4 ms·

>Treating Amazon like a mail-in library for books, tools, and other products is the easiest way. Isn't that part of their business? I order stuff to try it out

>Treating Amazon like a mail-in library for books, tools, and other products is the easiest way. Isn't that part of their business? I order stuff to try it out and if it turns out it sucks, I send it back. Isn't that the point of the online store to trump the disadvantage that I cannot try things out without buying them first? EDIT: It turns out you have to do quite some abuse there and they even send you warning emails. So it won't just happen out of the blue. EDIT2: What's with the downvotes? Here I was thinking this community is better than Reddit for certain things, but I guess I was wrong.

detaro 10y ago
Up until some amount. Once it becomes clear that you're more trouble than profit, they'll cut you off (and if they are unlucky, your neighbors as well). Amazon seems to bit all over the place with that, if media reports are to be believed.
- chrisper 10y ago
  I guess it has to be quite excessive (e.g. ordering tens of things every day).
  - detaro 10y ago
    Here is an example with ~10% returns, although of course no information what specific pattern (e.g. maybe a lot towards the end, or something like "bought 8 expensive things to compare with the intend of returning 7"). https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/18/banned-by-amazon-returning-faulty-goods-blocked-credit-balance https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/18/banned-by-amaz... What's IMHO worse is that they remove Kindle access etc as well (I think here in Germany they've been sucessfully sued for that, so not sure if they still do it)
    - chrisper 10y ago
      Yes. I also use Amazon Cloud Drive for my external backups. So if they ban me from the store, they would also ban me from accessing my backups.
    - weaksauce 10y ago
      10% is a lot though and another one in the article is ~25%. Typically it should be more like <1%. I am not sure it's a great policy but it's their store. It's also only one side of the story as well so who knows what amazon's side is.
dpark 10y ago
Yes, it's part of their business. But if you return 90% of what you order, you are a major cost to them and they have no reason to keep you as a customer.
- chrisper 10y ago
  I see. I guess this is like the people who "abuse" unlimited online storage.
  - dpark 10y ago
    I guess. It's no different than brick and mortar stores, though. If you buy $1000 of junk from Best Buy every day and return it a week later, they'll eventually tell you that they will no longer do business with you.

detaro 10y ago

Up until some amount. Once it becomes clear that you're more trouble than profit, they'll cut you off (and if they are unlucky, your neighbors as well). Amazon seems to bit all over the place with that, if media reports are to be believed.

chrisper 10y ago
I guess it has to be quite excessive (e.g. ordering tens of things every day).
- detaro 10y ago
  Here is an example with ~10% returns, although of course no information what specific pattern (e.g. maybe a lot towards the end, or something like "bought 8 expensive things to compare with the intend of returning 7"). https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/18/banned-by-amazon-returning-faulty-goods-blocked-credit-balance https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/18/banned-by-amaz... What's IMHO worse is that they remove Kindle access etc as well (I think here in Germany they've been sucessfully sued for that, so not sure if they still do it)
  - chrisper 10y ago
    Yes. I also use Amazon Cloud Drive for my external backups. So if they ban me from the store, they would also ban me from accessing my backups.
  - weaksauce 10y ago
    10% is a lot though and another one in the article is ~25%. Typically it should be more like <1%. I am not sure it's a great policy but it's their store. It's also only one side of the story as well so who knows what amazon's side is.

dpark 10y ago

Yes, it's part of their business. But if you return 90% of what you order, you are a major cost to them and they have no reason to keep you as a customer.

chrisper 10y ago
I see. I guess this is like the people who "abuse" unlimited online storage.
- dpark 10y ago
  I guess. It's no different than brick and mortar stores, though. If you buy $1000 of junk from Best Buy every day and return it a week later, they'll eventually tell you that they will no longer do business with you.