Alternatives to Amazon

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wooster

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I only just read about someone who got banned for returning too many items. I googled this and found numerous examples, some of which seemed harsh. Now I know there will be the odd con-artist who will play the game and cost vendors lots of money but there do seem to be some cases where Amazon are really clamping down in a draconian way.

Looking at my account and out of a lot of orders, I've returned 15 items in the last year. 9 of these were clothing which is notoriously difficult to get right on line. The reasons for return wasn't just something silly like I'd changed my mind or something. It was poor size and/or quality. Does this put me in Amazon's sights? Do I feel confident about buying any other clothing item? No I do not. I have made a decision never to buy clothing from Amazon again for this reason.

There is no way to check your status with Amazon and this certainly takes the shine off Amazon in a big way. I can see the point if you're just having look, changing your mind, then sending things back all the time, but online buyers need to have confidence that if something isn't as you imagined or is the wrong size, or is faulty then you can send it back. Once that goes, then the games off for me.
I'm looking for alternative suppliers and am finding it difficult to match service with price ethically Can any of you good people can recommend some?
 
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As far as I know Amazon contact you before any banning happens. Certainly one of my "friends" has been contacted regarding suspicious returns (he keeps ordering exclusive lenses and returning them)
 
Unfortunately you are always going to get people that take advantage of the system and if Amazon suspect this then they are within their right to ban you from buying from them.

We sell laptop chargers online and you could guarantee that if an order was shipped to a Hotel room it would be coming back the following week. It was business people that would leave their chargers at home or in the office and needed one urgently whilst on a business trip. Once they had finished their business and returned home it would come back as unwanted. We had no way of proving that the item had been used or not.

We now cancel all orders with hotel or motel rooms as the delivery address. They can get their free rentals somewhere else.
 
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There are many alternatives to Amazon. I have seriously reduced my use of Amazon over the past year and, frankly, have got bettrr prices and delivery. John Lewis, WEX and HMV have been the winners for many of my purchases. Additionally, many EBay sellers also pop up on Amazon so the opportunity to test the market will reduce. I still use Amazon if they are offering better value, however, there is a lot of 'price matching' going ln to the point that, for photography items as an example, the likes of Camera Centre, WEX and even Jessops can be cheaper to use. The extra value and (sometimes) proce matching by John Lewis with their extended guaranree, and delivery flexibility makes a purchase better value.

Despite all that, any retailer will monitor what they might deem 'irregular' or erratic customer activity so I would expect to see bans being introduced on a regular basis. Who knows, maybe even a 'shared' database by retailers of problem customers.

Best of luck - for me Amazon was only ever my first choice when they sold their 'Jungle' branded blank CDs.
 
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To be honest I really don't blame them one bit for banning customers that are costing them money, the whole point of a customer is that as a company your meant to make money from them ultimately so if you have a customer that is actually costing you money they it's only logical to lose that person as a customer.

We will if needed no longer take bookings from clients that cause issues when doing business with them sometimes even if we are still making money from them a case that springs to mind is a local night club that come the end of the set would not pay until they had cashed up at the end of the night, for that particular venue that mean waiting two hours after finishing out set meaning not getting home till gone 5am this was simply not acceptable by virtue we would have jobs the next day and it would result in being tired for the next day's job, that's not fair to that job as if tired your not going to be as effective as if properly rested...as a result we refused further bookings from them until the resolved their issues with timely payment...they did and as result we agreed to start taking booking again
 
Who knows, maybe even a 'shared' database by retailers of problem customers.
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As much as this is a great idea, not just for repeated returns but also repeated claims of non receipt and fraudulent transaction, the data protection laws would never allow this to happen.
 
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ecoleman said:
As much as this is a great idea, not just for repeated returns but also repeated claims of non receipt and fraudulent transaction, the data protection laws would never allow this to happen.
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I don't see why, if the insurance companies can share the data they have, if banks / financiers can share credit score data then I'm sure retailers could work a similar solution to allow them to share information without it violating the DPA, the DPA is often touted as a reason a company cannot do something but in reality it's often touted falsely
 
ecoleman said:
As much as this is a great idea, not just for repeated returns but also repeated claims of non receipt and fraudulent transaction, the data protection laws would never allow this to happen.
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Data protection is linked primarily to it's provisions and fair use.


https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/the-data-protection-act

If any stored data is in use by any organisation it needs to be registered, pertinent and contains all the necessary checks and balances to protect it from unauthorised use.

From that perspective the checks include the right of individuals to apply for sight of their 'data' and to challenge inaccuracies etc.

The DPA does not stop the collection of information.

If a trade body apply and are allowed to collect data on bad customers then, much like credit reference agencies.... "the computer say's no". At that point, and by payment of a smsll fee, the 'customer' can be forwarded a printed copy of their file. The customer can get mistakes and inaccuracies removed.

