The restocking fee for this kind of return is pretty standard, and other companies charge it too. So I think Amazon simply forgot to update the rule on the website, and you got lucky this time.
I've had Amazon refund me AND THEN charge me again saying that they never received the return, when I had UPS confirmation and also Amazon's own website's confirmation. Talking to support was useless so I had to perform a chargeback with my bank. Save all evidence against Amazon.
I don't understand why Amazon allows 1 year to return an item. With this policy, you can pretty much use the computer for free since you are getting a full refund. That's silly.
because they paid half of what theyre selling it for and sold it to you for double that, so if someone does keep it they've made bank, and many people will eat the $350 charge meaning they gain that too each time. its like a loss leader product, yes some people will return but some will be so happy they keep it and they milk those people, what have you got to lose with a refund policy like that, right? that's exactly how they get you.
They included the "restocking fee" in the price for "Premium Refurbished". Also, is system glitch that prevents full refund in this vid really a "glitch"? who knows
That’s what I thought. Regardless of it being a loss leader, marked up, whatever, if you’ve used it for up to a year, can’t see why anyone would expect a full refund?
I worked for Amazon customer care. I have no idea why this hidden fee happened, but I can genuinely say they would’ve refunded it if you phoned back when first refund happened, as first agent said. What agent2 did was kinda sketchy, and that’s why you received sketchy emails. He basically processed a full refund with no return requested, and then trusted you to return the item. You could’ve kept the laptop and the money at that moment (despite what he says) and supervisor could’ve been in big trouble if that happened.
@@tiloalo Create a new account, but the minute you use the same email, phone number or bank/credit card, you’ll probably be banned. Sure you can get all new stuff, but fuck that hassle
Not only will they ban your Amazon account but they will flag your delivery address so even when you get a new credit card, new email, new phone # once you put in the same address that was banned just a few days or weeks prior... boom your new account is banned as well. So be sure to get a PO Box or Mailbox Rental if your creating a new Amazon account but now you have to drive elsewhere to pickup any of your orders which sucks.
I called Amazon to change a Student Prime membership to the standard Prime membership. I must have been transferred to ten separate individuals and the issue was still not resolved. I just gave up. It seems that Amazon is not covering all customer interaction use-cases adequately.
This is why I just buy Apple refurbished. Better quality control, better customer service should there be an issue. Been doing it for 15 years without any hassles. The peace of mind is worth more than the few dollars you might save buying from Amazon, ebay, etc.
exactly this i bought an ipad pro and a mac mini m2 pro from apple refurbished and its like they are brand new machines with the added benefit of saving money prob gonna do the same if i ever need to upgrade to a mac studio eventually
Same here, always go via Apple certified refurbished since it’s “almost” like buying new (ie Apple Care+ is available and warranty/returns are much simpler and more likely to be honoured). Nothing against Amazon, but I would always go Apple refurbished if given a choice.
I had a similar return situation with Amazon. Mine wasn’t a laptop though. It was two toddler bad mattresses that somehow both got lost in shipping. (Seperate tracking numbers) I had to go through the same type of phone call that you did and get hold of a supervisor to finally get a refund. My email said “Thank you for returning your item, your refund has been processed” or something very similar, even though I had never received the items to return. Returns at Amazon are getting very strange compared to the past.
Yes, but in comparison to most other stores, their shipping is much better. Which doesn't say much about the other stores. The only consistently better experience I have is with B&H when I shop for gear there.
I agree. I have been seeing more “lost” shipments than I have in the past, but that seems to be more of a UPS issue. I also get an excellent experience from B&H.
Glad your transaction got a good ending. Around 2018 I purchased a Surface Book for my son for about $1500 and it was suppose to be new. After 3 days the battery no longer charges so I tried to return it. The return have 3 different addresses and warn that if you send it to the WRONG address where they do not receive it then you will NOT get your refund. So I re-read the directions multiple times, make sure the right address is there. Check the tracking number a few times a day. Even though the item said it was delivered to the seller's mailbox as long as they do not get the package, Amazon considered that as not delivered yet. And since the seller have "NOT" receive the item, no refund can be issue. After the 30 days is up, then the seller said they never got the item and the return window is closed. Amazon wouldn't do anything after talking to 3 different reps. Had to get my credit card company involved. After my CC company started the dispute process, then Amazon pick up my case and refund me. 60 Days of stress. That is why I would not do expensive purchases like that again at Amazon.
Had an incident where they messed up the serial number of the product, wasn't able to claim warranty because of that, had to suffer a month because no one at Amazon were helping and were lying about the things they were saying they did. After a month, they finally credited the whole money back.
Thing is, that Amazon has something in the neighbourhood of a gazillion systems up and running for their platform. It can happen, that one component may show you "you are eligible for refund until November" whereas the system for the poor person at the phone line, says something different, entirely. This is what having a (micro)service for every possible thing can give you. Headaches... lots of headaches...
I once worked for a company, they had about 20 different microservices. First week I joined, I patched 3 different 0-click RCE exploits, one of them with shell escalation... Microservices are great when done great, with good balancing or a broker server to distribute load, but, sadly, most of the time they're done terribly.
Its very convenient that the system that charges you works like a charm but the moment it needs to go the other way around magically theres always some kind of problem.
@@Executor009 Nothing about this is magical. The system that charges you, is exactly that. One system. The system that refunds you, is exactly not that. There will be several systems, that need to be work together and this is where it gets tricky. And yes... The most important user flow for amazon is "People buy stuff and pay for it". This needs to works as smoothly as possible.
@@christianbaer2897 Wrong. In 90% of scenarios, ALL payments in general will be handled by a single service. All you need is to adapt whatever library you're using to your own rest api to do some checks and auth and you're done. Having this break is either deliberate, or flat out lack of brains. Considering Amazon's UX is that of a random website from 90's is even more of an argument behind malice.
