Amazon Returns

[Katrina]

How often do you need to return or get a replacement item on Amazon?

At Christmastime, a gift for my dad got lost and they sent me a refund and said if the item showed up that I could return it. Well, it took a long time for it to eventually show up and by that time I had bought another one so it would make it there by Christmas. Amazon said he could keep both and I told my dad to give it to a friend. It was a hat that has a LED light built in and is nice for when he's fiddling with things out in the garage.

Yesterday I received 3 shadow boxes for my nephew's military stuff and one of the boxes had the plexiglass messed up even though the box was fine. Amazon is sending a replacement and I don't have to return the item. So that's nice. I didn't feel like driving someplace to drop it off for a return.

 

[Deleted member 29780]

I feel like most sellers on Amazon are pretty good for replacements. In most cases, returns at Amazon are often destroyed, sold in bulk, marked down to be sold for less or just thrown out depending on the item and what the seller wants to do.

 

[Katrina]

I feel like most sellers on Amazon are pretty good for replacements. In most cases, returns at Amazon are often destroyed, sold in bulk, marked down to be sold for less or just thrown out depending on the item and what the seller wants to do.

With my replacement, it was weird because it was the automated Amazon process and I guess I chose the right words to not have to return the item. If my nephew wants to use the damaged one, that would be cool, he could always replace the plexiglass at his own expense. I spent enough on these things but I'm also 8 years late in getting them bought. My daughter was supposed to build them and never did and now my nephew has forgotten he left all his stuff at my house LOL I want it all gone and in his room.

 

[Deleted member 29780]

With my replacement, it was weird because it was the automated Amazon process and I guess I chose the right words to not have to return the item. If my nephew wants to use the damaged one, that would be cool, he could always replace the plexiglass at his own expense. I spent enough on these things but I'm also 8 years late in getting them bought. My daughter was supposed to build them and never did and now my nephew has forgotten he left all his stuff at my house LOL I want it all gone and in his room.

Sometimes it depends who the seller is, so there's a couple things to look out for. Things Sold and fulfilled by Amazon generally have an easier time being replaced or returned. Things sold by a third-party seller but fulfilled by Amazon generally have agreements with Amazon on what to do with the product, if it's sold and delivered by third-party seller than it's much harder to deal with if the seller is stubborn.

 

[fdk1971]

I've personally never had any problems when having to return anything or ask for refunds on Amazon. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, I've always found that refunds are fast, hassle-free, usually without argument, and almost always involve me keeping the item and either receiving a refund or a replacement in addition.

AliExpress, on the other hand... now that's a damn nightmare.

 

[Deleted member 29780]

AliExpress, on the other hand... now that's a damn nightmare.

I can relate to this 😂

 

[Katrina]

I've personally never had any problems when having to return anything or ask for refunds on Amazon. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, I've always found that refunds are fast, hassle-free, usually without argument, and almost always involve me keeping the item and either receiving a refund or a replacement in addition.

AliExpress, on the other hand... now that's a damn nightmare.

I've never shopped there, are the prices good?

 

[Bryn]

Occasionally, but I try to make that less frequent by actually reading between the lines of product info before I buy it (and even take heed of the review score also).

 

[fdk1971]

I've never shopped there, are the prices good?

The prices are absolutely great - whether you'll receive the item you ordered, or an undamaged version of the item at least... now that's another question altogether. Generally there are good sellers and bad - unfortunately the platform doesn't make it easy to "save" sellers and has a somewhat complicated and "suspicious" return/dispute system.

 

[zappaDPJ]

My Amazon history is an embarrassment, I spend more than 10K with them every year. In my defence I live a long way from any major shops.

I've had the wrong item delivered once and 10-20 items that had to be returned or refunded. The only issue I can recall is I was recent charged a small amount to return an item that wasn't as described which is not exactly earth shattering. So date my experience with Amazon has been exemplary.

I do agree with @Malcolm though, whenever possible I try to go down the sold and fulfilled by Amazon route rather than market place sellers even if it costs a little more.

 

[Katrina]

The prices are absolutely great - whether you'll receive the item you ordered, or an undamaged version of the item at least... now that's another question altogether. Generally there are good sellers and bad - unfortunately the platform doesn't make it easy to "save" sellers and has a somewhat complicated and "suspicious" return/dispute system.

