You know what really grinds my gears...

[skullman80]

Returning anything to Amazon is such a pain in the ass. I can't imagine purposefully buying something with the intention of returning it.

What in the hell are you talking about? I have returned dozens of items, and with one, maybe two exceptions, it has been completely painless.

Yeah Amazon is super easy to return stuff. At least stuff bought from them directly.

[Kane]

Then he gets yelled at on 5AF.

[AuthorTony]

Source of the post What I find even more annoying than torrenting is someone buying my books on Amazon, reading them, then returning them for a refund.

WTF? This is actually a thing?

Oh yeah. It's even worse on Audible where buyers have up to 1 year to return a book. I know authors who have lost many thousands of dollars on Audible returns.

[NTP66]

Source of the post What I find even more annoying than torrenting is someone buying my books on Amazon, reading them, then returning them for a refund.

WTF? This is actually a thing?

Oh yeah. It's even worse on Audible where buyers have up to 1 year to return a book. I know authors who have lost many thousands of dollars on Audible returns.

That is a truly awful policy. I could see a really short return period, but one year? Absurd.

[AuthorTony]

That is a truly awful policy. I could see a really short return period, but one year? Absurd.

Audible flaunts it as an asset too. They recently started cracking down (albeit in a minor way) on the worst abusers, but it's still definitely a problem as many users treat it like a library. They buy a book, listen to it, then "return" it for the next on their reading list.

[NTP66]

I shouldn’t be surprised that people too lazy to actually read are doing this.

[dodint]

Isn't this pretty fixable? Read/Listen to 15% of a book and it's not returnable. Done.

[AuthorTony]

Isn't this pretty fixable? Read/Listen to 15% of a book and it's not returnable. Done.

It should be, but since most of the money will just be filtered back into Amazon via other purchases, they don't care.

[NTP66]

Can’t hurt their bottom line, I guess.

[PFiDC]

I, personally, think music, film, and books should not be returnable unless it's damaged. It's art. You either know you like it or you take a risk checking it out.

[faftorial]

I, personally, think music, film, and books should not be returnable unless it's damaged. It's art. You either know you like it or you take a risk checking it out.

[Shyster]

Love my Kindle Paperwhite. If I bought every book in paper form, half of my house would be filled with books. Plus, with Kindle Unlimited I can breeze through and return a lot of novels.

[shoeshine boy]

Returning anything to Amazon is such a pain in the ass. I can't imagine purposefully buying something with the intention of returning it.

easy peasy where I live. you take the item up to Whole Foods, they scan your return code and they box it up and return it.

[NTP66]

Reminds me of the old music stores where you could listen to an album before buying it. Sam Goody, probably?

[skullman80]

I miss national record mart.

[nocera]

I’ve never done an in store Amazon return. That’d definitely be easier. Any time I have to go to the post office or UPS it’s a pain in the ass.

[NTP66]

I just realized that when I was at the grocery store tonight, I scanned a bag of pecans, then realized that I didn’t need them and put them back on the shelf. Never removed it from the scan tool, and my wife tells me it would be a bad idea to just grab a bag during my next trip.

[NTP66]

I’ve never done an in store Amazon return. That’d definitely be easier. Any time I have to go to the post office or UPS it’s a pain in the ass.

Mine are all via the UPS Store - which doesn’t even require you to have a box most of the time, or UPS pickup, if I still have the box. One time I did use the Amazon drop box in my local mall, which is still convenient, as I was there every week for lunch anyway.

[tifosi77]

I, personally, think music, film, and books should not be returnable unless it's damaged. It's art. You either know you like it or you take a risk checking it out.

This is how I feel as well.

[LeopardLetang]

what is the thinking with used book stores and libraries

[AuthorTony]

what is the thinking with used book stores and libraries

From an author stand point? I think both are great.

[tifosi77]

Used is not the same as a return. For copyrighted works, there is a thing called First Sale Doctrine; when a consumer pays for a digital or physical copy of a work, that consumer can resell their copy...... but they cannot use that copy to make new copies and distribute them, either for free or for money, or make a digital asset of the work available online for others. The content owner/creator is not impacted by a used copy being sold and then bought by another person. That has no bearing on the first sale..... which generated the royalty for the creator.

A return takes the royalty money for the sale right back out of the creator's wallet (it's a recoupale expense the distributor charges). You've given the creator a payday loan that will be zeroed out on their next quarterly royalty statement, a return means the royalty sale didn't happen. So if you're going to return books, save yourself the effort and just steal it up front, cos that's the net effect of what you're doing, especially when you say you enter into the transaction in bad faith.

[NTP66]

Glad I decided to turn these on, because my wife's Fire HD 10 is not charging, so I'll have to upgrade on Monday during Prime Day. Good timing, I guess.

The device was out of warranty, which means that we got a whole 10 hours of use out of it in total. The Amazon chat rep then applied a 15% off coupon to my wife's Amazon account towards the purchase of a new one. The brand new Fire HD 10 went on sale for Prime Day on Sunday, and after the deal and coupon, she ended up paying $60 for a $150 device. Works for me.

[dodint]

Why the **** can't people leave a review on Amazon without writing their whole life story? It's like trying to get a recipe from a mommy blog.

[NTP66]

Why the **** can't people leave a review on Amazon without writing their whole life story? It's like trying to get a recipe from a mommy blog.

Mine are 2-3 lines, max - unless I include instructions for something obscure, like a car part.