@@shapelessed The payment was not the problem. He could easily have gotten money. The problem was, that it was not the right amount of money and this is where the multiple systems come into place. Even the customer center person could not see the right amount, although Alex could. That alone should tell you, that there is more than one service needed for a refund. Obviously, there is more than one service needed for a buy as well, but it is really unlikely, that something will change the price or add shipping costs the moment when you click "add to basket". This probably isn't malice. Amazon does not tend to be malicious to there customers. Only to employees.
I ordered a product from Amazon that arrived but was the wrong product and because it was a cream rather than a spray I was told the item was not returnable. I told the rep that the product was in a sealed plastic pack that was not even opened as I saw right away we had the wrong product. At the time of order it said product could be returned however when I went to return it it came up as non-returnable. I escalated and they did a similar refund as your macbook. Label for return with no-refund and refund separately to credit card. It worked out but I too spent almost 45 minutes talking to various representatives. There is the occasional glitch.
As a poor bastard working support (for Apple as it happens) I appreciate you for being nice to the advisors and for not throwing them under the bus for company policy.
Now this is the best video I've seen all damn month! Not because it was entertaining but simply because it's a warning and a guide to make sure that others don't fall victim to this same issue. On behalf of those that will need this at some point, thank you Alex!
I've had Amazon email me wanting to talk about a $1200 graphics card return heavily insinuating that I filled the box with rocks or something. I expected them to accuse me of something when I was contacting them but the rep made it seem like all they wanted to do was say I returned it. My guess is that they were hoping I was the one that swapped the item out and were fishing for a fishy response. Was back when the GPU shortage was happening and UPS drivers were actually stealing them.
So much for considering Amazon as a supplier for my replacement Imacs (1 for my wife and me). Headed for Apple Refurbishment rather than Amazon. Thanks for your post.
A SUPERB video! Many people would not take the trouble to include the entire telephone interaction. You did! My sincere compliments for an INFORMATIVE video with all the information one could ask for included.
I’ve worked for companies like this and let me tell you a lot of this is all automated and program to screw you over. As agents we have limited ability to fix and just have to think of some bs to tell you. Glad this guy was persistent but a lot of times I’ve just told people to do chargebacks since companies have really lousy policies
Some sellers may have additional terms that say that the device can't be returned for a full refund if there are signs of use. However if there is an issue like SD reader broken then it will be accepted.
Same thing happened to me. Amazon never took responsibility for the product that I decided to returned within the 30 days period and they never refund the money to me. I was calling many times with supervisors and manager and I have all the email but they always says something different. I ended canceling my membership with Amazon and I decided to open one with another company. I do not recommend Amazon to anybody.
Mint mobile screw me up big time. No matter how many times I called CS someone I couldn’t get a refund on an unused SIM cards. I told them credit them money for new ones and just plain told me they couldn’t even do that.
I love how Amazon wanted to have you do the refund and then call back later when you get the refund to get the remaining. Just call back at that time. I fell for this prior, saved all the chat messages (was through online chat). Then when I got my refund and reached out again they denied everything. Said nothing they could do. Asked for screenshots of the chat. Sent them. They didn’t care, said it wasn’t a policy they did.
I had to fight with Amazon to get a full refund on an undelivered item that I ordered which is fully under the Consumer Protection Act in Ontario, Canada. I don't think they wanted to go to the Consumer Rights Tribunal so they gave me my money back
@@kuroenekodemon considering the amount of stuff I buy from Amazon, I contacted support for a package which was lost (and I did search everywhere) and the person refunded me the amount in 1 min lmao. It all depends on how much you spend per year and total I guess. Turned out it was in one of the boxes my apartment complex has and I didn't search it because it usually doesn't go there and straight to my mailbox area or door. So I got the item for free lol.
Idk about your product but if u buy a product then replace it twice on the third time they'll show a return option rather than replacement (I bought earbuds 8 month ago). Don't know if this process works now.
I had the same thing happen with a 'used' M1 Max (which was actually brand new, only the box was opened and the accessories were missing, so probably a return) and had the nicest customer service rep and everything was fine until they sent me an e-mail saying they can't refund me and also couldn't ship the computer back. That was a €2.600 computer. I've disputed it but my credit card company seems totally useless. I swear F amazon.
You have to keep an eye on it - they delivered my package to the wrong location and I couldn't find it. Their mistake - they sent me a replacement item. Almost 6 months later I got an email saying if I don't ship back the original item they would charge me. I contacted them and told them they never delivered the original package so I can't. They corrected the issue, only to have it come back up suddenly a month later with no warning just a silent charge I had to contact them again to reverse.
I've had amazon agree to refund, then not actual disburse it. Then on follow-up they ignored and didn't acknowledge that conversation and said that they won't refund as if this was my first request. I'm really getting sick of them, and strongly considering quitting their platform, and just working a little harder to buy from individual retailers.
Recently purchased a part for my CPAP machine from Amazon. It was damaged in shipping, but when I tried to get a replacement everything on the website said “this item is not eligible for returns or replacements” which, you know, should be different if the item didn’t get here in one piece. Finally I did the chat with support, which for me was a chatbot. The chatbot gave me a refund almost immediately. The part cost about $30, so I feel like there’s probably a dollar threshold that the chatbot is allowed to go ahead and do a refund.
TOTALLY AGREE. I HAD MANY ITEMS THAT I HAD TO INITIATE A CHAT SESSION & AFTER MUCH TIME ONLINE CHATTING WITH AGENTS, I FINALLY GET REFUNDED THE PROPER AMOUNT. BUT "YES" IT IS A PAIN TO HAVE TO CHASE YOUR MONEY
I had a similar situation buying refurbished Apple mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately the mouse was missing. Returned item, but refund process was about of month. I had to call a few times before getting everything resolved.
