I got a cordless vacuum like this. You could tell it was slightly used. Vacuum company said send it back to Amazon. I wrote in the booklet something along the lines of “this vacuum came to me used and broken via Amazon but sold as new” I then sent it back into amazon, got a refund. I probably won’t get any major purchases off Amazon anymore.

I'm curious: why did you call amazon for a return?

Playing devils advocate here but.. I suspect what is happening here is a previous purchaser bought it (broke it?), returned it under a different reason (eg. I dint like it) and Amazon decided it is not worth the hassle of rechecking every return labeled as such.

Mind you this is no consolation for someone like you who has go to through this return process, but I cant believe Amazon is "winning" by keeping a defective product like this in rotation long enough for someone to "eat the cost". Defective products hurt Amazon as well and I'm sure they'd rather take the hit if they could pin point which products are defective.

You could argue that they should bear the cost of validating every return, but clearly someone has crunched the numbers and the program is likely not cost effective.

I had the same with Amazon and an Espresso machine. Got the box, it was beat up, missing Styrofoam, missing manual and damage to the appliance itself. But I also paid full price. Sent it back directly, got my money back and never ordering from them again.

Im an Amazon seller and this frustrates me to no end. A customer returns something and amazon puts it back into circulation. You cant do anything to stop it. I really wish there was a way i could have them send all returns back to me so i can do the proper thing. Amazon seller forums are filled with sellers wishing they could select to have returned inventory sent back.

I've had a similar experience with some monitor backlights. I was sent a "new" product that, when I opened it, I found it had been cut up (which breaks it), adhesive backing removed, parts removed from packaging, etc. Clearly used, returned, and sold back to me unchecked as new.

Almost as frustrating would be the third party sellers who intentionally send me something other than what I order, claim a mistake and that stock is out on the original order, and then try to convince me to keep it with a discount (price less than what I paid but equal to what I ended up getting), like some sort of shipping shell game. This has happened to me multiple times, from clothing to computer parts.

Just the fact that the company is operating at a level of massiveness where "just keep shipping defective units to customers. Put it back on the shelf and when someone else orders it put it back out. Eventually someone won't complain and just eat the cost." Amazon needs to be broken up.

Most people buy lots of junk off Amazon, and if there's an issue Amazon just eats the loss.

But these scams abuse it two ways:

1. But off a legit seller, return the fake. Next person gets the fake.

2. "Third party seller" where they sell cheap (but solid) junk for months to build reputation, then flip to high price items that are flat out scams.

At some point Amazon switched from a "Walmart model" to more like a swap meet where you have no idea who you're buying from. Not everyone noticed.

One phone call to your credit card, with all evidence ready.

capitalism