It's insane to me that ONE of their returns traveled 105 miles around the city of Toronto alone.
Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
91–100 of 351 posts
Re: Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
#92The GPS tracker technique does not seem foolproof, basic QA on returned goods would likely be trashing the GPS trackers.
yeah. what people don’t understand is that the return has to be processed when it comes back. in an ideal world anything like a GPS tracker would surely be discovered. there are also several issue with how the return may go. amazon may tell you to just keep the item (if the cost of shipping + processing the return is higher that the actual product price / margin on the item). they may decide that the item is in not g…
You could surely hide it easily enough in the cardboard? Just wrap it over in parcel tape. The people at the other end will just assume you went a bit overboard in packing.
Re: Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it depends a lot on category. What you said about kids clothing is spot on, but I'd expect similar dynamics for women's clothing (tighter fits = lower tolerance, also lower tolerance for color mismatch etc) and there are a couple of categories that I've outright stopped buying on Amazon because of the enormous problem rate, namely whitelabeled consumer electronics. In 2020 I've returned ~5%: markers that were…
I've also stopped buying at Amazon after 15 years. Even consumables and small items are problematic. Just in the last year, I encountered many issues including: * Showerhead that came without box, and clearly used. It still had a lot of water inside! * Underwear from a brand that sells items inside a sealed bag and discards returns came used, without bag (yuck!) * A module of Samsung RAM had visible wear signs and di…
How did you email Jeff Bezos?
Re: Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've also stopped buying at Amazon after 15 years. Even consumables and small items are problematic. Just in the last year, I encountered many issues including: * Showerhead that came without box, and clearly used. It still had a lot of water inside! * Underwear from a brand that sells items inside a sealed bag and discards returns came used, without bag (yuck!) * A module of Samsung RAM had visible wear signs and di…
I'm always shocked when I read these comments on HN. I swear it must be just the American Amazon that's so shit, because I literally never had any problems nor know anyone with these problems here in UK. Just this year I'm on 108 orders and counting, every single one of them was fine, working, definitely not used, definitely not counterfeit and delivered within 1 day as promised with Prime. Last year I've had 140 ord…
Amazon has prob. lower market share in e-commerce in EU than in USA. Competition (and more pro-consumer regulation) helps.
Re: Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm always shocked when I read these comments on HN. I swear it must be just the American Amazon that's so shit, because I literally never had any problems nor know anyone with these problems here in UK. Just this year I'm on 108 orders and counting, every single one of them was fine, working, definitely not used, definitely not counterfeit and delivered within 1 day as promised with Prime. Last year I've had 140 ord…
I second this. I’ve tried to give other online retailers a shot but nothing beats the customer service and reliability of Amazon in the UK, even if something is slightly more expensive I’ll always go with Amazon
Yep, I recently made a mistake of buying a new Lenovo laptop directly from Lenovo instead of Amazon, and it was a huge mistake - the machine arrived with a broken screen and I waited over 2 weeks for the replacement, their support was generally useless and every time I rang them got a different answer to what was actually happening(they said the replacement is ready, only to say it's not and I'll get a refund 2 days later, to then turn around and say a replacement has actually been shipped, absolute nonsense). Had it been purchased through Amazon I can guarantee I would have just returned the laptop the same day with a prepaid label, had the money back in my account the next day, re-ordered and had a replacement the following day. Well, lesson learnt I guess.
Re: Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
The tool borrowing is unscrupulous, but it provides a ready source of “Used-Very good” Amazon Warehouse tools at 15-35% off, which I do appreciate.
I'd like to see Amazon start a lend/use program like auto parts stores. I guess they would have to verify tool functionality though, which can be expensive.
The auto parts stores pretty much don’t, at least in my experience, and push it off to the customers/borrowers. I’ve gotten broken or incomplete tools from the (free) lending programs enough that I’ve mostly stopped using them and just buy tools instead. I don’t have time to get stuck halfway through a job and any $50-100 tool still leaves me with cash savings overall on the job.
Even in cases where I told them I broke a piece in a kit, they didn’t seem to care and it looked like the kit was going right back into stock to me.
Parts store do it because it gets you in the door to buy parts. If the lending was done through the mail, I’m sure Amazon would sell more parts, but it’s not clear it would be enough more profit to cover 2-way (or 4-way if a tool was broken) shipping on the tools.
Re: Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
#97> 30 to 40 per cent of all online purchases are sent back That seems almost an order of magnitude higher than I’d expect. Setting aside kids shoes (which probably do get 50% returned), I can’t imagine sending back even 5% of my online purchases, let alone 30-40%. I think I’ve sent back exactly 1 Amazon order in the last year, out of nearly 100.
30% seems really high. And I say that as someone who returns items more than most of my friends. My estimate is about 3-4% of items that I have returned over last 15 years of online shopping. And my friends think that is too high and guilt me for abusing the system. But maybe I should not feel as guilty.
The reasons I return items is usually false advertising. I used to spend hours reading reviews and product specs before buying. But now I don't have time to sift through reviews. And of course, fake reviews make it harder.
So all I got is maker's ads and if ads are lying then I don't feel guilty returning an item.
It seems most people have an attitude that if a buyer got duped with false advertisements then it is buyer's fault.
Re: Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've also stopped buying at Amazon after 15 years. Even consumables and small items are problematic. Just in the last year, I encountered many issues including: * Showerhead that came without box, and clearly used. It still had a lot of water inside! * Underwear from a brand that sells items inside a sealed bag and discards returns came used, without bag (yuck!) * A module of Samsung RAM had visible wear signs and di…
How did you email Jeff Bezos?
jeff@amazon.com
Re: Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've also stopped buying at Amazon after 15 years. Even consumables and small items are problematic. Just in the last year, I encountered many issues including: * Showerhead that came without box, and clearly used. It still had a lot of water inside! * Underwear from a brand that sells items inside a sealed bag and discards returns came used, without bag (yuck!) * A module of Samsung RAM had visible wear signs and di…
I'm always shocked when I read these comments on HN. I swear it must be just the American Amazon that's so shit, because I literally never had any problems nor know anyone with these problems here in UK. Just this year I'm on 108 orders and counting, every single one of them was fine, working, definitely not used, definitely not counterfeit and delivered within 1 day as promised with Prime. Last year I've had 140 ord…
Some of these issues were with Amazon UK, where I've been buying most of my items (around 400 orders).
The underwear issue was with Amazon US, and RAM with Amazon DE. But I've found Amazon UK quite problematic too.
Re: Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the environmental cost is dominated by shipping I could see destruction as more environmentally friendly. This is likely the for many small cheap items.
Fine, but two things are happenings: 1. It’s being hidden from consumers, who might adapt their behavior if they knew a return meant the trash. 2. Stuff is shipped back to amazon and then disposed of.
I’d they didn’t require step 2, their “return” rates would skyrocket though.