Amazon returns policy results in customer bans

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 11:35 by David Aiken

In the past decade and a half Amazon customer, Greg Nelson, has used the retailer's site to purchase in excess of 340 products via safe shopping online. Of this total, he has returned 37 orders as a result of faults or other issues, but has recently had action taken against his account because of this behaviour, according to the Guardian.

Nelson said that Amazon has both banned him from using its site to buy items, as well as draining the balance of his remaining gift cards, because of the number of items he has returned over the years.

He said that he would have accepted such a ban if he had, indeed, be found to have gamed the system and exploited some kind of returns loophole. But for him, the 37 returned items is a reasonable number for a customer who has spent 15 years carrying out safe shopping online with the same company.

In spite of attempting to overturn the ban by getting in touch with Amazon, Nelson has so far been unable to get his account reinstated, or at the very least recoup the value of the gift cards that he has lost out on following the punitive action.

Amazon is within its rights to close customer accounts and eliminate gift card balances if it deems it necessary. However, it is also beholden by legislation to accept items which are returned within 14 days.

While Amazon did not wish to pass comment on Nelson’s case in particular, it did say that it takes infrequent action to close accounts if there is evidence of malicious exploitation.

Most customers will not need to worry about getting hit with a ban from Amazon, but for people who regularly return items, it could be an incident that is worth considering.