Amazon refusing to exchange gift

ripplyuk

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

I'm afraid I still suspect you are prevented from doing this now precisely because you have done it repeatedly in the past.
That's why the above policy still appears on their website.

Two items in a year doesn't seem like a lot of exchanges, but if that is above the threshold that amazon allow, I wish they would have told me that. The guy on the phone just said it's not something they're able to do anymore, which gave me the impression that it was a change in their policy, for everyone.

I've placed over 60 orders with Amazon in the last 6 months alone. I think their ratio is a bit off, if they see a couple of returns as a problem.

takman

The only person to blame for this is your mum, you asked for a specific bag and she gave you a different one. This is something she should have noticed when the bag was delivered to her house before she gave it to you!.

But I think the entire idea about having a wish list of presents for people to buy from sort of ruins the spirit of giving Christmas Presents. As the saying goes it's "the thought that counts" and blindly buying from a wish list involves no thought. Plus it leads to awkward situations where you get the "wrong" item or two of the same and you have to go back to the person who gave it to you to tell them there is a problem!.

The best presents are ones that people take the time to find something you will like and are a real surprise to you.

[Deleted User]

Cakeguts wrote: »

We don't know for absolute certainty that Amazon sent the wrong bag, It could have been the OPs mother who sent the OP the wrong bag.

If you read back in the thread, I did explore that possibility and the OP denied this was the case.

ripplyuk wrote: »

Two items in a year doesn't seem like a lot of exchanges,

It was two items last year and one the year before, but they weren't simply exchanges they were unsuitable "gifts" which other people had ordered.

As this is so wide open to abuse, I'm not surprised Amazon have (apparently) clamped down.

ripplyuk

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

It was two items last year and one the year before, but they weren't simply exchanges they were unsuitable "gifts" which other people had ordered. .

They were exchanged for a smaller size.

[Deleted User]

ripplyuk wrote: »

They were exchanged for a smaller size.

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here?

The point is that you availed yourself several times of a service whereby Amazon allow returns to be made by gift recipients who are not the actual customer. I don't think Amazon would expect this to happen very often, if at all, so now they want more specific identification of the order.

It's far in excess of any legal Consumer Right and is very open to abuse.

ripplyuk

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here?

You said that they weren't simply exchanges. They were. My point is to make sure the details are accurate, for everyone who may read the thread in future.

At the end of the day, I only posted this to warn others who may be expecting to return gifts as easily as before. I wasn't asking for advice or help, nor did I expect any replies.

I've spoken to Amazon again and got through to someone who explained it better. They told me that this has nothing to do with me personally. They have changed the rules on gift returns due to data protection. Apparently there was complaints about giving out the order numbers to gift recipients.

Which is fine. I pointed out that the website still states the old rules, so hopefully they'll update it.

[Deleted User]

ripplyuk wrote: »

You said that they weren't simply exchanges. They were.

No, crucially they were exchanges made by recipients rather than actual customers. This is why they are treated differently

ripplyuk wrote: »

They told me that this has nothing to do with me personally. They have changed the rules on gift returns due to data protection.

I mentioned data protection in my first response earlier in the thread.

ripplyuk wrote: »

I pointed out that the website still states the old rules, so hopefully they'll update it.

I agree they should do this if their policies have officially changed.

However, I still suspect you would have been treated differently if you were doing this for the first time rather than the fourth...

NewShadow

I also suspect the conversations would've gone differently if it wasn't for the fact the OP is wanting to exchange a 'wrong item'.

From Amazon's view, someone who didn't purchase an item is wanting to swap a cheap bag for a more expensive one - how can amazon know the OP's mother didn't give the bag to someone else (or purchased it for herself)?

ripplyuk

On the first phone call, I hadn't initially told them that the wrong bag was sent. I didn't get that far. They asked me to confirm the buyers name, email etc and said they could see the order but they couldn't give out the order number. It was only then, that I went on to explain that it wasn't the correct item sent.

My friend is also having the same issue trying to return an unwanted book. She's never returned a gift before but is getting the same response from Amazon that I did. So I don't think they're refusing because I've returned gifts in the past.

It does seem to me that Amazon have changed their policy on this but not updated the website.

[Deleted User]

NewShadow wrote: »

From Amazon's view, someone who didn't purchase an item is wanting to swap a cheap bag for a more expensive one - how can amazon know the OP's mother didn't give the bag to someone else (or purchased it for herself)?

Exactly what I meant when I said earlier that the policy was very open to abuse..