terrible experience buying a camera from Amazon

I've been dealing with the company since 2003. That is over. They lied to me time after time regarding the return of my 80D. I should have bought from B&H. The camera worked great until I got the dreaded Error 20. Amazon is apparently going to keep my money for a month or so. They have failed to even get the camera picked up for a return as of now. It's been almost a week (6 days). They keep telling me whoppers in an obvious attempt to keep my money as long as possible.

If purchased with a credit card, file a report with the CC company or your bank. The leverage of the bank should help adjust
any slow to respond type attitudes.

Hope it straightens out quickly.

110yd

110yd wrote in post #18858151
If purchased with a credit card, file a report with the CC company or your bank. The leverage of the bank should help adjust
any slow to respond type attitudes.

Hope it straightens out quickly.

110yd

Yeah I'll be calling the CC company. Maybe they will do a charge back. I wouldn't have minded a straight up approach from Amazon but they have lied through their teeth time after time. I have never had a really bad experience like this with them but this was terrible.

Jeff_56 wrote in post #18858148
I've been dealing with the company since 2003. That is over. They lied to me time after time regarding the return of my 80D. I should have bought from B&H. The camera worked great until I got the dreaded Error 20. Amazon is apparently going to keep my money for a month or so. They have failed to even get the camera picked up for a return as of now. It's been almost a week (6 days). They keep telling me whoppers in an obvious attempt to keep my money as long as possible.

So what are these whopping lies that Amazon are telling you?

john crossley wrote in post #18858207
So what are these whopping lies that Amazon are telling you?

They will send a new camera and I can send the old one back in the box after I get the new one. They will refund my money without me sending back the camera. Both of those were their idea. They tell me this and then later decide they aren't doing it.

They said they could refund my money as soon as the camera shipped back to them. Then it's 3-5 business days. Then it's 2 weeks. Then it's 2 weeks after they receive the camera back. Now it's 2 weeks after they receive the package plus 3-5 business days for the return to process. So I'm looking about over 3 weeks from the time I ship the camera back.

I had to pay immediately when I bought the camera. No reason they shouldn't refund immediately upon receipt of the return.

They said UPS would pick up my return Saturday. Then it was Monday. Now it's maybe Wednesday but they have 3 days so it may be Friday. Oh and they told me UPS had made an attempt to pick up the camera even though I was sitting right by the front door and no one came. So altogether it will take over 4 weeks to get a refund after I first called to ask for a return authorization. And that's if they actually do what they said they would do and I have zero reason to believe they will at this point. They could be lying about the time still.

They lied about not being able to refund my money back to a different place than where I paid. I paid with a credit card. I don't carry a balance on the card so they would have to get the card to give me money as a credit. I wanted them to put my money on my bank card since I just went around the CC company about how they wouldn't take a payment since I didn't have anything on file to pay. A charge had not shown up and I tried to pay it off before the charge got there. They said they couldn't put money in the account. I could only pay off what I owe. I was looking at trying to rack up charges on the CC so Amazon could pay them off. Come to find out they (Amazon) can and do issue refunds to places other than the original payment source.

They also lied about issuing a refund on a keyboard and mouse I returned. It was supposed to be immediate. Then they told me it might be two weeks because it was already almost two weeks. Then they said it had already been refunded even though I had not seen any evidence of that. No email, no credit on their site, nothing. I only noticed they had not refunded that money when I started checking the status of the camera return. They may have never returned that money if I had not asked about it.

I never expected anything except having to send the camera back before I got a refund. They were the ones with the ideas about ways to do things only to change their mind later.

Just curious ... was Amazon the real problem or was it due to who you bought it from through Amazon? Personally, I only purchase big items on Amazon through major sellers .. like the actual manufacturer of the item or a major distributor that is very well known ... because when you buy from anyone else on Amazon it's no different than getting it off of eBay.

Amazon is the problem.

None of that sounds like Amazon, but rather a 3rd party seller. Amazon returns don't work that way at all, I have returned many an item that was purchased directly from Amazon. The return process is immediate with a shipping label generated right in the process that you place on your packaging.

However, a seller on Amazon can try to play games like that. Also, Amazon will only refund the money back on the medium by which it was paid, or through an Amazon gift card.