I've been though the same issues with Amazon they are very shady I don't trust any support agents even if they send you an email they will just say sorry you were misinformed by last agent.
A real supervisor is too busy to get on the phone unless it's a black Friday or prime day and they're getting too many calls. Those "supervisors" or "managers" that you get when you ask for one are just escalation specialists who can make a few exceptions that regular agents can't.
I had something like it where I was promised a *free* extra item when purchasing a product. I have this *in writing*. When the time came to claim the item I got a call from another Amazon employee stating that the first one shouldn't have made the promise of the extra item and that I wouldn't be getting it. As I kinda saw this coming I hadn't opened the main purchase and sent it back.
I purchased a renewed premium iphone that was defective and obviously not subject to the repairs and quality control they claimed, and Amazon also jerked me around, made me stay home for days waiting on a pickup because they wouldn't accept a dropoff at the post office. A pickup that never came and cost me a week's wages. I eventually got a refund by disputing with my credit card company.
If I buy an item and I don’t get a full refund as it states this is what charge backs are for. I’m not going to spend 1 hour on hold because Amazon or corp can’t honor their word.
Then say goodbye to your amazon account. Plus chargebacks have to be done in a certain order, where you have to make attempts to contact the merchant for a resolution and not just skip everything to dispute the charge.
Yeah I would do the same if possible but I've found you have to do a chargeback within 3-6 months for most cards. In this situation it could be up to a year later.
Yeah, they are banking on you just accepting the "restocking" fee. The fact that you have to go through all that to get the actual refund is not fun at all. But being able to use a laptop for a year and return it for the full purchase price is kind of crazy in itself. You could essentially keep getting a new laptop every year or so.
I canceled my prime account over lost shipments and jumping so many hoops to get a replacement or refund... It is not like it disappeared after it was delivered.. Amazon order detail was saying "we can't find your package", yet somehow I still needed to convince the agent I didn't receive it
I had a similar issue returning a 45mm watch that was too big for my wrist. I'd procrastinated till the last day of the 30 day window and the system refused to return it, much like this video, couple of phone calls / online services chats later, and its was returned, but only once I explained the terms of sale in the UK. It's not a 'glitch', its a barrier.
All these Amazon and Ebay corporations have Cartel mentality where they someone happen to screw the customers out of their money and you have no way to get your money back! 😒
Apple refurbs are treated "as new." You get the full 1 year warranty (2 years if you're in the EU), plus the option for 3-year AppleCare or AppleCare Plus warranties. Furthermore, you can return the laptop within the first week no-questions-asked if you have second thoughts about buying it.
is it possible the machine price was dropped since apple realeased the M3 series of macbook pro's around the same time you ordered and the system was refering to the list price for the item rather than the price you paid and then when they tried to look at it on the back end, the system didn't know what was up with the money delta so just automatically chalked it up to a restocking fee without checking your return window?
I returned the M3 Pro laptop after a few days using it because the screen had a defect from the factory. Got my money back and it’s been a few months now.
Amazon has thing, if you want to return the thing without fault, they will lower the amount, but if it has fault you get the full refund. Sadly ordered 2 gaming laptops both were stolen by drivers afterwards with providing proof that nothing was actually delivered, and amazon took months to process this, i don't buy anything super expensive from amazon.
I used to work for Amazon as an ml engineer. This feels like some scam a seller would pull off on customers and amazon as victims. Note that for most items there are third party sellers behind them and amazon just being a middle man. I’ve seen too many (small) sellers try to game amazon’s system. Seems like this particular seller found some loophole that even had the call center folks confused. Amazon might have just ate a loss to give you this full refund if the purchase was done long ago and the seller is too far gone to be chased after. In short, I think the (3rd party) seller offered a return policy it had no intentions to honor just to entice buyers. Amazon usually holds these funds from the seller but not for more than a couple of weeks. After which it becomes hard for Amazon to claw back money for whatever reason.
I returned a MBP and Amazon initially told me they never received it except the tracking said it was received. 4 phone calls and 2 weeks later I finally got my refund but I really had to work for it.
Amazon’s “ADS” system it stands for automatic deletion system it shows the item you purchased as unavailable if there is a problem with your OS to prevent hacking so if your device is eDHL device (not specified on google yet) it will usually have these problem these most occurs on IPhone and Windows
I ordered an Apple Watch Series 7 from Amazon, in excellent condition. It came obviously damaged and the battery was so dead it took several hours to even turn on. It took about a week of messaging them to get it refunded.
A year or so ago, I bought an iPhone from a retail store and specifically asked if there would be any return fees. They said no. The very next day I tried returning it and what do you know? An 80$ restocking fee. That's more than 10% of the entire device. Anyway after cussing out the store for a dozen minutes, I got my proper refund.
Helpful. Right, for big purchase like these that absolutely need best quality, whether refurbished or new, I avoid 3rd party sellers like Ebay. And Amazon's quality and trustful level have dropped since many new sellers, possibly from Ebay, have joined Amazon. Definitely official Apple Refurbished Store is best, but really a lot less choices of newer lineups. Difficult market. I bet the PC computers' market has even more divided and not-so-trustworthy stores.
Amazing I just saw this. I was on the phone with apple support yesterday because of a guarantee issue (portuguese stores wouldn't accept it because it didn't have the original receipt even though portuguese law is clear than once the item is replaced, the new item has a guarantee of its own - which was my case as it was the 2nd time i was sending the IPhone to be replaced). I will say, Apple support was incredibly helpful (even though they had to check with their legal team and I had to be on the phone for an hour citing back portuguese legislation and I had to be escalated through multiple layers of apple support) but I did manage to get a guarantee claim done. The people who helped me were super kind and helpful, the real problem like you pointed out is that these companies prey on people who either don't know any better or just don't care about it that much. All the stores (incluiding the kind man from apple support who was just following orders) actually had the audacity of saying "it's our policy", as if their policy was above the law. Always fight for your rights! (even if it's over a 20€ repair, like in my case xd) PS: The portuguese stores' supervisors seemed not to care, one of them said "I don't know law, but I know our policy". One day I will own a store that shoots rude costumers as a policy and try and use this defense in court! PPS: I didn't have the original receipt, but I did have the replacement receipt and within apple's system they can see I bought it in Portugal (which they admitted to me), so the replacement receipt is by law the receipt of the new device and is more than enough for a warranty claim. Even though apple groups the devices themselves together in their system.
