Resolved I'm outraged! Amazon banned me forever because of too many returns

[ritmomundo]

I got my ban email from Amazon today ... and I totally deserved it.

I've been a loyal and faithful shopper on Amazon for years and years. You name it, I've bought it ... cheap and expensive. It's not an exaggeration to say I've spent tens of thousands in recent years with Amazon. But then, I started to notice small, gradual changes to the moral compass of this behemoth retailer.

The flurry came to full storm when I saw Amazon supporting the "Marketplace Fairness Act" despite its beginnings in the internet's tax-free marketplace. I would venture to say that without the inherent benefits of internet shopping, retailers like Amazon might never have existed. But, who cares? They're a multibillion dollar company now with warehouses coast-to-coast, and they will gladly accept sales taxes to stay in the good graces of those state legislatures. And if they have to sign on to federal legislation to keep their standing, at the expense of small business owners and regular shoppers, not to mention future retailer start-ups like Amazon was not even 20 years ago, then so be it.

That's not all, of course. I'll let Amazon's Wiki page tell the rest of the story:

Since its founding, the company has attracted criticism and controversy from multiple sources over its actions. These include: luring customers away from the site's brick and mortar competitors, poor warehouse conditions for workers; anti-unionization efforts; Amazon Kindle remote content removal; taking public subsidies; its "1-Click patent" claims; anti-competitive actions; price discrimination; various decisions over whether to censor or publish content such as the WikiLeaks web site; LGBT book sales rank; and works containing libel, facilitating dogfight, cockfight, or pedophile activities. In December 2011, Amazon faced backlash from small businesses for running a one-day deal to promote its new Price Check app. Shoppers who used the app to check prices in a brick-and-mortar store were offered a 5% discount to purchase the same item from Amazon.​

Amazon is now the Wal-Mart of the internet.

This is not one of those whiny, "woe is me who got banned from Amazon" posts. This is not one of those self-righteous "Amazon can't keep me from buying from them" rants. I never plan to buy another thing from Amazon, and that shouldn't be too hard given how good they are at banning people!

You can say that the actions of those that get banned only pervert the "generous" policies that the "good" buyers from Amazon enjoy, but the real perverting that is going on is by Amazon itself, financed by good-natured, well-meaning people.

Buy local and support your neighborhood economy, and demand fair treatment of workers and respect for all life.

I got banned. I deserved it. So did Amazon.

If you don't mind sharing details, what did you do to deserve getting banned? Returns? How many?

Did you get your account reinstated after sending those emails?

 

[Squilly]

I got my ban email from Amazon today ... and I totally deserved it.

I've been a loyal and faithful shopper on Amazon for years and years. You name it, I've bought it ... cheap and expensive. It's not an exaggeration to say I've spent tens of thousands in recent years with Amazon. But then, I started to notice small, gradual changes to the moral compass of this behemoth retailer.

The flurry came to full storm when I saw Amazon supporting the "Marketplace Fairness Act" despite its beginnings in the internet's tax-free marketplace. I would venture to say that without the inherent benefits of internet shopping, retailers like Amazon might never have existed. But, who cares? They're a multibillion dollar company now with warehouses coast-to-coast, and they will gladly accept sales taxes to stay in the good graces of those state legislatures. And if they have to sign on to federal legislation to keep their standing, at the expense of small business owners and regular shoppers, not to mention future retailer start-ups like Amazon was not even 20 years ago, then so be it.

That's not all, of course. I'll let Amazon's Wiki page tell the rest of the story:

Since its founding, the company has attracted criticism and controversy from multiple sources over its actions. These include: luring customers away from the site's brick and mortar competitors, poor warehouse conditions for workers; anti-unionization efforts; Amazon Kindle remote content removal; taking public subsidies; its "1-Click patent" claims; anti-competitive actions; price discrimination; various decisions over whether to censor or publish content such as the WikiLeaks web site; LGBT book sales rank; and works containing libel, facilitating dogfight, cockfight, or pedophile activities. In December 2011, Amazon faced backlash from small businesses for running a one-day deal to promote its new Price Check app. Shoppers who used the app to check prices in a brick-and-mortar store were offered a 5% discount to purchase the same item from Amazon.​

Amazon is now the Wal-Mart of the internet.

