Amazon return limit?

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jbz7890

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I've heard that Amazon will permanently ban an account if it receives too many returns. Has anyone experienced this or know how many items (or what % of purchases) you need to return in order to be banned?
 
Looking at various forums, particularly in slickdeals, at threads where people express outrage that they've been banned by Amazon, I find that those people tend to be vague on the details about what their behavior was.

I get the impression that this mostly occurs to people who are buying stuff in bulk, attempting to flip it on ebay or craiglist or the trunk of their Cadillac in a parking lot, and what they don't sell they return. Or people who buy and return things they're only going to use once, like shoes; I can just see someone thinking it would be a great idea to have a new pair of shoes every week without having to pay for them.

If Amazon (or any mail-order business for that matter) were to give details about how they detect shenanigans, then those people who like to work the system will play just under those limits, like the old thing of depositing no more than $9900 into a bank to avoid scrutiny of deposits over $10,000.
 
There's no hard and fast number. They'll ban people who they feel are either using their service as a free rental, as in getting something for a month then sending it back, or who are overly fussy and send things back over and over because they don't match their unreasonable standards of perfection.

So if you buy and keep a lot of shit from Amazon, they won't mind if you also return a fair bit too. If you never seem to keep anything, well you'll probably end up banned.

It is more or less just a system of act reasonable. If you return things only when there's a real reason, like it is broken or you really don't like it, then you are probably fine. If you use Amazon as a try-out/rental service, well then you'll probably wind up banned.
 
I personally don't feel it is a positive sign when stores enact policies like this, but oh boy do i agree with it.

What Sycraft and evilsofa mentioned about people gaming the system, or their "unreasonable standards of perfection", they are the ones who ruin it for the rest of us.
 
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I know a guy that used to buy photography gear from Amazon. Expensive cameras, lenses, etc. Sometimes he would buy a few cameras, one after another, trying to find one he was satisfied with. A few months ago his account was banned for excessive returns when he tried to return a camera that was DOA (bad packaging).
 
night_2004 said:
I know a guy that used to buy photography gear from Amazon. Expensive cameras, lenses, etc. Sometimes he would buy a few cameras, one after another, trying to find one he was satisfied with. A few months ago his account was banned for excessive returns when he tried to return a camera that was DOA (bad packaging).
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Good. Amazon loses a lot of money on people like him and it hurts the rest of us in the end. Same thing annoys me when people return CPU's etc due to not getting the OC they want, then buying another one. Crap like that always happening on this forum.
 
jbz7890 said:
I've heard that Amazon will permanently ban an account if it receives too many returns. Has anyone experienced this or know how many items (or what % of purchases) you need to return in order to be banned?
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Why are you worried? If they ban you its for your own good, like taking knives out of the hands of children.

Never know what kind of trouble children will get into.
 
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i hardly ever return stuff to amazon and if I do it is because it is defective and the seller does not have a replacement policy and states that you have to return it. to date I have only returned 1 thing to amazon in 8 years of using them...

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They key is to buy what you want and not buying something knowing that you are going to return it....
 
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HeavensCloud said:
Good. Amazon loses a lot of money on people like him and it hurts the rest of us in the end. Same thing annoys me when people return CPU's etc due to not getting the OC they want, then buying another one. Crap like that always happening on this forum.
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That is insane. Anybody who would do that is a flat out asshole. I just don't understand how some parents are raising children nowadays. Somebody who feels they are entitled to a good overclock, something went seriously wrong in their upbringing. I've been a big Amazon customer for a few years and have only had to return 2 things i can remember, and both times Amazon told me to just keep it, "This one is on us." To be so far on the opposite end of that to where Amazon is banning your account...... i just can't imagine how skewed your perspective on entitlement and courtesy must be.
 
HeavensCloud said:
Good. Amazon loses a lot of money on people like him and it hurts the rest of us in the end.
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Amen, all those costs are just passed on to the consumer, and they end up hurting lenient return policies when people blatantly abuse them.
 
I buy so much stuff on Amazon.. I have only had to use them for returns a few times, but they've been really great about it.
 
As with most things in life the "don't be an ass-hat!" rule applies.

Especially since I have started reselling things on Amazon, I don't return things unless they are DOA or not as described (not my fault). It really sucks when someone returns something to me because they didn't read the description carefully. I end up eating the Amazon commission and shipping. Its even worse if the item was unopened because now when I re-list it it is no longer new and sells at a lower price. I am not a big company, just someone trying to clean out my closet. I can't write off the loss on my taxes; that is just a beer I don't get to drink.

