To give up and order everything on Amazon?

[Pineapplesonpizza]

Ordered sports shoes direct from shoe manufacturer's website. Had to pay £9 shipping, which I accepted. Shoes didn't fit so I returned them, but I did not get a refund for the shipping. If I had ordered from Amazon (where they were available at same price) there would have been free shipping and free returns. I'd MUCH rather support businesses and order direct from them, but I'm now out £9 (having purchased no shoes). So, in the future I will order from Amazon (unless free returns are specified). AIBU?

If you’re happy to fund the destruction of your high street then fine but just don’t complain when there’s no shops left anywhere and a massive warehouse pops up in your nearest field!

I run a retail website. I've experimented with loads of different ways of business, and have settled on paid returns. After looking at our figures, sales go up when we offer free returns, but so do returns, making the offer cost neutral and environmentally negative.

Free returns definitely attract a different type of shopper. Paid returns equal more considered and careful purchases. It also means customers who do not return are not penalised by paying a higher initial cost for their product to cover free returns for others.

Our reviews are exceptional though, and I suspect our trust level is high enough that customers take the risk that they won't need to return.

I buy loads from Amazon. Very rarely return but when I have it's easy and on occasion I've been told just to keep the item and still had a refund.

I don't ever buy multiples of an item to keep the best though. The reviews are detailed and I like that it tells you whether the item has a high return rate or not.

I also like that I can set up regular deliveries of things like dishwasher tablets, soap refills, dog food etc.

I do think the prime service is no longer as brilliant as it was. I have had items delayed when I specifically ordered for same day delivery. Not all prime items are next day either you have to check.

I love I can easily send gifts direct to anyone.

Overall the service provided from Amazon is great so it's hardly surprising people use it.

Amazon is great at returns! I’ve never had any issues with ‘normal’ returns and on several occasions I’ve been able to return things past the deadline by using the live chat with an assistant-they are always really helpful.
plus you get the occasional bonus of not having to return the item and still get a refund!

That's not my experience. Returns have always been very straight forward and quick.

They are successful becuase they're good at what they do. I don't understand any of the "support local" stuff. If a local (or any) business is good, I'll use it. If it offers an inferior service at a higher price, I won't.

I also quoted this law to modibodi who charged me shipping to my home and then kept it as part of the ‘refund’. They only allowed me to return using a label they created which was significantly more expensive than the post office. I think the item was £19 and total shipping £11. I got the standard AI response. Then a person. Then when I quoted the law to them and threatened trading standards they refunded.

I could have got the same item from Amazon with free shipping and returns.

Second incident, my son wanted a particular toy, whilst he was in hospital. They did a cheap copy on Amazon. I got the more expensive one from the original manufacturer, who used Evri to send and it took 13 days to deliver. It was rubbish! If I had paid £6 on Amazon and it came the next day and been a bit rubbish, I wouldn’t have minded so much. But I paid £16 from the original manufacturer, added p&p and then it took almost 2 weeks to arrive and was rubbish.

I now use Amazon almost exclusively.

Thank you for your measured response. It is so much nicer than what I was thinking but sums it up. Not everything HAS to be free. Why not contribute to the convenience of having things delivered and collected to your home.

I went shopping for my best friend’s birthday yesterday. I couldn’t get her main gift, a piece of jewellery. It isn’t even that out there. There was nothing, even to look at as the pieces were missing from the trays as SOLD. It was a waste of money paying for parking. I know now why I shop online.
Back to the internet and free shipping it is then.

I have done many, many returns with Amazon without any issue whatsoever. Seems you’ve just had specific circumstances that were a bit more challenging.

I'ver always found Amazon to be excellent.
Only ever had to return a handful of items, but when i have the retund has been issued as soon as the return is scanned at the drop off.
None of the send it back, wait for processing and then refund in 7 days blah. Its been instant.

I order everything off there and have Prime membership. Next day free delivery. 🙌

The destruction of the high street happened long before online retailing was even in its infancy. It started with the hypermarkets in the early 70s, followed by shopping malls and retail parks in the 80s and 90s. By 2010 only around 7% of retail spending was online and yet the U.K. saw the biggest period of decline in the high street between 2000 and 2010.

The High Street business model hasn’t suited most stores for over half a century. People want choice. A High Street doesn’t have the space to carry the amount of stock they need and “just in time” deliveries are really difficult in many town centres. Out of town real estate is much cheaper, space is not at a premium. Whether it is for warehousing or retail it makes much morse sense for brands to be out of town. The identikit nature of High Streets has put a lot of people off going, why would you go to the small store in the town centre where parking is difficult and expensive, when you can go out of town and get what you need. I decided in about 2012 to go to my nearest city to soak up the Christmas atmosphere and do my Christmas shopping. I had a list of 10 very mainstream items. I came home with 3 of them. I couldn’t get the latest blockbuster book in a fairly large but independent bookshop, but they could order it in for me. The kids’ craft and science kits were impossible to find, but they could order them in for me. I wanted to find a nice outfit for my daughter, none in her size, but they could order it in. I paid £15 for parking, was majorly stressed out, and had almost 2 hour drive both ways. Why would anyone do that?

The High Street may be more suited to small independent stores, but actually, these businesses have benefited greatly from online shopping. We need to get away from seeing town centres as a shopping destination and re-purpose them as residential / leisure spaces, with some more niche retail. Places which have done this have seen a huge benefit from it.

