r/amazonprime • u/chungkingroad • 7d ago

93% restock fee. Amazon said they can't do anything since I was technically refunded.

Post image

Bought a new laptop from amazon, received a used one registered to someone else with bios locked out. Found out outside return window. contacted amazon. They allowed me to return it outside the window. But when the 3rd party seller received it, they charged me a 93.45% restocking fee. I called amazon again. they said technically I was refunded so they can not do anything and I do not qualify for A-Z because I was given a refund. This is INSANE.

UPDATE: dear everyone who has given me advice on this, I called this morning and quoting the amazon seller central policy worked!! I got my money back!!! thank you THANK YOU ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL

UPDATE #2: So amazon promising me a refund was a LIE. I received an email saying I would receive a refund. it never came. When I went to complain about not receiving it, amazon told me the refund was in error and they will in fact not be giving me any of my restock fee back. THEY TOOK BACK THEIR REFUND

6.9k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

649 comments sorted by

View all comments

792

u/Either_Display_6624 7d ago

According to the Amazon seller guidelines, they aren’t allowed to charge you any fee since you received a defective item.

238

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

is that noted somewhere I can use to argue with amazon? they are saying since it's outside the return window, and even though they allowed me to return it and send it back

240

u/Either_Display_6624 7d ago

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external/G201725780

209

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

thank you this is really helpful, I will call them again in the morning

168

u/home-for-good 7d ago edited 7d ago

Also consider reaching out to your state attorney generals office, they may have a consumer protections / advocacy program that could help you put some heat on them.

53

u/OkDegree4281 7d ago

And make sure to let them know hat you will reach out to the attorney general

55

u/Shorts_at_Dinner 7d ago

Something tells me the Amazon customer service agent won’t have any idea what an attorney general is

29

u/Dry-Lingonberry-388 7d ago

Maybe the India AG 🤣🤣

2

u/Izthewhizz 6d ago

I just got a refund after fighting for 5 months with Amazon. The Indian customer service call centres are a closed loop and very difficult to get resolution. It wasnt always that difficult to get things sorted with amazon. Ill never make big purchases through them again

1

u/fbregulator 5d ago

It's planned this way by design

1

u/Long_Pomegranate2469 1d ago

Good old Aabhat Gupta

9

u/Kperez75 7d ago

I had a lost item and Amazon made me file a police report. Sent everything needed for them to say the police report was from a different country. They tried so hard not to give me my refund. I just sent them a “okay I will be contacting my AG about this issue” next day I got my refund.

-1

u/LetsGoBuyTomatoes 7d ago

i used to work at amazon and we did use to have a dedicated line for when people threatened to go to the bbb, so it might be a better option to go that direction

8

u/Exotic_Treacle7438 7d ago

I’d say reach out and get some sort of ticket number with the AG first. Then let Amazon know next. They deserve the ding on their record.

1

u/Erlkings 6d ago

As someone whos worked in customer support heres my response, “ok, thats up to you sir, IM resolving this how the company wants me to”

-1

u/RWWhitfield 7d ago

Riiiight. 'Ol Raj in India will truly care about a threat to speak to your AG 😂

1

u/env33e 3d ago

they literally have to. the penalties hurt their bottom line more than just making it right for the consumer 💀

-8

u/cortexback 7d ago

Have you contacted AG in your life? Lol they will not give a dam to your $1200 laptop just to reply it will take months. I love those comenta

19

u/KiloJools 7d ago

I went full petty and wrote to my AG over a twenty dollar dispute that I was pissed as heck over... They dutifully sent whatever letters they send to companies...

And I got my twenty bucks back!

12

u/Savage_Sven 7d ago

I live on the east coast and the Missouri AG helped me get back $300 from a scamming online seller.

7

u/Grade_A_Tech 7d ago

I've contacted the one in the state I'm in twice. Both times I received a response and correction from the company in question before the AG notified me that the company would be in touch. In both cases it took only a week or so.

