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I would say what you choose to do in this scenario as a retailer depends on whether you want your (now possibly former) customer going on a web site and telling

I would say what you choose to do in this scenario as a retailer depends on whether you want your (now possibly former) customer going on a web site and telling thousands of people about their bad experience. Surely that's worth the cost of shipping, isn't it? Another perspective: they've made 20k orders already. Surely, over that time, they've made you enough money in retail margin to make eating the cost trivial. Even without the 20k orders, we're still talking about someone who's bought two pair of $120 earbuds. The expected lifetime value of that customer probably exceeds the shipping cost. Hell, even the gross margin on one sale probably exceeds the shipping cost. I think it's pretty clear that not only should the retailer assume it was a good faith mistake, but they should also step in to help make it right.

dylan604 5y ago
Okay, fair points. A company the size of Amazon will not feel the repurcussions of someone going online trying to make hay about some slight received from evilCorp (however wrongly/rightly that justification is). They just won't even notice. For a legit serious customer that made a mistake, who's going to look that up? The poor warehouse employee whose job it is to receive the returns? Do you honestly feel like these employees are taking the time to look up the returner's purchasing history? Do we think that's even a good idea for that employee to have access to that data? I'm not trying to do free work for Amazon, not that they'd ever listen to feed back from randos on a website, but there are further questions arising from this logisitcs exercise.
- actually_a_dog 5y ago
  Who needs to look up anything? They already have to scan the box and note the serial number of the item. Most of the time, these will just match and there's nothing to be done. Likewise, the box of rocks scenario doesn't impose any additional burden. The only time there's any additional work that may need to be done is if there's actually a set of Air Pods in the box that don't match the serial number. In that case, the system can automatically check itself for a previous and recent order of AirPods, pop up the serial number and show the person receiving the return, and they can compare just like they did when the box was scanned. This would probably take a whole 30 seconds extra, but it would be an edge case. And, as you said, unless they stand to lose this person as a customer, it won't make a damn bit of difference to Amazon whether this particular edge case doesn't work. But, then, so much for "customer obsession," right?
  - dylan604 5y ago
    The fact that literal boxes of rocks or brick make it through shows that the least bit of effort the returns department could do is not getting done. Seems hard to miss an opening of a box to find a brick/rocks rather than what is pictured on the box getting passed by anyone that actually opens the box. "Hmmm, a box of rocks. I guess Amazon does sell anything. I wonder why the customer didn't like these rocks? I guess they didn't have the original box so they used this Norelco Electric Shaver box instead" says no Amazon employee ever (too much credit??).
    - actually_a_dog 5y ago
      Then, how did they determine the wrong AirPods were in @marban's box? How does the situation they describe even arise? If nobody's looking in the boxes, this is a non-problem from the customer perspective.

dylan604 5y ago

Okay, fair points. A company the size of Amazon will not feel the repurcussions of someone going online trying to make hay about some slight received from evilCorp (however wrongly/rightly that justification is). They just won't even notice. For a legit serious customer that made a mistake, who's going to look that up? The poor warehouse employee whose job it is to receive the returns? Do you honestly feel like these employees are taking the time to look up the returner's purchasing history? Do we think that's even a good idea for that employee to have access to that data? I'm not trying to do free work for Amazon, not that they'd ever listen to feed back from randos on a website, but there are further questions arising from this logisitcs exercise.

actually_a_dog 5y ago
Who needs to look up anything? They already have to scan the box and note the serial number of the item. Most of the time, these will just match and there's nothing to be done. Likewise, the box of rocks scenario doesn't impose any additional burden. The only time there's any additional work that may need to be done is if there's actually a set of Air Pods in the box that don't match the serial number. In that case, the system can automatically check itself for a previous and recent order of AirPods, pop up the serial number and show the person receiving the return, and they can compare just like they did when the box was scanned. This would probably take a whole 30 seconds extra, but it would be an edge case. And, as you said, unless they stand to lose this person as a customer, it won't make a damn bit of difference to Amazon whether this particular edge case doesn't work. But, then, so much for "customer obsession," right?
- dylan604 5y ago
  The fact that literal boxes of rocks or brick make it through shows that the least bit of effort the returns department could do is not getting done. Seems hard to miss an opening of a box to find a brick/rocks rather than what is pictured on the box getting passed by anyone that actually opens the box. "Hmmm, a box of rocks. I guess Amazon does sell anything. I wonder why the customer didn't like these rocks? I guess they didn't have the original box so they used this Norelco Electric Shaver box instead" says no Amazon employee ever (too much credit??).
  - actually_a_dog 5y ago
    Then, how did they determine the wrong AirPods were in @marban's box? How does the situation they describe even arise? If nobody's looking in the boxes, this is a non-problem from the customer perspective.