This is not one of those whiny, "woe is me who got banned from Amazon" posts. This is not one of those self-righteous "Amazon can't keep me from buying from them" rants. I never plan to buy another thing from Amazon, and that shouldn't be too hard given how good they are at banning people!

You can say that the actions of those that get banned only pervert the "generous" policies that the "good" buyers from Amazon enjoy, but the real perverting that is going on is by Amazon itself, financed by good-natured, well-meaning people.

Buy local and support your neighborhood economy, and demand fair treatment of workers and respect for all life.

I got banned. I deserved it. So did Amazon.

Sorry to say, but Amazon nor other customers care. People use Amazon to shop and most aren't educated on Amazon's bad side, just their fantastic prices compared to competition. They care about their BBB rating, but they won't unban a customer over it (I've tried). Harsh truth

 

[Dontazemebro]

I didn't abuse their return policy. I used it when I received defective items. In the past three months, I've made purchased for over $5500. I don't do exchanges because they take time - I just return and order a new item. Here are just a few of the screens I've received on MBPs and returned....tell me if you think they're illegitimate returns. ( I removed the pictures for now until I resolve the issues with amazon - but one display started inverting, another had a huge dark shadow up the middle, one had the beams of light at the bottom, another had yellowing at the bottom...etc etc.

... and thus your impatience has ultimately cost you.

 

[truelies]

I'm outraged! Amazon banned me forever because of too many returns

Amazon is bad, now they have no price advantage .

 

[twingo]

I agree. I did one return in ten years and as a customer i have to pay for this bad habit of using new stuff for free and sending it back.
Get rid of the crap and lower the prices for honest people!

 

[truelies]

I agree. I did one return in ten years and as a customer i have to pay for this bad habit of using new stuff for free and sending it back.

Get rid of the crap and lower the prices for honest people!

Amazon is a bad company, it ban people for return, I never has a problem in store.

 

[laurim]

ugh, thread needs to die. fooled me. wish we could delete posts

 

[amazoncustomer]

I'm a long time and frequent Amazon customer and was hoping others could offer some insight into my situation...

Other than groceries, gas etc I make the vast majority of my purchases through Amazon. This is both because they typically have the best prices and because I live in a very remote area without any stores nearby offering most of the items I need. I've been an Amazon customer since September 2007, have paid for a yearly Amazon Prime account since December 2009, and have been an Amazon Rewards Visa Cardmember since March 2011. I use my Amazon credit card for almost all of my purchases, both online and off, to collect rewards points to use toward further Amazon purchases. Since I signed up in Sept. '07 I've made a total of 233 purchases on Amazon.

That being said, I've also made a total of 19 returns over the past 6 and a half years. So far I've had no problems with any returns and have never gotten a warning or anything saying I'm returning too many things. However, since I have a lot of stock in keeping my Amazon account active as well as my Prime subscription and Amazon credit card (and the accrued points on it) I really don't want to return one too many things and then wake up one morning to find my Amazon account permanently banned so I can never use the site again.

So, how much danger is there of that happening? Exactly how many things need to be returned before they decide to ban you?

I'm asking right now because this week I purchased three separate items on Amazon all in one day and each one is inadequate or defective. One of them has a different design from the product advertised on the site, one of them is unable to be recognized by any computer I plug it into, and the third is just junk that does not perform anywhere near well enough to justify the high cost. I feel like I may be testing my limits by returning all three orders at once and could possibly face a ban as a result, so I'm hoping others here could offer some advice.

Am I safe in returning these things without being banned or should I just eat the cost and keep three items that are either defective or that I am unhappy with?

Does being a Prime member or holding an Amazon Visa Rewards card lessen my chances at being banned at all?

And is there a known number of items that you can return before they decide to ban you or a certain percentage of your total purchases that have been returned that causes the ban (for example, if I return these 3 most recent purchases that will put me at 22 returns out of 233 orders, for a return rate of 9.4%)?
Any info would really help. Thanks!