If I get something and decide it is not what I wanted, I will just turn around and re-list it. I chalk up the loss as my problem for not reading carefully or changing my mind. I have also done this with tools I only had a one-off use for. The money difference is my "rental fee".
 
I wonder from time to time if I'm returning too much stuff, but after reading these stories my 1-2 items per year seem pretty safe.
 
fattypants said:
I wonder from time to time if I'm returning too much stuff, but after reading these stories my 1-2 items per year seem pretty safe.
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Yeah, dont be paranoid about it. This is typical info you find on forums on the internet. Some people are friggin idiots and are exploiting the systems. They get banned for exploiting then eRage on some forum about how amazon bans blah blah blah..

Dont be a dick, and you wont get banned. Id find it very hard to believe that they would ban someone for legit returns. To be truely honest, having shopped on amazon for 15 years, ive never had to return anything. One might suggest even 1-2 items per year is questionable. What the shit are you having to return so much of? Im sure the people who were supposedly banned were exploiting them to no end. Some poor idiots out there dont care about gaming companies and they should be banned....
 
Heh I order enough shit from amzn, hell I got something and it was slightly off from what I ordered, I just wanted to get what I bought and they instantly refunded me and just told me to keep it I presume because of shipping costs and processing the return.

($9 set of socket holders, they gave me two 3/8ths and one 1/4 instead of one 1/2, 3/8, and a 1/4)
 
I never returned much up untill this year. We added a bathroom and closet to the house. Most of the fixtures and lights and such are from amazon. I had to return a few things when the contractor said the item wouldn't work. I paid the return shipping to amazon. I'm quite sure they made out on the deal with how much I spent.

Hell, even the toilet and shower doors are from amazon..... go prime shipping!
 
Kendrak said:
I never returned much up untill this year. We added a bathroom and closet to the house. Most of the fixtures and lights and such are from amazon. I had to return a few things when the contractor said the item wouldn't work. I paid the return shipping to amazon. I'm quite sure they made out on the deal with how much I spent.

Hell, even the toilet and shower doors are from amazon..... go prime shipping!
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This is off topic but, I thought amazon pays for return shipping? (ive never actually had to do a return with them)
 
They'll pay for return shipping if the reason for the return is their fault, basically if the item's DOA or you got the wrong thing, etc. If you're returning something for the hell of it then you pay return shipping. Might be different with Prime, dunno.
 
The only thing I can remember that I've ever returned to Amazon are the Beyer headphones I bought this year... I specifically ordered the DT 880 Premium and got the Pro version instead, which is an entirely different product listing on their site. It was an Amazon merchant order but fulfilled by Amazon, and I actually made out like a bandit in the end so it worked out great for me.

The merchant's either dumb or trying to pull a fast one tho, because on the underside of the box (that says Pro everywhere) he had affixed a label that says Premium and had the Premium UPC & product code. It ended up working in my favor because when I called I said I just wanted the right product, wasn't necessarily interested in a return, apparently I had to return it since that's the way they deal with merchant orders tho... The service rep then offered I could order it directly from Amazon and they would match the merchant's price.

For some reason Amazon couldn't ship the item to Puerto Rico tho (even tho they can ship other headphones, weird but not unusual), and thru a series of mixups by the rep in trying to get my order shipped to PR I ended up with like $48 of credit on my account instead of the $24 I should've had for the price match. I even told the rep about it and she just went like "oh, well, hopefully that makes up for all the hassle" (since I was now shipping the price matched replacement order to my sister's place in the states etc.).

It didn't end there tho, when they got my returned item they credited me $6 for return shipping but I had spent $12 sending it back... So I called about it and the guy asked if I wanted a credit to my card or if the if credit to my Amazon account was fine, I said it was and he randomly gave me a $10 credit rather than the $6 difference they owed me.

In the end the blasted headphones ended up costing me like $205 even tho I had originally paid $230, turns out $230's the cheapest they dropped to all year so I lucked out. Excellent service IMO. :D
 
I also ordered a different pair of headphones recently that later dropped another $10 before my order had even arrived and they gave me a credit for that difference even tho their policy's not to do so. Same pair dropped another $25 during a random lightning deal AFTER cyber Monday but whatever. :p (I had ordered them a week before BF to take advantage of a Prime trial)

Their liberal return policy is kind of at odds with the anti post-purchase price matching policy but they seem to make exceptions left and right so it's all good IMO. As good as their service reps are in taking care of you when stuff goes wrong, I can definitely see why they would resort to banning people who abuse it.
 
