Amazon Stops Giving Refunds When an Item's Price Drops After You Purchase It (recode.net) 164
Amazon has for years issued refunds to users when the price of an item drops after they've purchased it. But lately the e-commerce giant hasn't been doing that on a number of products, except for televisions, according to price-tracking companies. Recode reports: The move may have something to do with the rise of startups that track prices for Amazon customers and automatically request refunds when appropriate. One of them, a Santa Monica-based startup called Earny that is backed by the startup incubator Science, first pointed out the change. Earny scours a customer's email inbox for digital receipts, and then continuously checks the price on a retailer's website to see if it drops.
What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah.... no.
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Same here. No! I am NOT giving you access to my inbox.
Re:What? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure lots of people do, though. Heck, look at all the people who don't even blink an eye before allowing Facebook full access to the contact list they have on their personal computer - and that's not even promising to save them a few cents.
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Two things:
1. Having access to who I know is not at all the same risk scenario as having access to what I spend and by extension what I own, my home address, and that's just assuming they ignore the rest of the emails and don't also scour the banking password reset links or any other things that are sensitive and really shouldn't be sent via email in the first place.
2. Saving a few cents does not compare to providing a large scale service for keeping up with what is happening in your social group. Despite w
Re:What? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Why? Amazon is doing this because of 'Earny'. Amazon is not the one scouring your mailbox. However, it is amazon's fault for playing with variable pricing schemes. Earny showed up to even the playing field.
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Why? Amazon is doing this because of 'Earny'. Amazon is not the one scouring your mailbox. However, it is amazon's fault for playing with variable pricing schemes. Earny showed up to even the playing field.
A condition was proposed where the OP didn't want his mailbox scanned 24x7. A work around was proposed to send the emails that the 3rd party wanted to scan, emails from Amazon but scanned by Earny, to a sandbox account specifically setup for that purpose. This would allow the user to use Earny (or would have, RIP Earny) while maintaining as much privacy as possible while still benefiting from the Earny app.
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Gmail allows you to also do this even if you don't have your own domain. You can create virtual email addresses in the format of username+whatever@gmail.com. If the "whatever" account ever gets compromised, spammed, etc just set up an filter to automatically delete it (or at least categorize it as spam). It'll still show up in your inbox normally so you're not having to manage multiple email accounts either.
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But the spammer can/will easily filter out the +whatever part.
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Gmail allows you to also do this even if you don't have your own domain. You can create virtual email addresses in the format of username+whatever@gmail.com. If the "whatever" account ever gets compromised, spammed, etc just set up an filter to automatically delete it (or at least categorize it as spam). It'll still show up in your inbox normally so you're not having to manage multiple email accounts either.
Yea but a lot of sites throw a hissy fit if you try to use one an address with a + in it. Annoying as hell since it's a perfectly valid email address if you go by the published standards. Plus it doesn't fix the OP's issue of not having Earny or some other app like it scan his entire email box looking for Amazon purchase emails.
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Just setup a gmail account specifically for amazon.
Word. That's what I do: one for shopping (amazon, ebay, paypal), one for social media (facebook and linkedin), and one for personal usage, and another my wife and I share for school activities, all gmail. A couple for MS tool registration at hotmail/msn, and another at yahoo that I use whenever I suspect someone is trying to spam me (said account is aptly named is spirit of one's rear orifice.) Each with a different password (which is a burden, but not an impossible one.)
For the general population, two ac
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Which is why you don't let them scan your normal email account, and create a sandboxed account instead. Perhaps you should have paid attention to the words you cropped out:
specifically for amazon
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Which is why you don't let them scan your normal email account, and create a sandboxed account instead. Perhaps you should have paid attention to the words you cropped out:
specifically for amazon
Exactly. A person simply needs to set up sandboxed e-mail accounts for different things. That's what my wife and I do... and she isn't a techie. Non-tech people typically do not think that way, which is understandable (and precarious). But once you explain the benefits, they jump right. It is (supposed) tech people who do not think that way that baffles me.