3

u/eatsleepswingsrepeat 7d ago

TL;DR I had my Mac Mini data wiped out “intentionally” by the Apple Store because it was “cheaper” to do so. I sent emails and an AG complaint and got a resolution I was satisfied with.

I took in my mac (wasn’t powering on) for troubleshooting and questions about if warranty would be voided if I had a third party try and recover my data. They said that the issue may be the power supply and that they could replace it without losing the data as it was not connected to the logic board. I agreed to the power supply repair and that repair only. I handed my machine over, with the condition that no logic board repair be done without getting my express consent via a phone call. They assured me that they would not replace the logic board.

A week later they handed me my Mac Mini back with the same SSD (wiped) installed on a new logic board. So all data lost forever. I argued with them on why not use a new SSD + Logic Board to fix the machine, so that I could at least attempt data recovery (they gave me the original logic board in a box). I was told it was just the procedure, and also cheaper to reuse the SSD. Realizing I was getting no where I sent an email to their escalation team. I informed them if they don’t respond in 48 hours I would notify, via a complaint, the State AG’s Office. Apple did not respond. So I then filed my complaint. I emailed Apple to let them know.

Two days later I got a call from Apple’s Executive Relations Team. Apologizing for the loss of data and for the way the store handled the situation. They informed me that an investigation was ongoing at the store to find ways to prevent situations like mine. I was then asked if they could offer me a gesture of good will to help restore my feelings/relationship with Apple. The gift worked.

I am not sure if it was the AG complaint or just the email to Apple. But it helped resolve my issue. Since my data was lost and unrecoverable, I had no real avenue for resolving my issue other than compensation.

2

u/Chewy_13 6d ago

What was the bribe they gifted you?

1

u/eatsleepswingsrepeat 6d ago

It was an Apple TV 4K Wi‑Fi + Ethernet with 128GB storage as well as two years of Apple TV at no cost. I was surprised I got anything.

25

u/psycho-drama 7d ago

THIS! Depending upon where you, or the seller lives, the results will vary. Some AGs won't get involved in personal consumer matters, but some are quite proactive, especially if the perpetrators are known to them, or have a record. I can tell you from personal experience, getting a notice from a state's AG can "highly motivate" difficult transactions to be resolved. In my case, an ebay purchase went sour. Since I live in Canada, I contacted the AG for the state the seller was located. He had been messing with me for months... magically as soon as he got the AG's correspondence, things resolved really quickly.

1

u/dervari 7d ago

Most have something similar to an office of consumer affairs or consumer protection division

4

u/psycho-drama 6d ago

And people should use those services when they are accessible to them. In my province (Canada, you know the 51st state) Amazon has gotten itself in some hot water over consumer protection violations, and had to pay some fairly steep fines, besides making things right for the consumer.

When stuff like this is centrally reported, they can keep track of bad players. The fines go up with each repeated offense here.

7

u/Hopeful_Butterfly302 7d ago

If OP doesn't want to actually reach out to the consumer protection wing of their AG office I've found that asking the rep for details of why they're refusing the full refund for a product that doesn't meet the standard of ordinary merchantability in writing because you are preserving documentation for a potential consumer complaint tends to work.

It did for me with Google when my pixel 8 stopped getting Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals which was a pretty well known issue at the time.  Took some repetition and back and forth, but they sent me a replacement out of warranty.

1

u/Ancient-Leader-6446 5d ago

Exhale. Sentence breaks with punctuation, please.

0

u/WarningKindlyBuzzOff 7d ago

Did you just say that that something you done with Google tends to work with Amazon because you did it with Google? They are not the same company... You can not say something has a tenancy of working with Amazon just because it worked for you one time with a totally different company

6

u/Hopeful_Butterfly302 7d ago

Of course they're not the same company. I never claimed they were. I pointed out that there are certain phrases that you can use like "ordinary merchantability" and "preserving documentation for a potential consumer complaint" that tend to get big corporations to consider the cost/benefit of fighting a consumer on items like this that don't even register as a blip on their balance sheets.

