That’s a very positive, and somewhat surprising, change. I’m a little cynical about it being applied consistently, though.
Given that the fly-by-night Shenzen alphabet soup “companies” can just drop $20 and a week of paperwork to spin up a new DBA to create all new listings for the same old products, it won’t fix all the problems, but it’s certainly a nice touch I won’t complain about.
Amazon has a positive incentive to flag scammy/counterfeit/low-quality items because returns cost them money. That is particularly true with 3rd party sellers-- half the time Amazon tells me to just throw the item out rather than return it at all, because they don’t allow you to return them at whole foods, only from UPS locations, and that requires a printer for the label.
It also makes customers more hesitant to order things from Amazon. I’m certainly far less likely to order certain categories of items from them these days and find myself searching things out from physical stores that I previously would have defaulted to buying from Amazon.
I mean, they could just stop listing them.
I think it makes a lot of sense, but will also set off a new trend of return-bombing products due to dumb reasons.
This. The true question is how long until this new feature is also rendered useless by bad actors.
Right? Hence the aforementioned cynicism.
Maybe? Returns are clunky and impossible to turn into a viral video, so I suspect burning things on your lawn or smashing them with a bat will continue to be more popular.
Printer? No way, man. When I’ve returned stuff to a UPS store it doesn’t require a label (or packaging for that matter). They send you an email with a QR code, you bring the item in, they scan the QR code, give you a receipt and you go on your merry way.
Same thing was true when I returned stuff to Kohls (and in addition Kohls give you something like a 15% off coupon or 15 Kohls bux on the receipt when you return it to them).
My wife and I have returned 3 items in the last month and that’s been the way we have done it.
Yeah, no box or label needed anymore, at least for my local Kohl’s and UPS returns.
From Amazon? I was not offered that option, so they told me to just keep the POS. I threw it out.
Sometimes, Amazon will tell you to just keep it.
However, returning stuff to Amazon these days is super easy.
For instance, there’s a Kohl’s near me, and they’re an amazon return center. Just take stuff there, it doesn’t need to be wrapped or boxed or anything. Just take it there, have them scan the barcode amazon gave you, and you get the refund a few minutes later.
Amazon UPS returns actually have two “tiers,” one is more of a pain.
Inexpensive items they scan the QR code in the email and take the item and you have a refund in a few hours.
More expensive items – I returned an m.2 SSD they were late delivering – they now want boxed up, and they UPS it back to Amazon, and you only get your credit after Amazon examines it.
I assume due to scamming on pricier returns.
yeah like these high profile cases
James Gilbert Kwarteng was arrested last Saturday for allegedly conning Amazon out of nearly $370,000 (€300,000) by sending return packages filled with dirt.
An American couple, Erin Finan and Leah Jeanette Finan, pleaded guilty in 2017 to charges of mail fraud and money laundering after scamming Amazon out of about $1.2 million worth of consumer electronics
… Once the Finans had received substitute products, they would abandon their fake account before returning the merchandise and selling everything they had received.
Nope. I just returned something that cost $399 to UPS with no box and just a QR code.
Which one of you is returning dirt?
Okay, gosh, I must have slipped over to an alternate universe. 🙄
Or maybe it’s certain categories of merchandise. At any rate, it’s happened on two recent returns. Only on the most recent they requested a box, but neither was refunded for over a week, until Amazon got the merch back.
Seriously? “Nope?”
I’m not casting aspersions here, but I wonder if the customer’s return history has anything to do with this.
Amazon probably doesn’t know why it does half the shit it does on a level this granular. The algodrithm says, “sacrifice to me your firstborn box” and the customer service priests shrug and demand your box.