I don't think very many people do that, and if they do that very often, don't you think Amazon would freeze their account? Returns are just a function of the number of sales.
Annoyed by a Return
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I suspect a generous return policy cuts down on angry one-star reviews, so I'm in favor of it, myself. I don't doubt it's misused to a certain extent (the fact that erotic books almost always have a higher rate of return seems to suggest this), but I think it's preferable to giving displeased customers no recourse other than writing scathing reviews.
I doubt most people get around to reading that quickly.
I assume that serious serial returners are dealt with. It can't possibly be in Amazon's interest to allow people to get away with endless returning.
People aren't always terribly articulate about what they disliked in a book. I'd hate to start getting emails from Amazon that say, "Four people have told us this book sucks. Fix it."
Well, that's a good point. And I supposed if people were required to leave a reason for the return they could just make things up like "It sucks!" to hide the fact that they finished itMegHarris said:
LOL, Quiss, I finished editing my comment and came back to find that we'd both said exactly the same thing. The unfortunate truth is that "it sucks" is all you may get out of many readers. Not everyone can analyze why they hated something-- they just know they did! And yeah, readers are not going to say "I read this in an hour and returned it," so they will probably just default to "it sucks" or a similar statement. I don't think making people give a reason for returns would be beneficial.
The unfortunate truth is that "it sucks" is all you may get out of many readers. Not everyone can analyze why they hated something-- they just know they did! And yeah, readers are not going to say "I read this in an hour and returned it," so they will probably just default to "it sucks" or a similar statement. I don't think making people give a reason for returns would be beneficial.
I hate returns with passion. I wish the return button would disappear if reader passes 70% or 80% of the book. It's just annoying to see returns for 3rd, 4th and so on book in a series because the first book is free, so some people believe they should get the rest for free, even if they liked them. Once I got a review saying the person loved the first book and that it was the best book ever, but that they wouldn't be paying for the others. 
I could totally deal with a one star review as long as I get my $. 
I could totally deal with a one star review as long as I get my $.
Various thoughts responding to posts here. Not in any particular order.
I've been a moderator of a Kindle forum for over four years. And without a doubt, there are people who buy books, read them OR save them offline and then return the book. People have posted here to that effect. Not so much, anymore, as it's very clear that our culture here on KB is that that's NOT an appropriate behavior. So those people rarely post here. But they exist. And if a few post here that they do, that's just the tip of the iceberg. I still don't think it's most readers, but they're out there.
Based on the same anecdotal evidence, apparently, it's really, really easy to buy a book by accident if you read samples. I don't, and rarely buy a book by accident. I have bought a book on occasion for purposes of testing something here on KB and then returned the book. I apologize to the authors of those books. Though I don't think James Patterson or Stephen King were much bothered by it when I did it with their books.
Probably an argument could be made that the seven day return window is a bit overly generous, but I think two days is not enough. Many companies have generous return policies and it works well for them. Radio Shack and Nordstrom come to mind. Their customers respond by shopping there first. No doubt that is Amazon's goal. I would consider it a cost of doing business and do what companies with those kinds of return policies do; include that cost in your pricing policies, as much as possible. It's going to be a fact of life as long as Amazon has that policy. Obviously that's easier to do if you have a lot of sales and just a few returns. But if you have a significant number of returns, perhaps you need to consider that there are more issues than just customers taking advantage of the return policy. Just sayin'.
Note that Amazon will refund for books that have serious formatting issues even after the seven days, in recognition that many books do not get read right away.
As an aside, I have bought an app by accident, and apps are generally not returnable. Though if you throw yourself on the mercy of Amazon's CS, you can get your money back for a rare occasion. (Same with Apple--I was stupid once and downloaded the wrong version of the app; they refunded my money.)
Anywho, my .02 worth. Or maybe less.
Betsy
I've been a moderator of a Kindle forum for over four years. And without a doubt, there are people who buy books, read them OR save them offline and then return the book. People have posted here to that effect. Not so much, anymore, as it's very clear that our culture here on KB is that that's NOT an appropriate behavior. So those people rarely post here. But they exist. And if a few post here that they do, that's just the tip of the iceberg. I still don't think it's most readers, but they're out there.
Based on the same anecdotal evidence, apparently, it's really, really easy to buy a book by accident if you read samples. I don't, and rarely buy a book by accident. I have bought a book on occasion for purposes of testing something here on KB and then returned the book. I apologize to the authors of those books. Though I don't think James Patterson or Stephen King were much bothered by it when I did it with their books.
Probably an argument could be made that the seven day return window is a bit overly generous, but I think two days is not enough. Many companies have generous return policies and it works well for them. Radio Shack and Nordstrom come to mind. Their customers respond by shopping there first. No doubt that is Amazon's goal.
I would consider it a cost of doing business and do what companies with those kinds of return policies do; include that cost in your pricing policies, as much as possible. It's going to be a fact of life as long as Amazon has that policy. Obviously that's easier to do if you have a lot of sales and just a few returns. But if you have a significant number of returns, perhaps you need to consider that there are more issues than just customers taking advantage of the return policy. Just sayin'.Note that Amazon will refund for books that have serious formatting issues even after the seven days, in recognition that many books do not get read right away.
As an aside, I have bought an app by accident, and apps are generally not returnable. Though if you throw yourself on the mercy of Amazon's CS, you can get your money back for a rare occasion. (Same with Apple--I was stupid once and downloaded the wrong version of the app; they refunded my money.)
Anywho, my .02 worth. Or maybe less.
Betsy
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