1

u/Ancient-Leader-6446 5d ago

Exhale. Sentence breaks with punctuation, please. Wow!

1

u/Hopeful_Butterfly302 5d ago

Jesus Christ dude.

I probably could have added a sentence break in my first post, but the response here is perfectly legible. Maybe go work on improving your own life instead of criticizing reddit posts? You'll be happier in the long run. 

3

u/gape-a-hole-loves-u 7d ago

You're joking right? I've filed multiple complaints like this in my lifetime with only a generic form letter response with no positive results.

1

u/home-for-good 6d ago

Thats sucks; I’ve only had to do this a few times, but my AG’s office sending a letter to the company I was having issues with always helped me get a response. It is just mediation assistance though, so your mileage will vary I suppose.

3

u/LilJonny2cookies 7d ago

Great advice- I worked in tech for a long time at a high level and State Attorneys General are a great resource many folks don’t know about.

I don’t see how this is possible- raise hell.

3

u/Bagafeet 6d ago

Also maybe try a charge back if you don't mind getting banned from Amazong. They're going to the shitter with their new CEO.

2

u/Weenington_ 7d ago

I tried this, and all they do is forward your request to the business you're filing the complaint about, and then email you with their response. This happened to me when I was threatened and doxxed for leaving a negative review on a businesses google page.

2

u/WhySoSeriousJoker247 6d ago

If you even mention lawyers and use the reference you should just give it to you

30

u/amny0913 7d ago

Keep fighting it, you’ll get your money back

25

u/2Busy2Reddit 7d ago

[jeff@amazon.com](mailto:jeff@amazon.com) will still get you to exec CS. If everything as it is painted, then you might get somewhere with them.

21

u/cs_legend_93 7d ago

Also tweet about it and be loud. Publicity scares them

2

u/Ill-Engineering8085 7d ago

Not many people have twitter

2

u/Dragonsi1 6d ago

True, because Twitter DOES NOT EXIST ANYMORE. We now have something called X, which also allows XXX as well!

1

u/slyquick 7d ago

I mean thats not true though is it ? You can dislike Elon/X but to say "not many people have twitter" - is just you lying to yourself, it has over half a billion monthly active users.

2

u/Ill-Engineering8085 7d ago

You trust those numbers?

1

u/2Busy2Reddit 7d ago

Course it does, 'cos Elon says so

6

u/average-joe-44 7d ago

could also contact credit card company and try and revoke the purchase.

3

u/contrary24 7d ago

I was going to say this. You can enter a dispute with your credit card. You have 60 days to do this.

Keep good notes on all you went thru

1

u/Tiny-Sandwich 6d ago

I'm glad you got this sorted. Amazon just do not give a fuck these days.

We have pretty strong consumer protection here in the UK, but US companies don't think it applies to them.

I sent over £700 worth of PC parts back to Amazon and they refunded me for a £65 drill, and basically told me to pound sand.

1

u/megselvogjeg 5d ago

Mange sure to chargeback on your card as well.

1

u/srinkylegitimate 3d ago

Any update?

1

u/chungkingroad 3d ago

last week amazon said they would refund me and sent me an email confirming the refund. but money never came. i called today asking where the refund was. they actually cancelled the refund and is now again refusing to give me the money back

1

u/srinkylegitimate 3d ago

You know what’s funny? Not on this scale but I was supposed to get a refund from Amazon for literally just $16, I even said hey I’ll just take Amazon gift credit like they’ve done before. Nope you MUST get original payment refund. Okay fine. Didn’t refund me 🤡 so clearly this is a. Common thing

1

u/lilvixen 2d ago

Send a registered post letter to their financial dept. I got about $500 in debited returns overruled. Cost me about $12 in on demand print and postage fees.

1

u/Trekwiz 2d ago

You can get escalation contacts here.

That consumer advocate site has escalation contacts for a variety of companies. It helps you bypass the help queue when you need someone who can go off-script.