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Did you miss the part about NOT wanting a continually scanned inbox?
No, it was simply dismissed as stupid when all that is needed is an inbox which is not used for any other purposes. Your idea was bad and you should feel bad
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Yeah.... no.
How about you create a second dedicated e-mail account, so you give Earny the creds to a different account instead of your main one, and setup rules to auto-forward e-mails that you want earny to take a look at?
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If you bought before a price drop, deal with it.
No kidding. I wonder what a stock broker would tell you if you tried that.
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I am still waiting for Apple to have a 50% off sale on sales of their shares..
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He might tell you that he gets his commission whether you're buying or selling.
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If you bought before a price drop, deal with it.
I agree- unless we're talking a huge drop, just suck it up. I mean, you were willing to pay for it then, but you're going to have a meltdown and your kids will starve because now it's 50 cents cheaper?
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If you bought before a price drop, deal with it.
Too many price drops and your storefront starts to look like Steam: people will only buy when the product is on sale for 50% or more.
Depends on the return policy. Many B&M stores will price match for the same period as their return policy, otherwise people would just return the item and repurchase it anyway. Amazon charges return shipping if it's not due to a problem on their part (damaged, DOA, wrong item, etc) so it's got a bit of an advantage there.
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Depends on the return policy. Many B&M stores will price match for the same period as their return policy, otherwise people would just return the item and repurchase it anyway. Amazon charges return shipping if it's not due to a problem on their part (damaged, DOA, wrong item, etc) so it's got a bit of an advantage there.
Right up until the cost of returning the item is less than the price difference.
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The thing is, the prices usually drop almost immediately after you buy something from Amazon. Also if you add something to your Cart, go away for a few hours and come back, the price is usually higher.
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I love them. When I want something but don't care when I get it then I just set an alert with camelcamelcamel with a price near the historic low.
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well, the next move for Amazon will be to charge you the higher of the two prices [the price when you clicked "buy" and the current price when the order is fulfilled], using the claim to charge the higher amount later being that the contract was only entered into/accepted once the order shipped. And that you agreed to it via clause 18.3.6.b.12 of their TOS, which they notified you that they had updated via their email to you saying "The TOS for Amazon has been updated. Log into your Amazon account to acce
So, Amazon was counting on only a few customers (Score:3)
Re:So, Amazon was counting on only a few customers (Score:4, Insightful)
to ask for the refund, however, when a larger number of customers started asking for the refund, then it was no longer cost-effective.
I agree. Once of those things we lost due to other companies leaching off of them.
If that happened for every sell, then there would never be price drops.
My price doesn't go up if the cost is raised. Why should it go down if lowered?
Re:So, Amazon was counting on only a few customers (Score:4, Insightful)
to ask for the refund, however, when a larger number of customers started asking for the refund, then it was no longer cost-effective.
I agree. Once of those things we lost due to other companies leaching off of them.
If that happened for every sell, then there would never be price drops.
My price doesn't go up if the cost is raised. Why should it go down if lowered?
In general, I agree with you, but Amazon has set up a system where it is easy to play games with pricing. I've seen differences depending on if I am logged in or not, which account I am logged in under, whether I am logged in on a "prime" account or not, and other shenanigans. Prices seem to sometimes be higher or lower depending on how long something has been in a wish list or cart. Amazon and their vendors are certainly gaming the system (which they created for their own benefit) and showing no mercy, fairness, or common courtesy in the pursuit of separating me from my hard-earned money. You can be assured that these pricing games are not for your benefit. In that kind of environment, why wouldn't a person use every means available to try to get a the best possible deal?
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Re: So, Amazon was counting on only a few customer (Score:2)
Amazon's pricing isn't that sophisticated. They do yo-yo prices on a very regular basis, often-times in concert with changing which 3rd party vendor is sells no the item.
