Amazon refund

[L Austin France]

We use Amazon prime for a huge percentage of our purchases & find the service virtually faultless.
Don't particularly like Bezos & some of the things he's involved with but when deciding where to 'go shopping' my armchair & Amazon wins hands down.
Driving around umpteen shops to see if they have what I want holds no appeal to me when I can see a huge selection & get them quickly delivered to my door with a few few 'clicks' & send 'em back for instant refunds if I choose.

[hughnique]

Yes another Amazon Prime customer here, as said the service on returns and refunds is first rate, I did have a message from them last year that my return rate far exceeded the norm and that half of the stuff went back with bits missing. I did request that they send me individual instances of when this had happened and the articles involved and the fact that if they insisted on selling crap then I would return it immediately, no answer was the reply to that one. Having just ordered two of these plug in cat pheromone devices via them, with next day delivery, I was amazed to have them delivered, ready to plug in, to an American socket outlet. Subsequent investigation led me to the 5 star ratings, only to see that these were from American consumers, the UK contingent were all in the 1 star, with the common complaint about how they were supposed to plug them in. Looking at the sellers details, and checking that against companies house, I was given three directors attached to the seller, all unpronounceable foreign names and two of which resided in Turkey, the other evidently at an accommodation address {serviced offices} in Surrey. I have obtained the necessary ok for a return so that will be deposited at ASDA's as and when. I just do not understand the mentality of this type of sale of goods that are incompatible with the country they are being sold in. Surely it can't do anything to enhance the popularity of Amazon.

[Polarengineer]

In the case of electrical goods I find I have to look very carefully at all the pictures to check the plug type, having been caught out getting schuko (schutzkontakt) fittings that sadly do not fit French sockets. One must remember that Amazon sell stuff for other businesses and are at the mercy of their honesty and contractual agreements. This is the reason why two articles are not in the same package and sent separately, the came from different companies.

[Loup-garou]

This is the reason why two articles are not in the same package and sent separately, the came from different companies.

A valid justification but it is not always the case PE.

Another anecdote if I may. I ordered a pair of Skechers (worth keeping a regular eye on as sometimes they are priced astronomically whilst at other times they are priced at rock-bottom) and a pair of teeny-weeny ratchet spanners for tight space work. The shoes arrived, I was well pleased but was off to the UK for my five yearly visit, so put them away - but no ratchet spanners. I advised Amazon pointing to a tiny hole in the box (Colissimo) through which they could have escaped.

Received due apologies but no they could not resend them, it must be a refund and a reorder on my part. So, that is what I did, a tad miffed at the inconveince! Three weeks later when I went to put the shoes on out dropped the ratchet spanners from inside a shoe - the shoes were in their box inside the Amazon box! I did come clean and told Amazon but they said "Just keep them". Can't move for spanners in our house!

[exile]

One must remember that Amazon sell stuff for other businesses and are at the mercy of their honesty and contractual agreements. This is the reason why two articles are not in the same package and sent separately, the came from different companies.

Not necessarily that either. My purchases made last night have been split into 3 groups. One is from an external supplier and will take a few days to arrive. The other two groups all seem to come direct from Amazon warehouse. Both lots are due for delivery tomorrow. One of those lots is a mix of external seller and amazon products.

If they do indeed arrive as separate packages, I have to conclude that they are coming from different Amazon warehouses.

[Polarengineer]

I can envisage all future sales on Amazon NOT be from their own warehouse and strictly from outside sources. The warehouse method allows Amazon to buy in cheap and retail with their own added mark-up, however, The current war strategy of destroying these goods-hubs will eventually need them to be dispersed.

[RobertArthur]

At first I hesitated a little, thinking: that’s a bit daft, isn’t it – complaining that local high-street shops are gradually disappearing, and then helping to bring about that very thing by ordering all sorts of things from Amazon.

Until there are hardly any high-street shops left, and all sorts of old haunts you used to drive to on autopilot suddenly turn out to have closed down. Replaced by yet another trendy eatery or clothes shop, to the point where you think: enough is enough. Or the range on offer keeps getting skimpier and you hear all too often: ‘We’re out of stock at the moment’.

That’s when you set your sights on China – or, more often than not, on Amazon. One last example. On Thursday, I came across a comparison test of small USB car chargers in a German motoring magazine. The cheapest one turned out to be the best as well. Did I need one? Strictly speaking, no: the two no-name chargers in our cars are still working fine (touch wood), but just in case, it’s better to have a spare charger on board. I ordered them on Thursday evening with the promise that they’d be delivered on Monday (from Germany). A little surprise: they were already in the letterbox by early Saturday afternoon.

What I sometimes think as an ordinary European consumer is this: Brussels has, of course, achieved a great deal in getting all sorts of protectionist measures abolished by the Member States – that’s certainly the case. Hello, France…

But I also do sometimes think: all that self-congratulation amongst the European leadership: I reckon Amazon is doing a better job of making that idea of a single, unified European market a reality for many EU citizens than the promises coming from Brussels and the capitals of the EU Member States.

[exile]

If you look at my earlier post, I only went to Amazon when the not at all local shops (120km round trip) did not have the items I wanted. Far from abandoning local and not-so-local commerce, I tend to use Amazon when I cannot easily get the goods elsewhere.


Regarding the latest delivery, despite the computer splitting my Saturday delivery into two, everything arrived in one package courtesy of Coli Privé, who had informed me in advance on Friday that delivery would be on the next working day. I was therefore more than a little surprised to get a Saturday delivery.

[RobertArthur]

One of the many examples, where have all the DIY guys gone? May be the last one I don't know. As from January 2023 the internet shopping took over, China, Amazon, Reichelt and RScomponents.

The iconic Amsterdam electronics shop Radio Rotor has closed permanently as of 1 January 2023. The well-known specialist shop on Kinkerstraat, which many regarded as a ‘living museum’, closed its doors for good after 87 years because the owners decided to call it a day. The last clients, December 2022. No transistors, resistors or capacitors today, the electronics man has gone away.

[L Austin France]

I recently went to our local Espace Emreraude where I'd purchased a 2m wide flail 'weed whacker' machine used behind my tractor with it's PTO power.
I was wanting a litre of EP gear oil for a possible top up/oil change to the direction transfer gear box/reducteur so asked at the spares/repairs counter.
Despite having umpteen of the machines for sale in their yard & presumably being able to carry out service work on them they not only had no 1 litre bottles but none 'loose' in containers in the workshop.
My question as to "How the hell do you service these things you sell?" was met with the all to usual Gallic shrug.
Amazon had it & delivered two days later.
Is it any wonder these local places are going to the dogs????