'Warning' email from amazon.co.uk

I had a quick look at my orders ove r the last 6-7 months and found I'd made 9 returns. Significantly, 6 of these were to marketplace sellers, and the items were described as new but I suspected they weren't- - 3 I think were very likely re-seals. This happens, and I don't necessarily blame the seller. Stuff changes hands among sellers and distributors, and people reseal stuff at some point for various reasions. It's disappointing, though, to open a sealed item and find serious shelf wear or other damage, and I think it's fine to return such items.

i don't know whether amazon is as concerned about returns to outside sellers as it is about returns to itself??

 

Thanks for this info. Looks like I'm on probation, and I'll have to consider buying elwewhere at least some of the time. A shame, as 'zon is competitively priced, and it saves legwork.

Actually, a lot of my returns are CDs. I only recently started buying vinyl from amazon, when they improved their packaging of LPs.

 

I return slightly scratched CDs. Does that count as normal? One could argue the CD still plays, but that's not the point, IMO. A book with torn pages can still be read etc. There is some serious bad quality control out there, and as I've said, manufacturers seem deaf to our complaints.

 

I just advised someone on a Blu ray forum to rethink their intention to return 5 out of 7 Blu rays, because the cases were " dented." Shopping online in the first place has built in risks. If every purchase is expected to be pristine, shop in person, at a brick and mortar.

 

You get new discs with scratches?

 

Yes, it happens. But anyone who regularly returns playable cds because of scratches deserves whatever punishment Amazon chooses to deal out IMHO.

 

Almost every time I've bought cds from Amazon I've had cracked cases. If I returned them I probably would have been blacklisted long ago. If the disc inside is OK I'm happy. Vinyl is another matter entirely, because I find that probably 1 in 4 new pressings have serious manufacturing flaws that warrant their return as they ruin my enjoyment of the music. Living in Australia though means that the return postage cost is usually higher than the cost of the record itself, which is an absolute scandal in my opinion.

 

I've sometimes wondered about the discs I return. I suspect some of them get resold. Unless the item was sealed, what's the difference?

I appreciate some people a re more fussy about this sort of fault than others, but nevertheless it's a fault, and as such is covered by amazon's returns policy.

 

Most my returns to Amazon are scratched discs due to a poor packaging design (e.g., tight paper sleeves). Every so often, I get a disc in a padded mailer with a cracked jewel case. Most of the time, it's minor and I use the original jewel case or replace it with a new one. It's rare that the jewel case is smashed so badly that I have to return the disc due to damaged inserts.

A couple of weeks ago, I received the Earth, Wind & Fire The Columbia Masters set from amazon.co.uk. It looked like I picked it up off the production line myself. Perfect.

 

The only items I've returned have been where there is a product defect (eg Thick as a Brick box) or where the product is not as advertised (I returned an on-demand CDR CD when it was not declared as such in the listing - even if you don't mind the CDR, the artwork etc is usually inferior). I do not return because of light scratches on a CD, small dents in packaging or such like, since they don't affect my enjoyment and I realise things get knocked about a bit in transit. Don't know what my return rate is but maybe 1% ?

Tim

 

Do you have any facts or evidence for this, or is it made up like your post about Looney Tunes?

Marketplace is now viewable by anyone (indexed by Google as well), so real information would be helpful for anyone looking for it.

 

Yes, everything I post is made up. Please ignore all my postings. I also recommend returning everything you get from Amazon, all the time. You will never get your account closed. If you're smart, you'll order stuff JUST to return it. If you return enough merchandise, Amazon will call you up personally and thank you for being a great customer and offer you a secret discount. It's just amazing.

 

If you're returning items to third party sellers, there are three cases:

1) You work out an agreement with the seller and they agree to the return
2) You have to file a claim with Amazon to arrange the return
3) The item was shipped on behalf of the seller via Amazon's FBA program

Amazon does not care about case (1) unless there are other reasons to believe you are trying to commit fraud.
Amazon DOES care about case (2). If you file a claim this way, both you and the seller will get dinged.
Amazon also cares about case (3), since it costs them money as they partially pay for shipping both ways. File enough claims of type (3) and it will hurt your account. All returns of type (3) also negatively affect the metrics of the seller's account.

(2) and (3) will negatively affect your account metrics. (1) typically will not.

 

Your post I quoted is presented as fact. Numbered 1, 2, 4 and 5 are reasonably sound conclusions from posts here by people that had their account closed. Some points within #3 implies intricate knowledge of Amazon's algorithm which they do not disclose to anyone. Particularly what department the returns are for, whether the rate is increasing. The sarcasm with out a clear source of information doesn't really help.

 

Amazon US offers no chance to show your side of the story, no warnings either, decisions are final.

 

I know more about Amazon policies than most. You can choose to believe me or not. As far as I can tell, a cup of coffee will cost me the same tomorrow.

 

I had another look at my secomd email from amazon. It says basically they take on board my comments- - that my returns are not a result of poor packaging on the whole, but are due to manufacturing/quality control issues, and will consider this when making future decisions on my account. If I take this right, maybe things aren't so bad after all. All the same, I have 4 forthcoming items from 'zon and I'm beginning to wonder if i should cancel at least some of them. One is already in the post.

 

This alarmed me when I first learned about it. That's why I reacted as I did, and posted this thread. I'd heard nothing about amazon.co.uk customers being deregistered.

 

I don't mind a cracked jewel case as long as it isn't a special one and the inlays aren't damaged. It's a low cost thing to replace a jewel case and it saves the hassle of a return. I'm interested -- if you use amazon.co.uk in Oz, do they use the same cardboard envelopes for CDs I recieve mine in, here in England?

It's indeed scandalous you have to pay so much for returns. I only use one overseas seller for LPs, and they have a returns address here in the UK.

 

I use both amazon.co.uk and amazon.com (there is no amazon.com.au) and cds from both arrive in a thin cardboard envelope, which pretty much guarantees a high rate of cracked cases. That I can live with because, as you say, they are cheap to replace.

 

I recently placed an order with amazon.co.uk for a CD and two days after dispatch I received an email from them claiming that it had been returned due to my request or because I gave an undeliverable address, implying that it was my fault. The order was cancelled, payment refunded, and I had to start again.

This was odd, because:

a) The email came two days after posting...takes a bit longer to get from the UK to Australia and back again if I refused acceptance!
b) it was addressed to the same address I've used since 2006.

To me, it seems more likely that the package was returned damaged.

Anyway, I reordered and received the replacement a few days ago - same details as the original.

I wonder if this will show up as a "black mark" against my name?

 

I wouldn't worry about it for a minute.

 

Not likely to affect your internal rating.

 

I recently had to return a Beatles Stereo Box Set (Vinyl) because it was total junk. It wasn't Amazons fault. It was 100% a manufacturer defect. I did have to argue back and forth with Amazon because they wanted me to pay return shipping which came to about 19 dollars and some change. I don't care what their policy is about returning an item. I did NOT order a defective item. Its not my fault that they sell a lot of junk.
I don't care if it ends up being a black mark on my account or not. They can ban my account if they want. It wouldn't bother me in the least.
Also I see people saying that they don't mind if they order a new CD from Amazon and it comes with a few light scratches... Whut??? If its really a new CD it shouldn't have any scratches period. If you like buying something advertised as New and paying new prices but receiving a resealed Used item then by all means, continue doing business with Amazon...