Has anyone else heard of this? I know a writer who's had 14 refunds in the past month - how can this be right?


http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/amazon-kindle-e-book-return-policy-stop-allowing-refunds-on-e-books-after-e-books-have-been-read

I couldn't follow the link, but that sounds crazy to me - what, someone reads the book and then asks for a refund because they don't like it? If that sort of thing goes on, there's nothing to stop people reading everything for free - although I suppose that if someone kept doing that, Amazon would hopefully not let them download any further books.

This is the Amazon Kindle Book Returns policy:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_200506470_kretpo_retkc?nodeId=200506470#content

I seriously didn't believe it until I saw it for myself. How ridiculous! And how unfair.

So we can return Kindle books for no reason? How odd!

<Added>

That means I can buy that £15 one I was looking at - and then send it back! Not that I would, but what is there to stop me, as long as I read it in under seven days.

I think there could be an ulterior motive. Amazon did have some problems when they first launched the Kindle with people buying books by accident. I know because I did it myself twice. It was all down to the rather shoddy "Store" interface of the Kindle that put the focus of the "click" action on the Buy button as soon as the full product details were shown. They had to quite rapidly introduce a method of refunding unintended purchases.

Moreover, how would you do it? You can't really say you can never return an e-book, that all purchases are final and binding, that would be unfair (especially if the purchase was accidental in some way). You can return "real" books as long as they're still "new" (though Amazon doesn't really define "new" so there's some considerable leeway there - I might consider "new" as "not overly covered in coffee and sweet & sour sauce") so you should be able to return e-books. That just leaves us with the time period. It's got to be a reasonable period because you may not be able return it immediately. I sometimes buy books before I'm actually ready to read them. Or I might buy it, then fall asleep and forget about it, or there might be a fire, a terrible flood, etc.

I'm not sure it should be a massive problem. It's like a lot of things; sure, we could all take the piss but most of us don't. We don't shoplift when we use self-checkout, we don't steal things from displays outside stores, etc.

I've bought some terrible e-books but it's never occurred to me to return them and I don't think that's just because I care for writers (even bad ones), I just wouldn't do it.

Jon

Amazon did have some problems when they first launched the Kindle with people buying books by accident. I know because I did it myself twice.

True, but it's pretty hard to do it now. And it's very difficult to buy a book twice by accident, as a message pops up to warn you that you've previously purchased it.

The writer friend I mentioned has had 3 returns already this month, and 14 last month - she thinks it's pretty odd, and I must admit, I do too.

If they're going to offer a library service, then PLR payments should be made on each loan.

I can, sadly, imagine the buzz of temporal satisfaction some might get at realising they could get their 99p back from Amazon for a book they bought, read, probably enjoyed, too. "Got one over on the system, guys," I hear them boasting in the locker room.

Colin

Remember that you can return hard copy books to Amazon if you don't like the look of them. Obvio in both cases it is unfair to read it and then return - as it is with clothes, but some people wear and return.

So don't come down too hard on Amazon for this. If anything it's unscrupulous buyers, if they're returning for the wrong reasons.