Amazon changes Marketplace return window to 30 days
Amazon has changed the length of time customers have to return items to sellers for refund. Previously, customers had to postmark an item within seven days of receipt, the new policy gives customers until 30 days after receipt. (Added: The below commenter is correct, the policy is 30 days after shipment, not receipt.)Here's the announcement:
Effective November 15, 2006, Amazon is launching a standard returns policy for Marketplace orders. Instead of requiring returns to be postmarked within seven days of receipt, buyers will be required to postmark returns within 30 days of shipment. Please note: there are exceptions for specific product lines, such as software and consumer electronics; for further details, please see full text of the returns policy here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161246
This change provides the best possible shopping experience by standardizing the return process for all sellers. This policy will benefit sellers because it sets specific guidelines for buyers and clearly lays out the return process for all parties. We thank you for your cooperation with this new policy and for selling on Amazon.com.
One thing that has always interested me, there's always been a federal law on the books allowing consumers to return items they've received through the mail for a refund "within 30 days." So I've always refunded customers who return items within a month or so without hassling them.
Thankfully, returns are relatively rare, less than 2 percent for me. It is aggravating to get them, though. It especially irks me when customers throw a perfectly fine book into a plain manilla envelope, and I get it back in much worse condition.
What's your take on this policy change?
posted by Steve Weber at 11/07/2006
5 Comments:
Plenty of time for the buyer to read the book for class and send it back, complete with new highlights for the next student who needs it. Or to watch the movie that started out as New and now has to be resold as Good or worse
First, a clarification -- the policy reads that a refund is allowed within 30 days of "shipment" not receipt...so, for instance, if it takes 2 weeks to get there, the customer has another 2 weeks or so to decide to return it. This is a lot different from having it for 30 days and then returning it. I think the policy has been changed since, unless there is Delivery Confirmation tracking, there is no way to really know exactly when someone receives an item, but most sellers will have proof of the date an item was shipped, thus the new policy gives a more accurate timeline for the purposes of returns.
I rarely have a return, so I'm not concerned with the possibility that an occasional item may come back slightly worn or used. I think anything that makes the consumer experience a happier one on Amazon is, in the long run, better for sellers -- because it keeps buyers coming back and gives them more trust in third party sellers like us.
I think the item should be required to be returned in as good a job of wrapping as it was sent in...it truly is 'used' otherwise and one may not be able to sell it again...
It especially irks me when customers throw a perfectly fine book into a plain manilla envelope, and I get it back in much worse condition.
It may not help in every case, but do you include any tips for packaging returns when you correspond with buyers? Not that I have many returns, but when I do get one, I try to advise them, for example, that the CD they are returning will fit in a #0 bubble mailer, available at any discount or office store, and that using USPS first-class will be the cheapest for any item under 6 oz. (which most CDs are). And I include that the may want to consider purchasing delivery confirmation for an add'l 60 cents, if they would like the peace of mind of knowing their return has been received.
Just a thought
Not mentioned here is the provision that any defects/problems/misdescribed items with the order that would qualify it for a return must be reported to the seller within seven days of receipt, for used items such as books.
This is basically the same policy we have been offering our customers for years, on the venues when we can set our own return policy.
Sellers who describe their items as 'NEW', even when they aren't, would have to abide by the more stringent policy quoted above.....
dd
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