Anyone get banned from Amazon?

I just came across this story.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/if...rchases-heres-your-cautionary-tale-2016-03-21

It could be an extreme case, or total BS. But it got me thinking since I do a decent amount of returning. I buy a lot from Amazon. Always my first stop for reviews, price checking, and 95% of the time my place of purchase.

With Prime, many items are free 2-day shipping. And a good deal of items (usually clothing) offer free returns as well. Perfect for trying shoes, boots and clothing which can be a real headache with sizing online. I could be wrong, but figured the free return thing was like Zappos (part of Amazon) where you could literally buy 8 pairs of shoes knowing you'll only be keeping one and it didn't throw up any flags. And of course, defective/damaged items should not even be counted.

I wonder where they draw the line? I'm sure it's a gray area, but an area I want to stay out of!

I just looked at my orders last year. 63 total (approximately 175 items purchased) with 15 returns. 24% return rate if you only look at the total orders!! 8.5% if you're looking at individual items. Still up there. Most of those were the clothing items I talked about...shoes and pants not fitting. Maybe those are weighted less?

All of my Amazon returns have been based on the condition of the item received.
I ordered four different designs of hummingbird feeders. Two boxes were so mangled that the UPS man wanted me to reopen the box that they UPS retaped.

I ordered a large slide hammer kit that they had to replace four times due to poor packaging. Seems Amazon doesn't pay attention to protecting what they throw in the box. Can't expect to throw a 36x8x8" 30 pound metal box inside a 48x12x12" box with nothing more than crumpled up Kraft paper.

NoNotAgain said:

...I ordered a large slide hammer kit that they had to replace four times due to poor packaging. Seems Amazon doesn't pay attention to protecting what they throw in the box. Can't expect to throw a 36x8x8" 30 pound metal box inside a 48x12x12" box with nothing more than crumpled up Kraft paper.

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Amazon employees do not know how to package heavy items. Which is why I did not order a pair of automotive brake rotors from them, but from Tire Rack, even though it was more expensive. TR did an outstanding job of packaging those heavy rotors.

Last year Amazon sent me a dirty, well used Casio G-Shock watch that someone had returned, apparently after 25 days of use in the jungle.

Honestly, this doesn't seem too unreasonable on Amazon's part.
They should have an appeals system though since I think a lifetime ban is unfair.

I guess it's just me having soured on a small segment of American consumers who I consider to be horribly spoiled - despite people constantly yapping about how, "the customer is always right."
I worked retail at an outdoors shop during college to pay for tuition. There are so many cases I can remember of terrible, terrible customers acting petulant, selfish, or just just plain immoral. I think they thought it was OK too since they were just a lone individual and they probably thought it was no big deal for them to rip off or cause expense for a big company. Now imagine hundreds or thousands of people who have this same attitude.

One of the worst examples I've seen was this guy who bought a above-ground swimming pool in April and returned it in August for a refund.
When we checked inside the box there was nothing wrong with it - no holes, or scuff or major damage. There was however leafs and twigs and other detritus left in the pool. The guy had used it for the summer and just returned it at the end of the summer.
I consider this to be pretty sleazy behavior but maybe it's just me...

SubLGT said:

Last year Amazon sent me a dirty, well used Casio G-Shock watch that someone had returned, apparently after 25 days of use in the jungle.

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The "Amazon sent me a used item" thread is a very common and recurring theme on every forum for every hobby that exists; as these threads have concluded, it's never Amazon proper but one of the bottom-dollar sellers who do this, and you have to check the ratings of the seller you're buying from to prevent it from happening. But if it ever happens to you, Amazon holds sellers to the same Amazon return policies, so you can always return it without question.

StarHalo said:

The "Amazon sent me a used item" thread is a very common and recurring theme on every forum for every hobby that exists; as these threads have concluded, it's never Amazon proper but one of the bottom-dollar sellers who do this, and you have to check the ratings of the seller you're buying from to prevent it from happening. But if it ever happens to you, Amazon holds sellers to the same Amazon return policies, so you can always return it without question.

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I bought something NEW from Amazon::: a "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com" ___ it was so ridiculously used and missing parts to it.
Again it was not warehouse deal from Amazon....a NEW item!!

Contacted the manufacturer and they honored an absolutely brand new unit.


It happens:scowl:

StarHalo said:

The "Amazon sent me a used item" thread is a very common and recurring theme on every forum for every hobby that exists; as these threads have concluded, it's never Amazon proper but one of the bottom-dollar sellers who do this....

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In my case, Amazon was the seller. No other party was involved.

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Amazon does alot right, they do
although
bogus/fake reviews and terrible packaging are its biggest problems.

Anything potentially fragile I'll order from B&H, instead of how fast they can box it up,, they see how well they can package it.

The question asked by the OP is certainly a reasonable topic, the question being whether others had heard of a retailer exercising a right to protect themselves from "excessive-return-prone" customers and your thoughts on it..

What really happens to such a topic, particularly involving a large online retailer such as Amazon, is the topic becomes a bashing and rumor-mongering themed activity, as is obvious in this thread already. That's an activity we don't even encourage in our Jeers forum.

Discuss the original concern of the thread if you wish, but do not turn it into a bash Amazon thread. I'd suggest that the topic be discussed rather quickly, since its chances of survival are very thin.

My colleague at work got banned from e'bay for excessive P&P costs. Does that count ?

It seemed a bit harsh to me. They said "Other sellers only charge a quarter of P&P that you do". They took no notice of her reply that costs for a single padded envelope were considerably more than for sellers who bought a thousand at a time let alone they probably didn't have to drive 8 miles to take each item she sold to the post office. They seemed to think that a private individual selling one item can send it for the same cost as a retailer selling hundreds.

Imon said:

They should have an appeals system though since I think a lifetime ban is unfair.

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That would be the right thing to do IMO. But I'm still having doubts about the story I linked. Most searching I do ends up at that same link, so maybe it's just made up?

Amazon likes me.

If I ever quit collecting flashlights they may have to close a warehouse.

I had a number of Amazon purchases that I needed to write reviews for so I knocked like 10 out in one evening. Next morning three of my reviews were kicked back for not meeting their guidelines.
You can't disparage a companies product where the seller is both the supposed manufacturer as well as the supplier. OK.
Then I got emails from two of the sellers requesting I change my review from 3 stars to something better and they would partially refund my purchase cost. What's up with that?
I don't think I'm going to renew my Prime membership this year as the no hassle returns aren't as advertised and the two day shipping has been gotten to three or four days on average.
Finally, the sponsored ads that have nothing to do with what I'm searching for are getting tiresome.
I search for Nikon EN-EL4a and get results for all kinds of different things.

As advised. Thread closed.