Ordered an item through Amazon, shipped direct from China...but with "free returns". How does that work?

mrsilv04

mrsilv04

Joined
Dec 8, 2006
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Location
Illinois
I ordered a $15 item off of Amazon. I had the feeling that it would be coming directly from China, with its stated 20-40 day shipping time, and by the unpronounceable name of the seller. But, the listing also showed "free returns". Hmmmm... How exactly do free returns work here?

So, my suspicions were correct. It shipped directly from China, via Yanwen Shipping. Once it started moving, it arrived in Chicagoland in 3.5 days from China.

It was ordered Jan 2nd. It shows that Yanwen Shipping picked it up on the 11th. It left China on the morning of the 15th. It then arrived in Chicagoland on the evening of the 18th, and was delivered to me today. Since I do have a background in warehouse management with about 10 years experience in worldwide shipping of high dollar software, I do find this part of logistics to be interesting.

I was a bit surprised to see that the package had been relabeled at some point in time, to have a domestic USPS label, with a return address somewhere in Inglewood CA, placed over the top of the China shipping label. But I'm not sure who did it or where in the process that happened, as the tracking never mentioned that it was ever in California. I would assume that label was applied in Chicagoland.

So, then I got curious if the "free returns" would be to that same California address. If so, if I ordered from this vendor again, which would be likely, that wouldn't be a bad thing. It would sure beat trying to ship it back to China with any sort of luck (I wouldn't even try). I started processing an Amazon return, just to see if it would indeed tell me to return to that California address... even through I really didn't need to return it. With Amazon, you can always process a return, but then not use it if you change your mind, forget, whatever... the return will automatically expire whenever the return window closes.

As I was processing the return, this screen popped up. I've never seen this one before. So, I guess I'll never figure out if it would have been returned to the California address listed on the USPS mailing label, as the seller clearly don't want the item back... California, China or anywhere. LOL.

1705812029823.png
 
Probably ends up at some random persons house:



"While she has not determined an exact cause, Nitu suspects her residence is being used as a return address for sellers or third-party handlers to dump their unwanted products.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) says it sounds like a vendor-return scheme, where sellers, usually from overseas countries like China or India, skirt shipping and warehouse fees by using a residence to ship their returned products."



nypost.com

Woman shocked to get over 100 Amazon packages she never ordered

Cindy Smith said she quickly became confused when the random deliveries addressed to a “Lixiao Zhang” recently started piling up outside her home in Prince William County, Virginia.
nypost.com nypost.com
 
I have ordered items from China that were shipped from China and that had a US return address. I have returned an occasional item to the supplied US return address, have always received a refund and never had a problem. These were however not #15 items, in which case I think it's unlikely the vendor will insist on a return if the buyer is unhappy. Google the return address - it might give a clue as to what kind of operation is at that location.
 
Yeah because of sweetheart deals and the USPS bending over backwards for the ccp shipping from china costs almost nothing.
It costs more to ship sometimes from Canada than it does xhina.
 
There are us addresses that are used for returns. That saves the inconvenience of waiting for a return to China or anywhere outside the US. Even eBay has a Kentucky address too for these returns. I've done it several times over the years with 100% success.
 
oil pan 4 said:
Yeah because of sweetheart deals and the USPS bending over backwards for the ccp shipping from china costs almost nothing.
It costs more to ship sometimes from Canada than it does xhina.
Click to expand...
It costs more to ship within the US, than to ship from China to here.
 
Amazon doesn't want the returns. Neither do third party sellers, especially those overseas. The costs in Amazon handling fees isn't worth it to try to reprocess them, nor is the lack of facilities to do so. Overseas sellers that sell on other marketplaces, or direct, that employ domestic warehousing hire logistics services to handle that stock, in a one-way manner.

www.cnbc.com

What really happens to Amazon returns

Returns are at a record high as online shopping booms. Now Amazon is trying to destroy less inventory with new options to refurbish, resell and liquidate items.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com


Small goods shipped from China have to pass though the hands of at least two carriers (and at least two labels), even if by postal service, with the USPS often the last mile carrier.

The cheaper the shipping method, the more likely it is to take interesting routes, sometimes through some more obscure countries' postal services. I've had one come through Georgia. Not the state, but the country.

A relatively quick method, like Yanwen, comes from them by air overseas, to Newgistics (Pitney Bowes), before being finally handed off to the local USPS for the last mile delivery.

Often, it's not the actual shipping that takes time, but the processing. Numerous planes traverse the Pacific every day, carrying shipments, so that package may traverse the ocean in less than a day, but take days for it to be sorted and handed off, even if part of a shipment with has bulk customs clearance. An individual package that has to go through the USPS' ISC sort centers can spend days there.

Return addresses can say whatever it is the sender wants, reflecting their goal in that process, if utilized.

