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Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

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Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#21

Post by kennend3 »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #10

One of the best things about Amazon has always been their returns. They shipped me a faulty GPU (actually I suspect it might have broken when the delivery guy slammed the box down after refusing my help carrying it up the stairs when I saw him struggling) It wasn’t broken in an obvious way but when it maxed out the PC would just freeze every single time. Asked for a return handed it over to a random shop drop off poi…

I accidentlly bought the wrong thing the other day. It was in my cart and amazon removed it as it was no longer available from the seller and 'recommended' something else, same price, very similiar name.

When it arrived i realized what had taken place and tried to return it. Amazon charged me $20 for return shipping.

It was my mistake, exacerbated by amazon removing the item from my cart and offering a similar named item. I've used amazon for many years and only returned like 3 things in 10+ years and amazon always supplied a return shipping label.

Now they charge for it?

Adding insult to injury I ordered a replacement on Nov 24 and it wont get here until Dec 6 (originally Dec 12).

I could and should have just went to the local store, gotten the correct product which they have in stock for the same price and saved myself $20 and 2 weeks??

Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#22

Post by drewcoo »

gumby wrote: post #3

In every US state there are small claims courts for precisely these issues. Not that this necessarily helps this particular family which is in Canada. But that’s the way to deal with this kind of thing. The article appears to say that Amazon simply shrugged. It is touching that the father says that they have been loyal customers. Like most big companies, Amazon doesn’t care about that, with their customers nor employ…

> . . . small claims courts . . .

That is one possible way to respond.

Another useful response is getting the media to publish a story and give AMZN a little public shame. It helps pressure the company to "do the right thing."

Best of all, people don't need to choose only one!

> . . . loyal customers . . . Amazon doesn't care about that . . .

Makes for an even better bad publicity story, though, doesn't it?

Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#23

Post by jacquesm »

LatteLazy wrote: post #17
jacquesm wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, there is. The idea here is that even though one party is immense that they should be able to get away with dishonest business practices is abhorrent and it serves a purpose to point this out in places where there are lots of eyeballs. For one it helps to warn people that this stuff could happen to their order too, for another it may help to bring together people that have had similar things happen to them s…

Quoted post unavailable.

> most of us are not Canadians with open amazon support tickets. So this is the wrong audience.

The overlap between Amazon customers and HN's audience is probably fairly high and this sort of thing can serve as a warning prior to doing business with a company.

> we will need A LOT of these articles, way more than all other articles combined, in order to correctly address all retail issues via HN

But that clearly isn't happening.

> once we get to that point, the whole HN system will break down as instead of "great, insightful articles", HN will just be the Amazon support desk ticketing website

It's a strawman, clearly this isn't happening so you can't draw the follow on conclusion.

> I am saying it's spam and meaningless to 99% of users and NOT what HN is meant to be for...

Then you're welcome to flag it, just as welcome as others are to upvote it. HN is lots of different things to lots of different people, if all you came for is 'great, insightful articles' then that's nice but with exactly one submission over the course of 3 years (about a company that I'm very much sympathetic to, so thank you for that submission) you could do more to make it so.

Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#24

Post by shanebellone »

I've spent ~100k on Amazon and have been a Prime member since introduction. Last month, I canceled my membership and stopped using Amazon altogether. I've never had a problem returning product. But Amazon pivoted from a discount retailer to a premium retailer of convenience. In some cases, products are 3-4x the price of local retailers. I'd rather spend the money locally than pay a premium to Amazon.

Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#25

Post by kennend3 »

gumby wrote: post #3

In every US state there are small claims courts for precisely these issues. Not that this necessarily helps this particular family which is in Canada. But that’s the way to deal with this kind of thing. The article appears to say that Amazon simply shrugged. It is touching that the father says that they have been loyal customers. Like most big companies, Amazon doesn’t care about that, with their customers nor employ…

Canada has the same system (provincial level small claims courts).

This took place in Alberta so - https://albertacourts.ca/pc/areas-of-law/civil/claims

Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#26

Post by kennend3 »

LatteLazy wrote: post #17
jacquesm wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, there is. The idea here is that even though one party is immense that they should be able to get away with dishonest business practices is abhorrent and it serves a purpose to point this out in places where there are lots of eyeballs. For one it helps to warn people that this stuff could happen to their order too, for another it may help to bring together people that have had similar things happen to them s…

Quoted post unavailable.

I'm Canadian and have had a few negative experiences with Amazon recently as well and found the article interesting.

You are aware that you were free to simply ignore the article and not comment on it if you felt it was "meaningless to 99% of users", correct?

Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#27

Post by dsfyu404ed »

ViViDboarder wrote: post #20
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #10

One of the best things about Amazon has always been their returns. They shipped me a faulty GPU (actually I suspect it might have broken when the delivery guy slammed the box down after refusing my help carrying it up the stairs when I saw him struggling) It wasn’t broken in an obvious way but when it maxed out the PC would just freeze every single time. Asked for a return handed it over to a random shop drop off poi…

> $1000 right away before the item even went back. They don’t do this anymore. I recently bought a hard drive and found the anti static bag was opened. When I returned it Amazon made it clear I would not get a refund until it was back at the warehouse. I dropped it at a Whole Foods return desk and got my refund days later.

I suspect it's product category dependent. I returned a glorified car battery charger last week and got the $$ minutes after UPS scanned it in.

Electronics + "product wasn't sealed" claim -> red flags for counterfeit washing.

Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#28

Post by AzzieElbab »

Alex3917 wrote: post #18

Amazon did the same thing to me recently. They shipped me the wrong socks, and are refusing the refund the money unless I send back the ones they sent me, despite the fact that it's blatantly illegal in the U.S. for a company to force you to return something mailed to you that you didn't order.

Out of curiosity, can you describe how that happened? I always get refunds from them as soon as items are shipped back, before amz actually receive them.

Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#29

Post by TeMPOraL »

LatteLazy wrote: post #17
jacquesm wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, there is. The idea here is that even though one party is immense that they should be able to get away with dishonest business practices is abhorrent and it serves a purpose to point this out in places where there are lots of eyeballs. For one it helps to warn people that this stuff could happen to their order too, for another it may help to bring together people that have had similar things happen to them s…

Quoted post unavailable.

Well, here is what this particular submission did for me: I learned from the comments that Amazon is no longer going to refund you immediately if you report the item was damaged, or not the thing you bought. This is a new information for me, and it decreases the value of Amazon as an e-commerce platform in my eyes. It's probably not as impactful today, as I've already all but stopped caring about Amazon because of their commingling practices, but back in the day, their return policy was one of the defining things about Amazon for me.

Re: Amazon shipped fake product, refuses refund until 'correct' item returned

#30

Post by jojobas »

heliodor wrote: post #13
gumby wrote: post #3

In every US state there are small claims courts for precisely these issues. Not that this necessarily helps this particular family which is in Canada. But that’s the way to deal with this kind of thing. The article appears to say that Amazon simply shrugged. It is touching that the father says that they have been loyal customers. Like most big companies, Amazon doesn’t care about that, with their customers nor employ…

Probably best to have evidence. I'd video myself opening any item for which fraud runs high.

It goes both ways. It would be very easy to fabricate an unboxing with a rock inside instead of a video card and go to small claims court.
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