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Amazon Is Banning People For Making Too Many Returns (businessinsider.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the for-the-record dept.

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.

23 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Learn from this! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Use new lines, not carriage returns!

  2. Good by iamhassi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've read of some people buying and returning the same item every month so they never had to actually pay for it since Amazon kept giving them a full refund.

    --
    my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    1. Re:Good by Thelasko · · Score: 3, Funny

      I've read of some people buying and returning the same item every month so they never had to actually pay for it since Amazon kept giving them a full refund.

      It's on the internet, so it has to be true!

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    2. Re:Good by Ogive17 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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."
    3. Re:Good by war4peace · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Of course there is.
      I ordered a blanket online, for my wife, the pictures and description both stated that it's brown with white spots. Beagle-style colors, to be more precise.
      What we received though was a purplish+off-white blanket, similar in design but with different colors.

      Now, does this qualify as defective? It worked perfectly, did what a blanket should do, but the colors were wrong.

      If you include things such as lower quality materials, improper size (for clothes), wrong colors, then I apologize. However I don't consider these as "defects", but still worthy of returns.

      With that being said, yes I agree there are abusers and they need to be swiftly banned.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    4. Re: Good by fluffernutter · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because if you were buying it in a guitar shop, they would never have refused you to try the pedal first, and a large reason why Amazon is so big is that they want to give the experience of a real store. Ergo, Amazon needs to decide whether they want to continue their success by going further than any other internet sales company or not.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    5. Re:Good by YukariHirai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    6. Re:Good by sexconker · · Score: 3, Funny

      The DVD issues were a result of them attempting to ship the discs through an unstable wormhole.

    7. Re: Good by omnichad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Freeloading? Even if you're a Prime member and they advertise "Free Returns" in bold print?

    8. Re: Good by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is actually enshrined in EU law. When buying things at a distance (mail order, internet) you have no opportunity to inspect the goods before they arrive. Thus you can return them for any reason within a couple of weeks of receipt.

      No need to include the original packaging either, which is handy because it often requires destroying to get the product out anyway.

      If the item isn't defective or different to the description you have to pay return postage, otherwise the seller picks up the tab.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    9. Re:Good by war4peace · · Score: 3, Informative

      BUT if a retailer wants to advertise that they take no returns

      Illegal in the EU for remote-ordered items (everything you buy online and never see in person until you open the package containing it).
      Legal for items you buy or pick-up in person.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    10. Re: Good by Botched · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And the polar opposite is china's Alibaba, where I ordered a present for my wife. The third-party merchant marked it as shipped on the main alibaba website, but did not actually send it. After some complaints, they assured me it had been sent. And after I waited a month and realized it had not, going to the alibaba website revealed that if you have not contested it within 2 weeks of the SELLER-ENTERED shipment date, you do not have the option to contest it. No links to click, no email, no ability to complain, no customer service number. Nothing, you blew it the second you gave them your credit card.

  3. It's an outrage by Kohath · · Score: 5, Funny

    Amazon is acting rationally.

    1. Re: It's an outrage by orlanz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Exactly, in the past two years Amazon service has gone to the dogs. I probably return 1/10 items we buy. Rarely is the return not defective in a certain way. Off colors, wrong specs, bent pins, clearly well used, etc. Also sometimes it is days to weeks late. 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?!?

      Spend hours on Customer Service and they are more than happy to extend your Prime subscription or return the product that is lost in transit for a week as "compensation". I still need the baby food, diapers, gift, or relay circuit! And I don't want to reorder and pay the current higher price! Amazon said it was available under Prime for a certain price; they should stand behind what they say.

      I think they have moved onto AWS and left retail on autopilot.

    2. Re: It's an outrage by sexconker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

  4. Free returns? by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This seems at odds with the bold face type that says "free returns" on many clothing items and other things that must be seen in person to decide if you really want it. It would almost seem like they are enticing you with a no-risk proposition with the transaction... only to ban people who are actually utilizing it.

    --
    Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
    1. Re: Free returns? by kenh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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
    2. Re:Free returns? by DedTV · · Score: 5, Informative

      From better articles about this, it appears a large number of the bans were actually people who used returns as part of a fake review scheme. They'd 'buy' something, review it as a 'verified purchase', then return it at the last possible minute to get discounts, freebies or pay outs.

    3. Re:Free returns? by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They're banning "hundreds" of people out of the hundreds of millions of customers they have. These are people who are abusing the system, and they deserve the bans (well, maybe some of them don't, but I strongly suspect they all do). People like that are the reason why companies have to institute less lenient return policies, and by banning them Amazon can prevent abuse of their policies while still allowing people who may have legitimate reason for returning items to do so. In other words, Amazon can offer those free returns precisely because they ban people who abuse them, not because they ban people who use them.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    4. Re:Free returns? by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Interesting

      But the fault lies with them for not being clear about what they want to offer.

      I suspect part of the problem is the rules are "soft."

      If you bought 500 different things from Amazon over the year, and returned 50 of them, that's likely fine.

      But if you bought the same thing every month, returned it, then bought it again - In effect "renting" it for free, then you might get banned - Even though you're doing four times fewer returns than the first example.

      Their systems are looking for people that are 'abusing the system,' and that's a lot harder to write into a clear policy.

    5. Re: Free returns? by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

  5. Youtube Un-boxers by bryanbrunton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  6. Thank God by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I work retail and the amount of stupid is unreal.

    The whole I can return this at some point has completely removed personal responsibility. You can do whatever with said item, void even, the return policy as long as you pitch a big ole fit. That is all it takes for most items. Make sure to yell " I can get a better deal elsewhere or online!"

    Then you get the coupon losers. Cancer upon them.

    If you ever wondered about why checkout lines take forever and why there are so few people on the sales floor when you are there, thank these kind folk. You are just in the way of their get rich quick scheme. And they will raise hell if you say anything.

    Go early to find people out on the floor. Give them maybe some slack for poor people skills as they are there at this time to avoid people.

    Just some advice from nobody,...