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Impulse said:
I also ordered a different pair of headphones recently that later dropped another $10 before my order had even arrived and they gave me a credit for that difference even tho their policy's not to do so. Same pair dropped another $25 during a random lightning deal AFTER cyber Monday but whatever. :p (I had ordered them a week before BF to take advantage of a Prime trial)

Their liberal return policy is kind of at odds with the anti post-purchase price matching but they seem to make exceptions left and right so it's all good IMO. As good as their service reps are in taking care of you when stuff goes wrong, I can definitely see why they would resort to banning people who abuse it.
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Yeah amazon customer service is great though. I just ordered a pair of headphones as well and they dropped $5 before they were even delivered. Yes they dont pricematch but if you contact them, they are usually very generous about it. They credited me $5 no problem. Ive received so many credits and such from them, its great. They have the best customer service of any large company I think.
 
it doesn't cost anything to return ship an item. the shipping to return is paid for when you pay to ship an item, its included in the cost.
 
matrix563 said:
it doesn't cost anything to return ship an item. the shipping to return is paid for when you pay to ship an item, its included in the cost.
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Unless you tell them you no longer want the item (ie not their fault that it is being returned)
 
I probably return 1 item a month to Amazon. I probably get 3 orders a week from them though. I have no issue with returning something that I just don't like but at the same time I actually take the time to research a product that I am buying sight unseen.
 
I don't mind this policy at all. These are probably the same clever folks that were returning TV's after a year via Costco :rolleyes:
 
<3 Amazon. I bought a cutting pad for my buffer, but ordered the wrong size.

"As a valued customer, you don't need to return this item to get a refund"

Awesome. $8.98 for free.
 
HeavensCloud said:
Good. Amazon loses a lot of money on people like him and it hurts the rest of us in the end. Same thing annoys me when people return CPU's etc due to not getting the OC they want, then buying another one. Crap like that always happening on this forum.
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I agree
 
Yes, i've heard they can ban you. Amazon has a great return policy, yet the downside to this is that some less than honest people will abuse their policites; I loathe people who abuse returns and treat them as a rental service, I say good on amazon for this.
 
I'm glad Amazon does this. Some customers simply aren't worth having. You know, the ones that complain and demand the most while paying the least. Worthless.
 
For the likely 2-3 percent or less of people that ACTUALLY do this , its a good policy change. But since we don't have any idea what the "return limit" is .. it could be a massive number or it could be a limit of returns per month or it could be only 10-15 returns and then you are banned.

Either way , it would be in their interest to actually elaborate on what exactly will result in a forever ban on Amazon. Otherwise these kinds of policies are not as "good" as they could be.
 
Godmachine said:
For the likely 2-3 percent or less of people that ACTUALLY do this , its a good policy change. But since we don't have any idea what the "return limit" is .. it could be a massive number or it could be a limit of returns per month or it could be only 10-15 returns and then you are banned.

Either way , it would be in their interest to actually elaborate on what exactly will result in a forever ban on Amazon. Otherwise these kinds of policies are not as "good" as they could be.
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You have nothing to worry about if you're a legitimate shopper. I imagine out of all the purchases, I only had to return 1 item out of probably 100 purchases in the past several months, I use amazon a lot. For people who buy video cards to test them out and return them if they don't overclock high enough, I say fuck those people. People like those raise costs for everyone, and I applaud amazon for doing what they do. The system is designed to weed out scumbags, such as the freeloaders at slickdeals who use amazon as a rental service. Scumbags who return a GPU because it doesn't overclock high enough. People do this, people on this very board do this, and its not ethical IMO.

If amazon loses money by having you as a customer, why should they allow you to shop there? Think about it. Using video cards as an example again, they CANNOT sell a used/returned GPU as new, so just because someone couldn't overclock it by 50mhz - they have to at best sell it via warehouse deals at a 10-25% discount just because someone wanted to test it for overclocking. Is that ridiculous for them? Yes, yes it is. Costs like that add up - Having a generous return policy is very costly. Having people abuse an already costly system don't deserve the benefits of amazon. The bottom line here is that if you're not a scumbag that abuses returns, you have nothing to worry about - from what i've read this mainly concerns people who constantly return non DOA items and have a higher return ratio than purchases.
 
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I did for returning too many gaming mice. I'm very picky about how they feel and whether the buttons are loose, etc. So I might try a new one when it comes out and return if I didn't like or if it didn't seem built well enough.
I also bought plenty from Amazon and kept the stuff plus gift cerfts. etc. , but that doesn't make any difference to them I guess. I've never been on the Slickdeals site. Don't even know what it is.
 
I think it's crazy how Amazon will pay UPS to come to your house to pick up your return if you choose so.
 
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