Is Amazon’s Kindle Refund Policy adequate?

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?