Amazon Returns Shows a Disturbing Lack of Choices
Unfortunately, I had one repeat gift at Christmas time this year. Thankfully, I had the receipt on the one item, so I was able to “take it back” for a return. This was at Amazon.
I went to the Amazon returns page and followed their directions, filling in my name, e-mail address, and the order number. So far, so good. It’s been years since I had to return anything to Amazon. Last time I did, I remember filling out a form and them sending me a box to return the item in, postage paid. That’s what I was expecting.
It was this selection of choices that boggled my mind. Remember, now, that this is a gift item I’m returning, something which I’ve previously specified:
Don’tcha think that it would be smart not to include options beginning “I ordered. . .” when returning a gift item?
In the end, none of these is the reason for my return. It’s just a dupe gift. That’s all. I had to choose “I just don’t want it anymore,” which didn’t make me happy.
Amazon then gave me a page to print out with a mailing address label and a return invoice. At the bottom was a note that I would be given an Amazon Gift Certificate in exchange, but that the shipping costs would come out of my pocket since it wasn’t their fault.
I’m still not sure how I feel about that last part, but I do know that the choices on the drop down box shown above stink.
Thankfully, I had to go to the post office to drop off a DVD I sold on the Amazon Marketplace, so it wasn’t a wasted trip.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Yeah that last option is a pretty poor choice. It’s almost shifting any blame away from Amazon since they could say something like “well it’s not a library”. They should just give you a blank text box to input your reason instead.