Wow, I wonder if it works the opposite way - I pay just under $1400.00 for the laptop and promise to pay the rest after I receive the laptop at a later date.
They scammed me of 521 euro blaming "the system that doesn't allow a refund". I'm totally done with Amazon and I'll have zero problems finding other places where to buy stuff. This was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
Amazon has these “options” that is allowed by customer service. So what they say is aligned. In order to fix some circumstances, they have to trick their own system. They can’t just go program their system to do whatever they like.
When a person tells you it's the first time they have seen this? Hang up and call back. That means they dont know and they will just try to get you off of the phone.
I don't know how in us but in Europe I had best experience with amazon usually when there was a problem ....not always the smoothest, but even it took some time, they refunded or replaced broken items, which is not always the case. Also as corporate client some e-shops don't accept 14 day returns which is just stupid
I don't understand how anyone gets an entire year to return a laptop. They depreciate so fast, refurbished or not it's gotta hit Amazon hard. The standard return period is 2 weeks!
Amazons standard return policy is 30 days, Jeff can afford it no problem. A minority of people return stuff and it builds trust and means customers are more likely to order things they think the may not like / need (more sales.)
I went through a similar process with my amazon premium renewed iphone 13 pro, and after i got my partial refund, i got the rest of the money on the 2nd contact and i had no issues.
Not sure if some companies suck on refunds. It reminds me of a recent purchase with Samsung. It took so long to process and order and pick up at a local Samsung store, I was waiting for a month. They told me to cancel the order and just reorder. The previous purchase price was a lot cheaper. They said they would refund me the difference for the previous price when the phone was shipped. I ask why they can't just adjust the price and let me pay that price up front. I got tired and just went ahead with the new order. They didn't refund me within the said time. Luckily for some odd reason my previous order actually arrived at the store a week later so I just picked it up and just returned the other phone at the higher price. I hate when companies do that. I think at least at the Apple store they don't do that.
I never thought of it as a scam. And don't ask me how I know this, but you should ALWAYS call amazon customer service when it comes to refunds, it may take a couple of minutes or even an hour, but the agents are able to give you so much more options than what you see on the website or on the app.
I will never buy anything "refurbished" from amazon. It's almost as if they just take a return don't do any checking and sell it again. I bought electronics in that manner and something was wrong with it, which is WHY it was returned. It might be cheaper but how much is your time worth, no doubt when you ask for a return for that item it ends up once again someone else's hands.
Same experience multiple times. Seems like people often buy items and then strip them for parts and accessories, or send back broken items, and then Amazon just sells it again with zero checks. It’s bullshit.
I like how you were persistent in getting it resolved right there. This doesn’t really seem like a scam though. It seems like there was a mistake in the system and they were trying to make it right it just took a little while to get to the right person.
In my case, i brought a new m2 Air when return policy was 30 days. I never accepted package & i still had to fight for my refund. 1st, they said they were gonna send me some paperwork in email on file but i no longer had that email. Investigation took a long time but after several days refund was done. My intuition was right in not accepting package.
Why the author wanted to do a return is irrelevant. Amazon should not treat its customers like they do. Lets stay away from something approaching victim blaming.
"Always be nice to people, it goes way further than not being nice to people"
Yep, true words!
also its just nice to be nice regardless of whether it will get you further
Was gonna post this comment too.
My daughter works retail in Manhattan. Nearly everyone goes nasty as a first move. It’s hard out there for customer service.
You should pin this, Alex :D
The restocking fee for this kind of return is pretty standard, and other companies charge it too. So I think Amazon simply forgot to update the rule on the website, and you got lucky this time.
I've had Amazon refund me AND THEN charge me again saying that they never received the return, when I had UPS confirmation and also Amazon's own website's confirmation. Talking to support was useless so I had to perform a chargeback with my bank. Save all evidence against Amazon.
Had that happen when I returned two things at once then they got mad when I did the chargeback and threatened to charge me again
@@onecleangti what the h-ll
Yes! I’ve experienced that as well!
Well, somehow Bezos has to pay for his huge ship 🤷♂️
God I love credit cards
I don't understand why Amazon allows 1 year to return an item. With this policy, you can pretty much use the computer for free since you are getting a full refund. That's silly.
because they paid half of what theyre selling it for and sold it to you for double that, so if someone does keep it they've made bank, and many people will eat the $350 charge meaning they gain that too each time.
its like a loss leader product, yes some people will return but some will be so happy they keep it and they milk those people, what have you got to lose with a refund policy like that, right? that's exactly how they get you.
@@schizofennecvery interesting. Thank you for your comment, I learned from it.
They included the "restocking fee" in the price for "Premium Refurbished". Also, is system glitch that prevents full refund in this vid really a "glitch"? who knows
@extrawdw pretty sure it is a "calculated glitch". Lol
That’s what I thought. Regardless of it being a loss leader, marked up, whatever, if you’ve used it for up to a year, can’t see why anyone would expect a full refund?
I worked for Amazon customer care. I have no idea why this hidden fee happened, but I can genuinely say they would’ve refunded it if you phoned back when first refund happened, as first agent said. What agent2 did was kinda sketchy, and that’s why you received sketchy emails. He basically processed a full refund with no return requested, and then trusted you to return the item. You could’ve kept the laptop and the money at that moment (despite what he says) and supervisor could’ve been in big trouble if that happened.
