[whywhywhywhy]

One of the best things about Amazon has always been their returns. They shipped me a faulty GPU (actually I suspect it might have broken when the delivery guy slammed the box down after refusing my help carrying it up the stairs when I saw him struggling)

It wasn’t broken in an obvious way but when it maxed out the PC would just freeze every single time. Asked for a return handed it over to a random shop drop off point and they refunded $1000 right away before the item even went back.

[kennend3]

I accidentlly bought the wrong thing the other day. It was in my cart and amazon removed it as it was no longer available from the seller and 'recommended' something else, same price, very similiar name.

When it arrived i realized what had taken place and tried to return it. Amazon charged me $20 for return shipping.

It was my mistake, exacerbated by amazon removing the item from my cart and offering a similar named item. I've used amazon for many years and only returned like 3 things in 10+ years and amazon always supplied a return shipping label.

Now they charge for it?

Adding insult to injury I ordered a replacement on Nov 24 and it wont get here until Dec 6 (originally Dec 12).

I could and should have just went to the local store, gotten the correct product which they have in stock for the same price and saved myself $20 and 2 weeks??

[CoastalCoder]

This reminds me of the kerfuffle with Linus Media Group's reluctance to provide written warranties on their products.

Without a clear contract regarding warranties, returns, etc., the buyer is subject to the whims of the seller.

(Modulo any consumer protection laws that weren't waived during sign up.)

[kennend3]

You can sort of sit on the sidelines and watch the decline of Amazon.

I did return something long ago when amazon would return your money before they got the item back. This is what got people to use amazon, amazing customer service.

This is no longer the case and what Amazon fails to grasp is aliexpress is raising quickly.

Amazon is flooded with drop-shipping from ali as it is now, why not just use Ali directly?

Based on this experience my willingness to use Amazon again is greatly reduced.

Maybe another Kindle in the future, but these are "loss leaders" for Amazon.

[ekanes]

I think who pays for the return depends on what you choose for the reason for the return. If you acknowledge fault they charge you, etc.

[kennend3]

I thought the same thing and tried every option.

I dont use amazon much these days and rarely return things but there was clearly a policy change at some point:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G...

"Unless your item is eligible for Free Returns, if you return an item using the return label from Your Orders, and the reason for return is not a result of an Amazon.ca error, we'll deduct the cost of return shipping from your refund. "

[briHass]

I suspect the varied experiences with returns in child comments is due to Amazon's use of algorithms that scan your purchase history and behavior. It's doubtful Amazon has blanket policies for returns or other customer support issues when they have such detailed stats on how 'good' a customer you are.

[ViViDboarder]

> $1000 right away before the item even went back.

They don’t do this anymore. I recently bought a hard drive and found the anti static bag was opened. When I returned it Amazon made it clear I would not get a refund until it was back at the warehouse. I dropped it at a Whole Foods return desk and got my refund days later.

[whywhywhywhy]

Disappointing, the attitude they used to have is one of the reasons why I'd buy all tech products I could through them.

If they're going to be fussy about it then I'd seriously consider elsewhere as I doubt their customer service is personal enough that it could resolve many issues.

[dsfyu404ed]

I suspect it's product category dependent. I returned a glorified car battery charger last week and got the $$ minutes after UPS scanned it in.

Electronics + "product wasn't sealed" claim -> red flags for counterfeit washing.

[988747]

>> the delivery guy slammed the box down after refusing my help carrying it up the stairs when I saw him struggling

Seems like a very heavy GPU, GeForce 4090 RTX, I suppose?