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Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

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Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#101

Post by JCharante »

sparky_z wrote: post #23
washadjeffmad wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The contention, to me, is if returned or refurbished items are being labeled and sold as 'new', then Amazon may be running afoul of FTC truth-in-advertising laws.

If I go into a physical bookstore, buy a book, walk out with it, walk back in and return it still in good condition, should they not just put it back on the shelf? Would that be fraud? It's technically no longer "new" at that point. True this was returned as "damaged" but how damaged was it? We aren't told and there are no photos.

Well does the bookstore label it as new? If it's on the shelf with just a barcode I imagine it's sold as is without promising that it's new

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#102

Post by woleium »

mips_r4300i wrote: post #97
bmitc wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their packing has gotten comically bad, particularly for sensitively items like books and such. I've greatly reduced my Amazon buying over the years due to issues with damaged items, and lately, Amazon is getting more aggressive about discouraging returns. But I'm not going to pay $30+ for a new hardcover that comes damaged and covered with dirt and grime.

Ordered a new cable modem and received it today. They put the shipping label ON the retail packaging. No box! This is FBA. Of course it was scuffed and scraped all to hell.

This is an option at checkout, they default to “minimize packaging, use the box it comes in”, but you can opt out.

Personally i think this is a great move that reduces overpackaging and its associated environmental impact

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#103

Post by merlyn »

manicennui wrote: post #51

If you care about the condition of books you buy, don't buy from Amazon. They'll throw a $100+ hardcover in a lightly padded envelope and chuck it around. Or they'll put it in a box with some other random item and a few inflatable shipping bags, but not enough to keep things from shifting around freely.

I've stopped buying books from Amazon as _every_single_one_ comes with the corners dinged, the covers scratched, and often times bent in half one way or the other.

If I happen to want a self-published-printed-by-amazon book (ie. not available at any other store), I'll really think twice about it, as the quality is probably total crap. The last one I got had screenshots that were all unreadable (and the main content was mostly in the screenshots, without explaining text otherwise), and looked like it was printed at about 15 dpi.

OOTH, I've never had problems with BN or Bookshop.

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#104

Post by Keverw »

I feel like Amazon is so shady nowadays. I ordered a CD drive a while back just incase I needed it, and the brand/seller included a thing to get a gift card if leaving a review. I thought that was a little unethical, like a bribe so I mentioned in the review giving them like a 3 star if I remember. The next day Amazon disables my ability to leave reviews on that seller, and anytime I go review other sellers my reviews are held for review when they used to be instant from what I remembered, unless they changed it for everyone.

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#105

Post by lb1lf »

alpaca128 wrote: post #46
buro9 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I received a book that had been written all over, full of notes and scribbles... it was sold as "new". I complained, and they sent another. That too was scribbled all over, notes on every page. The book wasn't that expensive, I was a bit annoyed, but it's a rounding error to me, so I just ordered another thinking no way would this happen again, and because I did need it quicker than I cared to go through the service…

And that's just the immediately visible problems. In some product categories it's difficult to find a single product where the description doesn't outright lie about features or quality, and the only way to tell is the price. Louis Rossmann recently tested some of the highest-rated fuses sold on Amazon. It took over 8A to blow a 2A fuse. By now I only order there if I can't find a more local alternative, the only rem…

There's a lot of 'That depends...' when it comes to fuse ratings; for instance, a tardy porcelain fuse of the kind used domestically in Scandinavian countries until fairly recently were rated to take 90% over rated load for 1hr before melting; they were basically only going to provide short circuit protection.

Depending on the category of fuse and the time it held at a lower current before ramping it up to 400%, it may have operated as intended.

(Squinting at the C type trip diagram in my fuse box, it appears the fuse will withstand 2x rated load for 6 seconds before tripping, 4x for 1.5 seconds or so.)

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#106

Post by jdsully »

gurchik wrote: post #72

From the author's perspective, this is not expected according to their agreement with Amazon. Unfortunately from the consumer's perspective, this is not surprising at all. Everyone I know has received a "used" item sold as "new, sold by Amazon.com." Whether it's due to commingling, or an attempt to reduce waste, or plain corporate greed, I have no idea. Just saying that if I returned a book on Amazon, I wouldn't be s…

Frys did this a lot during their last 5 years of existence.

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#107

Post by hammyhavoc »

manicennui wrote: post #51

If you care about the condition of books you buy, don't buy from Amazon. They'll throw a $100+ hardcover in a lightly padded envelope and chuck it around. Or they'll put it in a box with some other random item and a few inflatable shipping bags, but not enough to keep things from shifting around freely.

I've stopped buying from Amazon, period.

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#108

Post by londons_explore »

buro9 wrote: post #24
sparky_z wrote: post #9

Before getting pitchforks out, I'd like to see what this person considered "damaged". If - and I know this is a big if - but if it's something extremely minor, such that almost anyone would consider it to be in "like new" condition, then frankly that would be a case of Amazon doing the right thing, rather than pulping a perfectly good book and printing a new one. The fact that this person is apparently not providing…

I received a book that had been written all over, full of notes and scribbles... it was sold as "new". I complained, and they sent another. That too was scribbled all over, notes on every page. The book wasn't that expensive, I was a bit annoyed, but it's a rounding error to me, so I just ordered another thinking no way would this happen again, and because I did need it quicker than I cared to go through the service…

What exactly were the scribbles?

Notes as if someone was using it for study or an exam?

If so, you would expect that they'd want it more than the 14 day return period.

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#109

Post by Theodores »

pcurve wrote: post #19

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.

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.

Re: Amazon allegedly resells damaged books

#110

Post by buro9 »

londons_explore wrote: post #108
buro9 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I received a book that had been written all over, full of notes and scribbles... it was sold as "new". I complained, and they sent another. That too was scribbled all over, notes on every page. The book wasn't that expensive, I was a bit annoyed, but it's a rounding error to me, so I just ordered another thinking no way would this happen again, and because I did need it quicker than I cared to go through the service…

What exactly were the scribbles? Notes as if someone was using it for study or an exam? If so, you would expect that they'd want it more than the 14 day return period.

the book is called "School of Life" https://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/tsol-press-who-am-i-jou... and it's designed to be written in. it's a series of self-exploration exercises, where it supports someone who is exploring themselves in some way.

I don't rate it highly, but the person who I was gifting it to expressed an interest in trying it.

the three copies I had were all completely filled by other people, meaning I'd received three peoples deepest internal reflections and outpourings in addition to the books all being ruined by being so heavily written in. I've no idea where Amazon gets their books from, these were all sold by Amazon (which was my attempt to try and avoid marketplace things).

I can see why you'd imagine study aids, I guess that happens too.

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