Part of the appeal of shopping on Amazon is the ease of its return process. However, in a now-viral video, a customer claimed the company is trying to cheat customers out of their refunds after instating a new return policy.
TikToker Brittney Gaskin (@brittney_necole) posted a clip on Thursday claiming the new policy is affecting customers en masse. The video has been viewed over 1.8 million times as of publication.
“I returned several things in the last two months,” she began. “And Amazon changed their policy, so now if you return something, they can flag it for no freaking reason, just because.”
“And they can say it’s under investigation, or they can say the item was returned way past the return window, so they won’t give me my money, or they’ll refund your money at the time of the return, and they’ll go back weeks later and charge you for that item,” she said.
According to Brittney, Amazon is forcing her to jump through hoops to get her refund even after she sent the items back. “And they’re withholding my money from me unless I upload my ID to an email, which I never got,” she said.
The TikToker said she Google searched “Amazon’s asking for my ID” and found “millions” of Reddit users going through the same thing. She claimed the Reddit users didn’t receive the emails they were supposed to get and thought Amazon was “hoping you forget about it and forfeit your money.”
“So upon noticing this charge on my bank statement, I clicked on that charge to see if there was a note, and there was a little breakdown of three other charges,” she continued. “Two hundred dollars worth [of] items I returned, they took from my bank account. Pretty sure this is considered fraud.”
Brittney concluded her clip with a final warning. “Keep an eye on your purchases and your bank statement. Take your debit cards off, lock your credit cards, and keep your credit cards on file,” she advised.
Many commenters shared their own experiences with Amazon’s return process.
“OMG THIS HAPPENED TO ME! I RETURNED SOMETHING THEY CONFIRMED AND STILL CHARGED ME. I DISPUTED WITH MY BANK AND DELETED MY AMAZON ACCOUNT,” one wrote.
“Yup. Husband returned a $2k item, sent the item back to Amazon, but they refused to refund. Husband took them to court and won. Took about a year,” a second said.
“The UPS store told me to keep my tracking receipt because Amazon does stuff like this often,” another added.
@brittney_necole Probably just wont shop with amazon anymore after this. Thabk god i caught the charges that didnt match up. #amazon #amazonscam #amazonboycott ♬ original sound – Brittney Gaskin
Others said Amazon is keeping their money in its system by offering Amazon credit instead of refunding the purchase amount back to their cards.
“If not, they return your money as a gift card and not your actual card,” a viewer said.
Some claimed that the issues only happen if customers return a lot of items or return items past the deadline.
“Pretty sure they do this with people that return a lot of items,” a viewer said.
“I haven’t had any of those problems but then I do not procrastinate when it comes to my returns,” another replied.
Users on the Amazon Prime subreddit also discussed the return policy changes.
“Kinda funny that they would change the policy right before Christmas when everyone is buying a ton of stuff. Almost like they want to prevent returns at the busiest time of year. Well, it’s not like anyone’s canceling their policy over this, so it’ll probably be very lucrative for Amazon. I guess it just sucks to be a customer,” @samwise_lost wrote.
“I saw that coming. For those who are not aware of what’s going on, Amazon is going to either get a bunch of $$ from those who refuse to give up ID or Amazon is going to get a bunch of IDs from people after Christmas,” @eveningclock94048 replied.
According to a Nov. 3 FinanceBuzz article, Amazon’s updated return policy reverses some pandemic-era changes. For example, while customers can still return most items for free at Whole Foods, Kohl’s, UPS, Amazon lockers, and Amazon stores, the company may charge customers a $1 fee to return items at UPS if there is another free UPS drop-off location closer to them. Additionally, though customers still have an extended holiday return window, the company has gone back to its 30-day window for most items purchased outside of its established holiday dates.
The article also mentions that Amazon may flag a customer for making too many returns, which may result in an account ban or suspension. “Once you’re on the hit list, you may be charged restocking fees when you make returns or be unable to make them in the future,” it adds.
The Daily Dot reached out to Amazon via email and Brittney via TikTok comments for further information.