4 ms·

Amazon does a pretty good job automating returns. It’s also good enough to be a differentiator when choosing where to buy.

• tacostakohashi 6y ago
  I had an Amazon item that didn't show up / got lost by UPS. The process presented by Amazon for this was pretty silly / tedious: 1) Initially, the tracking page said the item is late, maybe lost, if it doesn't arrive by X date (2-3 days after it was due), check back here to initiate a replacement / refund. 2) I went back on X date to arrange a refund. You click the button, initially it takes you to an automated chat thing that asks is this the item you are asking about (yes), do you want a refund or replacement (refund)... then it hands you over to a human and you have the same conversation again. 3) Finally, the human issued the refund... but as a gift card / credit without asking me. In any case, it was a 5-10 minute process hidden behind both automated and non-automated chats, which is stupid and unnecessary, especially considering that these are the people that invented (patented) 1-click. They knew from their own tracking that it was missing, so it could and should have just been a single button for replace vs refund. I suspect the steps depend on the item / amount involved, some customer risk score, etc, etc, I am sure it's all very elaborate, but in my case it was tedious. Issuing a gift card is consumer-hostile BS too, should be outlawed if you ask me. I paid for something with money, it didn't show up, so I get the money back, simple. If I wanted to buy a gift card, I would.
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  • massysett 6y ago
    In my experience I simply search for "contact us" in the Amazon search box (it's not easy to find otherwise) and it brings up a chat bot. I tell it my item never came, and it shows me orders and asks "do you mean this one" until we zero down on what item. Then the bot issues an immediate refund. I use this where tracking says the order has already been delivered (sometimes delivery personnel lie and say they delivered something they didn't; sometimes they deliver it to the wrong place.) If tracking shows that the item has not even been delivered, this is doable from the "My Orders" webpage directly. Pretty easy in my experience--I expect this process with any other vendor would be much more time-consuming--but as you say it may vary depending on whatever arbitrary factors.
    • lkbm 6y ago
      I have had that bot say "wait a few days" (after the package had been reported delivered), but yeah, it's generally quick and easy. (And, fwiw, the already-delivered package did show up in a couple days. They do regularly mark things as delivered before delivering them.)
  • jackson1442 6y ago
    Interesting. How long ago did this happen? This happened to me on an Amazon -> USPS package. I clicked the "still don't have it" button, clicked refund, and saw the money refunded to my card after about 2 days.
  • jimmaswell 6y ago
    All of my refunds have been painless, many returnless. It must depend on hidden factors. One of my most recent returnless refunds was Amazon credit rather than to the payment method, probably because it'd happened too much lately. I still don't mind and their return policies are much more generous than the norm.
• hansvm 6y ago
  They're pretty good at automating returns but kind of shitty at refunds in any scenario where their system thinks you received a package that you actually did not. I've heard a number of stories to that effect, and the one time it happened to me they had a bot that charged my card every time customer service issued a refund (at the time, you had to go through customer service to get a refund without a return). It took four additional attempts before they were able to actually keep the automated system from issuing additional charges.