Two of my nearest and dearest have struggled with this recently, so I thought I’d write a newsletter to help out anyone else who might not be aware.
By now, most of us are vaguely familiar with the concept of a one-time passcode – it’s usually a six-digit code that a company will send you via text or email when you log in to their website, or make a big purchase, just to make sure that it’s really you and not some rotten fraudster. But in the last couple of years, Amazon has started sending out one-time passcodes (or OTPs, for short) as part of their deliveries.
For example, my partner ordered an expensive new computer part for his gaming PC (a graphics card, if anyone’s interested). But what he didn’t realise was that because it was a valuable item, that meant that Amazon would send him an OTP that he’d need to give to the delivery driver, before they could hand the parcel over to us.
In Amazon’s defence, they did send him an email telling him that this would happen, but he’d missed it and gone out to see some friends when the delivery arrived. So I ended up having a lovely chat with the delivery man while I rang my partner and explained how to find the code he needed over speakerphone – we got there eventually, but it was a right old faff!
My sister also had a situation like this, only it wasn’t something she’d ordered herself, but a Christmas present that someone else had sent directly to her house. But of course, since she wasn’t the one to order it, and she didn’t know who it was from, the driver couldn’t deliver it to her without the code, in case it was the wrong address or the wrong person.
Now before anyone gets too stressed, they aren’t doing this for every item you order, only ones that are on the expensive side. I’ve struggled to find an exact figure, but the cheapest item needing an OTP that I’ve come across so far was a replacement phone at around £150 (after its predecessor took a fatal dip in the local fishing pond).
Thankfully, finding the code you need is reasonably straightforward – they’ll either email it to you on the day, or if you have the Amazon app on your smartphone, you can find it fairly easily. Open the app and tap on the person icon at the bottom to view your account, then tap on “Orders” or “Your Orders”.
Find the item in question and tap on that, then tap on “Track package”. Above the little green progress line tracking your delivery, it’ll tell you what your code is. You can do this on the website as well, except there isn’t a person icon – you just click or tap on “Returns & orders” at the top instead.