I hate going to my local UPS store on Mondays. We call it Amazon return day. The place is piled high in Amazon returns waiting to be picked up.
Today took the cake. I came in with my shipment of outgoing UPS orders. there were 2 people a head of me and 3 desks opened.
On desk #1 a guy with 24 amazon returns.
On desk #2 a guy with 46 amazon returns.
On desk #3 a woman with 12 amazon returns.
the line quickly went out the door and around the corner. I heard the guy with 46 returns bragging how he just bought the stuff to clear his yard and now gets all his money back so he can do it again next year for yard cleanup.
Imagine how his tune would change if a restocking fee and return shipping were applied.
Most likely clothing - you will do exactly what other websites face. My girl does this all the time (not on amazon - she refuses to buy clothes on amazon). But she’ll buy a thing in her size and then one below and one above (all will have their original labels upon return) just to see which size fits - its almost impossible to shop otherwise.
I just ordered some sandals off REI because there were on sale but had to order 2 of each size (to capture the sale) because the particular brand doesn’t have half sizes and neither size worked and they didn’t have the particular model in store for me to check out. Now I did an in-store return of course because there is no additional charge and the store is not too far off - but there is literally no way around this.
The schmatte business is difficult in real life, with 20% return rate considered normal. It must be much more difficult online, when it is normal and ordinary to order 2 or 3 sizes and send back the ones that don’t fit.
I buy clothing items on Amazon and have actually sent back very few, FWIW. I live 10 blocks from Bloomingdales, which I used to frequent many years ago, but buy most of the few clothes I need online, and have not been to Blooomies in many years.
I hate to say it but somethings I buy on Amazon knowing I will return it.
You find an item you are looking for, get it knowing it may be junk. It arrives and Yep it’s junk.
However that being said if returns weren’t so easy on Amazon I wouldn’t buy this to see in the first place
Customers buy things.
You had it right the first time.
I have never bought anything with the intention of returning it. I buy everything with the understanding that if it doesn’t work or is not what was advertised, I will be sending it back for a refund.
The only items I have ever returned to Amazon were items from FBA that were mislabeled, so I didn’t get what I ordered.
I sell and sew clothing – for this very reason, I won’t put them on the internet anywhere, period. You have to find me at a craft show. So sorry…not. Won’t deal with the return rate on clothing when I get asked by a customer “Oh do you have these on line?” Um…no I don’t. Clothing companies LIE too much, so you are more than welcome to try it on and if a 2X fits, I’ll cut the tag out so no one knows what size worked.
I think the margins and volume make up for it, but then that’s the game. I’d like to get into the shoe game and I like the space for niche shoes but that’s because I think I can provide value. It’s unlike anything I’ve done before so its even more intriguing. So much to do, so little time
Same here. I try to keep my Amazon return low as well. Just curious, how did you come up with the 10% number? Is it 10% of the dollar amount or 10% of the number of order/units?
I’ll guess they’ll only be flagged if the seller takes the time to report them.
If they’re FBA no way to do it.
Return issues definitely becoming more problematic.
We have had a customer reach out to us at the company phone number after we got reimbursed for an FBA removal order with LPN images, and we did a violation report for a fraudulent return. I did not have the honor of taking that call but to summarize, they asked us how they could “make things right” because they were in trouble with Amazon.
I cannot say for sure we were responsible or just one of many they screwed that got them caught, but Amazon is watching. It could be completely unrelated also, but it is more fun to think that the employee who submitted the reimbursement hit enter and the person got suspended and their Alexa, Ring, Prime Movies all stopped working.
I was sitting at a family wedding, it was near the end of the night. Our assignment was to take the gifts to the home of the newly married couple.
Others had other assignments, cleaning up, and… gathering the centerpieces.
I asked, why are they repackaging the centerpieces in the original boxes. So careful with them too. She said, “Oh we got them on Amazon, we don’t need them anymore so we are sending them back.”
They knew I sold on Amazon, they knew/know what they were doing to another family company.
Thank you for sharing this because it gives me (and maybe others) hope that Amazon is paying attention. That’s why for every INR, I tell them to go back to Amazon and file. That’s a central place to gather THEIR information to see how often they have done this in the past.
YEARS ago – I remember reporting an abusive buyer and got told that YES Amazon does keep track of buyers who are not following the rules. But as a peon seller – I really wonder. Then there’s posts like this where I have hope again.
along with Louis Rossmann’s story about the Amazon driver who got a Alexa/Ring/prime owner shut off for incorrectly blaming them for a doorbell using a racial slur…
I imagine they can crack the whip on return abuse. Shame Amazon does not publish the numbers.
Return Reason: Item arrived too late
Buyer Comment: Item was for a birthday, was supposed to arrive sooner.
Ship by:
Thu, Jun 15, 2023 to Fri, Jun 16, 2023
Deliver by:
Tue, Jun 20, 2023 to Thu, Jun 22, 2023
Purchase date:
Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 7:57 PM PDT
Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:37 AM PDT Package delivered.
So got there the first day of the promised delivery range at 7:30 AM
Why can’t amazon make a bot that reviews the return reason and says, Sorry but your item was delivered within the delivery estimate please pick a real reason.
I’m getting lots of FBA returns on items that I have not traditionally had excessive returns on. I think covid broke a lot of people and buyer’s remorse as well as deciding after the fact that “hey, I just got my cc bill and I can’t afford this”. And then you have the scammers who order low ticket items just to see if they can get a returnless refund with their BS whining. Even Etsy which has been somewhat not affected by this, is increasingly experiencing this behavior. It’s getting really hard as a seller to subscribe to “the customer is always right”
