Usually Amazon has a fairly basic refund policy.
It works like most retail stores in that you have to get the item back to the retailer in a limited amount of time.
The company makes the details very clear on its website:
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“Most items can be returned for a refund or replacement/exchange within 30 days of delivery as long as they are in original or unused condition. For eligible items, you can enjoy free returns at many locations near you. For information on an item’s return eligibility, please check the product detail page before placing your order. After placing an order, you can find relevant information on an item’s return eligibility in your Order History,” the company posted.
The problem is that over the years, the retail giant has not always followed its own policies and sometimes customers have not received their expected refund. Amazon has not always been clear as to why refunds were not issues.
In some cases, the company denies receiving the return, which is a challenge for consumers to prove otherwise. This happens often enough that Amazon has been sued for allegedly not following its own return policies.
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The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, said that the online retailer has reversed instant refunds in cases where customers dropped the item at a kiosk instead of another facility.
In other cases, the lawsuit alleges that the refunds were not issues at all.
Amazon has been accused of not issuing refunds.
Image source: Bloomberg/Getty Images
Amazon sends random refunds
Reddit and other social media sites have recently been filled with hundreds (maybe thousands) of posts about Amazon customers getting random refunds. In somes cases, these refunds go back as far as 2018.
The refunds are accompanied by this email (or a similar one):
“Following a recent internal review, we identified a very small subset of returns that were unresolved because we could not verify that the correct item had been sent back to us,” Amazon shared in the email. “We could have notified these customers more clearly (and earlier) to better understand the status and help us resolve the return. Given the time elapsed, we’ve decided to err on the side of customers and just complete refunds for these returns.”
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In some cases, these refunds have resolved long-standing problems while in others, the customers were truly surprises.
“Like user u/eatinglaxatives . I just received a refund. A whole mess of them. About $1250 of them. Email with it. The deal is most of these refunds are from around 2019-2023 and I 100% kept every single item. I mean I still have the items in my home or I have sold them. There is no doubt I never initiated a return,” wrote @The BeardedDen.
Amazon may be getting its house in order
Amazon has not publicly commented on this rash of refunds, but it may be clearing the deck in an effort to settle or make the lawsuit go away.
Its CFO Brian Olsavsky did make a comment that shows that these returns are real and very extensive during the retailer’s first-quarter earnings call.
“As I mentioned earlier, during the quarter, we’ve recorded one-time charges related to some historical customer returns that have not yet been resolved and some costs to receive inventory that was pulled forward into Q1 ahead of anticipated tariffs,” he said.
Amazon’s system for sending money back, however, seems less than perfect.
“Bought something last week, just got an email to say my return refund is on its way. But I didn’t return anything! Contacted support and they said as refund had already been processed just keep the goods, no need to send them back as to late to cancel the refund! So an easy $199 for me,” posted RinceWind1960.
Amazon has not shared any way for customers to be part of its retroactive refund plan. It does, however, have a process for when customers don’t get an expected refund.
“If we deny your A-to-z Guarantee refund request and you have more information for us to review, you can submit an appeal within 30 calendar days of the decision,” it shared on its website.
The process does take time.
“It takes us up to one week to review appeals but in certain circumstances this may be longer. We’ll let you know about our decision using the email address associated with your account,” the company shared.
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Amazon also made it clear as to why certain refunds don’t go through.
“Our refund to your selected refund method may be declined if, for example, your selected refund payment method is associated with an account which is closed, or your selected card has expired or been replaced by a new card since the order was placed,” the online retail giant posted.
When that happens, the refund is supposed to be added to the customer’s Amazon account balance.
