Uh-oh - that reminds me. The guy at the customer service once said "I'm depressed", and immediately after an automated message came on and said "Hi! Sorry for the misunderstanding. We here at Amazon Customer Service ensure that your experience is as happy as possible." or something.
It’s bc they aren’t bearing the cost so they don’t care. They push the costs onto third party sellers who are pretty much powerless to contest returns. Just one of the many ways Amazon suffocates small businesses
Amazon gives you the refund but where do you think the free replacement product comes from? The third party loses that unit of inventory for no compensation and if they refuse to replace it they tank their ratings and good standing on the website.
Yeah ok I noticed that when I sent it and I thought “I swear to god if anyone corrects my grammar instead of answering my question” and somehow I was right and it disappointed in myself for being too lazy to fix it
Don't they also resell some of the returned crap, third party or otherwise, as [pallets](https://www.amazon.com/liquidation-pallets/s?k=liquidation+pallets&linkCode=ll2&tag=acaseforcase-20&linkId=81573f855cfdbeb10accfeaa6217dbcc&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl), whether through the warehouse direct to customers or huge forklift-sized ones via auctions?
howdy I realize my anecdotal statement here is not of the quality of "source" reddit likes but I shall share with you my experiences and you can chose to believe them or not.
I worked for a subsidiary of amazon where we handled the returns. If it was able to be cleaned up and boxed up again we would do so. If it was not it would be liquidated.
You would shit your self side ways if you saw the shit that went down.
The most painful one was an entire pallet of xbox series x's got thrown away because of a labeling issue on the pallet. Tens of thousands of dollars and it was just "welp system issue fuck it" and they went in the trash. Shit like that happens on a daily basis but that one hurt my soul.
You cannot "liberate" anything from being scrapped because you have to go through two metal detectors and get inspected entering and exiting the building.
They legit make so much money and have so many loopholes they truly do not give a shit.
It's not about the environment, it's about what's more profitable. If it's more profitable to bin an expensive item than to resell it, then that's definitely an issue that needs tackling.
Yeah man because a company that cares so much about money to the point where they literally deny toilet breaks to their staff is going to trash every return they get. Good point there…..
It's not about money it's about efficiency. The worker gets paid pissbreak or not the problem in Amazons eyes is the time you're not working.
And it's more efficient to throw something in the trash than refurbish it.
The return cost is trivial. Amazon *already* has to have shipping infrastructure in place, and their size means they can demand extremely low rates. NOT accepting returns opens a hole to allow return fraud, which Amazon doesn't really care about on the surface, but they DO care if that fraud offsets additional sales.
If the product is broken, accepting the return is a small cost, but if the product is fine (and the customer is attempting fraud), accepting the return blocks most of this and prevents a larger loss.
However, once the product is in Amazon's hands, that loophole is closed and the cost is sunk. At this point, implementing and maintaining a return verification department is AT BEST a zero-sum game. In the best case, every product comes back in perfect order and can be re-sold immediately. In reality, most products will NOT be something Amazon can re-stock: they are either already trash, or need to be returned to the manufacturer. Despite this, the cost of maintaining that workforce is a constant.
This is why Amazon processes your return *when the shipper picks up the return*, not when it reaches a warehouse. Once the product is out of the sales chain, Amazon stops caring.
Oh, what you’re thinking of are the copycat products that are meant to replace the smaller, more expensive, but better quality American distributors. Those products are sourced from Taiwan or similar countries for pennies on the dollar.
But bc Amazon does not permit third party sellers to freely advertise or control their own listings, you as the consumer can’t tell a difference as to where your product is coming from. The pictures aren’t even of the actual product you’re buying.
I have had a personal experience kinda similar to this, and it kinda sucks.
My country doesn't have an Amazon warehouse or anything, so I'm not like an Amazon super shopper or anything, but there were a couple of things I needed for a project which I could find on Amazon de. Most of the stuff I wanted would deliver to my country and address, except for one chip. I went through quite a few listings until I found one that seemed reliable/trustworthy (not a crazy amount of reviews, nor were the reviews stupid high or such) was willing to deliver to my address.
Well, when I go to pick my packet up from the pickup location, it's fucking ripped open, but thankfully everything else is still there, except that one fucking chip. Since it was the smallest piece, I guess it must have fallen out when the package got beat up.
Amazon gave me a refund and didn't even ask me pictures for proof, which is obviously nice in my case where I'm just having a problem, but when I later wanted to order the chip again, that same seller was no longer shipping to my location.
