Comment by hangonhn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hangonhn | Hacker News Reader

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I've encountered another scam regarding Amazon returns where the seller would ship from overseas. The item I ordered would be nothing like the description. So I filed for a refund and the seller was like "sure, here's the form and you can pay for shipping". As you can imagine because of the postage rates differences, it was a lot more expensive for me to send it back vs. the cost to them to ship to the US. In fact the shipping cost was almost the cost of the item.

I contacted Amazon customer service and they issued me the refund without requiring me to send anything back but I wonder how many people just gave up. Amazon's customer service is a huge part of the reason I order so much through them. I feel comfortable buying things off of Amazon and has never had to "eat the cost" of shady sellers.

>> Amazon's customer service is a huge part of the reason I order so much through them.

Do i have time to go through multiple cycles of "get crap / return" until i get item I ordered?

That's why I check more reputable stores first such as B&H first before succumbing to AMZN hit-n-miss-n-get-refund store.

> Do i have time to go through multiple cycles of "get crap / return" until i get item I ordered?

I do. Been ordering from Amazon since the 90's - my total purchases have exceeded 5 figures USD for many years - and I don't think I need more than one hand worth of fingers to count the mistaken items I've received.

This comment would make much more sense if AMZNs fuckup rates were much higher.

I don't think the point is about AMZN "fuckup rates" or "mistaken items" it's about outright fraud. I've received a fairly high percentage of just outright fake or broken stuff. Maybe I bargain hunt a bit too much . . . .

I’d estimate that I need to complain about approx 1% of the stuff I order from amazon.

I guess YMMV, but I feel like I’d spend much more time if I shopped around for alternatives.

You are lucky it's ordered through Amazon, had it been ordered on their own websites full of English errors, it will be the same response but no easy refund, after lengthy back and forth hassle with Paypal and credit card company you'd be lucky to have your money back.

While for these scammers, it's a super lucrative business, their whole cost is no more than 1 dollar, that means they can make money as long as not every single order was refunded.

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