You’ll get banned for returning high value items like this, if Amazon feel they are loosing money on you they just ban you.
And then you just create a new account... it's not like they're a bank and perform a KYC on you...
@@tiloalo Create a new account, but the minute you use the same email, phone number or bank/credit card, you’ll probably be banned. Sure you can get all new stuff, but fuck that hassle
@@Eweyhen use gift cards
Not only will they ban your Amazon account but they will flag your delivery address so even when you get a new credit card, new email, new phone # once you put in the same address that was banned just a few days or weeks prior... boom your new account is banned as well. So be sure to get a PO Box or Mailbox Rental if your creating a new Amazon account but now you have to drive elsewhere to pickup any of your orders which sucks.
I called Amazon to change a Student Prime membership to the standard Prime membership. I must have been transferred to ten separate individuals and the issue was still not resolved. I just gave up. It seems that Amazon is not covering all customer interaction use-cases adequately.
Why would you change from Student to Standard when student is cheaper?
So grateful you shared this experience with us! Thank you for doing the leg work so we don't have to go through this ourselves!
This is why I just buy Apple refurbished. Better quality control, better customer service should there be an issue. Been doing it for 15 years without any hassles. The peace of mind is worth more than the few dollars you might save buying from Amazon, ebay, etc.
exactly this i bought an ipad pro and a mac mini m2 pro from apple refurbished and its like they are brand new machines with the added benefit of saving money prob gonna do the same if i ever need to upgrade to a mac studio eventually
Same here, always go via Apple certified refurbished since it’s “almost” like buying new (ie Apple Care+ is available and warranty/returns are much simpler and more likely to be honoured). Nothing against Amazon, but I would always go Apple refurbished if given a choice.
But you don't get to upgrade your model for free each year
Plus an option to add apple care plus coverage
I had a similar return situation with Amazon. Mine wasn’t a laptop though. It was two toddler bad mattresses that somehow both got lost in shipping. (Seperate tracking numbers) I had to go through the same type of phone call that you did and get hold of a supervisor to finally get a refund. My email said “Thank you for returning your item, your refund has been processed” or something very similar, even though I had never received the items to return. Returns at Amazon are getting very strange compared to the past.
Yes, but in comparison to most other stores, their shipping is much better. Which doesn't say much about the other stores. The only consistently better experience I have is with B&H when I shop for gear there.
I agree. I have been seeing more “lost” shipments than I have in the past, but that seems to be more of a UPS issue. I also get an excellent experience from B&H.
Glad your transaction got a good ending. Around 2018 I purchased a Surface Book for my son for about $1500 and it was suppose to be new. After 3 days the battery no longer charges so I tried to return it.
The return have 3 different addresses and warn that if you send it to the WRONG address where they do not receive it then you will NOT get your refund. So I re-read the directions multiple times, make sure the right address is there. Check the tracking number a few times a day.
Even though the item said it was delivered to the seller's mailbox as long as they do not get the package, Amazon considered that as not delivered yet. And since the seller have "NOT" receive the item, no refund can be issue. After the 30 days is up, then the seller said they never got the item and the return window is closed.
Amazon wouldn't do anything after talking to 3 different reps. Had to get my credit card company involved. After my CC company started the dispute process, then Amazon pick up my case and refund me. 60 Days of stress. That is why I would not do expensive purchases like that again at Amazon.
Had an incident where they messed up the serial number of the product, wasn't able to claim warranty because of that, had to suffer a month because no one at Amazon were helping and were lying about the things they were saying they did. After a month, they finally credited the whole money back.
Holy moly. Patience paid off.
Thing is, that Amazon has something in the neighbourhood of a gazillion systems up and running for their platform. It can happen, that one component may show you "you are eligible for refund until November" whereas the system for the poor person at the phone line, says something different, entirely. This is what having a (micro)service for every possible thing can give you. Headaches... lots of headaches...
I once worked for a company, they had about 20 different microservices.
First week I joined, I patched 3 different 0-click RCE exploits, one of them with shell escalation...
Microservices are great when done great, with good balancing or a broker server to distribute load, but, sadly, most of the time they're done terribly.
Its very convenient that the system that charges you works like a charm but the moment it needs to go the other way around magically theres always some kind of problem.
@@Executor009 Nothing about this is magical. The system that charges you, is exactly that. One system. The system that refunds you, is exactly not that. There will be several systems, that need to be work together and this is where it gets tricky. And yes... The most important user flow for amazon is "People buy stuff and pay for it". This needs to works as smoothly as possible.
@@christianbaer2897 Wrong.
In 90% of scenarios, ALL payments in general will be handled by a single service. All you need is to adapt whatever library you're using to your own rest api to do some checks and auth and you're done. Having this break is either deliberate, or flat out lack of brains.
Considering Amazon's UX is that of a random website from 90's is even more of an argument behind malice.
@@shapelessed The payment was not the problem. He could easily have gotten money. The problem was, that it was not the right amount of money and this is where the multiple systems come into place. Even the customer center person could not see the right amount, although Alex could. That alone should tell you, that there is more than one service needed for a refund.
Obviously, there is more than one service needed for a buy as well, but it is really unlikely, that something will change the price or add shipping costs the moment when you click "add to basket". This probably isn't malice. Amazon does not tend to be malicious to there customers. Only to employees.
I ordered a product from Amazon that arrived but was the wrong product and because it was a cream rather than a spray I was told the item was not returnable. I told the rep that the product was in a sealed plastic pack that was not even opened as I saw right away we had the wrong product. At the time of order it said product could be returned however when I went to return it it came up as non-returnable. I escalated and they did a similar refund as your macbook. Label for return with no-refund and refund separately to credit card. It worked out but I too spent almost 45 minutes talking to various representatives. There is the occasional glitch.
