Amazon Returns: Great, But Don't Choose "The UPS Store Dropoff" Option!

I've always been very happy, indeed thrilled and surprised with Amazon's practices and obvious attention to good customer service.  Their returns process has always struck me as fair and easy to do.

Just about all the time, I've chosen the option to print a UPS label and then deliver the item being returned in my own box, to a local UPS Store.  I ALWAYS get a physical receipt from the UPS Store showing that I dropped the return item off.  Most of the time, I get an email from Amazon stating that my account has been refunded in just a couple of hours.  Amazon generally promises such a refund once it receives your return item, so this is an example where Amazon under-promises and over-delivers -- which is just outstanding, smart customer service.  Few companies do this.

Two weeks ago, however, I chose the option that Amazon gave me to show a bar code at the UPS Store.  Amazon stated that I just needed to show the bar code and did not need to box up the returned item.  Well, this was a mistake!



Here's what I wrote Amazon Customer Service:

I am writing because I hope Amazon will improve its service in this return situation.  My recent experience, where I returned an item with just a barcode and no packaging (as directed by Amazon) to a UPS Store, was very frustrating, and contrary to all the other good Amazon return experiences that I have had.  In the future, I certainly won't bring a return to the UPS store with just a barcode since it does not seem that I will ever see proper tracking of my package, never mind a timely refund.

I hope that you can pass on my complaints about this situation to upper management.  I feel that the use of a UPS barcode rather than a UPS label is not a good practice for your customers.  I like using UPS labels and packaging up a shipment because I have a firm tracking number that actually tracks my package.  If you bring a returned Amazon item to the UPS store with Amazon's instructions that just a barcode and no packaging is required, then you better get a receipt!  Because that's all the proof that you will have.  The tracking number on that receipt won't work because your item gets put in a larger box, which the UPS Store may hold until it's full, which could be up to five business days later.  Once that box goes out, it has its own reference number (not a tracking number, says staff at my local UPS Store).  So there's absolutely no way for you to track your package, and you must follow up with Amazon to get the Amazon refund.



The staff at the UPS Store will say that you can't track your package on the UPS website -- you have to track it on the Amazon website.  However, the Amazon website doesn't provide tracking of your item -- it only says "our refund will be processed when we receive your item."  So this is a classic "customer can't win, Catch-22" scenario, where the customer drops off an item, but then the item is lost in transit, and the UPS Store says you have to take this up with Amazon, and Amazon probably says that you have to take this up with the UPS Store.

Here's what a reddit thread says about this situation:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UPS/comments/cd86xg/shipment_ready_for_ups/

Upon further examination via the Amazon returns center, I noticed that for multiple shipments made via QR code, Amazon has the UPS Store bundle some items together in a large package and that the tracking number that prints with a receipt may not be the tracking number that the returns left the store with.

And here's what a couple of UPS Store websites for local stores said: 

We recommend using the print label option located under the “2 other options” link.

If you do not have a printer, you can “forward return label to a friend to print.” Email the label to shipit@*****.com, and our staff will print the label when you arrive to drop off your package. There is a minimal fee of $0.10 to print the label, and if your box needs to be taped up, we can do that too for $0.54. We also have polypropylene bags available for $0.99. As always, we do have professional packing services here for any item you may need to ship.