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Moral: if your business model is based entirely on exploiting another company's goodwill, you're screwed. And deservedly so.
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Thank you. You made the point I was trying to make much better than I did
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Because pretty much every other company in the world does it?
So if you went to the gas station the day after you bought a tank, and they lowered their price by $0.02, you show them your receipt from the day before, and they give you cash back? No? Almost nobody does a self-price-match after the sale.
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Which is fine - if they're not claiming that they do.
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This might just be one of those things that varies from place to place a tiny bit. Do you know where he lives?
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So if you went to the gas station the day after you bought a tank, and they lowered their price by $0.02, you show them your receipt from the day before, and they give you cash back?
Because you can't return gas, ever. You can't just pour your gas back into the storage tank and demand a refund. Gas is also a product with inherent price volatility, and it never goes on sale; same as the stock market. The price matching many stores do is to avoid the hassle of you returning that (returnable) item and then immediately repurchasing it at the sale price.
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Also, gas stations don't charge you more if you're a repeat customer or if you are wearing expensive clothing that shows you're a richer person than the customer who comes in in two minutes. Amazon does the electronic equivalent. Amazon takes advantage of computers to wring every cent out of customers by violating our expectations of how stores normally sell things; what's so bad about violating their expectations in response? Especially if we're just violating their expectations by actually claiming the
Re: So, Amazon was counting on only a few customer (Score:1)
You mean a large number of robots. Once again, assholes ruin it for everyone else.
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Re:So, Amazon was counting on only a few customers (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems like abuse of the system to me. Amazon had that policy so that people could feel confident shopping there, knowing that if the price dropped then they could go back and get the difference. Instead, a cottage industry formed specifically to get people all of the price drop refunds any time they happen. That wasn't why Amazon had the policy to start with. If that was what Amazon wanted to do then they would have automatically credited every account every time a price was lowered. That was not their sales plan, the policy was there so that you don't need to wait for a sale. If you buy something that goes on sale next week then instead of feeling burned Amazon can generate a little customer goodwill and loyalty by giving you the difference if you ask. It wasn't supposed to be an automated process.
Personally, if I was in the place of whoever was making those decisions at Amazon I would enjoy changing our policy to put out of business a bunch of companies that I see as freeloading off my customers.
It is all about the price-calculating algorithm (Score:2)
Amazon has said (when they were trying to get publishers to agree to lower/variable prices) that their prices are set to generate maximum income, i.e. max profit x volume. You lower the price if you feel more people will buy it to justify the lower price, and Amazon apparently has great algorithms to do that. Now, if people can retroactively get the difference it is still doable if they are just a few so that you can ignore them and "eat" the difference. If many people started to do this with automated serv
Re:So, Amazon was counting on only a few customers (Score:5, Insightful)
If Fuck You is why, then why did the previous policy exist?
Either Amazon suddenly got a little eviller, or some other condition changed.
I think the "this is costing us more than it used to" explanation fits the facts pretty well. It used to be segmented marketing, where they charge people depending on how much they care/complain. If you're a squeaky wheel, you get oil. If you're a silent wheel, no oil for you. Then robots came in to automate squeaking, independent of how much the user cares. You can't do segmented marketing when the segments all merge.
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If Fuck You is why, then why did the previous policy exist?
To keep prices higher. Customers are more willing to buy and less price sensitive if the believe they can still take advantage of a better deal. As a result, they tend to do less price research. Companies, OTOH, know if they drop prices they will not get purchases from their competitors customers who will simply get a price match and sell products for less to boot, thus making less money. Price matching is a way to signal you will not start a price war but will hurt your competitor if they start one. A a re
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I think the "this is costing us more than it used to" explanation fits the facts pretty well.
I think it's more along the lines of "we dropped the price and almost immediately got 10,000 refund requests from the same IP address, let's find out who is trying to take advantage of this policy."
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...I think the "this is costing us more than it used to" explanation fits the facts pretty well....
