Update:
- Amazon asked a federal judge in Washington to trim a class action lawsuit accusing it of recharging consumers for items returned in the allowed refund time.
- Amazon requested the judge toss out three of the five claims against it, arguing the allegations rely on the company’s own return policies, an “express contract.”
- The Seattle-based company also asked the judge to decrease the class definition from six years to four for a claim under the Washington Consumer Protection Act.
- Consumers claim Amazon routinely recharges customers who opt in to the company’s “instant refund” option by returning a purchased item to a UPS store or other authorized drop-off location within 30 days.
Amazon class action overview:
- Who: Plaintiffs Laura Abbott, Sima Hernandez, Melissa Urbancic and Jill Capel filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon.com.
- Why: The plaintiffs claim that Amazon re-charges customers for items that were returned within the 30-day return window.
- Where: The Amazon class action was filed in federal court in Washington.
(Sept. 11, 2023)
Plaintiffs Laura Abbott, Sima Hernandez, Melissa Urbancic and Jill Capel filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon.com over the company’s return policy, alleging that it re-charges customers despite the fact they returned an item during the company’s 30-day return window.
The potential class for the Amazon returns class action includes all customers who were charged for items despite properly returning those items over the past six years.
While Amazon’s return policies have been lauded, in practice the company falls short of fulfilling its return promises, the Amazon class action claims.
“Amazon routinely fails to deliver on its promise of free, no hassle returns and instead re-charges customers who have returned items within the return window, despite Amazon’s own records establishing that it has received such items,” the Amazon returns class action claims. “This practice both breaches its contract with its customers and is unfair and deceptive, causing those who take notice of the re-charges frustration and hours of lost time in dealing with Amazon customer service representatives to reverse these improper charges.”
Plaintiffs all properly returned items and had receipts but were still re-charged for items, Amazon returns lawsuit claims
The lawsuit goes into detail on the experiences of the four named plaintiffs, who all properly returned items and received receipts for the returns only to be charged later due to what customer service representatives told them were technical issues.
The refunds for the re-charges only came after the customers noticed the charges and had to reach out directly to customer service to correct the issue.
Amazon has already been in the news recently thanks to a trio of class action lawsuits, a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a Senate investigation and a $30 million settlement that put an end to two federal data privacy lawsuits.
Have you been re-charged for a returned Amazon item? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiffs are represented by Alicia Cobb, Matthew Hosen and Andrew H. Shapiro of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan LLP, along with Aaron M. Zigler of Zigler Law Group LLC.
The Amazon class action lawsuit is Abbott, et al. v. Amazon.com Inc., Case No. 2:23-cv-01372, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle.
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338 thoughts onAmazon seeks to remove some claims in returns class action
Happened to me when I returned kitchen knobs they said I did not return even though I returned it to the UPS store, and got a receipt.
After I received refund I threw out my receipt. Then they recharged me.
No only did I have an attorney (not represented by an attorney,) write a letter after receiving 13 different email for items I returned, and Amazon acknowledged were in fact received, but my credit card was charged without my knowledge or consent. I have received numerous emails apologising for their computer error. They are failing to change their internal system from showing, “in transit” to “return complete” when they receive the return, that tiggers the threatening email, and charge. Their attorney wrote me stating they did nothing wrong. If their policy is 30 days to return an item, where does Amazon get off, sending mean email 7 months after the item was returned, saying it was not received? The 30 days has to work both ways. I live in California and would love to start a class action here. I have plenty of proof their wrong.
Please add my name. I order almost everything from Amazon. I don’t know how to separate Buy Box items.
Yes I have been returned items items ro amazon, refunded and then months later sent emails saying that if I didn’t return an item by a certain time, I would be charged again! And they did! Took the money right back out! Owe me hundreds!
We are frequent purchasers of items from Amazon.com, and have occasionally had to return items, but did not receive a promised full refund–for example, Amazon often failed to refund shipping cost. FURTHER>Amazon.com tries desperately to force us buyers, who are senior citizens, to get their overpriced-each-month Amazon Prime, including trickery on their order form to fool buyers into ordering PRIME when they do not want it. WE HAVE HAD TO CANCEL PRIME TWICE AS A RESULT OF DECEPTIVE AMAZON PRACTICES! Shame on Amazon.com!
Yes, a few hundred $ and still arguing with them. Where do I sign up for this class action lawsuit?
Sign me up is this a full blown lawsuit yet
I have been recharged after fraud on my Amazon account, this has been going on for over a year and a half I get a credit in my statement then I get a bill saying I owe then a statement saying I owe them nothing and they owe me nothing, then a bill saying I owe them for the fraudulent charges being recharged to my account I’ve reached out to amazon and chase getting mixed messages.
I have had too many to count recharges since 2006. I am fighting right now to get money back on a Kindle returned before Christmas. I found you by looking for an attorney to help get my money back and to file for pain and suffering on top of it. I have over 30 emails and chats trying to get a refund on the Kindle they received back on Dec. 6th of 2023. I have kept them all. I also kept what I could find of chat history as far back as I could go online to show the numerous recharges and all my bank statements for taxes where I can show recharges year after year.
This happens all of the time!!
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