The reason you pick for returning an item can affect how much money you get back.
Compared to other retailers, Amazon has been thriving during the pandemic. Their dominance and often low prices means you’ve probably bought something from the online giant over the last few year – even if, like me, you’ve been trying to support local businesses.
But what happens if you don’t want or need something you’ve purchased? Well it’s pretty easy to return something online.
It’s just a few clicks to get things started, but one of the steps is more important than you probably realise. Early on you’ll be asked to select the reason why you want to make the return. You might not pay this much attention. But you should.
You’ll be able to choose from a selection of options – but not all are equal. In fact, three of them could end up costing you money.
So how do you avoid these hidden traps and ensure you’re not getting charged for your unwanted purchases? First, a little about Amazon’s return policy.
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Amazon’s returns policy
As with most online purchases from any retailer, you’ve 14 days after you get the goods to return them. You don’t have to justify the return. In most cases, Amazon actually extends this period to 30 days.
A few items can’t be returned, generally anything that’s been customised or is perishable. You also can’t return media (such as CDs or DVDs) that have had their seal broken. You can read about these and a few other exemptions on Amazon’s site.
But just because you can return a purchase within this time, it doesn’t mean it’ll be free.
Andy Says: Think twice if you’re returning to a small retailer
It’s worth noting that the refund rules apply across all of Amazon. But not everything you buy with the retailer is actually sold by them. It might not even be dispatched by them.
When you buy from these third parties, they’ll obviously have to shoulder the costs of returns. And this can make quite a difference to their profit margins, which are often quite thin.
So if you are returning the item because it genuinely is one of the chargeable reasons, consider whether you really should opt for a free option instead.
If it’s sold by Amazon though I’d say it’s fair game to get them to fund the return costs. If it’s “fulfilled by Amazon” or sold by another shop, then it’s best to pay to return (as long as it’s not their fault).
When Amazon will charge you to return an item
There are three options you can choose which will mean you will get your refund minus £3.99. These are:
- Accidental order
- Better price available
- No longer needed
The first one is easy to do with Amazon’s “One Click” buying option. I know I’ve accidentally hit that button when browsing but realised in time to cancel the order before dispatch. But if you’ve not realised until the package arrives at your front door Amazon wants to charge you the cost of sending it back.
This is possibly also the option you’d choose for any mistakes you made – perhaps you selected the wrong colour or didn’t properly read the description.
The common theme with the other two options is that you’d rather not keep the purchase, either because you want to pick it up for less elsewhere or you simply changed your mind. In each of these instances, Amazon is saying yes you can get your money back, but we’re going to charge you for having to bring the items back to the warehouse.
However, it is possible to avoid these charges by choosing one of the other options instead.
When Amazon won’t charge you to return an item
Now if you’ve brought something that is broken or faulty then Amazon has to either offer you a replacement or a full refund. And you’ll also get the delivery cost back. You will have to explain how it or the packaging is broken.
You can also get a free return and full refund if an item has arrived after it’s estimated despatch time. This is a really useful one. I think lots of people shop on Amazon for the fast delivery, often when they’ve left something to the last minute. And if a delay means you get something too late, then it’s worth returning the items and getting the full refund.
But what if it’s not damaged or arrived on time? Well, there are alternatives reasons you can pick which you can choose, including the following.
- Incompatible or not useful for the intended purpose
- Performance or quality not adequate
- Description on website was not accurate
- Unauthorised purchase
I think the first three here are all justifiable selections if what you’ve bought isn’t what you hoped it would be. I wouldn’t use unauthorised purchase unless this really has happened – which could well happen if you’ve got kids talking to your Alexa smart speaker!
A final group where you can get free returns, and all your money back, is anything categorised as clothes, shoes, jewellery or watches. With these you have to be able to try something on, so it’s near on impossible to know if it’s the right thing just from an online order. If you’re not with Prime, these are also handy extras to add to an order to get you free delivery.
If you paid for speedier delivery
One caveat with these reasons for returning is that you’ll only get the cost of the cheapest delivery refunded. Now, if you’re a Prime member buying from Amazon then this is irrelevant as you won’t have been charged delivery.
