this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Free returns is great insulation against broken products.
In my experience having to pay 15% of the purchase price just to return something that arrived broken definitely prevented any unnecessary purchases from that company in the future.
That's why the warranty exists. If something arrives broken then the company hasn't actually fulfilled their obligation of sending you the product you ordered in the first place, but that doesn't mean a refund, but a replacement product. It also circumvents any "we'll give a refund but not for the shipping cost" or "we send the replacement but you have to cover the shipping" bullshit - they didn't send what you ordered, it's their responsibility to fix it until you have it working on your hands.
I didn't see it on the article, but I would expect that returns/replacements for broken, defective, or misleading items will still be free. I'm guessing the problem is people using free returns when buyers remorse kicks in.
I wouldn't count on it. I have already had to pay return shipping on several items this year from Amazon that arrived either broken or were the wrong version of the item (seller error). These items were "Fulfilled by Seller" items, which means the seller shipped them instead of an Amazon warehouse. There was no way for me to know they would charge me return shipping if the item was broken or incorrect.
Upon setting up the return on Amazon, I then learn I must pay for shipping even though the issue was not my fault. Some of the items I just had to eat the loss on because shipping is expensive as hell for individuals. I was surprised Amazon allowed companies to get away with this. But now I know why.
From my experience selling on Amazon, I can tell you that Amazon would 100% refund you and side with you over the seller. Amazon sellers aren’t allowed to do what you are describing at all. I moved to selling on eBay more because there were a million returns on Amazon, and you were obligated to process all of them.
Amazon's return dialogue was the one that told me to pay the shipping on the broken or not-as-described items. It did this after I entered the return reasons from the drop-down options. This is fully supported and facilitated by Amazon.
It may not be that way for all seller-fulfilled items, and this may be new this year, but Amazon's own system is the one giving these directions (to pay for return shipping) after it is aware of the return reason.
Oh yeah. Dark patterns abound on Amazon. It’s really not shocking that an honest person would have trouble making it through their customer support maze.
If the seller doesn’t make it easy, the buyer might need to talk a human at Amazon and/or file an A2Z guarantee claim or whatever they are called these days to get a full refund.
The system is setup to save Amazon as much money as possible and push people to being Prime members. Unhappy with the third party seller scamming you? You should bought a Prime subscription and only purchase things fulfilled by Amazon. /s
P.s. Sometimes the easiest option is literally to call Amazon. They do have a number (in the US at least), but it can be super hard to find on the site. 1-888-280-4331
If that's the case, I imagine they'll suddenly see an uptick of destroyed merchandise coming back. Seems counterproductive because then there's no way to resell it.
I don't know a single company that will charge you for a return if you receive something broken. It just doesn't happen. 95% of our returns are buyer's remorse or they didn't research their needs better. Easier just to buy and return then to do the work.
I've had it happen.
Even on Amazon I've had vendors not want to refund money for broken items without me shipping back at my cost.
I've never paid for it, if push comes to shove I'd dispute it with Amazon and my credit card company.
I paid for a delivered functional product.
Those companies don't last there, believe me. I've been on Amz since they opened to 3rd party sellers and we are a top 500 seller. Literally for any reason we send out replacements or parts because that's how your company succeeds. What I was talking about is the people who abuse the process and there are a lot of them. One warehouse can throw away over 100,000 items a week and there are 100s of warehouses in the US. It's a collosal amount of waste mainly because returns are risk free to the customer.
Glide Gear. Glide Gear will charge you to return faulty merchandise. There. Now you know one.
I bought a frame online from Michaels that arrived broken. I drove to the store, rather than pay to ship it back, and they said they would refund me the price of the frame, but not the shipping I paid for originally. It took a manager (15 minute wait) and many minutes of me insisting I shouldn't have to pay anything for a broken product for them to finally just give up and swipe the card that allowed them to refund my shipping (only as store credit, mind you). They were not happy about it.
Then =/= than