Amazon India, one of the largest and most popular online retailer in the country, has lately taken its customer support a level further. Just like any other online shopping store, Amazon too aims at setting the bar high in terms of customer satisfaction. In an attempt to do so it has recently been asking its customers to upload their Aadhaar number to its website to track down lost packages.
According to a BuzzFeed report, Amazon’s customer support agents are asking its users to reveal their 12 digit Aadhaar number. They’ve made it mandatory to provide an identity proof to track lost packages. The report further states that the support agents have gone on to tell the customers that not uploading Aadhaar’s copy might delay the problem resolution. Moreover, according to Amazon and its customer support team, Aadhaar is mandatory for validating the authenticity of the customer.
Are customers comfortable with Amazon’s initiative?
Well, the customers don’t really seem to be liking this move.
The reason?
Well, data security is a major concern for every single person. This move poses a question of a private company forcing a customer to reveal the details of a government-certified document. As a result, many of the customers took to social media. Here they heavily criticized the online shopping store’s initiative.
The major reason for this backlash is customers’ frustration. That’s because the team is forcing them to submit the private details for getting a product that they have already paid for.
Not only the customers, even the experts believe using Aadhaar for identification proof by a private company holds a person’s privacy at stake. As a matter of fact, Aadhaar for online retail is not one of the five use cases of the card.
What Amazon India has to say about its customer support move:
Amazon India, on the other hand, continues to stick to its method of enhancing its service.
According to an Amazon spokesperson: “We ask customers to submit a government-certified ID. We understand Aadhaar is the most widely held document. So, it is our preferred one. Amazon continues to look for the most robust practices towards customer support. This process is only done in limited cases where a detailed check is required for a missing or wrong delivery. In such cases, customers have to upload a scanned copy of their Aadhaar card on their Amazon.in account, which is a secure form of storing information.”
Do you think it’s a great move on Amazon India’s behalf?