Amazon India will not refund smartphone purchases, to offer free replacements instead

Amazon India has made a few changes in its Return Policy on purchase of smartphones. Henceforth, buyers will no longer receive straight-cut refunds on purchases on or after February 7. According to Amazon India’s new return policy, “All Mobile phones that are fulfilled by Amazon, purchased on or after February 7, 2016, will have a replacement only policy. Mobile phone items that are fulfilled by Amazon will no longer be eligible for refunds. In case you have received a defective or a damaged mobile phone, you will be eligible for a free replacement.” The devices purchased and fulfilled by Amazon India will be eligible for replacements if the item is defective or damaged respectively. In addition, Amazon India also stated that for seller fulfilled items from Books, Movies and TV Shows categories, the sellers need to be informed of the damage/defect within 14 days of delivery. The replacement is available for a period of 10-days from delivery of the product. One should keep in mind that the policy applies only for smartphones and does not apply to electronics, software and others. Also, Amazon’s plan to open a new retail stores might be taking shape. According to a report by  Re/Code, the CEO of a large shopping mall company said that he believed Amazon was planning on opening 300 to 400 bookstores, sending ‘panic’ through the retail industry. The retail store initiative is being lead by Steve Kessel, a longtime Amazon executive whose team launched the first Kindle e-reader and who is very closely associated with CEO Jeff Bezos as well. The stores are said to feature books and magazines and also push the lineup of Kindle products and other gadgets too. The report does point out that these stores will only sell books which are popular on its website.