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Comment by Judson | Hacker News Reader

The realities of a warehouse operation make this inevitable (I’ve run an 8-figure/yr online distributor). Amazon cannot take the customer’s word on return condition. Folks just click “damaged” to get a refund and Amazon has to have warehouse workers, not professional book inspectors, receive the returns and note their condition.

This is good enough since someone buying the used copy can also return it if they disagree.

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>Amazon cannot take the customer’s word on return condition.

Why not? Doing so prevents this exact scenario. I'm curious if you think this is appropriate in other circumstances too: a customer at the grocery store returns a bag of candy. Do you want the cashier to check it and decide to put it back on the shelf for you to buy?

>This is good enough since someone buying the used copy can also return it if they disagree.

But not good enough for the author, who loses a royalty payment.

> Why not? Doing so prevents this exact scenario.

And creates other scenarios.

Well, like what? The book gets thrown away?

Maybe it’s more apparent in the opposite case. Customers who say the item is totally fine, but have shipped back a box of rocks.

This is almost exactly how it _does_ work in big box grocery except there are blanket policies re: disposal for food items. Fwiw, Amazon also has near identical policies for food items.

I worked for years in a grocery store and never saw a returned item go back on the shelf. Hope I never shop at the places you're talking about.

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