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Amazon Is Banning People For Making Too Many Returns (businessinsider.com)
Amazon -- which for years has maintained the standard for free returns online -- might now ban users for making too many returns. From a report:The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday documented complaints that the e-commerce giant had barred customers who had returned items. Amazon apparently failed to alert the customers that they had returned too many items before the bans. The Journal spoke with two people and cited dozens more online who said they had been barred from Amazon, as well as others who received emails from the company after returning some items. The two people who spoke with The Journal seem to be part of a wave of hundreds of people who were barred from Amazon in late March and early April, as previously reported by Business Insider.
I come to this place for actual news. Amazon has done this for years.
Unless you buy something that is legitimately defective, there is no reason to return it. I'm pretty old and I can count the number of times I've returned something on one hand, and have fingers left over.
So 'Free Returns' means 'Infinite number if Free Returns'?
Non-defective returns cost retailers money, retailers are not in the business of loaning out their products.
Ken
If I buy something and it's defective, I'm going to return it.
If Amazon is selling junk, or "refurbished" items as new, that's a problem.
But now I'm concerned that if as usual I order and pay for 1 of an item and receive 200 of them, whether I should just keep them so I'm not mis-categorized as a serial returner.
But would it surprise you?
There's always a few assholes who ruin a good thing for the rest of us.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
Unless you buy something that is legitimately defective, there is no reason to return it. I'm pretty old and I can count the number of times I've returned something on one hand, and have fingers left over.
There are lots of legitimate reasons to return a product that's not defective -- maybe you don't like the size, or the color, maybe it doesn't work well for the intended purpose, maybe it came in too many pieces and you don't feel like assembling it, maybe it's not compatible with the accessory you were going to use it with, maybe you just bought the wrong product (or made a duplicate order) and didn't realize it until it arrived.
The drawback of online ordering is that you don't always know what you're buying until it arrives, so Amazon has to expect a certain level of returns.
There are people on YouTube who have channels devoted to unboxing Amazon items that they clearly have no intention of ever keeping.
Many of the reviews are truly low on content because you can tell the person has unboxed his/her 50th item that day, and they don't have the energy or knowledge to say anything of value.
Amazon isn't in the business of allowing these people to profit from free returns.
I often need to try a few sizes when I go to a store. Often a certain style just doesn't fit properly, period. Personally I wouldn't order clothes off the internet for this reason, but for a company wanting to sell clothes off the internet they should expect this.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
It's not good enough that some of the maybe don't, but certainly have almost no recourse if Amazon has screwed the pooch, whether by mistake, or malice, or malignant DNA.
Google's no appeals whatsoever policy sure had an evil smell.
And I generally think that Google has done okay on being a mammoth corporate entity, navigating the post–Gordon Gecko apocalyptic landscape.
OTOH, pretty much everything Amazon does has an evil smell, or is capable of producing one further down the road.
Bezos gonna Bezos.
If it's not what was advertised/described, that's effectively defective from a consumer viewpoint: either way you're not getting what you think you're getting. Australian consumer law actually codifies this.
I have had them explain that it is 2 day shipping, it doesn't include the time it takes to ship out?!? And estimated delivery is not always accurate. Or the lack of tracking info means it will get to me tomorrow?!?
Yet the final checkout page says "Guaranteed Deliver By...". Screenshot it every time.
Your explanation is too simplistic - When you have advanced software systems looking for people engaging in 'fraud' or 'gaming the system' those systems are looking for a wide-ranging set of behaviours which aggregate together to indicate something.
If a rep from Visa calls me up and asks me to confirm a few purchases, he likely can't articulate the policy that caused Visa to suspect fraud - Other than in general terms. Likely it's the same here.
Freeloading? Even if you're a Prime member and they advertise "Free Returns" in bold print?