During the course of every SE pertaining to companies when social engineering them for a refund or replacement of an Item, the SE'er will predominantly think of the possibility of Investigations opened, accounts closed (due to too many claims), police reports requested, the need to sign affidavits, carriers knocking at their door and the list goes on. This Is not necessarily a bad thing- as It prepares the social engineer for the "what Ifs", thus he can prepare and take action accordingly In an effective manner.
However, the reason for a lot of failed SEs, Is due to "the mindset of the social engineer". He's obviously well aware that It's performed on non-legit grounds and as such, every action he takes In response to his claim, "Is SOLELY done and viewed from a manipulating and social engineering standpoint". This puts a negative spin on things- namely when there's no element of legitimacy whatsoever Included Into the SE.
For this reason alone, It's very good practice to take every SE as though It's legit, and use your skill set to manipulate the representative Into believing that It Is In fact REAL with every action performed. Reps are not stupid, they're a lot smarter than you think! The moment there's the slightest degree of suspicion, the rep will detect It and do whatever It takes to decline your claim.
Ever wondered why your SE failed, when everything you did was right? Well, It wasn't right all the way through- something throughout the process raised concern, thereby the representative realized what was going on, and that's all It took to end up failing. So let's see the common reasons why SEs should be taken from a legit perspective.
How & Why The SE Is Taken As A Legit Claim:
I've been asked countless times about the number of SEs that can be performed on a given account, and If It's okay to use the "DNA (Did Not Arrive) method" for the second time In a row. Evidently, the social engineer was concerned whether his account would be flagged and ultimately closed due to suspicious activity detected. Regardless how many times I tried to explain to the contrary, It fell on deaf ears. This Is because the SE'er was ONLY looking at It from an SEing point of view.
Now let's do a 180 degree turn, and "totally disregard the social engineering side of things". We'll assume you have an Amazon account that was recently created, with only the one transaction performed without Issues. If you ordered a pair of AirPods and upon delivery, they were "legitimately missing", you'd have no problem at all obtaining a refund. Why? Well, Amazon would've simply cross-checked the consignment and approved your claim.
Next, let's say a week later, you ordered a computer monitor and the carrier left It at your doorstep without requesting a signature. Unbeknownst to you, someone happened to "legitimately steal It" and you've explained the event to Amazon. They've opened an Investigation and once again, cross-checked the consignment, deemed It conclusive and Issued a refund thereafter.
Why Is It that two claims within the same week, were approved with virtually no questions asked? The answer Is obvious- "you had nothing to hide by submitting a couple of legit claims". This clearly demonstrates that If you treat your SE In a similar fashion, by formulating, manipulating and executing It to give the Impression that everything Is true and correct, It will have the same outcome!
In Conclusion:
There's no doubt whatsoever, that SEing takes a high degree of manipulative skills to get the job done right, but as you've just realized, you must be flexible with how you apply yourself. If you solely focus on the social engineering side of things, without giving any thought on how a legit claim "succeeds" under the same circumstances, then you'll always have an element of failure In the back of your mind. The equation Is like this: 90% SEing, and 10% legit. That "10%" will help turn a negative Into a positive, which can make all the difference In a successful outcome.
