This process will create a strong deterrent against buying, reading, and returning ebooks within seven days, and readers who attempt to abuse the return policy will be penalized under Amazon’s policies. Any customer who wishes to return an ebook after reading more than 10 percent will need to send in a customer service request, which will be reviewed by a representative to ensure that the return request is genuine and complies with Amazon’s policies against abuse. The planned change will go into effect by the end of the year. Yesterday, Amazon informed us of its plans to change its ebook return policy to restrict automatic returns to purchases where no more than 10 percent of the book has been read.
September 27, 2022: The Authors Guild is proud to report that our discussions with Amazon’s senior executive team concerning the platform’s policy that allows readers to return ebooks online within seven days of purchase, regardless of the amount read, have resulted in a major breakthrough. We will provide an update when these changes are complete and the policy is rolled out. After Amazon missed that initial estimate for the rollout and we reached out to them, Amazon informed us that they are in the final stages of making these technical changes and will roll out the new policy in the U.S. At the time, Amazon told us that the new policy would go into effect by the end of 2022.
Update, January 19, 2023: As we reported in September, Amazon is changing its ebook return policy in response to concerns raised by the Authors Guild and independent authors.
We will also continue monitoring reports from authors about returns to evaluate the efficacy of these changes. We have reached out to Amazon about adding clarity to the terms of service to reflect our discussions that automatic returns will not be available if 10 percent or more of a book has been read. Amazon updated its returns policy to state that customers “may not be eligible for a refund if a book has been partially read or if we detect account abuse.” Amazon also added a notice to the Kindle Orders page stating that “the self-service refund option may not be available” if a customer has a high rate of returns or has partially read a book. Update, February 1, 2023: Yesterday, Amazon informed us that it had updated its systems and rolled out a new policy to crack down on ebook returns if a book has been partially read.
0 kommentar(er)