I'm intrigued and scared LOL I'll probably just lurk and wonder for a while before I take the leap to buy anything.

My Amazon history is an embarrassment, I spend more than 10K with them every year. In my defence I live a long way from any major shops.

I've had the wrong item delivered once and 10-20 items that had to be returned or refunded. The only issue I can recall is I was recent charged a small amount to return an item that wasn't as described which is not exactly earth shattering. So date my experience with Amazon has been exemplary.

I do agree with @Malcolm though, whenever possible I try to go down the sold and fulfilled by Amazon route rather than market place sellers even if it costs a little more.

I don't even want to know how much I spend on Amazon orders each year!! Most are gifts I would imagine? I think? Maybe it's my imagination.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I've only had to do this once. I bought my wife the Twin Peaks complete series on Blu-ray and ended up with two copies of disc 8 and she was missing disc 1 which contained the unaired pilot! I wasn't the only one who had this problem with the set, there was at least one other person.

 

[Katrina]

I've only had to do this once. I bought my wife the Twin Peaks complete series on Blu-ray and ended up with two copies of disc 8 and she was missing disc 1 which contained the unaired pilot! I wasn't the only one who had this problem with the set, there was at least one other person.

Did you finally get it?

 

[Felly]

I've always been kinda wary about ordering from Amazon (and online in general) because I'm not able to see what I'm getting before purchasing it. Sure, the picture looks like what I'm wanting and everything sounds great, but is it actually going to be what I want/need? That said, the things I have ordered from Amazon have generally worked out pretty well, but I'm usually heavily vetting the product and looking at some of the reviews to get an idea of what I'm getting before I finalize my purchase. Amazon (and ordering online in general) is usually my last resort when I've been to several stores and just cannot find what I'm looking for, and because I'm generally heavily vetting what I'm purchasing before finalizing, I haven't really had to make any returns. knocks on wood because with my luck, the next thing I order, I'll have to return lol The worst that's really happened to me is I've ordered items that I simply haven't received, and I've had to have refunds issued for them without receiving the item; kind of a bummer when it happens, but I usually end up finding something else instead (either in store or online) that I end up liking more, so I guess it kinda works out in my favor lol.

My mom, on the other hand, has had to do a lot more returns on Amazon because she'll order things that don't really work out for her. The process tends to be a pain in the butt, but I think there's been a couple times where she's been told to just keep the item and gets a refund anyways. There was also one time where she ordered a sweater vest type thing that took so long to arrive, she got a refund issued for it, then ended up with two of them when, if I recall correctly, she'd only ordered one.

She's also used it a lot for Amazon Fresh (and on occasion, Whole Foods) to have groceries delivered so that we have food at home. (I usually go to the grocery store because she never knows what to get me for food and I never know what I want lol, but sometimes I just don't feel like going to the store or don't have a lot of time to.) Other than during COVID (and of course, everyone was using it then), we haven't really had any issues with it. During COVID, there were issues with not getting items we ordered or things being expired, but we were always quick to report it immediately after receiving the items and always got a refund issued. Lately though, we've gotten everything we've ordered, and the quality hasn't been terrible either. I'm personally not a huge fan of it because I like to be able to see my expiration dates and the quality of what I'm purchasing when it comes to my food because that way, if the store doesn't have what I need because it's expired or the quality isn't there, I can at least figure something out for whatever I'm trying to make instead of having everything I need for whatever I'm trying to make except the one item that ended up being expired or poor quality, but I'd also be saying that about any grocery delivery, honestly. (When I had food poisoning last year, my mom ordered some stuff from Food Lion because it would get to us the quickest, and we were trying to find something that I could actually keep in my stomach. One of the things she'd ordered were bananas, and when they arrived, they weren't ripe enough to be edible until a couple days after we got them, by which point I was already more or less feeling better.)