I don't know if that was due to the refund thing, since the chip was a part that wasn't selling a ton of units so it's feasible it had only sold a few units during the two weeks or so since the original order, refund and attempt to re-orders (and someone could have been like "hey, this one order sent to this country was refunded because it got lost in the mail. I guess we won't be shipping there any longer")
Either way, had to put off on ordering that part for a while, until I found another seller later on.
I would have been able to get the same part on ebay and Alibaba and such, but I just don't use those platforms, so it was kinda annoying for me.
Considering how overpriced shit is on Amazon, I could care less. I used to collect figures, and I could find a boxed figure on eBay for 3x less than the same loose one on Amazon
This is ALMOST always true. Except that one time Amazon mistakenly delivered something to a random neighbor and the representative told me to go knock on every door and ask 😂. I felt like a private investigator trying to match the photo of the door to every door in the neighborhood.
I ordered Chanukah candles for my menorah because they don't have any in the stores around here. They didn't arrive, so I called, and someone with broken English asked where they could direct me. They understood I didn't get what I ordered, and directed me to someone else. That other person started talking, and the only thing I understood was "hello". I tried explaining the situation anyway, and they put someone else on the phone. I still couldn't understand them, and they couldn't understand me from what i could tell, and they directed me somewhere else AGAIN. This person knew a smudge more English but could not understand me. I ended up getting a refund on a hat that I had ordered as well(I did get the hat), which was more expensive than the candles. I never got my candles.
Who calls? F that, unless you record it yourself you don't have a record. Just chat with them and take screenshots. Then you don't have to try and decipher a thick Indian accent
I messaged support about a refund on a broken hydrometer and they wanted me to send it back so I was like "you want me to mail you a pile of broken glass and lead pellets ??"
2 weeks ago, I ordered a new cell phone case and when it got to my city, I got a "Problem Occured" notification in the tracking and was told it was going back to the seller for some reason (it likely got stepped on/destroyed) and it didn't even take them 24 hours to give me my money back
I remember there being a trend not too long ago where people were reading the entirety of books and then returning them on Amazon but it ended up being that Amazon was charging the writers of the books for the refunds.
Not always. I’ve literally been given the same product I’ve returned before when I was ordering a replacement lmao. It was a glass pendant necklace that had a chipped face. I returned it, bought another. That one had an issue of the glue being super visible. So I returned it and was gonna give it one more shot and bought one more. Received the first one I had bought; recognized the chipped face and even double checked with the photo I took the first time. I was beyond flummoxed. Just returned that too and gave up on the necklace lol.
Alixpress is cheap junk with long shipping. Amazon is marked up Alixpress junk with quick shipping, neither is better. To be honest though a lot of goods even from reputable brands especially technology are manufactured with cheaper parts so they break earlier forcing people to replace them more often.
I got hassled once about five years ago about a simple return. I told the rep to just cancel my prime subscription. He backtracked and apologized for the inquiry and issued the refund. Works 99% of the time. I did it for my internet service and I now only pay $50 a month.
A lot depends on luck too.
There are times where I’m like “this came 2 days late even though I paid for earlier delivery, the item was broken, I’m not thrilled” and it kinda goes nowhere.
But then my wife uses my account and will just be like “this came in time and works but I saw it was 10 cents cheaper somewhere” and Amazon will be like listen here’s $50 we are so sorry
I've had them refuse to take things back and just refund me. Yeesh - how much does the product suck if they are like, just keep it. We don't want it either!
Uh-oh - that reminds me. The guy at the customer service once said "I'm depressed", and immediately after an automated message came on and said "Hi! Sorry for the misunderstanding. We here at Amazon Customer Service ensure that your experience is as happy as possible." or something.
Amazon just took him out back and shot him like a horse with a broken leg.
Or worse - *they shot him right there at the desk.*
Oh jesus that hurts my heart
It’s bc they aren’t bearing the cost so they don’t care. They push the costs onto third party sellers who are pretty much powerless to contest returns. Just one of the many ways Amazon suffocates small businesses
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Amazon gives you the refund but where do you think the free replacement product comes from? The third party loses that unit of inventory for no compensation and if they refuse to replace it they tank their ratings and good standing on the website.
This is incorrect. I am not an expert but I've done FOB via Amazon for a few years now.
Than what is correct
Then, then is correct
Yeah ok I noticed that when I sent it and I thought “I swear to god if anyone corrects my grammar instead of answering my question” and somehow I was right and it disappointed in myself for being too lazy to fix it
This is incorrect. I am not an expert but I've done FOB via Amazon for a few years now.
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No, they literally throw that shit away
Source?