Built into its pricing model, Amazon had costs for the "refund if the price goes lower" policy. Once too many people started obtaining those refunds, then the cost of that policy exceeded the budgeted costs, and Amazon started to lose money (or not make enough money) on the transactions. So Amazon discontinued the policy, figuring that they would not lose enough business to outweigh the cost of continuing the policy.
.
It's Retail Business 101.
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Amazon is getting eviler. All that talk of excellent customer service is a thing of the past. Anybody notice that free shipping suddenly increased from $35 to $49 without warning or notice, and at the same time a significant number of products were suddenly changed to only available for Prime customers? Among their other problems, Amazon desperately wants to become Cos
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Refunds for defective or misrepresented products used to be trivial. But now when you have to return an item to Amazon, even when it is utterly DEFECTIVE, you'll be notified of a refund, but you have to look close to notice they only returned about 90% of the price you paid.
This has literally never happened to me on Amazon, whereas on eBay I constantly have problems with it, e.g. not getting shipping refunded on defective items. The last time it happened, the guy literally dicked me out of $1.20 or so. I left him negative feedback, which was more satisfying than getting that money back.
This is even worse of a problem when compounded with Amazon Warehouse deals, where they resell returned products for a small discount. They very frequently resell defective items, and blatantly upgrade the condition a step or two...
Ever been to Fry's or Micro Center? I got an ISA SCSI card instead of a PCI one, once. Similar issues abound in meatspace.
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Problem is for Prime customers it's going to cost them more anyway.
The problem is with Prime you get free returns and free delivery, so if something goes down in price after you buy it you can just return it for free and buy it at the cheaper price with free next day delivery.
I always figured Amazon did this because the alternative of having to refund the higher price, sell at the lower price AND pay for restocking, collection, and redeliver was a much worse option costing them even more.
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It's like advertising an all-you-can-eat buffet, and then welshing on it when a group of big fat bastards turns up - waving an offer around until somebody takes up on it.
I have noticed this as well... (Score:4, Interesting)
I buy a TON of things from Amazon, I'm a heavy Prime customer...
That being said, my last three price adjustment requests in the past two weeks have all been denied, which is very odd.
I do it manually, just when I notice things... I buy at least a half a dozen items a week from Amazon.
This change will make me think twice before buying as much.
Re:I have noticed this as well... (Score:4, Informative)
That being said, my last three price adjustment requests in the past two weeks have all been denied, which is very odd.
Same. Only time I ever tried it was for a TV -- you know, an item where it would actually be worth getting the difference back -- and they denied it. Said there was no evidence it was retailing for the other price I mentioned, or somesuch (although my receipt might tend to indicate otherwise). I read some reviews and a lot of people apparently had the same experience. The refunds were fulfilled by some third party vendor who was apparently pretty shady (kind of like that godawful OnTrak shipping company that seems to be keeping itself afloat by tossing as many Amazon packages from still-moving vehicles as possible).
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I buy a TON of things from Amazon, I'm a heavy Prime customer...
That being said, my last three price adjustment requests in the past two weeks have all been denied, which is very odd.
I do it manually, just when I notice things... I buy at least a half a dozen items a week from Amazon.
This change will make me think twice before buying as much.
You're doing this manually but noticed three price adjustments in a two week period? Are you unemployed? I buy something on Amazon because I don't have the time to go to the store and pick it up. The last thing I am going to do is keep my eye out for price adjustments. If it's something like a TV that will deflate in value over the next year then I just watch the price myself until it's time to pull the trigger - or better yet - use a website to watch the price for me. If I needed it so badly that I co
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I buy it on Amazon because, even though I do have time to go to the store and pick it up, why would I do that when I could just buy it on Amazon?
I do agree with you that I'm not likely to price-watch the small stuff -- that's not new to Amazon though. A price adjustment on a big-ticket item has never come up for me.
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You're doing this manually but noticed three price adjustments in a two week period? Are you unemployed?