I am an avid Amazon buyer, as well as seller, but hey, this may be a new thing for Amazon, who knows. I doubt Amazon cares about keeping your 80D purchase monies as long as possible, considering that at 4% annual return on that purchase is about $3 per month, considering they make over 12B in annual revenue. I think some common sense here would prevail, wouldn't it?

When you go to your order details and see your camera purchase, what does this say on your order item? I find it difficult that Amazon is doing all these things UNLESS the purchase now falls outside their normal 30 day return policy and they are verifying a product defect perhaps.

I'm kind of with TeamSpeed, this does not sound like a Amazon return process at all. Can you post the link you used to purchase the camera? I don't return very often but for the dozen or so returns I have made over the last decade or so, I have never had to call anyone. It's all done right on the orders page. A quick check with my wife, a heavy Amazon user, also has never had to talk to anyone, even for orders from China & Japan vendors.

gjl711 wrote in post #18861047
I'm kind of with TeamSpeed, this does not sound like a Amazon return process at all.

Jeff_56 wrote in post #18858214
They will refund my money without me sending back the camera.

This is definitely not Amazon. This is just not their practice on an item worth something the short side of $1000. It is their practice, and it has happened to me on a few occasions where the item had a value of around $20.

By the way, did the camera have a US warranty and did you make any any attempt to deal with Canon?

Well it seems a lot of ESP geniuses seem to know what happened better than I do. Tell me, when exactly does my refund come? What are the winning lottery numbers this week? Who will win the NBA finals?

Wait. I guess your ESP must be on the blink. My purchase price was not less than $1000. I got the 18-135 USM lens with the camera and some useless junk too. Shouldn't you have known that?

Want to hear the recorded phone calls I made? Want to see the emails denying me a fast refund? Too bad. You seem to know all this stuff already. You've seen it "in your mind" so why should I show you?

Seriously you people need to check your arrogance at the door. Stop thinking the whole world is stupid except for you.

It was AMAZON THAT SCREWED ME. Period. Wait while we jerk you around for a week. Wait until the camera makes it back. Wait 2 weeks. Wait 3-5 business days on top of that. That's NOT an instant refund. They told me "it was too much money" to give me an instant refund or to do a swap for a new camera (and lens).

But hey all you Psycho Friends know this already. I hate it that you people made this into a pi__ing match. There's one in every crowd. Apparently there are several here.

Happy now? I got this email four days after starting the return process.

They cannot return the money the way you want nor can they send you another high dollar item without seeing the return first. They have to return it to the card you paid with, and then they sent you the links that are the fully automated method of return. You print a label and schedule a pickup, at that point it is up to UPS to pick it up, or you take it to a UPS drop point (which is how I do returns). Once they receive the item (be sure to put the return bar code inside the box), they are quick to refund the money. If it is around the topic of they will send a replacement and then you send back the item after and they will refund before you send it back, that sounds like a very poorly trained customer service rep, and that is too bad, and I would not just assume "Amazon" is lying to me, I would assume there is lack of training.


Amazon actually has one of the better customer service ratings for returns/order issues of online retailers. They protect the buyer much more than protecting the seller, trust me. I hate seeing a return request from a buyer, it means 99% of the time I have to eat the expenses and accept the return, even when the buyer was clearly fraudulent. I rarely need to get ahold of a customer service person. If I have an issue with an item, I use the return/refund functions on my order and initiate the return without ever talking to somebody. In the cases I have, the issue was resolved quickly and never required any follow up.

Hopefully you get this resolved quickly. Perhaps you have a way to rate the customer service experience too, and put factual unemotional content into that survey so they can retrain, or improve the person to person experience.

As a side note, their refund policy is clearly documented, there should be no surprises or lies there. Upon a scanned receipt of the item, they will initiate a refund process, which could take days, but rarely does. If you cannot handle a business week period for a refund, then online purchases aren't always a good option, especially for high dollar items. There is shipping time, processing time, and CC clearing periods, often taking a week or more about anywhere you buy online.

Some people don't get how things work. Oh well

This had to be 3rd party. Amazon does not give a crap about a measly 80d and is willing to return/replace. OP is just upset at the world (Amazon, carrier, etc). Move on and stop making a fool of yourself.