Amazon India's Return/Replacement Policy Changes (2023)

[rsaeon]

Stumbled upon this post on reddit and learned that there have been some drastic changes to Amazon's return and replacement policies:

[Public Warning Announcement & Detailed Analysis] Buying online from Amazon is now risky and not what it used to be. No more easy refunds/replacements.
by u/Fdsn in Kerala

Summarizing in three images:



^ Almost all computer components now are non-returnable, except for coolers and power supplies.



^ Defective items can only be taken to the service center, not returned (monitor here).



^ Return request request needs to be raised within 48 hours for some products (phones, tablets, ssds).

 

[enthusiast29]

Been more than 6 months since I've noticed this. Sad but what can you do since many customers just try to do fraud here.

 

[Futureized]

Do you find a return option on items which are non - returnable ?

Example: If a user makes return request and it is accepted/confirmed by Amazon phone support for return, but for unknown reasons pickup is getting delayed and 7 day window for replacement is over?
What happens in this case?

 

[BullettuPaandi]

Been more than 6 months since I've noticed this.

Same.
But, how is defective & physical damage distinguished here?

^ Defective items can only be taken to the service center, not returned (monitor here).

For instance, if the monitor has dead pixels or backlighting issues, in a sense it is defective and physically damaged. What would/could be considered defective and not physical damage?

Do you find a return option on items which are non - returnable ?

Yes - for Expired/spoiled food items; wrong item; damaged item/box.

Example: If a user makes return request and it is accepted/confirmed by Amazon phone support for return, but for unknown reasons pickup is getting delayed and 7 day window for replacement is over?
What happens in this case?

Since you've raised the issue within the window, it will be taken care of. Better to check with them, still.

 

[n1r0]

Remember folks: regardless of what Amazon says, you as a consumer have certain immutable rights and protection under law.
If you receive a defective product, you can always file a consumer complaint online via the INGRAM portal.

You agreed to pay for a new, working product. If Amazon sent you a non-working/unboxed/damaged product, that amounts to fraud, plain and simple. They are on the line here for not meeting quality standards. This is not like marketplace threads here where seller thinks they own the world and can stipulate arbitrary conditions like entire shipping risk is on buyer, item will be shipped only when seller is in the mood for it, etc. The moment a GST bill is raised, you get consumer protection for this very reason.

That said, some consumers are also at fault which might have given rise to this policy: remember when everyone on YouTube would order something, do an unboxing video/review and then return the product?

Also, Amazon has been denying/delaying returns for quite a while now. Their customer care exists only to tire you out and make you think the hassle is not worth your time and effort and give up.

• First time you call, they collect all detail about the problem, and promise to resolve it within X days
• X days pass with no word from Az
• You call them again, and the cycle of providing all the details again repeats, followed by another empty promise to resolve
• If you somehow escalate this to a supervisor and manage to get a return+refund approved, then another epic saga begins, where they keep delaying the actual refund, even lying that the refund is already sent and gaslighting you into taking the issue with your bank
• It's interesting to note that there's no trail of what you spoke to customer care: they never send you an email with the summary, or even that a ticket has been opened, or status update. Total lack of transparency.

They know you buy on Az because it is easy and convenient. If you think going to a physical shop to buy is inconvenient, then there's a high probability you are too lazy to follow legal recourse. That's what they are banking on.

This issue is precisely why I registered on this forum. You can read about it here.

And remember: always pay online via Credit Card only. Amazon is not your friend.

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

CCs are also shit in India.

My father fell for a fraud with his SBI CC (his fault), 25k deducted. He immediately blocked the card & filed for chargeback stating fraud. After months, they just rejected it saying that my father shared the OTP. I hope situation is better on private banks as I asked him not to get an SBI CC again, he has Axis FK now.

 

[Pratikh]

Sbi also is outsourced card and not govt backed.

 

[n1r0]

My father fell for a fraud with his SBI CC (his fault), 25k deducted. He immediately blocked the card & filed for chargeback stating fraud. After months, they just rejected it saying that my father shared the OTP. I hope situation is better on private banks as I asked him not to get an SBI CC again, he has Axis FK now.

