Amazon Kicks Brooklyn Out Of The Country

Consumerist reader C.W. was on a simple mission to buy some permanent markers — or so he thought: he made it impossible for Amazon to ship him the desired product because he happens to live outside the United States…. in Brooklyn, which as we all know, is its own country.

C.W. was trying to order some king size Sharpie markers from Amazon, but all efforts were blocked when an error popped up saying that the item couldn’t be shipped to the selected address. Upon clicking on “Learn More” to do just that, Amazon explained that there were shipping restrictions for international orders on this item.

“I live in Brooklyn, NY,” writes C.W.

The last time we checked, Brooklyn does, in fact, reside within the confines of the United States of America.

But even a call to an Amazon customer service representative didn’t clear anything up — the rep confirmed the international shipping restrictions. When C.W. reminded her that Brooklyn isn’t an international destination, she said “she didn’t why there was a restriction but I couldn’t have it shipped to my address.”

The item is sold by Sharpie, which is headquartered in the U.S., so it would seem that would make it a domestic order through and through.

When I tried to replicate C.W.’s experience using my own Brooklyn address, I was able to complete the transaction with no trouble. I do, however, live in a different neighborhood and zip code than C.W., so perhaps Amazon only considers some neighborhoods to be outside the boundaries of the U.S.

We’ve reached out to Amazon for an explanation or some insight and will update this post if we hear back

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist