Amazon Return Nightmare

Cpt_C

I posted this in consumer rights but was told it might be better in here, so copied and pasted from original post:

Hi there,
1st post for me, apologies if its not a particularly interesting one but its stressing me out something chronic.
3 Weeks ago I purchased an Asus Laptop from Amazon for £850. It arrived and seemed fine but when I dug deeper didn't have the spec I required unfortunately. No problem, I'll just return it for a refund. I went through the amazon process of refund and all went smoothly, I printed the label off at the drop off point and left the parcel with them. This was on the 21st of May. It was returned via their courier who is unfortunately hermes. I checked the tracking about a week later and could see it had been picked up from the drop off point but had then not moved any further, the tracking trail ended the following day basically.

So I contacted Amazon and got their auto response, it said to wait upto 14 days for the return to get to Amazon so I left it there, fair enough. 14 days pass and still no movement on the tracking. I then went further into chat and they said I should be issued with a refund as it was over 14 days. A few days pass and I hear nothing, no e-mail confirmation or anything. I then contact them again and press them further, the chap then says he will submit a refund request to management as he cant issue it as its over £750, the parcel has been lost at the "Return FC", does anyone know what that is, I presume its the courier? I then asked, will I get an e-mail confirmation that the refund has been issued, he said yes, withing 24-48 hours.
 
48 hours pass and no e-mail, so I contact them again. I go through the motions to basically get "I've successfully submitted a request to management". I press the person more saying thats not a confirmation of refund, thats just a request for a refund. Please can you process this hastily. She said she will personally sort it and I said please get back to me by close of play tomorrow (now today).

I then get told, management have come back and said due to coronavirus it could take upto another 14 days for the parcel to arrive. As you can imagine, I took serious um bridge to this and replied that I'd previously been told the parcel had been lost by their courier and it was now 19 days after I'd dropped the return off at the drop off point, I am not waiting another 14 days for them to refund me based on them "hoping" it turns up. If I dont get a reply tonight I will be contacting the credit card company.

I'm a little bit of a noob when it comes to things like this, I just want to see if anyone else has had similar experiences and am I right to be contacting the credit card company to sort it if I don't hear anything back? Appreciate any help.

Thanks
Peter

November2

I can understand your frustration but unfortunately its one of those things at the moment, problems are taking much longer to sort out, not just by Amazon but all stores are struggling to cope mostly due to lack of staff.   Many shops are not even accepting returns at the moment, or if they are they are extending the time frames.   Personally I'd just wait for Amazon to issue the refund which they'll do eventually.  

RFW

A few questions.

Who was the seller? Was it Amazon or a marketplace seller?

I assume the return was to Amazon?

You're covered on the tracking as it was collected and shows in the system, so whatever the answers are to the above you should get your money back.
Presumably they're apprehensive as it's not been received/checked. The best solution would be for it to turn up, so keep checking the tracking and see if you can maybe escalate with Hermes. That would speed it up if it was found but isn't that important.

I'd start from scratch with a message to Amazon, tell them it's now so many days since it was sent and you have been promised a refund on several occasions and still haven't received it. If you want a slightly different route to get a reply, try Tweeting them, something along the lines of ".@amazonhelp purchased laptop a month ago on Amazon UK returned as not as described a month ago, 4 promises of a refund in last two weeks am still waiting. Help!". They should give you a different email contact that should get you a speedier response.

cognoscenti

I think Amazon are struggling to handle questions, refunds and complaints still.
You're doing well to have any contact with Amazon - I'm wondering if it is via their webchat or via phone?

Not that it matters: after finding the call centre useless I was recently given what I can only describe as the same runaround by the online webchat, both of whom appear to be non-UK-based and seem to stick to a script which is of no use whatsoever.

The only way I got my refund was after a complaint which involved emailing the following: managingdirector@amazon.co.uk with a copy to complaints@amazon.co.uk
That solved my difficulties within a few days after I too had been chasing without a result for weeks.

RFW

cognoscenti said:

I think Amazon are struggling to handle questions, refunds and complaints still.
You're doing well to have any contact with Amazon - I'm wondering if it is via their webchat or via phone?

Their phone is out. I do have another customer service number, that they gave me as a seller, to pass on to an aggrieved customer. Live chat seems to be the best option at the moment.

thetriggerhappypwner

cognoscenti said:

I think Amazon are struggling to handle questions, refunds and complaints still.
You're doing well to have any contact with Amazon - I'm wondering if it is via their webchat or via phone?

Not that it matters: after finding the call centre useless I was recently given what I can only describe as the same runaround by the online webchat, both of whom appear to be non-UK-based and seem to stick to a script which is of no use whatsoever.

The only way I got my refund was after a complaint which involved emailing the following: managingdirector@amazon.co.uk with a copy to complaints@amazon.co.uk
That solved my difficulties within a few days after I too had been chasing without a result for weeks.

Thankyou for these email addresses, this will help me with my complaints and the deliberate delay that Amazon are taking to refund my money as well.

rachel6188

Was it through hermes the return? I had a issue with a smart watch I sent back taking ages to get back to them using hermes and amazon refunded me through the live chat but a word of advice send back any item through royal mail and I use the non printer one and I sent something back today and within the hour I had a email to say that the refund had been issued because its on its way back to them. I hope you get it sorted. Xxx

custardy

rachel6188 said:

Was it through hermes the return? I had a issue with a smart watch I sent back taking ages to get back to them using hermes and amazon refunded me through the live chat but a word of advice send back any item through royal mail and I use the non printer one and I sent something back today and within the hour I had a email to say that the refund had been issued because its on its way back to them. I hope you get it sorted. Xxx

This happens with a lot of RM/Amazon returns sent via the label printing service. However not all,so dont bank on getting a refund auctioned before the return arrives.

RFW

custardy said:

rachel6188 said:

Was it through hermes the return? I had a issue with a smart watch I sent back taking ages to get back to them using hermes and amazon refunded me through the live chat but a word of advice send back any item through royal mail and I use the non printer one and I sent something back today and within the hour I had a email to say that the refund had been issued because its on its way back to them. I hope you get it sorted. Xxx

This happens with a lot of RM/Amazon returns sent via the label printing service. However not all,so dont bank on getting a refund auctioned before the return arrives.

I think there's a value limit but they tend to refund as soon as the item gets scanned by Royal Mail. I had one a couple of days ago,

custardy

RFW said:

custardy said:

rachel6188 said:

Was it through hermes the return? I had a issue with a smart watch I sent back taking ages to get back to them using hermes and amazon refunded me through the live chat but a word of advice send back any item through royal mail and I use the non printer one and I sent something back today and within the hour I had a email to say that the refund had been issued because its on its way back to them. I hope you get it sorted. Xxx

This happens with a lot of RM/Amazon returns sent via the label printing service. However not all,so dont bank on getting a refund auctioned before the return arrives.

I think there's a value limit but they tend to refund as soon as the item gets scanned by Royal Mail. I had one a couple of days ago,

Yeah. I returned an Amazon warehouse motherboard and had to wait for it to arrive before being refunded.

oscarward

Recently bought a pair of trousers off amazon, they didn’t fit so requested refund. Return instructions sent and refund approved before I had got the trousers back to the post office. Very impressed. In the past I’ve bought a dog pen off amazon which was frankly rubbish. Told seller I wanted to return, they refunded and said don’t bother sending back.