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133 Posts
"Returning Kindle Books
"Books you purchase from the Kindle Store are eligible for return and refund if we receive your request within seven days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, you'll no longer have access to the book. To request a refund and return content, visit Manage Your Kindle, Click the Actions button next to the title you'd like to return, and select Return for refund, or contact customer service."
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This policy can appear understandable from Amazon's point of view, but it's incredibly unfair to writers of short stories and singles. Anyone can purchase a book of less than 20,000 words (which can easily be read within 7 days) and then simply return it for a full refund. The money is then lost and the book's ranking is also damaged.
I know that this is happening because I am selling hundreds of books each month and getting almost wholly great reviews on all my titles, yet I still see several refunds on my shorter books (but never on my longer ones). If people really didn't like the books I would have received negative reviews. Those are the easiest ones to get. Dissatisfied consumers are the ones most likely to leave reviews. I can also see that my longer books get plenty of borrows while the shorter ones never do.
I think the return window should be shortened and/or readers be allowed to borrow more than one book a month (since the return policy allows them to borrow in essence, with the key difference being that writers actually get paid for those). Of course it doesn't matter since we have no influence on Amazon the same way seller have no influence on eBay (which is now geared 100% toward the consumer to the detriment of long time users). I worry this trend will continue and hurt us more and more.
What do you think?
"Books you purchase from the Kindle Store are eligible for return and refund if we receive your request within seven days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, you'll no longer have access to the book. To request a refund and return content, visit Manage Your Kindle, Click the Actions button next to the title you'd like to return, and select Return for refund, or contact customer service."
***
This policy can appear understandable from Amazon's point of view, but it's incredibly unfair to writers of short stories and singles. Anyone can purchase a book of less than 20,000 words (which can easily be read within 7 days) and then simply return it for a full refund. The money is then lost and the book's ranking is also damaged.
I know that this is happening because I am selling hundreds of books each month and getting almost wholly great reviews on all my titles, yet I still see several refunds on my shorter books (but never on my longer ones). If people really didn't like the books I would have received negative reviews. Those are the easiest ones to get. Dissatisfied consumers are the ones most likely to leave reviews. I can also see that my longer books get plenty of borrows while the shorter ones never do.
I think the return window should be shortened and/or readers be allowed to borrow more than one book a month (since the return policy allows them to borrow in essence, with the key difference being that writers actually get paid for those). Of course it doesn't matter since we have no influence on Amazon the same way seller have no influence on eBay (which is now geared 100% toward the consumer to the detriment of long time users). I worry this trend will continue and hurt us more and more.
What do you think?