Sleeve Sweatshirt | Round Neck Regular Fit-Green-M

M: NO

● ● ●

I see the pulsating dots. Someone is doing something on Amazon’s side.

Krishna has a technical issue. I am transferred to Bhavna.

Bhavna: Please do not worry. I completely understand your concern.

Bhavna again: I completely understand your concern and will surely assist you.

At some point she replies: Sure, Marina.

Something about that “sure” gets my attention. I look up her name.

M: Bhavna, why is this so difficult?

The reassurance continues. The trousers remain brown.

The return is granted, again. Courier arrives, again. Looks at the online catalogue image. Looks at my trousers. Refuses trousers because trousers are brown and catalogue says blue. Again. The brown trousers stay with me and I have to contact amazon customer service, again.

Fatma is more helpful. But there is another problem: as long as the return pickup remains marked as “active”, she cannot access the options needed to solve the failed pickup.

Fatma: Upon checking I can see that the return pickup is still active please wait till 10 pm once the status is update on our system after that we will surely help you.

M: The pickup being “active” in your system does not resolve the problem. The courier already came today and refused to take the trousers because they are brown, although receiving brown instead of blue is precisely the reason for the return.

Fatma: Once the status is updated after that only we are getting the options. 

I ask whether Amazon can arrange a pickup without colour verification.

After several rounds of Fatma being polite but avoiding a clear statement, I try a yes-or-no question:

M: Once the current pickup status has updated, will Amazon be able to arrange a return WITHOUT colour verification, with the explicit instruction that the BROWN trousers must be accepted because BROWN was incorrectly delivered instead of the BLUE trousers ordered? Please answer YES or NO.

Fatma: After receiving the update from our team what option are available we will share it with you. 

The day ends and the trousers sleep at the door.

As the morning sun rises, I contact Amazon. This time I get customer service associate Arpita. I give her a clear summary of my dilemma. I even share a diagram in our chat to avoid any misunderstandings:

Ordered: 🔵 + 🔵

Received: 🟤

Available to return: 🟤

And she pays attention.

She doesn't send a single preprogrammed reassurance capsule. She looks at what is actually there and separates two problems.

Arpita: For this I can help you with the complete refund for missing item. And for the wrong item I can help you with the complete new fresh return pickup.

Hallelujah.

The missing trousers are refunded. Then:

Arpita: Now let me issue the return.

Within minutes, the refund for the missing trousers is confirmed by email and a new pickup is scheduled.

M: Please make sure the pickup service understands he has to take BROWN trousers.

Arpita: Yes I have mention that customer received a wrong item definitely customer return the wrong one no issue will there.

Exactly. Customer received wrong item. Customer returns wrong item.

Reality had finally entered the database.

Amazon's system is an easy target for mockery. But while all this was unfolding, I kept thinking about the situations in which we humans do something remarkably similar.

Reality stands in front of us, brown trousers in hand, yet we continue to insist that it must be blue.

We play out the programmes of our own operating system: conditioning, beliefs, traditions, norms, stories and assumptions. We see what we expect to see. Sometimes we reject information that doesn't fit the image we already hold.

This is what love looks like.

This is what a good daughter does.

This is what a spiritual teacher should be. This is how you are.

This is who I am.

This is what I am allowed to ask.

Our inner catalogue image says blue. Reality may be standing right in front of us, holding brown. (And the colour symbolism is doing a fabulous job here!)

So.

How do you recognise what you actually know – and live accordingly?