Trying Headphones through Amazon and returning

Amazon has a habit of banning people with a lot of returns and/or abuse. Google it and you'll see what I mean. 

Amazon is really good with their return policy as long as you don't abuse it.

As for your question, yes they will give you a full refund. Just make up a good lie.

I don't know what amazon consider abuse so I don't really know how they'll respond. They might do nothing at all, it's really up to you if you want to risk it.

I'm just telling you what I've seen personally and on the internet.

I think if you just want to try them, than try buying them used from amazon warehouse deals. They're like new, and you can always just say you bought it for someone but they already have it.

They should refund the full amount if that's what you want to know.

I did return my D600 to amazon, but that was because it was defective, the left adjusment bar came loose. They shipped out the replacement pair even before I shipped my broken pair back. Bezos is truly dead serious about satisfying his customers!

To answer your question: You can totally open and try them. If you do decide to return them though make sure that you ship it back with everything included and the headphone themselves better not be damaged in any way, so Amazon can repackage and sell them as brand new again. I'm not sure if they do any kind of assessments for returned items, nor have I heard they have refused returns, but better safe than sorry.

Still, buying 5 pairs of headphones to return them can be classified as abuse. That's why you do research before purchsing something online. I personally would never do something like that to such a nice company like Amazon, but to each their own.

just as a pre-caution. Next time try considering going to the nearest music store and see if they have headphones that can be auditioned.
Amazon has a great source of customer service so i think they'll be onto something if you keep this up.

Buying to return is really low and opportunism on the part of the consumer such as this is one reason so many stores have trouble staying in business.  If you are not in a financial position to try them all out, then try one and sell if you don't like until you find one you do like.  You don't need to compare them to everything else thats on the market simultaneously if you don't have the means to.  Yes, auditioning is best, and meets or stores with auditioning areas would be optimal, but if you don't have that ability it doesn't make the "sell and return" option any more justified (unless the retailer really doesn't care, which is rare.)

If you keep the headphones in good condition you should be able to resell them with minimal loss.

If you're trying to be a good person, return whatever you can't afford before opening so that the business you purchased from (Amazon or one of their sellers) have the ability to resell it at normal cost.  They are already going to lose out on shipping.

Quote:

Originally Posted by clamchowder01 

I really didn't know what to do. I am not trying to be a bad person.

 

Deciding on headphones is so hard...

 

There's no place to "test drive" headphones that I know of

 

Well, guess this is the last time I will do this.. or just forget about buying headphones. I don't know if this hobby is worth it

If you don't have a history of doing this with them, than nothing will happen.... maybe. They might just let it slide, but you will be on their radar, because that's a red flag for them.

If you return the headphones without opening them than you should be okay. 

We all struggle when deciding our first good headphone, but you just have to take the plunge and buy the headphone that best match your music preference.

i dont really blame the OP for doing it at all. 

there are literally no headphone shops anywhere in the US unless youre in a big city, and even then, there are few if any.

if i'm wrong about this, please someone, recommend me a shop with a wide selection in the tri state area.  i'd love to visit the place.

I've return lots of stuff, my M50, my CAL!, even a $300 Beats Pro, but I bought them all used and they're months apart.

A few returns here and there isn't a big deal.

The people that normally gets banned are the ones who regularly return HDTV and expensive computer components, etc. 

To Max pl: That's a justification, but not a good one.  

Think of this from the perspective of the sellers:

They're in a competitive marketplace.  Amazon truly pits everyone against one another to sell at the lowest sustainable markup.  On electronics sellers are often dealing with markups of 30% or less which is truly nothing - plus they subsidize shipping more often than not and they lose 8% gross (not profit!) on all consumer electronics sales (even more in other sectors.)  Its hard enough staying in business when buyers are straight.  But when a return happens here's what goes on: The seller loses out on shipping because they already made it lower than cost to stay competitive.  Then they have to take a minimum of 20-30% off to re-sell the item as used, depending on condition (even more if it's something like an IEM.)  Thats besides for worker time processing returns, checking quality, relisting, shipping, etc.  That places each one of these Amazon transactions squarely in the "loss" column - even with their markups, sellers are lucky to break even, and more often than not with these minuscule margins, they don't.  So in a sense, people who do this on a regular basis are taking money straight out of the pockets of American businesses.  As much as I feel for the consumer (and I often work hard to try to help people I know get the best deals possible), sellers are people too - just because they may belong to a faceless corporation that isn't the local mom-and-pop-five-and-dime-brick-and-mortar doesn't mean they don't bleed.

To the OP, as I mentioned I sincerely hope that your starting this thread is an indication of wanting to do the right thing.  I'd reiterate my advice to you from my previous post.  The perspective should not be "how much can I get away with before I get banned".  It should be "is this ethical" - period.  In a more simplistic sense, "if I were running a business, how would I feel about customers like this?

Edit- I should clarify.  Amazon themself (meaning not third party sellers) is more lax with their return policies, simply because they sell so much that the amount of people they make money from far exceeds what they lose on returns.  This doesn't make it right, but since you actually might be OK under their terms of sale it wouldn't be as unethical, though it would still be taking considerable advantage of policies for a use they weren't designed for.

Amazon's policy is what it is, and it's up to you if you want to take advantage of it. I wouldn't do it though because I would feel bad for them, even if they're a huge company. I do as much research as I can before buying. If I end up not liking it, well....that's just life.

I like the idea of doing this but would feel bad at the same time, but then again amazon would prob do the same to me lol