Two things:

• Dispute transaction = you're challenging the transaction itself, that you never authorized it. For eg. in case of stolen card details. But if an OTP was required, that automatically authenticates it as an authorized transaction. International transactions sometimes don't need OTPs, so thieves can order stuff using your card without your authorization
  
  > Once my card details were stolen and used to book travel tickets in the US. I disputed it as Unauthorized, and got it resolved in a month or two
  
  
  
• Dispute non delivery of product/service = what you should be using for product related issues, where the transaction was fully authorized by you, but you got a defective/different product or never received it at all
  
  > I ordered something from a European website, but never received the product. I disputed it as undelivered and got the refund instead.

Both of these were with ICICI card, so perhaps SBI does suck. Haven't had to deal with them yet.

 

[enthusiast29]

But, how is defective & physical damage distinguished here?

Product is physically fine but non-working in some way v/s product may or may not work but damaged physically.

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

Two things:

• Dispute transaction = you're challenging the transaction itself, that you never authorized it. For eg. in case of stolen card details. But if an OTP was required, that automatically authenticates it as an authorized transaction. International transactions sometimes don't need OTPs, so thieves can order stuff using your card without your authorization
  
  > Once my card details were stolen and used to book travel tickets in the US. I disputed it as Unauthorized, and got it resolved in a month or two
  
  
  
• Dispute non delivery of product/service = what you should be using for product related issues, where the transaction was fully authorized by you, but you got a defective/different product or never received it at all
  
  > I ordered something from a European website, but never received the product. I disputed it as undelivered and got the refund instead.

Both of these were with ICICI card, so perhaps SBI does suck. Haven't had to deal with them yet.

I asked my father to say it was not the service he paid for & was scammed. Scammer bought something on nobroker worth 25k. This works in developed countries & usually the account that purchased the service is banned by the seller (nobroker). So I expected the same might happen here. But as they say, SBI sucks. My father wrote to RBI ombudsman as well regarding this, but there's a limit to how much time you can waste.

The scam began with a link to claim rewards in his CC. So in Axis FK CC there's no need to do anything about rewards. I had showed him how to do everything on SBI card app. I had hoped CC will be safer than debit card.

 

[JMP]

American Express has a reputation of being pro customer in such cases, more so on their higher end cards.
IDFC First Bank has eCommerce Purchase Protection insurance on some of their debit cards.
High value items are best bought at a local store, after physical inspection of the package.
These are temporary fixes. We need legislation to mandate a minimum quality of service, but we have so many people scamming these companies in our country, they'll simply say they are protecting themselves.

 

[manucitc]

It also depend on account too.

I have very good account where I have around 50+ order every month as it used by family.

So sometimes in case of non returnable item like undergarments, I raised complain saying size is issue and they refund me on spot also didn't ask for product back too.

In case of electronics item ,people where misusing return request , so it been in effect for a quite some time .I would say rules for electronics is there for quite some time .

I never had any issue with amazon but Flipkart is worst . Have stopped using it

 

[awestorr]

I just returned some chocolate worth 500 since they were melted and out of there wrapper after refreezing ,they just refunded me and said to dispose the product if need be .

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

It also depend on account too.

I have very good account where I have around 50+ order every month as it used by family.

So sometimes in case of non returnable item like undergarments, I raised complain saying size is issue and they refund me on spot also didn't ask for product back too.

In case of electronics item ,people where misusing return request , so it been in effect for a quite some time .I would say rules for electronics is there for quite some time .

I never had any issue with amazon but Flipkart is worst . Have stopped using it

I feel this is the case as well, I have a very good exp with Amazon in general except there was an SOP failure for a DoA phone last Oct that I ordered for my friend. This took a few weeks to get resolved but was resolved.

 

[t3chg33k]

CCs are also shit in India.

My father fell for a fraud with his SBI CC (his fault), 25k deducted. He immediately blocked the card & filed for chargeback stating fraud. After months, they just rejected it saying that my father shared the OTP. I hope situation is better on private banks as I asked him not to get an SBI CC again, he has Axis FK now.

SBI has the worst chargeback department as they tend to reject everything. Otherwise, I had to raise a chargeback issue once in the past with Citi for an online transaction done in New Zealand (probably leaked from a website) which was immediately refunded.

Sbi also is outsourced card and not govt backed.

It was majorly owned by GE Capital at one point but has been majorly owned by SBI for more than the past 5 years. That is when the customer service went further downhill.

I just returned some chocolate worth 500 since they were melted and out of there wrapper after refreezing ,they just refunded me and said to dispose the product if need be .

That is the policy. Needs to be substantiated with photographic proof.

