Amazon email for too many returns

[JoHunt]

Curious situation. Obviously Amazon wants our business and would not turn it away for no good reason.

From the email:

However, we have noticed that the volume of refunds on your account is unusually high.

I wonder what volume of refunds is considered "normal"?

I know in my own situation, I have only ever returned an ereader cover (because of faulty construction) and 2 ebooks (due to poor formatting) in about 10 years of buying on Amazon.

Last year I recall reading about someone who purchased every color cover for the Paperwhite, saying she would keep the one she liked best and return the rest (I believe there were around 10 different ones available). I wonder if she received such an email?

I'd be interested in hearing the refund/return experiences of others.

[Katsunami]

How can this be?

I've seen people in this forum return reader after reader, even trying 5 or even more readers to get that perfect screen. If someone can do *that* without reprisal, then this e-mail must either be a mistake, or you really are returning huge amounts of stuff, some way or another.

Can't you send an e-mail to customer support and request this issue to be escalated to the next level?

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Have you emailed Jeff Bezos yet? Someone up thread did and actually got results.
Please try that before saying there is nothing you can do.
Also please tell us exactly how many returns you had.
Was it 2, 3, 10, 50?
Or how many orders and how many returns?

Hubby needs to finish going through our orders before we have proper figures, he's been out this weekend. Yes he will be writing to Jeff but both my previous emails were copied to him and so far it's got us nowhere.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

How can this be?

I've seen people in this forum return reader after reader, even trying 5 or even more readers to get that perfect screen. If someone can do *that* without reprisal, then this e-mail must either be a mistake, or you really are returning huge amounts of stuff, some way or another.

Can't you send an e-mail to customer support and request this issue to be escalated to the next level?

Hubby is contemplating ringing customer services but tbh they've had me in tears so many times I'd rather he did it when I was at work.

[Josieb1]

We've just placed two small orders, a DVD and a CD. Both because they've finally actually dropped to a price we were happy to pay, and secondly because they won't go back. Just to try and 'improve our score' if that's even possible.

Other than that I'm sticking to ebooks only if I can't get them cheaper on kobo.

[Josieb1]

These are the two replies we have received so far, as you can see it's like banging your head against a brick wall trying to get any information on what triggers the original email.

First reply
Hello,

Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts. Your comments and suggestions will help us improve our store and offer better service to our customers.

We contacted you so we could better understand the activity on your account and how to improve your shopping experience.

We understand that there may be problems with a very small percentage of the items we ship out to customers.

To learn more about our policies, visit our “Conditions of Use” page. You can find a link to this page at the bottom of any page on Amazon.co.uk.

We would like to inform you that it has been noted and will be taken into consideration in the future. We appreciate your efforts to ensure that your buying activities are in compliance with our policies.

Best Regards,

Account Specialist.
Amazon.co.uk

2nd Reply
Hello,

Thank you for writing back to us and letting us know about the situation.

We're concerned about the activity on your account and want to do all that we can to avoid the inconvenience you experience having to make frequent and possibly avoidable returns of the items you purchase from Amazon.co.uk

Rest assured that no action has been taken on your account thus far; you're still able to place orders and, if necessary, return items to us. This email was sent because we want to better understand the activity on your account and learn how to improve your shopping experience.

We appreciate your efforts to ensure that your buying activities are in compliance with our policies. We would like to inform you that it has been noted and will be taken into consideration in the future.

If you have any concerns on any particular order then please contact our customer service and they'll be able to help you further.

We appreciate your understanding, and hope to see you again soon.

Best Regards,

Account Specialist.
Amazon.co.uk

[soulfuldog]

Hope you can get it sorted out Josieb1.

While I'd tend to be sympathetic to a business with such a high level of customer support like Amazon usually has, and to any company that is unhappy with the amount of returns/refunds from customers, this failure to properly identify what they are unhappy about with facts and figures, and their email responses that leave you no further forward are really, really unhelpful.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

Hope you can get it sorted out Josieb1.

While I'd tend to be sympathetic to a business with such a high level of customer support like Amazon usually has, and to any company that is unhappy with the amount of returns/refunds from customers, this failure to properly identify what they are unhappy about with facts and figures, and their email responses that leave you no further forward are really, really unhelpful.