But non-Prime members, or anyone buying from a third party might have paid extra. Of course, if the item is faulty you’ll get all the money back.
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How to return purchases to Amazon
It’s actually very easy. Go to the orders section of your Amazon account and find the item you want to send back. Choose one of the reasons above which gives you free returns, then select whether you want a replacement or a refund.
If you choose refund you can have the money put back on your payment card or added to your Amazon account. Credit to your account will happen as soon as the item is received. If you choose your card it’ll be 5 to 7 days after that happens.
Then you’ll be able to choose your return option. You’ve got a few choices.
You can drop your parcel off at Hermes, Doddle, Royal Mail or at an Amazon Locker. With some of these you don’t even need a label, as they can be provided when you hand over your package.
In the past I’ve used Doddle (which was hidden in the basement of my local Debenhams or the customer services desk at Next) and I didn’t even need to box the items up. These options might not be available while there are restrictions on entry to shops.
There’s also an option with Hermes to have an item collected, which is really handy for anything large or heavy. Bear in mind if you are paying for the return this will cost more.
I don’t object to being charged for returning an item that isn’t faulty, and thus not the fault of the retailer.
I DO object, when Amazon sends me out damaged goods, that are poorly packaged, and I can’t return them for free, for a like-for-like replacement to an Amazon Locker five minutes from where I live, but can return them for free to a post-office that’s 20 minutes from me! (I’m a disabled person.)
Not cool at all! The customer is being forced to pay both figuratively and literally, and penalised because of Amazon’s mistakes, when they don’t check if goods are undamaged before transit or aren’t correctly packaged to avoid being damaged in the first place during delivery!
I have an Amazon credit card and my holiday company are returning my money back onto my credit card, I need to withdraw this back to my bank account to distribute the funds. Do you think this will be ok? ?
Ask the credit card company to do this, rather than withdraw the cash
Dude I just wanted to comment saying thank you so much for making this. This saved me $40 CAD in return fees!
I purchased a halogen oven which blew up in my hand. I am 70 years old and the impact blew me into the kitchen cupboard, burnt my finger and whole house in darkness. I had to get a friend to come and help me get my electric back on. I was in darkness for half an hour too terrified to move. I have sent the seller photographs (friend took them) of the lid and burn to my finger. I am still shaken by the event.
I have a years guarantee with 5 months left on this. I contacted seller, he told me to return the faulty lid which I have. This oven has scared me me and will never use one again. My question – am I bound to accept a replacement (it will never get used) or can I request a full refund?
I brought a dehumidifier off Amazon it didn’t turn up the day it was supposed to come. The next day my wife and I was at my daughter’s and I checked my emails and saw an email saying our parcel had been delivered and left by the front door well we live on a busy road and our front door is right next to the foot path so it was in everyone’s view. We raced home to find no parcel I reported to Amazon. But instead of giving me a refund they put credit into my account via a gift card. I used the credit to order another dehumidifier. When that came it was damaged I took photos of the damage and reported it to Amazon they sent me via an email a return label. The dehumidifier was picked up the next day my wife handed the parcel to the carrier he didn’t give any proof he had pick up the package. I kept an eye on the tracking info and. It didn’t change from waiting to be collected so I contacted Amazon was told to wait a bit longer well I have contacted them about five times now about my refund but they are saying the item as not been collected from me despite me telling them at least five times it as been collected. Now we are without a dehumidifier and Amazon won’t issue a refund. They are making us feel like liars and thieves or scammers. Is there anything we can do. Sorry for the long post
Glad that happened to you, now, how does it feel? What you described is a potential theft of which the seller had no control. Who do you think takes the lump for the missing item?!?
This entire article is garbage. Since when did we start advocating and/or educating people on ways to stiff someone else because they purchased willy nilly? Its one thing to get a broken, defective or subpar item. Its another to change your mind and lie to save yourself a few bucks at our expense. That leaves the seller on the hook for shipping the item to you, paying Amazon’s fees and then shipping it back. Chances are you used it or caused to be otherwise not sellable. I’m just appauled at articles such as this and the lack of virtue in my fellow humans.. Small third party sellers supply and sell most products on Amazon. We are not rich and are already forced to accept razor thin margins due to Amazon’s abuse and then they line you buyers up to batter us more.