Heads up: Amazon returns aren't always free, as I discovered last night. I bought something on Amazon at the weekend for £18 and had to return it because it was no longer needed, and they took £8 for the original delivery - which I bloody pay for through Prime, thank you very much - off my refund, so I'll only be getting £9.97 back. They called it a 'promotional discount deduction' 😡

But she never said she ordered from Sports Direct so that's irrelevant.

TBF to Amazon it’s clear when things have free returns.

I try and use local stores and I happily pay a bit of a premium but Amazon and stores that sell via Amazon are often considerably cheaper, have far more stock and are available the next day (or even the same day!)
I order off Amazon a lot and I think its customer service is excellent. I can ‘talk’ (usually online chat) to a real person far easier than most online retailers and they are helpful.

Returns are very easy although TBF returns for most companies are much better than they used to be.

I have an issue with fake reviews on Amazon though and I have a big issue with their overall dominance hence trying to buy locally if I can.

I’m not always swayed by the argument we have some kind of moral obligation to support local businesses, at a premium cost, with no benefit to the consumer.

If a local business has an item I want but it’s 10 or 15% more expensive, am I supposed to get in the car, drive to town, pay for parking, buy the item paying more for it and go home, purely on the basis that someone has opened a shop and is selling the stuff? Or, is that business model flawed if it expects me to do that? I’ll happily pop in and buy it if I’m passing and the cost differential isn’t significant, but if their business can’t rely on profit from passing trade, is that my issue?

I have a long time acquaintance who opened a clothing store in a nearby town selling what I suppose were “boutique” type clothes (I’m not a fashionista!!) She also had a range of country wear which seems to have a very specific market that didn’t really exist in the area. At first I felt obliged to support her and I would go and browse with the intention of buying something, but honestly of the few pieces that matched my entirely lacking style, the quality wasn’t brilliant, the prices were extortionate, the place was largely empty whenever I was in it or passing by. She was constantly posting about how people should support local businesses, complaining that she’d had a really quiet week or that people were choosing to go elsewhere to get her stuff cheaper, complaining the local council were charging business rates and that the rent was too high etc. She even reckoned the local parking warden was targeting her street and that was bad for business. The shop closed after a few years. She is fortunate not to have to work, lovely house, her children are at private schools, her husband is a very high earner. Really it seemed like the store was more of a hobby for her than a serious attempt at a business, I’d be surprised if she made any money at it. But in the end, it was all of us that were at fault for “not supporting local businesses”.

I understand there are pressures on local businesses, that some of the rules and regulations are unfairly balanced in large businesses favour, that it can be a real struggle to get places up and running, but if in this day and age you are opening a store selling exactly the same stuff as people can easily get online and they have no reason to come to you, then I have to question what they thought would happen.

I have gone right off Amazon.

I have ordered a couple of things recently from Amazon only to find out they were coming direct from China. The items arrived and were perfectly OK - but I don't want to order from China!

It's not always clear to me whether the items are coming from a UK supplier or not. Maybe it's me being dense, but I just feel Amazon has got too big and is now just a website for random tat.

I haven’t RTFT but the £9 shipping fee should also be refunded, legally.

Screenshot from the order page for the item I ordered and returned - it clearly says 'Free Returns' but that's not what I got (the image might take a bit of time to be reviewed). I am going to dispute it, actually.

I think pretty much everything in my house, apart from clothing, is from Amazon. I can think of just one item that isn't, my bed. Even my sofa came from Amazon.

I have tried to buy clothing from there, and I have an odd item (trainers, dressing gown) but I find the reviews are often fake and the clothes look nothing like what turns up. Or maybe I have been unlucky?

I live very remotely and the nearest town is a long drive away, about 1.5hrs, so for me Amazon is worth its weight in gold.

Contact them and tell them to refund the shipping. As long as you notified the of your intention to return within 14 days and posted it within 30 days of receipt of goods and returned the whole order and didn’t keep any part of it the they have to refund the postage. Lots of places try this I email them and ask for it back. I’m sure they do it on purpose hoping that either people don’t know they have to refund or cat be bothered with the hassle of getting it back

Slightly unrelated….My email account was hacked last year and I couldn’t recover it. Which has been a hassle but every company/bank etc has been helpful. Except Amazon. It’s been virtually impossible to get my Amazon prime account back. I spent hours and hours with the customer helpline. To no avail. I then decided to accept I’m losing all films that I had bought digitally and sign up with my new email account. But even that was fraught as I still had the same phone number … I know! Crazy!
I pleaded with the helpline people… until I thought… hold on…. I’m begging you to be allowed to spend my money with you…?

So I cancelled my account and haven’t bought anything from Amazon all year.
and I feel good about it. I buy more locally, or direct from the online shop or eBay (I know, might be just as bad). In general I’ve noticed I buy less.

But I’m glad I’m not contributing to Bezo’s wealth. Not that he’d know…

Did you actually pay £17.98 - did that come out of your bank account? Sounds like they gave you a voucher for some reason?

Or - was it a multi buy discount but you've only returned one item?

Or - did you pay on instalments?

Whatever it is, they haven't withheld £8 for shipping. It's some other reason.

So easy to return stuff with Amazon- often refund as soon as you send it or refund without returning.