No, I simply do a lot of shopping there and keep an eye on my past purchases.
About once a week, I take a look at anything over $50 or so that I've bought in the past month and click on it to see the current price.
Amazon changes prices so often, it isn't hard to catch.
I've gotten a lot of money back over the years this way.
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I buy something on Amazon because I don't have the time to go to the store and pick it up.
I buy stuff on Amazon because going to the store takes time and costs money, I buy very little at stores anymore.
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Some items you only buy one in a great while, and then proceed to forget about them. Other items are consumable and you need to resupply on a fairly regular basis, so checking on the price every week or so is a good way to stock-up when the i
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I buy a TON of things from Amazon, I'm a heavy Prime customer...
That being said, my last three price adjustment requests in the past two weeks have all been denied, which is very odd.
I do it manually, just when I notice things... I buy at least a half a dozen items a week from Amazon.
This change will make me think twice before buying as much.
You're doing this manually but noticed three price adjustments in a two week period? Are you unemployed? I buy something on Amazon because I don't have the time to go to the store and pick it up. The last thing I am going to do is keep my eye out for price adjustments. If it's something like a TV that will deflate in value over the next year then I just watch the price myself until it's time to pull the trigger - or better yet - use a website to watch the price for me. If I needed it so badly that I couldn't wait for a price I was happy with, well what's a few dollars, then?
You do not need to be unemployed (or say, doing nothing) to keep tabs on things. Like with all abilities, some people are better than others.
So what? Many credit cards do this already! (Score:1)
When I buy something with my credit card, the warranty is doubled, it is insured against loss for 90 days, and I get price matching for 60 days (from any retailer).
Admittedly there are some exceptions, but it's great. Many other credit cards offer similar perks.
Earny (and others) are the problem. (Score:2)
Earny, by automating it (and siphoning off a percentage), spoiled it for the rest of us.
This is why we can't have nice things.
They abandoned this practice over 5 years ago (Score:1)
Use an extension (Score:1)
That's why I use extensions like keepa, that show the price history of a product on amazon and also lets me set target price alerts. Its like stock trading.
AI Killer App? (Score:2)
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Use Credit Card (Score:1)
That's fine. Just do a price match via your credit card. Most of them offer this service for free.
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Re:Newegg does the same thing (Score:5, Informative)
I haven't used Newegg in years. Their return policy is terrible.
If I get a defective product from Amazon, they send me a new one before asking for the return. Newegg wanted their product first, charge me return fees since it's not their fault it's defective, and charged me shipping for the replacement.
Only had to have that happen a few times to say to hell with them. Plus, their prices are not very competitive anymore.
Re:Newegg does the same thing (Score:5, Informative)
I haven't used Newegg in years. Their return policy is terrible.
Amen. I bought a board from them a few years back. Got the PC all built and running, but something was causing lock ups. Turns out several individual pins were bent in the CPU socket. There's no way I'm good enough to just bend a single pin in several different places, so it had to have come like that. I didn't want to wait a week+ without a PC while I shipped it back and they shipped me another one, so I purchased the same one overnight from Amazon and had it up and running the next day. Newegg's return policy for mobos is "No". Just "No". Even if they shipped it to you in three pieces, you cannot return for a refund under any circumstance. It took several days for them to at least agree to give me store credit. After spending thousands with them over the years, I found this to be an exceptionally poor way to handle a $150 purchase. I haven't been back to their site since, and I spend every opportunity I can advising people not to shop with them.
Re:Newegg does the same thing (Score:4, Funny)
It took several days for them to at least agree to give me store credit... I found this to be an exceptionally poor way to handle a $150 purchase. I haven't been back to their site since..
So can I have your store credit?
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You should lobby for better consumer protection laws, rather than relying on retailers being good to you.
In the UK you get two weeks to return the item for any reason (including that the price dropped). Beyond that, you have strong protections if it is faulty, such as not having to pay return shipping.
Make it the law.
