Amazon return changes come with risk for customers, Mass. woman says

By Ben Simmoneau

Click here for updates on this story

    BOSTON (WCVB) — This year, Amazon started scaling back its free return policy, instead directing customers to certain locations where they can drop off returns with no box and no label.

One Massachusetts woman says her experience shows that process carries some risk for customers. She was left with no way to track her return after Amazon said it never got it back and so was charging her again.

Therese Ryan is so angry about how she’s been treated by Amazon, she says she’ll never buy something from the online giant again.

“We returned the product using [Amazon’s] process. Not my process, but [their] process. And, it’s just infuriating,” she said. “Other buyers need to understand how these ‘unpackaged returns’ work.”

Ryan’s problem started back in March, when she ordered two nightgowns for her mother — Ethel Ryan — on Amazon for $29.99 apiece. Ethel Ryan didn’t like them, so Therese Ryan returned them. She says Amazon told her she could drop the nightgowns at Staples, thanks to a new partnership which rolled out this year allowing Amazon customers the option to bring returns to Staples with no need to package or label the item.

“I brought both of them in on April 2 and dropped them at the same place at the same time,” Ryan said.

She has two receipts from Staples to prove she returned two items, but says Amazon told her the company only got one of them back. Despite her best efforts, Ryan says she couldn’t get Amazon to believe her.

“You’re not talking to a person” at Amazon, she said. “Everything’s by email. Everything’s online. There’s no way to really communicate what happened, and no one seemed to care on the Amazon end.”

Amazon is now pushing customers toward what it calls “no-box returns,” by imposing a new $1 fee for packaged return options “when a label-free, box-free option is available.” But Ryan says returning the nightgown with no package has come back to cost her.

“You might as well hand it to someone on the street,” she said. “You can hand over the product and get a receipt, and they’re basically calling you a liar, saying you did not give us the product back.”

The Ryans turned to the credit card company they used, Citibank, but the bank sided with Amazon saying it did not receive documentation proving the product was returned. Again, Ryan’s receipt from Staples, which she faxed to the bank, apparently wasn’t good enough proof. So finally, Ethel Ryan paid the $29.99 bill.

“I was very nervous about it, and I wasn’t sure they could take my good credit away,” the elder Ryan said. “I’ve always had good credit, and so I paid the bill again because I felt intimidated.”

“I think my mother was cheated. It’s not a lot of money, but she’s cheated out of $30 — or $29.99 to be exact,” Therese Ryan said. “I don’t think that’s right, that a huge American corporation that makes billions of dollars should be allowed to do that to any consumer.”

After NewsCenter 5 reached out to Amazon, providing both Staples receipts, Ethel Ryan got her refund for $29.99.

NewsCenter 5 asked Amazon for an explanation as to what happened in this case and whether making no-box returns carries the same risk for other customers, but a spokesperson would not respond to those questions.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.