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Comment by vageli | Hacker News Reader

> I contact support (which is now next to impossible to find in the UI) and they tell me they can't refund me unless I send the item back and they also won't be sending me my actual purchase.

If you receive something in the mail by accident, you are under no obligation to return it. I would have issued a chargeback given that you never received the item you paid for.

> By law, companies can’t send unordered merchandise to you, then demand payment. That means you never have to pay for things you get but didn’t order. You also don’t have to return unordered merchandise. You’re legally entitled to keep it as a free gift.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-do-if-youre-bille...

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If you do a chargeback, you have to be prepared for the company to permanently ban you as a customer. Many people are not willing to take that risk with their Amazon account.

I'm fortunate in that I have been able to cancel my amazon subscription and not do any more purchases with them, but if the poo hit the rotary accelerator I am sure I would be grateful to have the option.

Charging back on your Amazon prime account will quickly get it closed. Any gift balance you have goes with it. You can probably keep access to your digital purchases if you complain enough.

It certainly doesn't sound legal to invalidate your gift card balance, and it seems at least in one case a banned person received reimbursement in the form of a check.

> “All open orders were canceled, I just could access digital content purchased in the account. I had over $100 in my gift card balance and Amazon agreed to send me the refund, I received a check in my mailbox after 1 week,” wrote Do, who calculated that his rate of return for Amazon is about 17% — ordering 104 items and returning 18.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/if-youre-returning-a-lot-o...

I am not sure what the law is here in Australia, but as others have mentioned, a chargeback would have jeopardised my account. I don't pay for prime (although I think I actually had a prime trial at the time of the issue, which makes it even more infuriating) but have quite a few kindle books.

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