Thank you. At this stage I'm simply burying my head in the sand and leaving hubby to deal with it, but I doubt we'll get any proper info.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by JoHunt

Curious situation. Obviously Amazon wants our business and would not turn it away for no good reason.

From the email:

I wonder what volume of refunds is considered "normal"?

I know in my own situation, I have only ever returned an ereader cover (because of faulty construction) and 2 ebooks (due to poor formatting) in about 10 years of buying on Amazon.

Last year I recall reading about someone who purchased every color cover for the Paperwhite, saying she would keep the one she liked best and return the rest (I believe there were around 10 different ones available). I wonder if she received such an email?

I'd be interested in hearing the refund/return experiences of others.

I have had to return some stuff from time to time, very seldom wanted a refund though, almost always went for an exchange. I was not the one with the covers btw.
My experience with CS was good, and when it was not, my email to Jeff Bezos worked wonders.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

How can this be?

I've seen people in this forum return reader after reader, even trying 5 or even more readers to get that perfect screen. If someone can do *that* without reprisal, then this e-mail must either be a mistake, or you really are returning huge amounts of stuff, some way or another.

Can't you send an e-mail to customer support and request this issue to be escalated to the next level?

The only other person I ever saw commenting about too many returns admitted to buying series of ebooks then reading and returning them. It was at least 100 ebooks before she was sent an email saying she could still buy but no longer return.

[dordale]

It's disturbing that Amazon just sends out vague letters like this. They should be readily be able to provide you with the statistics that triggered the letter. You can't even be sure if it's not incorrect data on their part somehow without seeing the details. Hope your hubby can get some good answers.

[DiapDealer]

If you can't pretty quickly "ballpark" the number of items you've returned to Amazon since you've been a customer, I'm guessing it's "too much." Regardless of how much you order.

I don't say that to be rude. I truly believe it. I probably order 50-60 physical things from them each year, and at least that many ebooks (before I switched primarily to epubs). After 7-8 years of that, I recall returning a defective Fire (exchanged for another) and one ebook that was atrociously formatted. That's about it.

I've never once returned anything for "not turning out to be what I wanted," or ever ordered anything with the mindset that I could return it if I didn't like it. I don't judge those who do, I just believe them to be pushing their luck, and very likely to receive the kind of email the OP has.

As long as my returns are for issues and not convenience, I don't ever expect to run afoul of their algorithm.

[SteveEisenberg]

US and Canada brick-and-mortar return rates are both under 9 percent:

https://www.theretailequation.com/Re...anada_2013.pdf

But look at this:

http://www.powerretail.com.au/purepl...online-retail/

As more products are being sold online without consumers having the ability to try items on, test them for functionality or physically appraise them in other ways, the number of returns for these products is also increasing.

This is of particular concern for British retailers, as analysts estimate that the rate of return can be anywhere between 25 percent and 50 percent of all products sold online. . . .

It seems likely that online channels will always suffer a higher rate of return that traditional stores, and so online retailers will have to consider factoring this into their pricing structure

[darryl]

Fortunately I don't have any personal experience but from reading these forums and other online sources this seems to be the one area where Amazon really falls down. Given their generous return policies it is not only understandable but a simple matter of common sense that they keep an eye on accounts with high rates of returns. The contents of the emails sent also seem to be appropriate and sensible. What is not is the apparent continued use of form letter type responses, the refusal to provide further information and the refusal to allow customers to discuss the emails with an "account specialist". Amazon may not be a monopoly as yet, but it's dominance and market share not to mention its "walled-garden" approach make the loss or suspension of an Amazon account very serious business indeed in many cases. For those familiar with the law, I would say that some measure of "natural justice" is appropriate in these situations.

As is apparent from my posts on these forums, I am very clearly an Amazon supporter. But this is one area where Amazon really does need to get its act together.

[harriska2]

I'm rather surprised at the low number of things I've returned. This is the first year since 1998 that I have ever returned anything. I got a wrong item and had to order from another company because I needed it, and we returned 2 or 3 gift items shipped directly from amazon.

I have heard that amazon gets very grumpy with sellers that have a high return rate so I wonder if that is how the "wrong items" have stayed so low for me.