A Waterloo, Ont. homeowner is looking for someone to make things right after he said his home was vandalized by a delivery driver almost two months ago. Jeff Owen and his family have lived at the home for roughly four years. They have never had a physical number displayed on the front of their house and say it was never an issue until they a package they had ordered through Amazon was delivered to the home on June 20. “An Amazon driver had dropped off a package. He took a picture of it, walked to his car and came back. Before he came back, he looked both ways and came back and did some artist’s work on our brick,” said Owen. In surveillance footage, the driver can be seen writing the house number in marker. But, the family didn’t notice the addition to their facade for another few weeks. “We do not use the front door. We always go through the garage,” explained Owen, who is also a home builder than has built most of the homes on his street. “He had no right to be writing on my work, damaging my house.” In an emailed statement to CTV News, an Amazon spokesperson sent the following: “We regret this situation did not live up to the standard our customers expect. We’ve been in communication with the customer and have worked directly with them to make it right. This item was sold by a third-party seller and was not fulfilled or delivered by Amazon.” Amazon shared the details of both the third-party seller and delivery carrier with Owen. “The phone number we were given was a number from China, which didn’t exist,” Owen said. CTV News also attempted to contact both companies, but the numbers were not in service at the time of the call. Although it’s been a frustrating situation for Owen to deal with, ecommerce experts said third-party sellers are quite common nowadays. “You have your own store. So you build you store and Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, they are all marketplaces,” explained Marianne Soucy, the owner of Litchi Marketing. The Quebec-based company helps ecommerce sellers get their stores set up on the various virtual storefronts. “You can have FBA, which means ‘fulfilled by Amazon’. So you ship your goods to Toronto, to Calgary at their warehouse and the little robots ship for you everyday,” she explained. “There’s also FBM, which is ‘fulfilled by merchant’.” Soucy is a virtual seller herself who chooses to ship her products directly to buyers. “When I get messages from a customer, I’m responsible to take action,” she said. While there are certain products that names Amazon as the seller and shipper, Soucy said it’s important for consumers to note where the package is coming from. Meanwhile, Owen said he’s still angry about the permanent marker and is working to cover it up. He’s contacted several graffiti companies to inquire about the removal. “Nobody would return our call because it’s such a small job. But, one gentleman happened to be in the area and had a look at it. He gave us a quote, but also said that he could not guarantee that all of it would come off,” Owen said. “Concrete brick sucks in moisture. So it’s not a surface damage, it’s into the brick.” In the City of Waterloo, there is a bylaw requiring home owners to have a clearly visible house number displayed on your property. Owen said his family has since ordered the numbers for their house.
