Amazon Is Cracking Down On Frequent Returns With Bans

Amazon is feeling a lot of abuse of their product return policy, so they’re cracking down on people who make frequent returns.

By DAVID on May 23, 2018
(Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Amazon is the go-to shopping choice of many. Amazon also comes with an easy return policy; free returns for Amazon products. There are some other stipulations, but that’s the jist of it. Anyway, Amazon is starting to ban people for abusing the return system.

Retailers have been having a long-time battle with return habits. Some shoppers buy something, use it for a day or two, and then return it. This was a big issue at the end of football season during the big game – people were buying big TVs to watch the game, then returning them afterwards. I’ve even seen people try to return bar-be-ques after big holiday weekends for various “reasons.” With Amazon, it’s easy to buy things, try them out, and ship back the ones you don’t like thanks to their return policy. However, Amazon has been noticing that some people are really taking advantage of the policy.

See also: Amazon will now deliver packages to your trunk.

One user had his account banned from making purchases because of his “return activity.” The report didn’t say exactly what that activity was though. Things like returning the wrong items and frequent returns are getting flagged. In the “return activity” example, “after several calls to Amazon, his account was reinstated.” Another example from 2016, a guy bought 343 things in a two-year span. He returned 37 of those things within that same time period, and was banned. The problem we see is that there doesn’t seem to be a concrete “policy” for issuing a ban. We suspect a computer flags someone, and then an employee reviews the case and issues the ban based on opinion.

How often do you order things from Amazon? Have you had to return items frequently? Check out some more info on the banning practice here.

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