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You should lobby for better consumer protection laws, rather than relying on retailers being good to you.
In the UK you get two weeks to return the item for any reason (including that the price dropped). Beyond that, you have strong protections if it is faulty, such as not having to pay return shipping.
Make it the law.
While such a law is appealing it ads to the initial,purchase price as manufacturers and retailers need to factor those costs into the price.
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I'm not sure why people haven't figured out that businesses adapt their model whenever government tries to force something on them. Government regs usually end up hurting employees and consumers. (Obama Care - reduce everyone to under 30 hours. Raise minimum wage - see an increase in automation at restaurants. For employers to pay salary overtime - promote less people to manager and hire a few more under 30 hour employees.)
Business exists to sustain themselves and the larger ones are able to work around
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> Business exists to sustain themselves
There's a missing piece that seems to regularly be skipped out by Libertarian/Conservative /.ers - businesses exist by the grace and will of society.
Don't we all?
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While such a law is appealing it ads to the initial,purchase price as manufacturers and retailers need to factor those costs into the price.
Not the case. For most of the products an existing manufacturer warranty applies anyway. The problem with that is the manufacturer may have no or little presence in the country in which you currently live. Case in point I had to return a camera lens I bought in the USA after I moved overseas. The store wanted nothing to do with me so I eventually managed to get it FedEx'd to the company in Japan and they sent me a new one.
In countries like Australia the only thing that changes is that the point of sale is r
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While such a law is appealing it ads to the initial,purchase price as manufacturers and retailers need to factor those costs into the price.
Not the case. For most of the products an existing manufacturer warranty applies anyway.
In some cases local laws mandate a longer warranty period which adds to the warranty costs and thus prices are raised.
The problem with that is the manufacturer may have no or little presence in the country in which you currently live. Case in point I had to return a camera lens I bought in the USA after I moved overseas. The store wanted nothing to do with me so I eventually managed to get it FedEx'd to the company in Japan and they sent me a new one.
That makes sense because the company you bought it from in the US may be a separate subsidiary from the one overseas and thus the overseas one is not liable for the warranty and doesn't want to absorb warranty costs for an item they did not sell. Not all companies do that, some offer world wide warranties.
In countries like Australia the only thing that changes is that the point of sale is responsible for the base warranty. This does not affect cost of returns at all since the mandated minimum warranty is often shorter than what many companies offer anyway. What it does do is move the burden of logistics onto people who can handle the logistics. The cost of a store handling thousands of products, from hundreds of vendors, with existing distribution channels and agreements in place; returning a product dwarfs the cost of a consumer attempting to do the same thing. Bonus points that they normally have one on the shelf and can do an on the spot swap eliminating the "cost" of lost time.
All of which are costs factored int the price, and if the consumer has more rights in
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In some cases local laws mandate a longer warranty period which adds to the warranty costs and thus prices are raised.
Agreed, but in most countries where this has happened the legally mandated warranty is minimal and quite frankly when it comes to electronics pretty much all companies offer something close to or exceeding this anyway unless they are also in the "value adding" business of selling you insurance on top of their shit products.
That makes sense because the company you bought it from in the US may be a separate subsidiary from the one overseas and thus the overseas one is not liable for the warranty and doesn't want to absorb warranty costs for an item they did not sell. Not all companies do that, some offer world wide warranties.
No it was a supply chain issue. There was always a world-wide warranty on the lens but the process is the same as it is with most companies; the device needs to come back through the loca
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In some cases local laws mandate a longer warranty period which adds to the warranty costs and thus prices are raised.
Agreed, but in most countries where this has happened the legally mandated warranty is minimal and quite frankly when it comes to electronics pretty much all companies offer something close to or exceeding this anyway unless they are also in the "value adding" business of selling you insurance on top of their shit products.
It really depends own location; in general that is true. The EU has a longer mandated warranty period for some items and thus they pay more to cover those added costs.