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-throws-away-new-products-waste-third-party-sellers-profitable-2021-6
Don't they also resell some of the returned crap, third party or otherwise, as [pallets](https://www.amazon.com/liquidation-pallets/s?k=liquidation+pallets&linkCode=ll2&tag=acaseforcase-20&linkId=81573f855cfdbeb10accfeaa6217dbcc&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl), whether through the warehouse direct to customers or huge forklift-sized ones via auctions?
howdy I realize my anecdotal statement here is not of the quality of "source" reddit likes but I shall share with you my experiences and you can chose to believe them or not. I worked for a subsidiary of amazon where we handled the returns. If it was able to be cleaned up and boxed up again we would do so. If it was not it would be liquidated. You would shit your self side ways if you saw the shit that went down. The most painful one was an entire pallet of xbox series x's got thrown away because of a labeling issue on the pallet. Tens of thousands of dollars and it was just "welp system issue fuck it" and they went in the trash. Shit like that happens on a daily basis but that one hurt my soul. You cannot "liberate" anything from being scrapped because you have to go through two metal detectors and get inspected entering and exiting the building. They legit make so much money and have so many loopholes they truly do not give a shit.
Yeah i doubt they just trashed the $700 pair of boots i just returned
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...This is the company that doesn't allow toilet breaks for their workers do you think they give half a shit about the environment?
It's not about the environment, it's about what's more profitable. If it's more profitable to bin an expensive item than to resell it, then that's definitely an issue that needs tackling.
Yeah man because a company that cares so much about money to the point where they literally deny toilet breaks to their staff is going to trash every return they get. Good point there…..
It's not about money it's about efficiency. The worker gets paid pissbreak or not the problem in Amazons eyes is the time you're not working. And it's more efficient to throw something in the trash than refurbish it.
Buy your next mattress from Amazon, return it and report back. They’ll tell you to keep it 100% of the time.
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Yes but it saves them money and labor in the end and there aren’t any consequences. 😞
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Because then you will have to buy another
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So that the customer can't use the product for free.
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Sometimes they do, if they find it more cost effective and you haven't been requesting too many refunds.
The return cost is trivial. Amazon *already* has to have shipping infrastructure in place, and their size means they can demand extremely low rates. NOT accepting returns opens a hole to allow return fraud, which Amazon doesn't really care about on the surface, but they DO care if that fraud offsets additional sales. If the product is broken, accepting the return is a small cost, but if the product is fine (and the customer is attempting fraud), accepting the return blocks most of this and prevents a larger loss. However, once the product is in Amazon's hands, that loophole is closed and the cost is sunk. At this point, implementing and maintaining a return verification department is AT BEST a zero-sum game. In the best case, every product comes back in perfect order and can be re-sold immediately. In reality, most products will NOT be something Amazon can re-stock: they are either already trash, or need to be returned to the manufacturer. Despite this, the cost of maintaining that workforce is a constant. This is why Amazon processes your return *when the shipper picks up the return*, not when it reaches a warehouse. Once the product is out of the sales chain, Amazon stops caring.
Lmaooooo you think Amazon gives a fuck about the environment?
Welcome the the world
Amazon can also afford to eat the loss anyways. Most of their money comes through their web services, not their online sales.
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Eerrrrmmm data? No. My uncle works for amazon on their web side. He told me this. Take it as anecdotal if anything.
Not sure if that guy knows what he is saying, AWS accounts for 14-17% of Amazon's revenue
That seems fair to me, maybe if Amazon retailers sold anything of quality then there wouldn't be so many returns.
Oh, what you’re thinking of are the copycat products that are meant to replace the smaller, more expensive, but better quality American distributors. Those products are sourced from Taiwan or similar countries for pennies on the dollar. But bc Amazon does not permit third party sellers to freely advertise or control their own listings, you as the consumer can’t tell a difference as to where your product is coming from. The pictures aren’t even of the actual product you’re buying.
Even if it's "fulfilled by Amazon"?
