A lot of folks don’t know about it, and I am sure Amazon is not exactly super excited about putting the refund policy forward. But Amazon does in fact cover your content purchases as long as you return them in 7 days:
Any content you purchase for Kindle from the Amazon Kindle store is eligible for return and refund if we receive your request within 7 days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, the item will be removed from Your Media Library and will no longer be readable on your Kindle. To request a refund and return, click the Customer Service button in the Contact Us box in the right-hand column of this page to reach us via phone or e-mail. Please make sure to include the title of the item you wish to return in your request.
One may wonder if 7 days is a fair period to have for returning the content. I know that when you buy a paper book from Amazon, you can return it in 30 days. If we consider that reading a digital book will take as much as reading a paper book, then the return period for Kindle content should be 30 days as well. Does Amazon know something that we don’t?
Perhaps! Returning Kindle content is much easier than returning a paper book. There is nothing to mail back, and all it takes is a touch of a button. I get that. What I don’t get is Amazon banking on the fact that folks won’t return their Kindle content in 7 days. That is such a short period of time. I don’t know about you, but I buy so much from Kindle store that sometimes it takes me a week to just check out all the stuff I have bought.
Amazon has been known for making things easy for customers. For instance, they make it very easy to cancel subscriptions or Prime membership. They don’t try to hide things or make things difficult. That is why it’s surprising to see Amazon offering only a short period for returns.
You decide: Is Amazon’s return policy fair?
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6 comments
#1KarenNovember 20, 2008, 9:46 am
I think it is – the refund is meant to allow you to return books you accidentally purchased (I’ve had it happen once, after ordering one book, a stray mouse click grabbed one on the confirmation page before the screen even redrew) or someone purchased accidentally when playing with your Kindle or if the purchased book doesn’t meet the description (I had one “book” end up being just the first chapter of a collection of short stories, but was billed as being the entire book). They have given me credit for books purchased weeks before when there were formatting issues (they look at the book themselves to confirm and try to get a corrected copy first), so, if there are genuine problems, they are not entirely bound by the 7-day period.
And seven days is quite generous in some ways – the unscrupulous could “buy” one book at a time, read it and return it within that period, repeating over and over and never pay for a single book.
#2P. RadNovember 20, 2008, 3:00 pm
@Karen,
I don’t question the fact that Amazon has given me refund for a magazine subscription that I didn’t receive after I forgot about it and complained about it 2 years after (can you believe it? 2 years!). But, I am pretty sure that refund policy won’t apply if there is no genuine problem. In other words, you buy the book, you read the first chapter in a week, and you realize it’s a bad book. You can only return that in 7 days.
I do agree with you that there could be issues with people taking advantage of the system. But people could easily do the same with the 30 day money back guarantee with paper books. Amazon keeps monitoring your account, so if you return more than a couple of times a month, it sets off a flag. They could easily do so for Kindle content. I just personally find 14 days more reasonable than mere 7 days as the window for refunds.
#3Stavros MacrakisFebruary 12, 2010, 3:00 pm
You say: …I buy so much from Kindle store that sometimes it takes me a week to just check out all the stuff I have bought…
Why are you buying it before you’re ready to read it? It’s not like paper books where there’s the hassle and delay of going back to the bookstore or waiting for the package delivery — in that case it sorta makes sense to stock up on books. But with Kindle, you can just put the books you’re interested in in your Wish List and buy them when you’re ready to read.
-s
#4P.RadFebruary 12, 2010, 6:57 pm
Technically, that would work. But we are in the business of publishing content ad putting things on a wishlist doesn’t work too well for us. It works if you actually have the time to check your wishlist
#5ZachMarch 23, 2010, 5:00 pm
I think that seven days is definitely adequate. I purchased a book today, actually–R. K. Narayan’s translation of Kampan’s Ramayana–and within an hour I knew that I had to return it because the translation was terrible and omitted critical scenes such as Sita’s trial by fire. For me, the return policy was more than adequate. I honestly was thinking that they would only give a 24-hour window. I’m actually indebted to you for letting me know that they do have a return policy, so while I disagree, I’m extremely grateful that you do have an opinion on the matter. I’m also not at all against their extending the return policy. Take care and thanks for this blog!
#6ThomasJuly 2, 2010, 2:58 am
I can't figure out how to return anything. Maybe they give you 7 days just to find out how returns work.
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