That makes sense because the company you bought it from in the US may be a separate subsidiary from the one overseas and thus the overseas one is not liable for the warranty and doesn't want to absorb warranty costs for an item they did not sell. Not all companies do that, some offer world wide warranties.
No it was a supply chain issue. There was always a world-wide warranty on the lens but the process is the same as it is with most companies; the device needs to come back through the local distribution chain. A chain which is built on solid relationships between vendor - distributor - seller - customer, which completely breaks down when the customer needs to talk to someone else.
I really wouldn't consider that to be a world wide warranty if you have to return it to the region purchase for warranty work; to me a worldwide warranty is one where you can get warranty service anywhere there is a repair facility regardless of where you purchased the item. Apple does that for example.
All of which are costs factored int the price, and if the consumer has more rights in B than in A, items generally cost more in B to compensate for the extra costs. As for the store, a swap ,means one less item to sell which also has a cost of a potential lost sale. TNSTAAFL
Agreed, all the costs are factored in, including the cost of inefficiency. That's ultimately what has changed by a lot of these regulations. It just moves the process back into the most efficient path, and the additional cost is offset by the increased efficiency of having an existing contractual relationship, something which a customer does not have with a distributor or vendor.
Simple example: - RMAing a Seagate HDD in the USA involved a call to the distribution centre, filing out paperwork, having the drive delivered to the distribution centre, paying a service fee, being without the drive for 6 weeks, and then having it delivered back. - RMAing a Seagate HDD in Australia involved going to the store I got it from with receipt in hand and having it exchanged. The store then went through the same process, except back when I worked at the store instead of manually moving things around and paying a service charge, and filling out paperwork we would: Scan the barcode on the drive and throw it in a pile. At the end of the month run an RMA report with a click of a button. Return RMA equipment in bulk, regardless if it was a customer returned or defect on arrival or damaged during shipping, and the service cost to the distributor was the same as was the shipping costs regardless if we had customer defects or not.
There's no such thing as a free lunch. But we don't need to make that sandwich in the most expensive and labour intensive way either.
It may be more efficient for the buyer bu
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In the U.S., law is made by the elected representatives of the people, who are then bought and corrupted by the corporations and do what their new corporate masters command.
Exactly. And what's worse, the People are so dumb they're happy to vote for a candidate who's obviously sold out to Goldman Sachs and various other corporate masters.
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> Newegg's return policy for mobos is "No". Just "No".
Here's a randomly selected motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128859
"GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 R5"
"Return Policies
Return for refund within: 30 days
Return for replacement within: 30 days
This item is covered by Newegg.com's Standard Return Policy."
Here is Newegg's Standard Return Policy: http://kb.newegg.com/Policies/Article/1167#44 and their rules regarding restocking fees: http://kb.newegg.com/FAQ/Article/1755
(The money
Re: (Score:2)
Well, they used to at least. Last week I received a defective SD card reader. Amazon didn't even offer a replacement - they merely emailed the shipping label and told me my card would be credited when they received the item. That I have Prime and have been a customer for more than 15 years makes this response not very encouraging, especially in conjunction with the increasing number of items that don't get t
Re: (Score:2)
I bought a moto 360 watch about a few months ago and they shipped me a new one at no charge. I eventually got a charge because I never gotten around to shipping it back (even though they had given me a paid shipping label.) As soon as I saw the charge, I remembered I never returned it and sent it back. I was credited back the charge without any interaction needed on my part.
Re: (Score:2)
Since your comment is the most visible of this thread, I'll hang this here. I'm not affiliated with these guys and I don't make a dime from them but for computer parts, I've found superbiiz.com [superbiiz.com] to be a good replacement for Newegg. Haven't had a problem yet and their prices are often lower.
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't used Newegg in years. Their return policy is terrible.
Also their prices are garbage now, on most items anyway. Maybe 1% of the time they have a good price.
If I get a defective product from Amazon, they send me a new one before asking for the return.
