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Recently Amazon has been sending me items that were clearly returned and poorly repackaged or damaged in the last year. This isn’t something I encountered or n

by pcurve 3y ago

Recently Amazon has been sending me items that were clearly returned and poorly repackaged or damaged in the last year. This isn’t something I encountered or noticed prior to 2023. Their screening policy for returned items may have changed.

kevingadd 3y ago
It may be more common now, but I've had this problem with them before in the past. In one notable case I bought a new game console from Amazon.com and received a box that was so obviously used (seals broken, shrinkwrap missing, etc) that I didn't even bother opening it, I just returned it. Despite the price of the item they raised no objections, so they're probably used to this happening and just assume that most customers won't notice.
Astronaut3315 3y ago
I purchased four used, like new smart plugs from Amazon Warehouse Deals a few days ago. Two were the wrong model in the right box and were very clearly used. One even had a scorch mark on it. I’ve had similar experiences with other Amazon purchases in the last few years.
Theodores 3y ago
I work in ecommerce, sometimes for a client where I get to work closely with the customer service people. I am familiar with what you get in returns from customers across a few different brands/verticals. What amazes me is how good the returns can be. At one place, anything returned by the customer was as good as new. Out of a hundred returns, ninety nine of them were as good as what we sent out from the warehouse, absolutely mint. The correct product was in the box, pretty much guaranteed. We had a local stock room that was just from the returns and could get product for people from this stock of returned items. Sometimes there could be a problem but we would catch this by just a quick check of the box. There was a team of a dozen of us in the customer service. Had the business been bigger then I am sure that the one percent of actually defective stuff would get resold for people to get very vocal about it on social media. Then other people would grumble too, to reminisce about the time their order was 'thrown over the hedge' by the delivery company driver. Before you know it, the whole thing could snowball out of control. Also, at a larger scale, we would attract 'American' customers that don't respect the product in quite the same way as in the rest of the world where consumer culture and education is different. I am no fan of Amazon but I do respect the efforts of the people they have doing the work there. For the consumer that has never worked a day in retail, it is not all about you! Furthermore, we see what we expect to see. Getting back to working in retail, I was never shouted at or abused by customers. I set off in the morning looking forward to a fast paced day with lots of happy customers. That is what I expected and that is what I got. I have met others that worked in retail to be perpetually abused. They expected a day of abuse and they got it. I think the same applies with Amazon orders. If you expect to be delighted with your orders then you will be amazed at how excessively well packaged everything is and how miraculous the timely delivery is. However, if you expect everything to be dinged, counterfeit and a repackaged return, then this is what you will get.

by pcurve 3y ago

kevingadd 3y ago

It may be more common now, but I've had this problem with them before in the past. In one notable case I bought a new game console from Amazon.com and received a box that was so obviously used (seals broken, shrinkwrap missing, etc) that I didn't even bother opening it, I just returned it. Despite the price of the item they raised no objections, so they're probably used to this happening and just assume that most customers won't notice.

Astronaut3315 3y ago

I purchased four used, like new smart plugs from Amazon Warehouse Deals a few days ago. Two were the wrong model in the right box and were very clearly used. One even had a scorch mark on it. I’ve had similar experiences with other Amazon purchases in the last few years.

Theodores 3y ago

I work in ecommerce, sometimes for a client where I get to work closely with the customer service people. I am familiar with what you get in returns from customers across a few different brands/verticals. What amazes me is how good the returns can be. At one place, anything returned by the customer was as good as new. Out of a hundred returns, ninety nine of them were as good as what we sent out from the warehouse, absolutely mint. The correct product was in the box, pretty much guaranteed. We had a local stock room that was just from the returns and could get product for people from this stock of returned items. Sometimes there could be a problem but we would catch this by just a quick check of the box. There was a team of a dozen of us in the customer service. Had the business been bigger then I am sure that the one percent of actually defective stuff would get resold for people to get very vocal about it on social media. Then other people would grumble too, to reminisce about the time their order was 'thrown over the hedge' by the delivery company driver. Before you know it, the whole thing could snowball out of control. Also, at a larger scale, we would attract 'American' customers that don't respect the product in quite the same way as in the rest of the world where consumer culture and education is different. I am no fan of Amazon but I do respect the efforts of the people they have doing the work there. For the consumer that has never worked a day in retail, it is not all about you! Furthermore, we see what we expect to see. Getting back to working in retail, I was never shouted at or abused by customers. I set off in the morning looking forward to a fast paced day with lots of happy customers. That is what I expected and that is what I got. I have met others that worked in retail to be perpetually abused. They expected a day of abuse and they got it. I think the same applies with Amazon orders. If you expect to be delighted with your orders then you will be amazed at how excessively well packaged everything is and how miraculous the timely delivery is. However, if you expect everything to be dinged, counterfeit and a repackaged return, then this is what you will get.