Has Amazon Prime changed? Being asked to pay for a return and then claim it back

[AnotheBloodyChinHair]

What's that all about? I am a prime customer but an item I bought recently I was asked to pay for the returns postage. When I contacted Amazon they said returns were free but I had to pay first and then ask for a refund. Anyone else had this?

Hmmm - I bought an item that was defective recently and didn't even have to return it: they just sent a replacement with no quibbling. I wonder if the reason for return makes a difference? I think last time I tried to return something that I'd bought in error (a book I already owned) the cost of returning it was almost as much as the book had been so made it pointless. There wasn't even a suggestion that the cost would be refunded.

I've noticed this a lot recently too.

Or just generally being expected to pay for returns.

I think it depends on the type of sale. If you buy from Amazon themselves, it is free. If you buy from a 3rd party seller, you pay first then claim back.

It's not always clear if it is 3rd party though - you need to read everything thoroughly!

Thanks. I wish the third party info was clear.

I once bought something from a third party seller and just couldn’t return it. Contacted them and heard nothing, repeatedly. Luckily it only cost about £5 so I just wrote it off - but I had assumed returns were free on amazon so it was a surprise.

It will either say "sold by Amazon" or "dispatched from and sold by (third party)" or "sold by (third party) and fulfilled by Amazon". Which one was it?

@modgepodge If the seller doesn't respond contact Amazon directly. As above, they'll likely just refund you.

It all depends on what option you pick for returning! They wanted to charge me £4 return postage but then I tried selecting a different option and it was free!

[quote ChaChaCha2012]@modgepodge If the seller doesn't respond contact Amazon directly. As above, they'll likely just refund you.[/quote]
Yes, I thought that was the case...I can’t remember why but I had no luck contacting amazon, I think all the options on their website just kept telling me to contact the sender and no option to report the sender! I can’t remember, it was over a year ago...I remember being very frustrated at the principle of it but giving up as it was such a small amount of money.

I just went in my account and the bloody item is still there saying ‘return requested’!! It then says If the seller doesn’t respond to file a claim so I selected that...now I think where I went wrong is when selecting why I wanted to return it - some of the options just default back to ‘contact seller’ which I had! Other options took you to amazon returns so I obviously just needed to lie about why I was returning it!!