I received a return of an unopened, unused item, that was returned for “Item Arrived Too Late”.
The item was delivered on May 20, 2026 via a UPS Amazon Buy Shipping Label with Claims and OTDR Protections (I know they don’t really apply to returns, per se).
The item was promised to be delivered by May 21, 2026, so it arrived 1 day early. The item had a ship by date of May 15, 2026 and was shipped on that same day with an acceptance scan from UPS.
Before I issue a refund for the return - can I do anything to fight this in any way since the return reason is contradicted by the promised and actual delivery dates?
Buyers will often claim the item was delivered “too late” when they just don’t want it anymore. Quick and easy way to get a free return label, or sometimes it’s delivered on time but just not as fast as they wanted it.
Your options are: full refund, or make up a reason to withhold a restocking fee approximate to the return shipping cost. Unfortunately, waiting for Amazon to refund for you so you can file a SAFE-T claim doesn’t work well anymore. If the order was RFS, you could have had an easier time with a SAFE-T claim.
For some reason this order wasn’t RFS - I suspect this buyer does a lot of returns.
I get these occasionally. Comparing actual delivery date to promised delivery date and removing the “Item arrived too late” option would seem to be a perfect use for Amazon’s amazing new AI.
AS Hobbs said customers do this all the time. It used to be far worse before Amazon added the prime badge.
I always just do a restocking fee and if possible don’t refund the original shipping either. If it is not RFS that usually means a customer that abuses the return policy or has had too many Safe-T Claims against them.
Too many buyers know how to game the system.