The former, and allowing people to get away with buying expensive toys to try is one of the reasons why.
I wonder if they are losing a lot of money, or have a high profit margin?
RMA'd a External 3TB Seagate HDD via UPS with no problem. Got a replacement within a week that died in 3 weeks.I'm guessing you can't return hard drives either.
Yup. That's why Buckyballs got banned. As ridiculous as it may seem.
Cool toy if it is used/handled properly. Not for children <14 years to play with.ALL CLAIMS MUST BE SUBMITTED BY JANUARY 17, 2015.
Amazon encourages this type of shopping by offering no-questions-asked returns with free return shipping. It's not surprising to find many people who reason "If it's OK with them, then there's nothing wrong with doing it."
OK, so I'm shopping bookshelf speakers and buy a pair of KEF Q300's from Amazon/Prime to try out. Got 'em but just didn't completely like their sound. They're actually quite good for their size and price, but I have an itching to try some Dali Zensors and Wharfedale Diamond 10.2's before committing. I've already auditioned a set of B&W 628's and found them wanting...too brittle in the upper registers for me.
Anyway, I spend a week with the KEF's and decide to return for exchange or refund. As they'd been purchased via Prime and were sold directly by Amazon, didn't think this was going to be a problem.....but I was soooooo wrong.
Go to return them and the action is refused because the speakers have "special handling and transportation requirements", whatever that means. They came in their own cardboard box via a UPS truck, nothing special with handling or transport, so I take advantage of email and ask why.
Get a response back from an Amazon CSR, to wit:
I've checked and see that the item is hazardous item.
Interesting. The speakers were just fine to have shipped into your warehouse, picked by some nameless/faceless worker, and delivered by an unsuspecting UPS driver, but when I choose to have them returned to you, suddenly they're "hazardous material".
And I wrote pretty much the same in a return email, basically venting my frustration with the above. (BTW....the "powerful magnets" that are being feared are shielded in the speaker.)
And I get this in return......
And I get a separate email stating:
Way to go, Amazon. Just when I was trying to ween myself from you, you go and do something like this. Crap! Now how am I supposed to maintain my moral indignation surrounding the speakers being mislabeled as hazardous materials and your refusal to refund. Sheesh. Talk about taking all the fun out of life!
Amazon will shut your account off and no longer do business with you if you abuse their return policy. They will also ban you for life and your family members. Do a search on some SD members that went through this. Amazon has protections in place for themselves - if your account posts as a loss to them they can shut you down and go as far as you can't even contact them via phone. They have two separate customer service divisions for this.
Why?
Seems kinda lowlife to buy something just to try, it seems as though the decision to return was made even before you purchased the speakers. I'm wondering why didn't you try the KEF, the Dali Zensors and the Wharfedale Diamonds at a brick and mortar before "committing". Anyways, good day to you
What B&M? Amazon.com is driving them all out of business. So, really, Amazon is just bringing this kind of situation upon themselves, if you think about it.
I don't even how to handle this shopping for speakers through amazon idea...
How about shopping for shoes?
Note that Amazon makes a point of stating that you can return something that doesn't fit, to encourage shoppers to buy things like shoes and clothing online. Do you think that nobody uses this liberal return policy to return things they don't quite like?
Buying on Amazon for the sheer purpose of just 'trying' the product just goes to show how far some will go in being lazy and abusive. Sorry, I cannot support anyone buying for the intention of just trying instead of them going into an AV store. Once you have 'tried them' they are now used, which means the next person might end up paying for new, but getting your used underwear.
One heck of a social responsibility here.
Exactly. What posters fail to realize as that there will be a certain percentage of customers that won't return the item even if it doesn't fit or they don't like it. Amazon knows this.
What B&M? Amazon.com is driving them all out of business. So, really, Amazon is just bringing this kind of situation upon themselves, if you think about it.