 

[Katrina]

I've always been kinda wary about ordering from Amazon (and online in general) because I'm not able to see what I'm getting before purchasing it. Sure, the picture looks like what I'm wanting and everything sounds great, but is it actually going to be what I want/need? That said, the things I have ordered from Amazon have generally worked out pretty well, but I'm usually heavily vetting the product and looking at some of the reviews to get an idea of what I'm getting before I finalize my purchase. Amazon (and ordering online in general) is usually my last resort when I've been to several stores and just cannot find what I'm looking for, and because I'm generally heavily vetting what I'm purchasing before finalizing, I haven't really had to make any returns. knocks on wood because with my luck, the next thing I order, I'll have to return lol The worst that's really happened to me is I've ordered items that I simply haven't received, and I've had to have refunds issued for them without receiving the item; kind of a bummer when it happens, but I usually end up finding something else instead (either in store or online) that I end up liking more, so I guess it kinda works out in my favor lol.

My mom, on the other hand, has had to do a lot more returns on Amazon because she'll order things that don't really work out for her. The process tends to be a pain in the butt, but I think there's been a couple times where she's been told to just keep the item and gets a refund anyways. There was also one time where she ordered a sweater vest type thing that took so long to arrive, she got a refund issued for it, then ended up with two of them when, if I recall correctly, she'd only ordered one.

She's also used it a lot for Amazon Fresh (and on occasion, Whole Foods) to have groceries delivered so that we have food at home. (I usually go to the grocery store because she never knows what to get me for food and I never know what I want lol, but sometimes I just don't feel like going to the store or don't have a lot of time to.) Other than during COVID (and of course, everyone was using it then), we haven't really had any issues with it. During COVID, there were issues with not getting items we ordered or things being expired, but we were always quick to report it immediately after receiving the items and always got a refund issued. Lately though, we've gotten everything we've ordered, and the quality hasn't been terrible either. I'm personally not a huge fan of it because I like to be able to see my expiration dates and the quality of what I'm purchasing when it comes to my food because that way, if the store doesn't have what I need because it's expired or the quality isn't there, I can at least figure something out for whatever I'm trying to make instead of having everything I need for whatever I'm trying to make except the one item that ended up being expired or poor quality, but I'd also be saying that about any grocery delivery, honestly. (When I had food poisoning last year, my mom ordered some stuff from Food Lion because it would get to us the quickest, and we were trying to find something that I could actually keep in my stomach. One of the things she'd ordered were bananas, and when they arrived, they weren't ripe enough to be edible until a couple days after we got them, by which point I was already more or less feeling better.)

You're the first person I've heard from that has used the grocery option on Amazon. I'm glad it works out well because I wondered about it since I live in the country. I don't even know where a Whole Foods is located out here LOL

 

[Ravenfreak]

Did you finally get it?

I ended up sending the defective product back and got a refund, there was another listing for a better collection that my wife ended up preordering and getting so it worked out in the end. Still annoying that this happened, though it isn't the first time I got a defective product from Amazon. I got a defective radio back in November, I never sent it back though since I want to try and fix it myself. I got a better radio that works fine though for Christmas.

 

[Felly]

You're the first person I've heard from that has used the grocery option on Amazon. I'm glad it works out well because I wondered about it since I live in the country. I don't even know where a Whole Foods is located out here LOL

Our closest Whole Foods is about 30 minutes away (with minimal traffic), so it's not terribly far from us, but the amount of time and effort that'd be spent driving ourselves would probably be better spent just having someone else do it for us lol. It's a little on the pricey side too, so it's usually only something we do on rare occasions; I think the last time we specifically did Whole Foods was for my mom's birthday back in January because she wanted a cake from there. The Amazon Fresh side is what we use more with prices more along the lines of a typical grocery store, and we can usually get same day delivery if we order at the right time. Mileage might vary though based on where you live; we live in a larger metropolitan area, so that probably helps contribute to availability and the options. Not sure how it'd be in the country since even the "country" parts here are still within an hour of not-so-country parts.

 

[Nebulous]

I use amazon a lot. I return a lot of stuff too. They partner with quite a few stores and shipping outlets that are right in my neighborhood so it makes it really easy to do a return, I just pick whatever location works best and go drop it off there. Most of the time I don't even need to box up the item, they'll take it the item by itself and do all the boxing and labeling themselves. One shipping outlet store near me has a self-service amazon return kiosk where you can scan and drop your items without having to talk to an actual human.

 

[Deleted member 31696]

I've never had a problem returning an item. Maybe it's because I only buy products that are sold by and shipped by Amazon.com. Not sure but the returns are quick and painless.

 

[Fait]

not that often reliable in my experience