Comments on: Is Amazon's Kindle Refund Policy adequate?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:58:21 +0000

I can't figure out how to return anything. Maybe they give you 7 days just to find out how returns work.

By: Zach

Zach — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:00:33 +0000

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!

By: P.Rad

P.Rad — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:57:29 +0000

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

By: Stavros Macrakis

Stavros Macrakis — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:00:42 +0000

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

By: P. Rad

P. Rad — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:00:15 +0000

@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.

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:46:03 +0000

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.