 

[alekhkhanna]

Agree with Reddit post OP. The CC experience has degraded in terms of how reps handle requests. It is still much better than Flipkart.
I’ve moved most of my big ticket purchases offline though. Don’t want to go through the hassle of online returns (and I’ve been purchasing online since Indiatimes days - when they used to sell only books, around 2006/2007 ?)

 

[rootyme]

That's pathetic. Why should anybody purchase anything online then? My local hardware shops won't ask me to take my brand new processor in a multi-day long train to some different state. Can't believe this is a real thing now. Also, refurbished replacements for brand new products? What? How is this even legal?

If you buy electronics item, if you get defective product, you can't return it back. Instead the customer service will ask you to contact the manufacturer's service center within 7 days of delivery to get it replacement/repair. The service center people are often clueless and won't allow replacement saying they can only repair it. And they will repair with a refurbished part and give it to you.

I read of a case of a guy who bought a laptop from some not so popular brand, and it having some issues and amazon refusing to give replacement, instead asking him to go to service centre.

Then he had to drop everything and immediately travel 400kms to the service center to get replacement because that too was only possible within 7 days. He had to travel to the nearest metro city and then stay there for 4 days to get his laptop repaired... His now new laptop has a refurbished part...and he wasted 4 days of work, and extra expenses to go to the service center.

Even if the service center agrees to give replacement, they give refurbished products only. They will give you brand new product only if they can't repair or if they dont have refurbished product in stock.

Just to give an idea. Consider if you bought this 32inch 4k monitor for 45000 from amazon -

https://www.amazon.in/BenQ-Entertainment-Anti-Glare-Flicker-Free-Bezel-Less/dp/B082P93LSQ/

It is amazon fulfilled, but look at the tiny icon below it that says "Aamzon delivered" and next to it " 7 days Service Centre Replacement only" icon. If something goes wrong with your order, feel free to figure out where is BenQ's service center, and be hopeful that the guy standing there understand this process of amazon. And you get your refurbished monitor in time.

 

[Darth Vader]

This policy change is good, now i will finally move my lazy ass out to shop & buy electronic items.

 

[Emperor]

also be aware, that Amazon asking Price Tag/Label etc. should intact on products in case you wish to return/exchange it .. BUT some sellers start sending goods WITHOUT PRICE TAG/LABLE etc. and Amazon know same tactics and thus, as soon as you claim for Refund they automatically reject it under reason NO PRICE LABLE AVAILABLE.

Recently one seller at Amazon try to made me victim by sending bad quality product, but as i have developed habit to record Video of each & every online purchase, saved me and I successfully able to convince them (on 2nd attempt) that there was no label/tag etc. while I received the product.

They even cancelled return 1st time, under reason that BUYER cancelled return pick-up, while I was waiting for agent to pick-up the return parcel. so once you apply for return please keep eye on amazon messages under your account by log-in everyday, till successful refund. yes, just do not relax after return but keep tab on REFUND also.

PS: Be aware that START recording video of all 4 side of PACKED PARCEL and after that only, while keep video recording on, unpack/cut parcel and do complete check. yes, some time such video took 7-10 minutes long depend on parcel & product but trust me it's very very hand if you found any issue with.

 

[rootyme]

also be aware, that Amazon asking Price Tag/Label etc. should intact on products in case you wish to return/exchange it .. BUT some sellers start sending goods WITHOUT PRICE TAG/LABLE etc. and Amazon know same tactics and thus, as soon as you claim for Refund they automatically reject it under reason NO PRICE LABLE AVAILABLE.

Recently one seller at Amazon try to made me victim by sending bad quality product, but as i have developed habit to record Video of each & every online purchase, saved me and I successfully able to convince them (on 2nd attempt) that there was no label/tag etc. while I received the product.

They even cancelled return 1st time, under reason that BUYER cancelled return pick-up, while I was waiting for agent to pick-up the return parcel. so once you apply for return please keep eye on amazon messages under your account by log-in everyday, till successful refund. yes, just do not relax after return but keep tab on REFUND also.

PS: Be aware that START recording video of all 4 side of PACKED PARCEL and after that only, while keep video recording on, unpack/cut parcel and do complete check. yes, some time such video took 7-10 minutes long depend on parcel & product but trust me it's very very hand if you found any issue with.

Nah man, I don't have time to waste doing all this nonsense. I'd rather purchase offline and pay a bit extra.