So how would you have handled this issue if Richard had bought directly from you, rather than Amazon? This situation seems to have been the fault of Amazon’s “meeting delivery targets” policy. They could’ve easily adjusted the delivery date, or sent the item back to the warehouse if the location was high risk for theft, but that probably would’ve impacted the driver’s pay. Point is, someone, somewhere in the chain is going to take a hit – and it’s certainly not going to be Amazon.
While I understand why you seem to be a bitter Betty, I’m appalled at your attitude. Instead of venting directly to the author of the article and to Amazon, you chose to do it to someone who seems to have had a genuinely unfortunate and frustrating transaction.
And if Amazon is really that terrible, stop using them! “Playing the victim” doesn’t look good on you, especially when you choose to blame all customers, rather than the corporation, for your own business decisions.
Thanks for the tip, 3.99 saved ??
Saved me £3.99 thanks.
Hi Andy, I bought a replacement handle for a camping water carrier from a 3rd party seller which didn’t fit my brand.
I returned it using the ‘Incompatible…’ option. The Royal Mail postage label they sent says I need to add my own postage .
Is this right?
Also if it is , it doesn’t say how much. Would this be the £3.99 you mentioned earlier?
Thankyou
Alex
Hi Alex, I’m not sure. If it still said there was no cost to return it mentioned during the return process I’d get in touch with the seller to check.
Thanks, Andy, for at least mentioning that many items will have come from Marketplace sellers who will be the ones to make a loss when your readers follow your advice.
For anyone reading,
‘Sold by Amazon’ – fair game.
‘Fulfilled by Amazon’ (or any other seller you had to click through to) is a small business person so please play fair.
We have been hauling our arses to the Post Office to queue to send your packages and dealing with the messages from buyers that can’t comprehend that a global pandemic might delay their parcel.
Competing with Amazon’s prices means that, in many cases, paying your return postage for what was your mistake will wipe out our profits entirely.
Times are tough enough for us all without encouraging even more chancers.
I totally agree, there are many skunks trying to game the system.
If you’d been unwise enough to purchase something by mistake, you could at least take the responsibility to pay for the return.
Be assured, the seller would most likely be unable to resell your returned item as new, so he is deemed to be loosing on any returned order.
Not to mention the environmental impact of shipping around products which are actually not needed.
In my opinion, a “clever” person would conduct a thorough research first, would carefully read product specifications and would only commit for purchase if he was sure that the product is right for him and that he truly needs it.
I appreaciate he’s mentioned 3rd party sellers -but come on, people read the article headline alone – how to get free returns then will look at the bits of the article that get them their free returns. And the bit about 3rd party sellers is right at the bottom – they’ll have stopped reading as soon as they get to the point they find out they can pick an alternative reason for getting their return for free. They couldn’t give two shakes if the sellers is amazon or someone on amazon – so long as they don’t have to pay their £3.99 return charge for their mistake.
Oh – and its not just the costs by the way of these returns for third party sellers. If they start getting lots of returns stating something is defective – these products get marked down by amazon and potentially removed from sale. They have to basically then explain to amazon why something is defective when it of course isn’t. A lot of returns can even lead to suspensions against seller accounts.
Even with amazon -I’m sorry but a company of amazons size will still build these return costs somewhere into their business model. More people return stuff for ‘free’ and the price goes up somewhere – for everyone.
Truly irresponsible article.
I’m glad that I found your article and helped me save $5.99, so thank you so much!
I bought a screwdriver ratchet system along with some RAM for my laptop. I bought the item as they had various sizes of Torx (star) screwdrivers, however, even the smallest Torx bit was too big so I can’t use the tool to open up my laptop.
I did not get charged for delivery as the RAM took it over £20. It was sold by Amazon and delivered by Amazon.
Can I return the item for free? With the returns label, does it mean that Amazon pays for the return but will charge me for return shipping?
Hi Sal, Yeah I’d have thought you can return this for free as it’s not able to do what you brought it for. The way to find out is to just start the returns process – you don’t have to complete it.