1. Amazon trades on a reputation for outstanding customer service. Not just 'like COSTCO' but mythically fantastic. Without that they are, well, Just Another Webstore

2. Returns are an expected cost of doing business online but Amazon seem to be ratcheting the criteria. Already I've stopped buying buy-try items like clothes on Amazon due to punitive return policies

3. Having your Amazon account banned can affect much more than just buying groceries due to their highly-integrated services

This isn't surprising at all. Amazon's return policy is prone to social engineering. And there is a cottage industry out there taking advantage of this situation to con money out of Amazon.

A friend's account was hacked last year and his account information changed. Then the hacker proceeded to request a gift card refund on a previously purchased laptop. The gift card was then used to buy another laptop shipped to a freight forwarder. Couple of months later, Amazon banned the account.

Amazon actually needs to improve its fraud detection capabilities. But until the time it does that, blaming customers for too many returns seem to be the go to strategy.

Gross, this basically means there's an invisible meta-return policy.

Zipcar did this to me, basically: I bought monthly damage coverage, then ended up scraping the bottom of the car and needing to actually use the damage coverage (for a relatively small amount). My account was closed without explanation or recourse shortly afterwards.

Article is behind a pay-wall.

Here's a Wayback Machine link that should work:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180522110718/https://www.wsj.c...

Google:

Lose your Amazon.com account for doing returns twitter

Click on top link

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