It would be very simple for Amazon to commence the process and, naturally, kt could extend to other retailers.... As long as the data has the correct licence, checks and balances and the 'client' can get sight of their file and correct mistakes - not an issue.

As with Health and Safety legislation, it is often misquoted or misused by 'experts' to halt events that are just too difficult to manage. The DPA is not that difficult but the fines for getting it wrong are now unlimited.

http://www.techworld.com/security/uks-11-most-infamous-data-breaches-2015-3604586/
 
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wooster said:
I only just read about someone who got banned for returning too many items..... I've returned 15 items in the last year. 9 of these were clothing which is notoriously difficult to get right on line..... I have made a decision never to buy clothing from Amazon again for this reason.
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Let's see if I've got this right. You're worried that Amazon might stop you ordering from them, and your response is to stop ordering from them?
 
StewartR said:
Let's see if I've got this right. You're worried that Amazon might stop you ordering from them, and your response is to stop ordering from them?
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I think, for the OP, it is more the case of forward planning/contingency for a day when/if Amazon decide that enough is enough.......
 
StewartR said:
Let's see if I've got this right. You're worried that Amazon might stop you ordering from them, and your response is to stop ordering from them?
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No you've missed my point.

In my own case I returned a fair few items of clothing which were not sized correctly or fell below quality I'd expect and so would not have bought in a high street store and am slightly concerned about it impacting on my "rating". The result is that I won't buy clothing from them again so that I can avoid the risk. Clothing is variable in size and quality and buying online carries a large element of risk or chance. If an online retailer is not prepared to accept there share of the risk and operate a comprehensive return policy for clothing then i won't buy clothing from them. In general for non-clothing items my experiences with Amazon have been positive and I'd like them to continue.

I don't have a problem with Amazon or anyone else banning people who abuse their system. My concern is that there seems to have been a number of situations where Amazon have banned people for returning faulty goods and acted in a fairly ad hoc manner.
 
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Surely, simply Googling clothing will bring up an almost endless list of of options?
(Currently 204,000,000 - that should keep you busy).
 
wooster said:
In my own case I returned a fair few items of clothing which were not sized correctly or fell below quality
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This is why I buy all my clothes from the shops. I hate clothes shopping so the maximum I go is twice a year. It means I can try things on. A large top from one place might be too small but a large from another might be too big. There's too much variability involved even in physical stores let alone online.
 
Fair points. I suspect I will lay off buying clothing online where possible but the problem is that so many stores I go into don't have stock and it gets into the same thing where they order it in and post it to me or else I have to go back a second time once they get it in and try it on and it isn't right and ...

Ruth, yes that's true but I'm really looking for a company who will be supportive of returns and wondered if anyone had a good reputation. Also I started to wonder who the competition was. It's pretty low profile by comparison.
 
My son buys loads of gear from Atos, and sends loads back too, no quibble
 
I suspect certain things like buying multiple items of clothing and returning hlaf (most?) almost immediately is looked at differently to buying and returning something 9 months later as faulty.

As ecoleman said - certain things (laptop chargers to hotel rooms) are clearly coming back having been used as a one off - I suspect that Amazon are flagging things in a similar way.

A lot of clothes retailers expect high volume of returns (some even have an otpions on their returns form specifically for buying multiple sizes with the intent of returning at least 1)
 
You're probably right. I was basing my concern on a handful of unsubstantiated reports from the internet.
 
As per @Uneducated_Rick posted, I suspect clothing retailers online expect a hell of a lot of returns.
Sizing being as hit and miss as it is across the board, it is impossible to know if something is going to fit you until you have physically tried it on.
 
Clothing.....use 'Next', my wife sends back lorry loads of stuff usually due to poor fitting but also occasionally how it looks when she gets it on.

Amazon got the thumbs down from me on the books front, as they damaged three copies of a quite expensive book by atrocious packaging allowing it to shoot around in the box (not doubt when being loaded/unloaded too). Eventually they offered me a full refund and I went to Wordery who pack stuff so much better than Amazon.

Wordery is generally cheaper and post free too.
 
I've generally liked Amazon and used their Prime service. They sort of cheesed me off when they insisted on bundling the atrocious Prime Instant Video and doubling the price though
 
shreds said:
Clothing.....use 'Next', my wife sends back lorry loads of stuff usually due to poor fitting but also occasionally how it looks when she gets it on.

Amazon got the thumbs down from me on the books front, as they damaged three copies of a quite expensive book by atrocious packaging allowing it to shoot around in the box (not doubt when being loaded/unloaded too). Eventually they offered me a full refund and I went to Wordery who pack stuff so much better than Amazon.

Wordery is generally cheaper and post free too.
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I don't buy Amazon's book offerings, the Book Depository is on Amazon Marketplace and I have yet to pay more than Amazon, even with the £2.80 delivery charge. Very well packed though not the quickest. Will take a look at Wordery.
 
My view is that if something is "notoriously difficult" (OP's words) to buy on line, go to a shop and buy it !
 
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