I'm dealing with this crap right now for an Ipod that was damaged on shipment and I never received.
Refurb is tricky, especially for international customers.
Glad you got it sorted but in my case, I have to live with it.
As a poor bastard working support (for Apple as it happens) I appreciate you for being nice to the advisors and for not throwing them under the bus for company policy.
Now this is the best video I've seen all damn month!
Not because it was entertaining but simply because it's a warning and a guide to make sure that others don't fall victim to this same issue.
On behalf of those that will need this at some point, thank you Alex!
I've had Amazon email me wanting to talk about a $1200 graphics card return heavily insinuating that I filled the box with rocks or something. I expected them to accuse me of something when I was contacting them but the rep made it seem like all they wanted to do was say I returned it. My guess is that they were hoping I was the one that swapped the item out and were fishing for a fishy response. Was back when the GPU shortage was happening and UPS drivers were actually stealing them.
Great example of how to handle a situation like this. Thanks for sharing.
Good for you for not giving up 👍
So much for considering Amazon as a supplier for my replacement Imacs (1 for my wife and me). Headed for Apple Refurbishment rather than Amazon. Thanks for your post.
Amazon has become horibble. "reach back to us" when you do you never get anything. Scam.
A SUPERB video! Many people would not take the trouble to include the entire telephone interaction. You did! My sincere compliments for an INFORMATIVE video with all the information one could ask for included.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve worked for companies like this and let me tell you a lot of this is all automated and program to screw you over. As agents we have limited ability to fix and just have to think of some bs to tell you. Glad this guy was persistent but a lot of times I’ve just told people to do chargebacks since companies have really lousy policies
Amazon customer support were some of the rudest customer support people I've had to deal with.
Some sellers may have additional terms that say that the device can't be returned for a full refund if there are signs of use. However if there is an issue like SD reader broken then it will be accepted.
Same thing happened to me. Amazon never took responsibility for the product that I decided to returned within the 30 days period and they never refund the money to me. I was calling many times with supervisors and manager and I have all the email but they always says something different. I ended canceling my membership with Amazon and I decided to open one with another company. I do not recommend Amazon to anybody.
Mint mobile screw me up big time. No matter how many times I called CS someone I couldn’t get a refund on an unused SIM cards. I told them credit them money for new ones and just plain told me they couldn’t even do that.
I’d rather have a root canal than deal with Amazon customer service. I’ve been screwed over and over again by them.
i haven’t had a root canal yet, but it doesn’t sound pleasant.
I love how Amazon wanted to have you do the refund and then call back later when you get the refund to get the remaining. Just call back at that time. I fell for this prior, saved all the chat messages (was through online chat). Then when I got my refund and reached out again they denied everything. Said nothing they could do. Asked for screenshots of the chat. Sent them. They didn’t care, said it wasn’t a policy they did.
Thanks for exposing them!
Amazon is horrible when you try return, this is not just in your country, its even worse in IN
I had to fight with Amazon to get a full refund on an undelivered item that I ordered which is fully under the Consumer Protection Act in Ontario, Canada. I don't think they wanted to go to the Consumer Rights Tribunal so they gave me my money back
@@kuroenekodemon considering the amount of stuff I buy from Amazon, I contacted support for a package which was lost (and I did search everywhere) and the person refunded me the amount in 1 min lmao. It all depends on how much you spend per year and total I guess. Turned out it was in one of the boxes my apartment complex has and I didn't search it because it usually doesn't go there and straight to my mailbox area or door. So I got the item for free lol.
Idk about your product but if u buy a product then replace it twice on the third time they'll show a return option rather than replacement (I bought earbuds 8 month ago). Don't know if this process works now.
I did it and the 2nd time they refunded the full amount after they picked up the product.
it was beneficial, I always struggle with this kind of operation. thank you, Mr.
sure thing !
Thanks for sharing.
It also take me quite timing when dealing with Return/Refund w/ Amazon, when come to electronic stuffs.
Apple sells refurbished Mac books why take the risk with amazon
I had the same thing happen with a 'used' M1 Max (which was actually brand new, only the box was opened and the accessories were missing, so probably a return) and had the nicest customer service rep and everything was fine until they sent me an e-mail saying they can't refund me and also couldn't ship the computer back. That was a €2.600 computer. I've disputed it but my credit card company seems totally useless. I swear F amazon.
You have to keep an eye on it - they delivered my package to the wrong location and I couldn't find it. Their mistake - they sent me a replacement item. Almost 6 months later I got an email saying if I don't ship back the original item they would charge me. I contacted them and told them they never delivered the original package so I can't. They corrected the issue, only to have it come back up suddenly a month later with no warning just a silent charge I had to contact them again to reverse.
I've had amazon agree to refund, then not actual disburse it. Then on follow-up they ignored and didn't acknowledge that conversation and said that they won't refund as if this was my first request. I'm really getting sick of them, and strongly considering quitting their platform, and just working a little harder to buy from individual retailers.
Recently purchased a part for my CPAP machine from Amazon. It was damaged in shipping, but when I tried to get a replacement everything on the website said “this item is not eligible for returns or replacements” which, you know, should be different if the item didn’t get here in one piece. Finally I did the chat with support, which for me was a chatbot. The chatbot gave me a refund almost immediately. The part cost about $30, so I feel like there’s probably a dollar threshold that the chatbot is allowed to go ahead and do a refund.
TOTALLY AGREE. I HAD MANY ITEMS THAT I HAD TO INITIATE A CHAT SESSION & AFTER MUCH TIME ONLINE CHATTING WITH AGENTS, I FINALLY GET REFUNDED THE PROPER AMOUNT. BUT "YES" IT IS A PAIN TO HAVE TO CHASE YOUR MONEY
Amazon is gonna get the money back. They never failed me
I had a similar situation buying refurbished Apple mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately the mouse was missing. Returned item, but refund process was about of month. I had to call a few times before getting everything resolved.