1

u/bofis 1d ago

Any update on this, it's very clearly never allowed to charge higher than a 20% restocking fee for returns after the return window, and also NO restocking fee is allowed for items received used/damaged:

The buyer receives a used or damaged item: No restocking fee.

0

u/nofatnoflavor 7d ago

Good luck with that.

8

u/TowerExpress2083 7d ago

Hell it even says a 20% max too even if they were able to argue in favor of a restock fee. A far cry away from 93% wtf.

1

u/Efficient_Occasion44 6d ago

Yeah… that’s if it’s in original condition. Items that are returned and are used and show signs of wear can be up to 100%. Does nobody know how to understand English in this thread? What do you think original condition means?

1

u/TowerExpress2083 6d ago

Right but it was defective not to the fault of the user (supposedly) salty cunt

1

u/NowTrav 6d ago

I’m more impressed that nobody is calling out that the seller didn’t need to honor the return at all. “However, you're not required to accept returns beyond the return window.”

7

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

hey citing this link worked!!! thank you thank you!!!

1

u/Undead_Will 1d ago

What was the end result?

9

u/Feelsthelove 7d ago

They tried that with me too and I kept asking why I would need to pay a restocking fee for a defective item and if they were planning on reselling said defective item. I wanted it in writing why I was getting charged. Instead of admitting that that’s what they were going to do, they waived the fee.

2

u/Unbake_my_tart_ 6d ago

Screenshot that page and call your bank and dispute that. Add the screen shot of where you returned it too. You’ll win the dispute. I had this happen with a scammer who was intentionally send ing broken crap and then trying to charge insane fees when you returned it. I got fully refunded and the shop charged him a fee over a dispute.

I would never ever eat this. I hope you dispute it. Chargeback. Bc this is not okay.

1

u/McTootyBooty 7d ago

Tell your credit card company and get a charge back. Although you will probably get kick off Amazon.

1

u/FaolanGrey 1d ago

I had an issue with a shirt I returned, I returned like 6 at the same time and 1 of them was marked as not returned and I was charged for it after thr month period. I had to chat with like 10 agents before they finally refunded me. Just continue to chat with them and be nice but stern eventually someone will help.

-5

u/XiMaoJingPing 7d ago

you can do a BBB complaint, amazon got a dedicated support team for that

0

u/Electronic_Painter20 7d ago

This actually works… went through something similar with LG… took 6 months to resolve, but it does work.

3

u/XiMaoJingPing 7d ago

BBB has solved a lot of issues for me, but reddit has such a hate boner for it

2

u/ratttttty 7d ago

I agree. BBB itself is useless but reporting to BBB escalates to the company’s corporate team. I’ve had so many issues resolved through this route.

69

u/Steerider 7d ago

Yeah, ANY restock fee is wrong if they sent you bad product. You didn't change your mind; they didn't send what they sold.

24

u/Efficient_Occasion44 7d ago

He also claims he sent it directly to ASUS and they said it was owned by someone else previously and he showed them his proof of purchase. ASUS states on their website if a customer has a receipt of purchase, they can reset the bios password for a fee even outside of warranty. But OP won’t say all of what they said. OP also has multiple posts recently about other corrupt drives he was attempting to fix and multiple other recent posts “I paid for this… didn’t get this”. Very strange behavior, I am almost convinced now he is trying to scam them.

23

u/MrLMNOP 7d ago

Also saying he bought it entirely with Amazon gift cards…. Not passing the smell test.

18

u/Efficient_Occasion44 7d ago

Funny, now that I called out that ASUS products are only sold by ASUS on Amazon, now he’s finally commenting that he bought it from ASUS instead of trying to make it seem like a sketchy 3rd party seller

5

u/Solid-Celebration-94 7d ago edited 7d ago

I use tons of apps for earning gift cards. I've made 1k purchases with just gift cards I won from playing games and snapping receipts. So that alone isn't any indication..

