Usually for FBM Buyer-faulted returns nowadays, Amazon creates a return shipping label that the Buyer prints and affixes, and then gets into the possession of whichever carrier, in whatever way Amazon instructs.
For my own last two FBA returns, Amazon gave me a QR code that I presented along with the item at the UPS store. The employee scanned the code and tossed the item into a box full of Amazon FBA returns. However, these were not Buyer-faulted returns; they were both missing items upon delivery.
Staples is now an Amazon returns drop off point, which does not require a buyer repack. Operates like Kohl’s for drop off. Amazon/FBA only.
Like Kohl’s they give the buyer a same day 15% store purchase coupon. A bought a ream of paper there, came out what I would pay at Walmart, saved me a trip.
My Amazon/FBA returns now can be dropped at Staples, Kohl’s, Whole Foods or the UPS store.
They have never been buyer faulted. They are always a problem with the product - really.
So they give people a coupon for returning something?
So if you’re going to shop at Staples/Kohl’s you should buy something from Amazon just to return it to get 15% off your store visit. Is that what I’m hearing from this?
We got this over the holidays - it wasn’t FBM, it was Prime shipped Amazon, 3rd party seller.
Husband got a choice of paying $8 for the return label, or a “free” return was a drop off well over a 30 minute drive away. Not staples, UPS, or Whole Foods, but a warehouse, and not remotely the closest one to us.
Woulda been more than $8 in gas let alone the time suck…
If Amazon wanted to, they could let people drop off FBM returns at a drop-off point, and then FBA could process those items as a removal order to send to the seller once they get to a warehouse. The amount the seller would get charged for the return processing + removal order would likely be less than a USPS/UPS label to ship the item.
It could work, but likely won’t happen as I don’t think Amazon wants to be involved in processing more returns since that’s not something that makes money. They’d rather just leave it to be the FBM seller’s problem to deal with.
A return dropoff when I am at my second home in rural Maine is a similar distance away, but so is the nearest full service supermarket, and surprise of surprises, there is a Staples near the supermarket.
Amazon may not make it convenient to everyone, but it may be a larger percentage of their customers than one might think.
BTW $8 worth of gas would allow me to travel over 60 miles. I would have estimated higher last week but gas seems to increase every fill up again.
Well I live in super-dense ex-urban S. Fla, and everything is 2 miles away, max. I have 3 groceries and a costco in that radius, and 3 whole foods within 10 minutes, so I don’t mind doing drop of returns.
But this one required a trip to the next county, about 12 exits down on the interstate, and city driving on both sides…so maybe not quite $8 worth, but a total PITA since it would be a separate trip.
What annoyed me was they have so many options for FBA returns that are close by, but not this one.
Apparently it is a way to get potential customers inside their store
simply by having an affiliation with Amazon for returns without incurring
any advertising costs.
That’s the bait…and pretty certain they catch a lot of fish.
I wouldn’t say no cost, they’re probably being paid less than it costs to process the returns by Amazon, and there’s some hidden cost in that the customers you attract by offering this service return things at a higher rate than average.
I also wonder if the employees at these locations are stealing returns (or swapping stuff with random junk). Seems really easy to do it since nobody would know if the customer did it or an employee did it at some point.