Amazon's new refunds policy will 'crush' small businesses, outraged sellers say • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon's new refunds policy will 'crush' small businesses, outraged sellers say

#191

Post by javajosh » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 10:07 PM UTC

Sleeep wrote: post #162

javajosh wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was nothing illegal or immoral about ignoring a request I wasn't going to accept. It was after 30 days and his window for returning had closed. Certainly I wouldn't do business with someone like you who feels that fraud is justified when some arbitrary condition you place on the other party isn't satisfied to your liking.

Amazon's policy says you have to respond to buyer's inquiries within 24 hours. You literary had to just reply "Sorry my return policy is 30 days and it's been 40 days." One single sentence and you probably could have avoided the return completely. You could do that in bed. What did you think would happen if you ignored the buyer? Of course they are going to complain to Amazon. >Certainly I wouldn't do business with s…

Yes, he did. His response to me getting defrauded out of $250 was essentially, "Amazon did right. You deserved to be defrauded by them for not responding to a support request. I am happy they alienated you enough to get you off of their platform, because I wouldn't want to do business with bad people like you anyway." I'm exaggerating for clarity, but that's how I read his comment.

This pisses me off because it obscures the simple fact that Amazon had all the information it needed to see that he had actually received the item, but considered it "not delivered" anyway. It was fraud on the buyers part, theft and stupidity on Amazon's part for not seeing it, and it's emminently stupid for some random on the internet to say that ignoring an invalid return request deserved this response.

Re: Amazon's new refunds policy will 'crush' small businesses, outraged sellers say

#192

Post by pingec » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 10:12 PM UTC

kfriede wrote: post #183

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the "Distance Selling Regulation" means we have the right to cancel many contracts/purchases made not-in-person within 14 days of delivery. First of all, the Consumer Contracts Directive replaced that in 2014, no? Second, how exactly would this have protected the buyer? Maybe no restocking fee and only difference between free and basic shipping? In EU, does seller HAVE to pay for return shipping? Third, you know that…

Not to mention, not all of the EU is the same. Want to return something in Germany? Forget about it. Buying from an independent seller on Amazon is similar to buying on eBay. You're taking the risk of not having the customer service that large corporations can afford. Plus, Amazon customer support will often help out with claims where the seller is in the wrong (e.g. item does not match description).

I have returned things bought from Germany before without problems and I am not even in the same country...

Re: Amazon's new refunds policy will 'crush' small businesses, outraged sellers say

#193

Post by lttlrck » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 11:59 PM UTC

fenwick67 wrote: post #6

> Additionally, Amazon said that it's introducing "returnless refunds," a feature that the company said is "highly requested by sellers." The change enables sellers to offer a refund without taking back an item that may be expensive to ship and hard to resell. Wow, I can literally just say "I don't like it", and there's a chance they'll literally just give me my money back, but let me keep it?

It happened to me about 6 years ago with a $650 camera I I bought from Amazon Marketplace. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, something was missing from the box.

So I called Amazon and explained and they refunded the money before I knew what was happening. I said ok thanks, what should I do with the camera? She said you can throw it in the trash.

Of course since they made me a customer for life They’ve done quite well from me.

Re: Amazon's new refunds policy will 'crush' small businesses, outraged sellers say

#194

Post by xiaoma » Thu, Aug 03, 2017, 8:05 AM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #191

Sleeep wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon's policy says you have to respond to buyer's inquiries within 24 hours. You literary had to just reply "Sorry my return policy is 30 days and it's been 40 days." One single sentence and you probably could have avoided the return completely. You could do that in bed. What did you think would happen if you ignored the buyer? Of course they are going to complain to Amazon. >Certainly I wouldn't do business with s…

Yes, he did. His response to me getting defrauded out of $250 was essentially, "Amazon did right. You deserved to be defrauded by them for not responding to a support request. I am happy they alienated you enough to get you off of their platform, because I wouldn't want to do business with bad people like you anyway." I'm exaggerating for clarity, but that's how I read his comment. This pisses me off because it obscu…

Again, this is not the case. Reread my comment. I didn't write anything at all from the perspective of you, the merchant.

As a customer, I love dealing with Amazon. This doesn't mean that I'd enjoy being their partner, supplier, employee or anybody else they deal with.

Re: Amazon's new refunds policy will 'crush' small businesses, outraged sellers say

#195

Post by sharemywin » Thu, Aug 03, 2017, 4:09 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #190

falcolas wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that most of their listings are dominated by independent sellers; you can't even tell if Amazon is offering an object without digging into the "see more sellers". For example, find a coffee grinder sold by Amazon (note, not Amazon Warehouse Deals) https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_hi_eb?rh=n%3A1055398%2Cn%3A2...

Amazon keeps indy sellers around so they can use shopping data to identify trends on high-margin, easy-to-produce good that can be readily copied and offered by Amazon for much cheaper. IMHO.

Plus if you sell on Amazon I bet you buy more too.

Re: Amazon's new refunds policy will 'crush' small businesses, outraged sellers say

#196

Post by EliRivers » Sat, Aug 05, 2017, 2:45 PM UTC

yarrel wrote: post #46

EliRivers wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the subject of amazon alternatives, when I'm buying new books I check bookdepository.com (free international shipping!), wordery.com (free international shipping!) and booksplea.se (free international shipping!) first. They don't have the range of books that amazon does, but they beat amazon on price often enough to make them worth checking (and every so often, they really undercut amazon).

Amazon own Book Depository. I recently had a run-in with their support department when they shipped me a book that was a) a photocopy of the original b) with a damaged cover. They were not willing to take any responsibility for this and made it very clear that they did not want to replace it. So I've soured on them.

They do indeed own BookDepository. I'm sure they've got a good reason for competing with themselves at lower prices and free shipping; I'm happy just to benefit. I suppose part of how BookDepository do it is by inferior customer service; if that was bought from Amazon, I expect they'd have taken it back without question.

Pirate books supplied by reputable online retailers certainly has been on the rise. No Starch suffered it recently. It does seem to be technical books more than others, although I'm surprised it was a photocopy; usually it's just a reprint of the PDF version.