 

[trewyn15]

I'm a long time and frequent Amazon customer and was hoping others could offer some insight into my situation...

Other than groceries, gas etc I make the vast majority of my purchases through Amazon. This is both because they typically have the best prices and because I live in a very remote area without any stores nearby offering most of the items I need. I've been an Amazon customer since September 2007, have paid for a yearly Amazon Prime account since December 2009, and have been an Amazon Rewards Visa Cardmember since March 2011. I use my Amazon credit card for almost all of my purchases, both online and off, to collect rewards points to use toward further Amazon purchases. Since I signed up in Sept. '07 I've made a total of 233 purchases on Amazon.

That being said, I've also made a total of 19 returns over the past 6 and a half years. So far I've had no problems with any returns and have never gotten a warning or anything saying I'm returning too many things. However, since I have a lot of stock in keeping my Amazon account active as well as my Prime subscription and Amazon credit card (and the accrued points on it) I really don't want to return one too many things and then wake up one morning to find my Amazon account permanently banned so I can never use the site again.

So, how much danger is there of that happening? Exactly how many things need to be returned before they decide to ban you?

I'm asking right now because this week I purchased three separate items on Amazon all in one day and each one is inadequate or defective. One of them has a different design from the product advertised on the site, one of them is unable to be recognized by any computer I plug it into, and the third is just junk that does not perform anywhere near well enough to justify the high cost. I feel like I may be testing my limits by returning all three orders at once and could possibly face a ban as a result, so I'm hoping others here could offer some advice.

Am I safe in returning these things without being banned or should I just eat the cost and keep three items that are either defective or that I am unhappy with?

Does being a Prime member or holding an Amazon Visa Rewards card lessen my chances at being banned at all?

And is there a known number of items that you can return before they decide to ban you or a certain percentage of your total purchases that have been returned that causes the ban (for example, if I return these 3 most recent purchases that will put me at 22 returns out of 233 orders, for a return rate of 9.4%)?
Any info would really help. Thanks!

Just return them. Who cares, they ban you, you make a new account in a fake name, with a fake address and a foreign country.

I'll give you my name and address if you want to use them..

 

[alphaod]

Am I safe in returning these things without being banned or should I just eat the cost and keep three items that are either defective or that I am unhappy with?

Does being a Prime member or holding an Amazon Visa Rewards card lessen my chances at being banned at all?

And is there a known number of items that you can return before they decide to ban you or a certain percentage of your total purchases that have been returned that causes the ban (for example, if I return these 3 most recent purchases that will put me at 22 returns out of 233 orders, for a return rate of 9.4%)?
Any info would really help. Thanks!

I must have returned like 50 things last month (one with six items at once). I've never had an issue.

Electronics I tend to do my research before I buy, so I don't return those things unless it's really a piece of crap.

 

[thewitt]

Decades in successful online retail taught me the customer is not always right, and you sometimes have to fire a customer. They always believe it was unreasonable of you, but it is what it is. It impacts a very small percentage of your customer base who clearly abuse your return policy, and you cut your losses and move on.

 

[SVT Amateur]

I just stumbled on this thread and honestly it is quite disturbing. I'm an avid Amazon fan as my wife and I purchase the majority of our products from Amazon - including regularly using their Subscribe & Save program where we purchase many of our household goods and even groceries every month.

I also own a business, and I understand the need to make money and to "fire" a customer when you can legitimately tell they are abusing the system and costing you money, but it seems like from these posts that the customers were never warned. I understand that people that abuse the system, steal, etc. don't need to have a warning - but I find it concerning that Amazon just sets a certain return threshold and if you pass that threshold you are automatically labeled as a bad customer and your account is closed. It would seem to me that a warning would be a win-win - it would let those customers know that they can't just continue to return items which would save Amazon money and get to keep a customer who will hopefully end up making them money while at the same time allowing the customer to continue to purchase products from them.

