Dealing with Amazon faulty/incorrect items

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neb

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Topic # 226112 21-Dec-2017 02:10

Does anyone have any ideas on how to deal with Amazon shipping incorrect or faulty items? Their returns policy is pretty liberal, but only if you're in the US, otherwise it often costs more to ship something back than it's worth, and in any case the returns shipping label isn't usable from NZ. In some cases you can "Contact seller", but many sellers don't have contact addresses, or if it's sold by Amazon the only option is to ship it back, which doesn't work from NZ. How do people deal with this?

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Reply # 1922888 21-Dec-2017 05:50

I have found them OK, a couple of times they have just bricked the device (it was a kindle) so it could not be used and sent out a replacement. If I have had to pay shipping back which they refund to me once i provide the docs (you need to tell them that there is a cost to you first however).

Other times when i talk to them and says it faulty you print of the return slips and shipping tag, put it on the box and then call UPS to arrange a pickup. Someone from fliway will turn up to pick it up. Just make sure that when you do send it back like this you include the print out of the invoice otherwise it just sits at fliways until you call them.

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Reply # 1922925 21-Dec-2017 08:51

I once was offered a refund of postage costs, and then I pointed out it costs more than the value of item to post back, and they just refunded me the money and I kept it. It wasn't a very expensive item.

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Reply # 1922927 21-Dec-2017 08:52

But I have found the service very CSR dependent as to how they will and won't resolve issues. If you are not happy maybe try your luck and chat with someone else?

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Reply # 1922929 21-Dec-2017 08:54

I've only had to return one thing but they asked me how much the postage cost, and refunded it.

trig42

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Reply # 1922976 21-Dec-2017 09:49

The couple of times I've had to contact them, they have just credited the items (they were both less than $30US).

They were both bought on Amazon Global (not via YouShop). I'm not sure what they'd do if you used a reshipper.

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Reply # 1922983 21-Dec-2017 10:02

I've only ever had one faulty item - low value, probably US$30. They just apologised and sent a replacement, no questions, no return required.

With higher ticket items I'd expect they would want the faulty item back, in order to return to the supplier. But for lower value items it's probably cheaper for them to just replace it.

neb

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Reply # 1923277 21-Dec-2017 17:24

tripp:
Other times when i talk to them and says it faulty you print of the return slips and shipping tag, put it on the box and then call UPS to arrange a pickup. Someone from fliway will turn up to pick it up. Just make sure that when you do send it back like this you include the print out of the invoice otherwise it just sits at fliways until you call them.

So the problem I'm talking about comes when there's no way to talk to anyone about it. The return-the-item option takes you straight to printing out a postage/packing slip, which, when I've tried it, isn't valid for NZ. There's no way to talk to anyone to get it sorted out. What I was after was any info people might have on getting to a human to sort this out.

To summarise the problem: There's no "Contact seller" option available, the only visible option is "Return item", which assumes you're going to ship it back to the US from a US address. In effect the faulty-item issue is impossible to resolve, unless there's some trick to getting to a human at the Amazon side.

cshaun

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Reply # 1923285 21-Dec-2017 17:36

It's a few steps to get a human, but I've always managed to do it when I've tried. Have another try at trying to chat with customer support.

mattwnz

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Reply # 1923289 21-Dec-2017 17:45

When they have sent me an item that was different to what was advertised, I have got onto live chat, and they have refunded me and let me keep the item, because it was going to cost more for them to arrange collection. That was their suggestion, and not mine. They are a very good company to deal with when things go wrong. If you dont' get satisfaction you can also escalate it to their ceo office, which I had to do on one occasion when they made an error, and it was quickly sorted. This is where some NZ companies could learn a thing or two.

neb

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Reply # 1923302 21-Dec-2017 17:49

I've finally managed to get through to a "Contact Amazon about this item" page. Unfortunately I don't know how I got there any more apart from "click on a lot of links all over the place", and the previous times I tried I wasn't successful (one issue is that Amazon appears to rearrange their web site a lot, because all the links given in support forums that I'd tried were either redirected to their generic help page or ended up at "Return this item").. I was hoping someone had an always-works recipe for which links to click :-).

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Reply # 1923304 21-Dec-2017 17:59

No just start a chat

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Reply # 1923328 21-Dec-2017 19:08

Amazon really puts the customer first. I've had only good experiences with their customer service team.

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Reply # 1923585 22-Dec-2017 10:28

I just googled "Amazon Support Chat" and at the top of the list was: Live Chat - Amazon.com

If you are not already logged into Amazon when you click on the that Live Chat link it will ask you to log in then it will take you to the page:

Now complete Step 1, then complete Step 2 and now Step 3 will appear and you click on the Chat button and a separate window will open.

Good luck

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neb

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Reply # 1923637 22-Dec-2017 11:57

I've never tried chat, I prefer email because it leaves a solid paper trail (well, virtual paper trail), while I'm not sure how sound chat sessions are.

In any case though they were really good, issued a refund on the spot. As others have commented, Amazon support is typically very good, if you can get through to them. And next time I'll try chat, thanks for the advice.

clevedon

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Reply # 1923649 22-Dec-2017 12:22

neb: I've never tried chat, I prefer email because it leaves a solid paper trail (well, virtual paper trail), while I'm not sure how sound chat sessions are. In any case though they were really good, issued a refund on the spot. As others have commented, Amazon support is typically very good, if you can get through to them. And next time I'll try chat, thanks for the advice.

I'm fairly sure you can be emailed a copy of the chat conversation also. Chat is the only way I've ever contacted them and always with excellent results.

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