Amazon India ends return policy for mobile phones

A

Ankur.

Disciple
Amazon has announced that it will no longer be accepting returns for smartphone purchases in India.

From February 7 onwards, Amazon will only allow customers to initiate a replacement for their purchase, and not a return with refund. Those who received a damaged device will get a free replacement but under no circumstances will the phone be taken back for a full refund.

If this sounds bad, it's important to consider Amazon's reason for doing this. Buyers often purchase a device, use it for a while within the return period, and then send it back even if there is nothing wrong with the device. The seller would then have to bear the cost of the device, not to mention the two way shipping cost for Amazon. It is for this reason that the company has decided to stop accepting returns. Amazon's rival in India - Flipkart - has a similar no-return policy, and only does replacements for damaged units.

Unfortunately, those with a genuine reason to return a product after purchase are now left out in the cold due to a few people abusing the system.

Source: http://www.bgr.in/news/amazon-india...-mobile-phones-to-offer-limited-replacements/ and http://www.gsmarena.com/amazon_stops_returns_for_smartphone_purchases_in_india-blog-16500.php
 
sad but makes sense from Amazon's perspective. I didn't even know that they accepted refund on return within the stipulated period. I can see how many people would have abused the system.
 
bigbyte said:
Mobile phone returns were most abused returns on Amazon and Flipkart. I know many who used mobile phones for couple of weeks for show off in marriages / parties / college fest and later returned it. The abuse of the system leaves genuine buyers at a disadvantageous position.
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Why will a genuine buyer ask for a refund? We never had this privilege in offline mobile shopping as well.
 
Now that we're accustomed to buying online or addicted to its convenience ; they'll try to consolidate their profits, it's a routine business practice.

How long they can run on crores of losses? We may see many other loss making policies withdrawn. To sooner than expected.
 
drkrack said:
Now that we're accustomed to buying online or addicted to its convenience ; they'll try to consolidate their profits, it's a routine business practice.

How long they can run on crores of losses? We may see many other loss making policies withdrawn. To sooner than expected.
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EkZactly. Lower discounts, may be charges for return shipping and higher amount of purchase to be eligible for free delivery could be few to start with.
 
Number of days for returns has also changed. It used to be 30 days IIRC but that was decreased to 7 days from a week or so ago till today. Currently its 10 days for returns.
Source: I check Moto E price every few hours. Yes EVERY FEW HOURS.
 
asingh said:
Does not take Indians long to find a loop hole and exploit it.
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My teammate already did that. His total bill was going around 700 + 80 shipping. He asked if anyone else wanted to order something to make the bill to 1K for free shipping. When he couldn't find anyone he just added stuff worth 300 which he didn't want. Now the order qualified for free shipping. Said he'll just return the extra stuff once it gets delivered.
 
suhailkhan said:
My teammate already did that. His total bill was going around 700 + 80 shipping. He asked if anyone else wanted to order something to make the bill to 1K for free shipping. When he couldn't find anyone he just added stuff worth 300 which he didn't want. Now the order qualified for free shipping. Said he'll just return the extra stuff once it gets delivered.
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I have done that in the past with Myntra just to make my order eligible for discount.
 
suhailkhan said:
My teammate already did that. His total bill was going around 700 + 80 shipping. He asked if anyone else wanted to order something to make the bill to 1K for free shipping. When he couldn't find anyone he just added stuff worth 300 which he didn't want. Now the order qualified for free shipping. Said he'll just return the extra stuff once it gets delivered.
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Why so much pain - just add a 20 bucks soap instead. Delivery will be free then. Works even for less than 500 rupees orders too.
 
gizmoholic said:
sad but makes sense from Amazon's perspective. I didn't even know that they accepted refund on return within the stipulated period. I can see how many people would have abused the system.
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People in US do that ,but they won't change the system because of strong consumer laws existing in US.In India most of these companies take Indians for a ride



Note : I'm not supporting the above practice
 
Stuge said:
People in US do that ,but they won't change the system because of strong consumer laws existing in US.In India most of these companies take Indians for a ride



Note : I'm not supporting the above practice
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When I stayed in US mostly this was a practice by Indians and Pakistanis to return the goods even after using it for over a month. They exactly return it couple of day's before the expiry of validity period. No wonder Amazon has stopped this system in India.
 
^^ true fact...
When i was in the UK, my Aves saphhire developed a fault and accepted for refund... (After 9 months)
During the consumer call, the girl was still waiting for my return page to load, (she said herself), but i haven't returned a single product in 2 years...!!!
which means, by noticing my name she was expecting the returns page filled up...

That shows our Bharat Mahan..
 
technofast said:
When I stayed in US mostly this was a practice by Indians and Pakistanis to return the goods even after using it for over a month. They exactly return it couple of day's before the expiry of validity period. No wonder Amazon has stopped this system in India.
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I have seen even americans doing that..just read blogs regarding camera and lenses for reviews
 
technofast said:
When I stayed in US mostly this was a practice by Indians and Pakistanis to return the goods even after using it for over a month. They exactly return it couple of day's before the expiry of validity period. No wonder Amazon has stopped this system in India.
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But you cannot deny consumer laws in India sucks bad even now.
 
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