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Comment by Shank | Hacker News Reader

Amazon customer support has told me to discard items that've been defective, rather than ship them back, on multiple occasions. There's probably an internal policy about how many of these can be performed by a customer, but it's extremely convenient when they let you.

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This is valuable also where there are places of clear mis-fit in the system such as when I received spoiled food through Amazon. The bag was torn open and product spoiled, coating everything, and I was requested to mail it back before I could receive a refund.

There was no alternative course, it felt maddening, especially considering I had submitted photos and knew there was no chance for their resale.

On the other hand, recently I received a different color item than what I ordered. Since I didn't want to go through the hassle of returning, I asked them to refund the price difference. They refused to do that and asked me to return. The refund would have been cheaper than returning and shipping a new one.

The two colors were different prices?

This is often the case with fashion and/or sports items, the more popular colour combinations costing more.

Running shoes for instance: when I was last buying a pair of trail trainers the brightly coloured version of the shoe I currently prefer was being offered considerably cheaper than the all-black-except-high-vis-strips version. This was from the same sellers too, it wasn't due to the listing offering items from multiple outlets as is sometimes the case.

I would have preferred the darker version but I'm perfectly happy not to care about colour to save a bit of cash to spend on something else, but if I had paid the extra, as someone buying a fashion item to match an overall look might well do, and not got that version anyway I'd be expecting a cost-free replacement.

I have commonly seen this among products where there is a color choice. Here's a specific example: https://www.amazon.com/Walkers-Game-Ear-Razor-Electronic/dp/...

Very common

Search ps4 dual shock controller on walmart.com.

Beats headphones

Apparel.

Etc

The cost of the item vs shipping cost matters too. I've had it done a bunch of times for less than $10 items.

I had it happen for a MacBook charger I bought on Amazon which turned out to be an obvious counterfeit.

I was under the impression that since it's illegal to knowingly send counterfeit goods through the postal service[1] they can't accept returns of counterfeit goods.[2]

[1] I don't know about FedEx or UPS but probably against their TOS.

[2] This is also eBay's policy as well - http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/money-back-guarantee.htm...

>If a buyer suspects that an item is counterfeit, and there are strong indicators that the item is counterfeit, we don't require the buyer to return the item to the seller. The buyer agrees to cooperate with us to ensure the proper disposal of the item. In such instances, we refund the buyer for the full cost of the item and original shipping, and the seller reimburses us for the refund. The buyer may not sell the item on eBay or elsewhere.

I had a $180 car battery that was supposed to fit according to their site but didn't. They refunded me and said they couldn't have me ship it back (I'm assuming because it's a hazardous material), so a friend wound up with a free battery. That was pretty surprising to me.

Can you give examples of what you mean by a defective product?

Do you mean the legal definition[1], more or less as in "unsafe"? Because if so, the reason they are likely telling you to discard defective product is so it can't be used as evidence in a liability case in the instance an unsafe product has caused any harm.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_defect

"A product defect is any characteristic of a product which hinders its usability for the purpose for which it was designed and manufactured."

This does not imply "unsafe".

I don't think you read the second sentence defining the legal definition:

>Product defects arise most prominently in legal contexts, where the term is applied to "anything that renders the product not reasonably safe"

Wouldn't having the customer ship it back before you give them a refund decrease the chance that they'll keep it and use it against you?

No if you ship a defective product back to Amazon, one that has caused injury, and they got rid of it and you sued, their act could and would likely be considered * spoilation of evidence*. As a result Amazon could be sanctioned by a court and have the burden of evidence shift against them (i.e. no longer do the plaintiffs/you have to prove the product was defective, now the defense would have to prove the product wasn't defective).

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