We have Prime and they still don't do this. The return has to get there before they will send me anything.
Actually, my best experience was with Computer Geeks, AKA geeks.com. When I have a problem with something I've bought there, which doesn't happen too often any more because their prices aren't that great either as a rule, they make it right faster than anyone. A super-cheap case I bought from them experi
Re: (Score:2)
Any suggestions for a good Newegg replacement?
I've used Newegg on and off since 2006 to buy parts for my machines but I haven't upgraded any of them recently beyond a GPU in late 2014. Always enjoyed the experience but I wasn't a fan of their becoming another Frys.
Re: (Score:2)
I feel more comfortable buying stuff off eBay.
I buy a fair amount of stuff from Ebay still, and honestly I have really good experiences with it mostly. The secret is to not blindly buy from just any seller, but instead to look carefully at the seller's record and feedbacks. When I see a seller with a score of 500, they've been on there for more than a decade, and their feedback score is 100% (not a single negative), that's someone I feel safe buying from. When you see some guy with a new account and litt
Re: (Score:2)
slave-like worker conditions in warehouses
If you can legally quit, then it is not "slave-like". Slavery is not synonymous with "requires hard work".
Re: (Score:1)
If you can legally quit
It's unclear whether or not you can... [theverge.com]
Re: (Score:2)
In state where we've essentially outlawed any attempts at subsistence living? Yeah, go ahead and try to "quit" working and see how long before they drag you into court for something you've violated.
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, go ahead and try to "quit" working
You don't have a right to live without supporting yourself, but you can still quit any particular job. If there is no other job to your liking available, you can work for yourself. My housekeeper runs her own business. She comes for about three hours once a month, and I pay her $120. That is $40/hour for a no-skill no-education job with flexible hours. If she cleans two houses a day, she can clear $60k/year. I tried to refer her to a friend, but she said she is too busy to take on new clients. I thou
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If you can legally quit, then it is not "slave-like". Slavery is not synonymous with "requires hard work".
Strongly disagree. If the work takes a greater toll on you than it pays off, and you don't have skills for better work and/or there is no better work available, then it is slave-like. If the work doesn't actually pay enough to live on with proper health, then it is slave-like. This is actually a better deal for employers than slavery, because they don't have to buy the workers and they don't even have to pay them enough to live on. An actual slave owner had at least a slight motivation to keep his slaves al
Re: welcome to the club, amazon.. (Score:5, Insightful)
None of that applies to today's race to the absolute bottom in wages and working conditions.
Working in a modern warehouse is nowhere near the "absolute bottom", and claiming that it is worse than 19th century plantation slavery is idiotic.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Working in a modern warehouse
Where amazon was paying paramedics to pick people up after they collapsed rather than fix or address the root problems...
I'm still not going to go as far as to say it compares with plantation slavery; but the conditions amazon was imposing were WAY out of line; and there was real basis for the comparison:
Amazon 'modern warehouses', where you are worked until you collapse.
Re: welcome to the club, amazon.. (Score:2)
What are these items that can only be purchased if you have Prime?
Re: (Score:2)
That's some low quality bait
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...until Earny-BestBuy starts tracking them, automatically requesting thousands of refunds every day, and then gets Best Buy to change their policies as well.
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Amazon has also begun closing accounts of people who "abuse" the return policy, in Amazon's opinion
Meanwhile, they encourage you to subscribe to Prime and use it to buy items like clothing and shoes, which you obviously can't try on until they've been delivered. But heaven forbid stuff doesn't fit and you want to return it, now you're "abusing" the system and your account is terminated; by the way, thanks for all the Prime payments! Nice racket they have going.
Re: (Score:2)
Why would you buy that kind of stuff through anyone who doesn't make their return policy a major part of their plan, e.g. Zappos? I will buy shoes from Zappos even though they do not have the best prices because if I don't want them, I don't have to keep them. Oddly enough, Zappos has been owned by Amazon for some years now...