I take firing a customer very seriously - because it has major ramifications. 1. You are losing a person that could have generated revenue and profit for you - and this adds up over the course of many years. 2. You can bet this fired customer is going to tell others about how crappy you dealt with them - as can be evidenced by this thread. This can also have negative impact on sales and profits as well. Again, I'm not saying that firing a customer is never a good thing because the benefits of reducing profit loss by getting rid of a customer that is costing you money can be greater than the potential sales and profits you would make off of them in the future - but it has to be death with cautiously and I would think on a case by case basis - not just by a simple formula.

I've only had to fire maybe 2-3 customers over the course of my career in owning my own business, and I deal with hundreds to thousands of customers every day. Each one was handled on a case by case basis and the customers were warned before I told them we would not accept their business anymore. I've had to return two items to Amazon just this past month - once a remote control helicopter than didn't work well and then some socks for my wife that have already started to fall apart. I'd hate to see my account closed or be in jeopardy of being closed because of returning a couple of items that did not live up to our expectations - especially without any warning. I'll definitely be cautious in the future of making any other returns - so thanks to the OP for creating this thread.

 

[demonred]

... and thus your impatience has ultimately cost you.

A customer's sole responsibility is to pay for the products they receive. Neither he, nor anyone else, is responsible for Amazon's restocking fees or shipping failures.

This thread is worrying for me because I have been returning or exchanging a lot of orders over the past few weeks because of Amazon's recent boneheaded move (no doubt to further save on costs) to switch from reputable shipping vendors to ******* USPS (out of my past three packages, one arrived two weeks late, the other arrived damaged, only one arrived on time and in reasonable condition). I can't imagine they'll ban me now, but if this trend continues, I don't know...

 

[webvan]

Same here, got banned after apparently too many returns, must have been maybe 10 in 5 years, but 5 in January as Christmas presents got misdelivered and they took it upon themselves to reship them immediately so when they came in I had to ship them back. Sucks...

 

[The Doctor11]

Make a new account

 

[maflynn]

Same here, got banned after apparently too many returns, must have been maybe 10 in 5 years, but 5 in January as Christmas presents got misdelivered and they took it upon themselves to reship them immediately so when they came in I had to ship them back. Sucks...

Did you try explaining the situation to them?

 

[webvan]

Yep and it's final...

Creating a new account ? Hum...

 

[Squilly]

Make a new account

Bans expire after a year (sort of). They purge their systems. Create a new account with new credit card info and you'll be good.

 

[Plutonius]

Yep and it's final...

Creating a new account ? Hum...

Did you have a Prime membership and did they refund it ?

 

[Southern Dad]

I hadn't thought of Amazon Prime. That would really hurt if you had paid for that and lost it too.

 

[henryonapple]

Bans expire after a year (sort of). They purge their systems. Create a new account with new credit card info and you'll be good.

how do you know they purge the system??

 

[Squilly]

how do you know they purge the system??

I know their system pretty well. I've created accounts after a year passed and they typically don't notice for a few months, at least. Different credit card # works well.

 

[ucantgetridofme]

OP got what he deserved for being an anal ocd weirdo

 

[YepItsMe]

I too have recently had a number of returns to Amazon. They insist on using flimsy bubble envelopes for mailing, so the items end up being damaged in transit, and I, preferring my stuff to look nice and not all dented or mashed up, exchange them. I include notes about why I am returning the item, but Amazon refuses to learn.

When I posted about this on another forum, someone there warned me that Amazon could ban me if I persisted in this. Not relying on one person's answer as gospel, I asked Google if it was true, and found this thread.

I've experienced (what I feel is) more than my fair share of bad customer service from uncaring, indifferent companies over the years, so I can sympathize with the OP's frustration, even though there are definitely things he could have done differently. Keeping receipts, and not redeeming codes until they're actually going to be used. But it's disgraceful of Amazon or any business to simply drop someone as a customer without giving them a warning and a chance to explain their side of the story.

Right now I've decided to make the first move and just stop buying from Amazon, at least for a while. I've given them multiple chances to do better and am tired of beating my head against a brick wall. There is a price for all that free shipping and untaxed purchasing, and it's become more than I'm willing to pay.

(Sorry, everyone who just wants this thread to die. But until someone in charge cares enough to lock it, people will continue to post. That is the Way of Things.)

 

[truelies]

I believe amazon will also ban if you get too many free apps or free books