Nor is it unusual for Amazon to not want the item back, for stuff they've sold themselves. I've only had that occur once, on a small item, but they have no problems writing things off.

Somewhere in the bowels of Bezosland, there are people who make the rules that govern these decisions. Would be interesting to see how that sausage is made.
 
Carmudgeon said:
Amazon doesn't want the returns. Neither do third party sellers, especially those overseas.
Click to expand...
A neighboring business at my work has some arrangement with multiple, China-based Amazon sellers. UPS delivers 500-1000 packages to her on a weekly basis but they all are from a handful of vendors/sellers. Her English is very poor and no one (neighbors, UPS drivers, etc) aren't fully sure what she does. Our best guess is she receives returns, inspects them, and sends them back to Amazon (in few boxes) to their Amazon Warehouse section or Amazon Renewed. She throws nothing away.
 
I quit Amazon years ago and still do a few things on eBay by selecting US only - even then it’s pretty sketchy and can look like a XiBay setup in the LAX shipping area 😵‍💫
 
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The strangest one I got recently was an order that was supposed to be from China, but was shipped from West Africa....

For those $1.20 item, usually you either get a full refund and just toss it in the trash or you ask Amazon / eBay to refund you if the seller isn't responding.
 
ctechbob said:
Probably ends up at some random persons house:



"While she has not determined an exact cause, Nitu suspects her residence is being used as a return address for sellers or third-party handlers to dump their unwanted products.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) says it sounds like a vendor-return scheme, where sellers, usually from overseas countries like China or India, skirt shipping and warehouse fees by using a residence to ship their returned products."



nypost.com

Woman shocked to get over 100 Amazon packages she never ordered

Cindy Smith said she quickly became confused when the random deliveries addressed to a “Lixiao Zhang” recently started piling up outside her home in Prince William County, Virginia.
nypost.com nypost.com
Click to expand...

I had this happen to a friend of mine, they were Walmart third party seller returns. All low quality cheaply printed t-shirts.
 
mrsilv04 said:
I ordered a $15 item off of Amazon. I had the feeling that it would be coming directly from China, with its stated 20-40 day shipping time, and by the unpronounceable name of the seller. But, the listing also showed "free returns". Hmmmm... How exactly do free returns work here?

So, my suspicions were correct. It shipped directly from China, via Yanwen Shipping. Once it started moving, it arrived in Chicagoland in 3.5 days from China.

It was ordered Jan 2nd. It shows that Yanwen Shipping picked it up on the 11th. It left China on the morning of the 15th. It then arrived in Chicagoland on the evening of the 18th, and was delivered to me today. Since I do have a background in warehouse management with about 10 years experience in worldwide shipping of high dollar software, I do find this part of logistics to be interesting.

I was a bit surprised to see that the package had been relabeled at some point in time, to have a domestic USPS label, with a return address somewhere in Inglewood CA, placed over the top of the China shipping label. But I'm not sure who did it or where in the process that happened, as the tracking never mentioned that it was ever in California. I would assume that label was applied in Chicagoland.

So, then I got curious if the "free returns" would be to that same California address. If so, if I ordered from this vendor again, which would be likely, that wouldn't be a bad thing. It would sure beat trying to ship it back to China with any sort of luck (I wouldn't even try). I started processing an Amazon return, just to see if it would indeed tell me to return to that California address... even through I really didn't need to return it. With Amazon, you can always process a return, but then not use it if you change your mind, forget, whatever... the return will automatically expire whenever the return window closes.

As I was processing the return, this screen popped up. I've never seen this one before. So, I guess I'll never figure out if it would have been returned to the California address listed on the USPS mailing label, as the seller clearly don't want the item back... California, China or anywhere. LOL.

View attachment 199623
Click to expand...
Next time order thru Walmart.
 
OT but related:
About a year and half ago I came across my old Braun 235 corded shaver in my belongings. It was probably from the late 80s or early 90s because I used to keep it at work in case a boss came by and I needed a quick shave (we were required to be clean shaven on duty). Since it was Made in Germany I decided to check if I could find a replacement blade/foil for it and found one on Alibaba at a reasonable price. I ordered it and it came a few weeks later. It didn't fit perfectly but after a little 'McGyvering' I got it to fit and it worked well.
Recently, I put an order in for another one and added a few other items to be delivered to me in Florida. The USPS returned it saying 'address vacant' (without even checking that it wasn't vacant...I'm a snowbird). It's 2 1/2 months later and I still haven't gotten a refund for items I never received. Alibaba talks up their refund/customer protection but in my experience it's terrible. Always a run around.... I would NEVER buy from them again.

PS: The USPS dropped the ball here and it's a shame that either I or Alibaba will be the loser. Also, when you pay with Paypal you don't have the same 'buyer protection' as if you had used your credit card directly.
 
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