An Amazon warehouse worker said a payroll error left her “behind on bills” and “crying,” so she decided to email Jeff Bezos directly — a move that ended up sparking a company-wide audit.
The employee, Tara Jones, chose to bypass Amazon’s usual support channels and reach out straight to the top about her missing pay. She didn’t expect that her message would uncover a much bigger problem affecting hundreds of workers across the company.
At 61, Bezos is one of the world’s richest people, having transformed Amazon from a small garage startup into one of the most powerful companies in the world. A year before stepping down as CEO in July 2021, he received an email from Jones, a warehouse associate from Oklahoma, explaining her pay issue.
Jones had been on medical leave and expected to receive a paycheck of $540. When the payment came through, part of it was missing.
She reported that $90 had not been paid. When the same issue happened again, Jones took matters into her own hands and emailed Bezos personally.
According to The New York Times, Jones wrote: “I’m behind on bills, all because the pay team messed up. I’m crying as I write this email.”
What happened next revealed she wasn’t alone. Her message prompted an internal review that, according to the outlet, found 179 other warehouse employees had also been underpaid over a period of roughly 18 months.
Some workers said they lost their cars to repossession. Others reported being fired after their medical leave was incorrectly marked as unexcused absences. Employees also complained that doctors’ notes were disappearing from the system, leading to confusion about their approved leave status.
Responding to media questions, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told The Independent: “We’re disappointed when any of our employees experience an issue with their leave.”
She continued: “The New York Times article suggested these issues are widespread and ongoing. They are not.”
“We went back and audited the period in question to make sure employees received their pay, and to our knowledge, there are no outstanding issues.”
Nantel added that “The controls we’ve implemented over the last 18 months have resulted in less than one percent of people experiencing an issue while being on paid leave.”
“Certainly, the unprecedented nature of COVID did put a strain on our system’s ability to keep pace with demand and we’ve been hard at work investing and inventing to do better every day.”
Jones’s email not only led to her own pay being corrected but also helped uncover widespread payroll errors, ensuring back pay for many others.
Her case isn’t unique — several people who have written directly to Bezos have reported surprisingly quick resolutions.
In one example shared on Reddit’s LegalAdviceUK forum, a customer who ordered a “high value item” costing $1,480 (£1,099.97) said it was marked as delivered despite never arriving. The order required a one-time password, adding to their frustration.
They emailed Bezos — and soon after, an executive relations agent contacted them, offered a full refund, and even included a goodwill gift card.
The customer said that reaching out “straight to the top” made all the difference.
While contacting leadership isn’t always the solution, in these cases, it forced Amazon to take a closer look — and in Tara Jones’s situation, it led to long-overdue pay corrections for dozens of other workers, too.
