Anyone habitually buys and returns audio from Amazon?

Amazon has a no-questions asked return policy to my knowledge. So do folks use it as a way to demo gear? I would think it would be a good way to try audio gear and keep the stuff that sounds good..

I also read that Amazon is cracking down on folks who return to much. So not sure where the gray line is..

 

Based on past threads here and elsewhere I believe that would be a risky thing to try, you might find your Amazon account closed without warning, Amazon won't tell you where the line is until you've already crossed it and it's too late.

 

One would be flagged pretty quickly if they used Amazon as a service to demo gear. Frankly I think it's quite reprehensible for people to use it as such because of their liberal and FREE two-way shipping of product. I have no sympathy for anyone who's account get closed as a result.

 

Doesn't seem worth the risk of losing your buying privileges. Their return policy is a safeguard intended to protect the customers. As a longtime customer, I'd never want to abuse the system. Save your returns for when you truly need them. Products will get damaged in transit and some will have unintended factory defects.

 

I agree with your post except feel compelled to point out that not all Amazon returns are free. Yes, Amazon eats the return shipping cost for defective items. Yes, there are certain categories such as clothing where you can generally return things for free simply because you don't like them. But for many things, if you initiate a return online and indicate that the reason for the return is that you simply don't want the item then the customer does have to pay the shipping cost of the return. At least that has been my experience in the past the few times I wanted to return something that wasn't defective. Unless their policies have changed, I don't think free return shipping should be assumed except for cases of obvious defects.

I, too, have no sympathy for people whose accounts get closed due to high return rates. If someone wants to visually inspect merchandise before agreeing to purchase it and/or actually experience the product in operation, that person should be buying from a local store.