This happened to me with a 3D printer, never got the full refund.
I've been though the same issues with Amazon they are very shady I don't trust any support agents even if they send you an email they will just say sorry you were misinformed by last agent.
Some Ebay refurbished items have 1 or 2 years Allstate warranty. So you can get it done with insurance company.
A real supervisor is too busy to get on the phone unless it's a black Friday or prime day and they're getting too many calls. Those "supervisors" or "managers" that you get when you ask for one are just escalation specialists who can make a few exceptions that regular agents can't.
I had something like it where I was promised a *free* extra item when purchasing a product. I have this *in writing*. When the time came to claim the item I got a call from another Amazon employee stating that the first one shouldn't have made the promise of the extra item and that I wouldn't be getting it. As I kinda saw this coming I hadn't opened the main purchase and sent it back.
I love it when you do content like this, it’s great!
I purchased a renewed premium iphone that was defective and obviously not subject to the repairs and quality control they claimed, and Amazon also jerked me around, made me stay home for days waiting on a pickup because they wouldn't accept a dropoff at the post office. A pickup that never came and cost me a week's wages.
I eventually got a refund by disputing with my credit card company.
It is smart to get it all resolved in 1 day as opposed to waiting because you might not be able to get the refund later
If I buy an item and I don’t get a full refund as it states this is what charge backs are for. I’m not going to spend 1 hour on hold because Amazon or corp can’t honor their word.
Then say goodbye to your amazon account. Plus chargebacks have to be done in a certain order, where you have to make attempts to contact the merchant for a resolution and not just skip everything to dispute the charge.
Yeah I would do the same if possible but I've found you have to do a chargeback within 3-6 months for most cards. In this situation it could be up to a year later.
Yeah, they are banking on you just accepting the "restocking" fee. The fact that you have to go through all that to get the actual refund is not fun at all. But being able to use a laptop for a year and return it for the full purchase price is kind of crazy in itself. You could essentially keep getting a new laptop every year or so.
I canceled my prime account over lost shipments and jumping so many hoops to get a replacement or refund...
It is not like it disappeared after it was delivered.. Amazon order detail was saying "we can't find your package", yet somehow I still needed to convince the agent I didn't receive it
I had a similar issue returning a 45mm watch that was too big for my wrist. I'd procrastinated till the last day of the 30 day window and the system refused to return it, much like this video, couple of phone calls / online services chats later, and its was returned, but only once I explained the terms of sale in the UK. It's not a 'glitch', its a barrier.
All these Amazon and Ebay corporations have Cartel mentality where they someone happen to screw the customers out of their money and you have no way to get your money back! 😒
Apple refurbs are treated "as new." You get the full 1 year warranty (2 years if you're in the EU), plus the option for 3-year AppleCare or AppleCare Plus warranties. Furthermore, you can return the laptop within the first week no-questions-asked if you have second thoughts about buying it.
is it possible the machine price was dropped since apple realeased the M3 series of macbook pro's around the same time you ordered and the system was refering to the list price for the item rather than the price you paid and then when they tried to look at it on the back end, the system didn't know what was up with the money delta so just automatically chalked it up to a restocking fee without checking your return window?
I returned the M3 Pro laptop after a few days using it because the screen had a defect from the factory. Got my money back and it’s been a few months now.
Amazon has thing, if you want to return the thing without fault, they will lower the amount, but if it has fault you get the full refund.
Sadly ordered 2 gaming laptops both were stolen by drivers afterwards with providing proof that nothing was actually delivered, and amazon took months to process this, i don't buy anything super expensive from amazon.
I used to work for Amazon as an ml engineer. This feels like some scam a seller would pull off on customers and amazon as victims. Note that for most items there are third party sellers behind them and amazon just being a middle man. I’ve seen too many (small) sellers try to game amazon’s system. Seems like this particular seller found some loophole that even had the call center folks confused. Amazon might have just ate a loss to give you this full refund if the purchase was done long ago and the seller is too far gone to be chased after. In short, I think the (3rd party) seller offered a return policy it had no intentions to honor just to entice buyers. Amazon usually holds these funds from the seller but not for more than a couple of weeks. After which it becomes hard for Amazon to claw back money for whatever reason.
Amazing content! Great sound too. Tthank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
I returned a MBP and Amazon initially told me they never received it except the tracking said it was received. 4 phone calls and 2 weeks later I finally got my refund but I really had to work for it.
I just had an issue like this in the past month was crazy talked to 4 agents before I got my full refund
Amazon’s “ADS” system it stands for automatic deletion system it shows the item you purchased as unavailable if there is a problem with your OS to prevent hacking so if your device is eDHL device (not specified on google yet) it will usually have these problem these most occurs on IPhone and Windows
As a software qa analyst this definitely sounds like a bug, or they changed their policy but did not reflect it on the website.
That actuallly worked out quite well tbh. I dont know what u guys are expecting.
Not sure a scam. Sounds like a bad IT setup
I ordered an Apple Watch Series 7 from Amazon, in excellent condition. It came obviously damaged and the battery was so dead it took several hours to even turn on. It took about a week of messaging them to get it refunded.
A year or so ago, I bought an iPhone from a retail store and specifically asked if there would be any return fees. They said no. The very next day I tried returning it and what do you know? An 80$ restocking fee. That's more than 10% of the entire device. Anyway after cussing out the store for a dozen minutes, I got my proper refund.
I returned an M3 Pro and it took them 30 days to refund the money.
Helpful. Right, for big purchase like these that absolutely need best quality, whether refurbished or new, I avoid 3rd party sellers like Ebay. And Amazon's quality and trustful level have dropped since many new sellers, possibly from Ebay, have joined Amazon. Definitely official Apple Refurbished Store is best, but really a lot less choices of newer lineups. Difficult market. I bet the PC computers' market has even more divided and not-so-trustworthy stores.