Yep
I have had a personal experience kinda similar to this, and it kinda sucks. My country doesn't have an Amazon warehouse or anything, so I'm not like an Amazon super shopper or anything, but there were a couple of things I needed for a project which I could find on Amazon de. Most of the stuff I wanted would deliver to my country and address, except for one chip. I went through quite a few listings until I found one that seemed reliable/trustworthy (not a crazy amount of reviews, nor were the reviews stupid high or such) was willing to deliver to my address. Well, when I go to pick my packet up from the pickup location, it's fucking ripped open, but thankfully everything else is still there, except that one fucking chip. Since it was the smallest piece, I guess it must have fallen out when the package got beat up. Amazon gave me a refund and didn't even ask me pictures for proof, which is obviously nice in my case where I'm just having a problem, but when I later wanted to order the chip again, that same seller was no longer shipping to my location. I don't know if that was due to the refund thing, since the chip was a part that wasn't selling a ton of units so it's feasible it had only sold a few units during the two weeks or so since the original order, refund and attempt to re-orders (and someone could have been like "hey, this one order sent to this country was refunded because it got lost in the mail. I guess we won't be shipping there any longer") Either way, had to put off on ordering that part for a while, until I found another seller later on. I would have been able to get the same part on ebay and Alibaba and such, but I just don't use those platforms, so it was kinda annoying for me.
Considering how overpriced shit is on Amazon, I could care less. I used to collect figures, and I could find a boxed figure on eBay for 3x less than the same loose one on Amazon
This is ALMOST always true. Except that one time Amazon mistakenly delivered something to a random neighbor and the representative told me to go knock on every door and ask 😂. I felt like a private investigator trying to match the photo of the door to every door in the neighborhood.
I called because I didn't get something that I ordered, and literally nobody I was directed to spoke English
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I ordered Chanukah candles for my menorah because they don't have any in the stores around here. They didn't arrive, so I called, and someone with broken English asked where they could direct me. They understood I didn't get what I ordered, and directed me to someone else. That other person started talking, and the only thing I understood was "hello". I tried explaining the situation anyway, and they put someone else on the phone. I still couldn't understand them, and they couldn't understand me from what i could tell, and they directed me somewhere else AGAIN. This person knew a smudge more English but could not understand me. I ended up getting a refund on a hat that I had ordered as well(I did get the hat), which was more expensive than the candles. I never got my candles.
Who calls? F that, unless you record it yourself you don't have a record. Just chat with them and take screenshots. Then you don't have to try and decipher a thick Indian accent
I messaged support about a refund on a broken hydrometer and they wanted me to send it back so I was like "you want me to mail you a pile of broken glass and lead pellets ??"
I ordered string lights that didnt work and they wanted proof of them not working…
2 weeks ago, I ordered a new cell phone case and when it got to my city, I got a "Problem Occured" notification in the tracking and was told it was going back to the seller for some reason (it likely got stepped on/destroyed) and it didn't even take them 24 hours to give me my money back
I remember there being a trend not too long ago where people were reading the entirety of books and then returning them on Amazon but it ended up being that Amazon was charging the writers of the books for the refunds.
Anything you return goes in the garbage.
Not always. I’ve literally been given the same product I’ve returned before when I was ordering a replacement lmao. It was a glass pendant necklace that had a chipped face. I returned it, bought another. That one had an issue of the glue being super visible. So I returned it and was gonna give it one more shot and bought one more. Received the first one I had bought; recognized the chipped face and even double checked with the photo I took the first time. I was beyond flummoxed. Just returned that too and gave up on the necklace lol.
Same. I ordered a broken cat feeder and they sent me the same one as a replacement.
Most stuff from Amazon is waste anyway. Pretty everything is just cheap products from AliExpress that break quickly
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Alixpress is cheap junk with long shipping. Amazon is marked up Alixpress junk with quick shipping, neither is better. To be honest though a lot of goods even from reputable brands especially technology are manufactured with cheaper parts so they break earlier forcing people to replace them more often.
Not anymore, them chatbots are ai powered or some shit, they'll make you regret calling them up
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For now yes... The pace at with generative AI and all other ai is getting developed... How do you know you are talking to one ... And not a bot
I ordered a a nice 2TB seagate for over $100 and it just didn’t arrive. I was shocked Amazon was just like “ok I refunded you” no questions asked.
I got hassled once about five years ago about a simple return. I told the rep to just cancel my prime subscription. He backtracked and apologized for the inquiry and issued the refund. Works 99% of the time. I did it for my internet service and I now only pay $50 a month.
*Their.
Isn't that the case with most online retailers?
A lot depends on luck too. There are times where I’m like “this came 2 days late even though I paid for earlier delivery, the item was broken, I’m not thrilled” and it kinda goes nowhere. But then my wife uses my account and will just be like “this came in time and works but I saw it was 10 cents cheaper somewhere” and Amazon will be like listen here’s $50 we are so sorry
The refund usually comes out of the pocket of third party sellers, so why wouldn't they just give you the refund?
I had broken RAM delivered recently and the rep must have thought I was a scammer because it did not go well for me
I've had them refuse to take things back and just refund me. Yeesh - how much does the product suck if they are like, just keep it. We don't want it either!
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