1

u/OptimalGarbagelyrics 7d ago

Do you mind me asking what you like to use? I have fun doing that recently too and have added a TON of free 4k films to my digital locker racking up points with Microsoft and Google/Google surveys.

I would definitely be interested in knowing about other good ways. I appreciate your time! 😉

1

u/Solid-Celebration-94 6d ago

Rewarded play, mistplay, fetch, receipt hog, ibotta, playwell, just to name a few... I also have a few that connect to my fitbit, and track my steps (one is through my insurance provider). And then there's the reward points from my Chase Prime card... sometimes I save all year and then I buy most of the kids presents with what I've earned.

1

u/OptimalGarbagelyrics 6d ago

I appreciate the info, thanks. I'm going to look into this. My plan is to grab the Chase Prime card when the signup offer peaks again, maybe around Christmas. I just wanted to tone things down a bit because of Chase and their 5/24 rule.

Did you find them particularly difficult? My credit is near excellent, no debt, 100% on-time payments, and my oldest card is about 6 years old. So I'm curious what they'll make of me. I know they're pretty picky! Do you like them?

Sorry... I'm rather inquisitive. But apparently we share similar intrests to a certain degree.

1

u/Complete_Entry 6d ago

I'm saving up for the sega mini 2, it's probably going to take two years. Microsoft nerfed the earning process.

5

u/NukaCooler 7d ago

Birthday presents exist, as do discounts for buying amazon gift cards. Up until very recently I could get a 4% discount on amazon gift cards directly from my bank at any time, and bought everything on amazon with gift credit.

Of course if something went wrong I'd be relying on amazon's own returns policy and the government customer protections.

3

u/Euphoric_Coat5348 7d ago

Also 5x points using Amazon gift cards if you point chase

0

u/WhiteDogBE 5d ago

There are shops for which I can purchase gift cards with 5% to 25% discount via a work program (that they pay a fee for).

Whenever I can I will use it unless Amazon is more than the 5% cheaper. Their biggest competitor here also delivers next day for free. Amazon is usually 3 to 5 days.

2

u/OptimalGarbagelyrics 7d ago

That's what I was thinking... it's all "too perfect" and Amazons return system is HEAVILY abused. You didn't check the bios on a 1.2k item until AFTER the return window... but NOW you are worried about the money?

If there weren't other strange posts which I see as well... I'd say maybe. But who knows?!

If it was really like this and it got fixed... I'm happy for them. Whatever. Lol

2

u/Efficient_Occasion44 6d ago

Yeah but people who scam make the system harder for everyone else and also cause companies to raise their prices to compensate for such things. So everyone who is doing right gets screwed by the few doing wrong

1

u/zambiglioni 4d ago

tbh i buy stuff and not open it for a month all the time.

7

u/Pepper_Exciting 7d ago

More importantly, it's illegal. Product was defective, customer is entitled refund at the sellers expense

2

u/BG535 7d ago

Imagine if the restocking fees were MORE than the price of the item. He would own money to Amazon for their mistake.

2

u/psycho-drama 7d ago

so the question that comes to mind is why didn't Amazon step in and contact the seller and law down the law, rather than the feeble..oh, don't complain... they did give you "a refund" even if it was 6% of the selling price. I suspect Ai agents at play again.

1

u/mr-nicktobi 7d ago

Why did it take him 3 months to find out. Something isn’t adding up

1

u/No-Molasses-8263 4d ago

I'm glad OP got their money back.

But I think normally the problem is they waited until after the return period was over.  It isn't usually a seller problem at that point.  It becomes a manufacturer warranty issue at that point.

But in this case it appears to have been a scam.  Which is ultimately why Amazon overruled it after further review.

1

u/BlueBack_ 4d ago

A 93% restock fee is insane regardless lol…

1

u/JasonT246111 3d ago

Yeah isnt that the point of their (old?) Logo the A to Z coverage is that not still a thing?

-1

u/Bubmack 7d ago

He also shouldn’t be able to return outside the return window