Amazing I just saw this. I was on the phone with apple support yesterday because of a guarantee issue (portuguese stores wouldn't accept it because it didn't have the original receipt even though portuguese law is clear than once the item is replaced, the new item has a guarantee of its own - which was my case as it was the 2nd time i was sending the IPhone to be replaced). I will say, Apple support was incredibly helpful (even though they had to check with their legal team and I had to be on the phone for an hour citing back portuguese legislation and I had to be escalated through multiple layers of apple support) but I did manage to get a guarantee claim done. The people who helped me were super kind and helpful, the real problem like you pointed out is that these companies prey on people who either don't know any better or just don't care about it that much. All the stores (incluiding the kind man from apple support who was just following orders) actually had the audacity of saying "it's our policy", as if their policy was above the law. Always fight for your rights! (even if it's over a 20€ repair, like in my case xd)
PS: The portuguese stores' supervisors seemed not to care, one of them said "I don't know law, but I know our policy". One day I will own a store that shoots rude costumers as a policy and try and use this defense in court!
PPS: I didn't have the original receipt, but I did have the replacement receipt and within apple's system they can see I bought it in Portugal (which they admitted to me), so the replacement receipt is by law the receipt of the new device and is more than enough for a warranty claim. Even though apple groups the devices themselves together in their system.
Wow, I wonder if it works the opposite way - I pay just under $1400.00 for the laptop and promise to pay the rest after I receive the laptop at a later date.
I had similar experience they put people from Asia as customer support they don't provide a valid solution
Amazon customer support is top notch!!!
They scammed me of 521 euro blaming "the system that doesn't allow a refund". I'm totally done with Amazon and I'll have zero problems finding other places where to buy stuff. This was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
Amazon has these “options” that is allowed by customer service. So what they say is aligned. In order to fix some circumstances, they have to trick their own system. They can’t just go program their system to do whatever they like.
Nice video , I like how realistic this channel is
thanks! I appreciate that
When a person tells you it's the first time they have seen this? Hang up and call back. That means they dont know and they will just try to get you off of the phone.
Amazon did this exact same thing to me 2 years ago for the Exact same Mac model and specs!
Good intel. I'd add sometimes call option is not available so customer service # can be googled.
I don't know how in us but in Europe I had best experience with amazon usually when there was a problem ....not always the smoothest, but even it took some time, they refunded or replaced broken items, which is not always the case. Also as corporate client some e-shops don't accept 14 day returns which is just stupid
I don't understand how anyone gets an entire year to return a laptop. They depreciate so fast, refurbished or not it's gotta hit Amazon hard. The standard return period is 2 weeks!
Amazons standard return policy is 30 days, Jeff can afford it no problem. A minority of people return stuff and it builds trust and means customers are more likely to order things they think the may not like / need (more sales.)
Had no idea the year refund was real. Planning to use it now as a way to rent things for a year at a time
$1700 is a drop in the bucket (swimming pool??) for Amazon - but an asinine amount of money for the consumer
I went through a similar process with my amazon premium renewed iphone 13 pro, and after i got my partial refund, i got the rest of the money on the 2nd contact and i had no issues.
Not sure if some companies suck on refunds. It reminds me of a recent purchase with Samsung. It took so long to process and order and pick up at a local Samsung store, I was waiting for a month. They told me to cancel the order and just reorder. The previous purchase price was a lot cheaper. They said they would refund me the difference for the previous price when the phone was shipped. I ask why they can't just adjust the price and let me pay that price up front. I got tired and just went ahead with the new order. They didn't refund me within the said time. Luckily for some odd reason my previous order actually arrived at the store a week later so I just picked it up and just returned the other phone at the higher price. I hate when companies do that. I think at least at the Apple store they don't do that.
Great video, always read the fine print.
I never thought of it as a scam. And don't ask me how I know this, but you should ALWAYS call amazon customer service when it comes to refunds, it may take a couple of minutes or even an hour, but the agents are able to give you so much more options than what you see on the website or on the app.
That's probably the best free rental system out there
MacBook Pro for the year £48mins. Pretty decent
I will never buy anything "refurbished" from amazon. It's almost as if they just take a return don't do any checking and sell it again. I bought electronics in that manner and something was wrong with it, which is WHY it was returned. It might be cheaper but how much is your time worth, no doubt when you ask for a return for that item it ends up once again someone else's hands.
Same experience multiple times. Seems like people often buy items and then strip them for parts and accessories, or send back broken items, and then Amazon just sells it again with zero checks. It’s bullshit.
I like how you were persistent in getting it resolved right there. This doesn’t really seem like a scam though. It seems like there was a mistake in the system and they were trying to make it right it just took a little while to get to the right person.
You're returning nearly year latter? You're within the time, but using a computer for one year and then returning? I wouldn't.
In my case, i brought a new m2 Air when return policy was 30 days. I never accepted package & i still had to fight for my refund. 1st, they said they were gonna send me some paperwork in email on file but i no longer had that email. Investigation took a long time but after several days refund was done. My intuition was right in not accepting package.
Alex should sue Amazon over this.
😆 they did me right in the end - good customer support. it could have been “sorry, it’s not our policy BS”
What a situation! Special respect for withholding names and votes, it's not the staff's fault. Great video, as always ❤
Thanks for this video! I've been pricing Renewed Premium items lately!
I highly recommend Apple’s own refurbished program. Used it before and got amazing product
@@AZisk Agreed, my friend.
What was wrong with the macbook? Why was it returned?
Why the author wanted to do a return is irrelevant. Amazon should not treat its customers like they do. Lets stay away from something approaching victim blaming.
I was thinking about purchasing the laptop. That’s why I asked.
You alright? 😂😂