Why Amazon is giving surprise refunds for old purchases - and who's getting them

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Did you return something to Amazon long ago and never see your refund? Your payday might be here. Some Amazon customers are getting surprise refunds for things they ordered as long as 8 years ago, and in some cases, it's more than $1,000.

Here's what's going on and how you can tell if you've got money on the way.

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When you return an item you purchased on Amazon, you usually have to send that item back. Most of the time, the process goes smoothly and you get your money back once Amazon gets its product. There are occasional problems though, where Amazon says it never received an item and the customer can't prove they sent it, so the refund sits in limbo. These problems were so widespread that customers filed a class action lawsuit in 2023.

Amazon seems to be rectifying the issue finally and sending these long-awaited refunds. Over the past several days, affected customers have been receiving emails and messages in their accounts stating they have a refund on the way. 

The message reads:

"Following a recent internal review, we identified a very small subset of returns that were unresolved because we could not verify that the correct item had been sent back to us. We could have notified these customers more clearly (and earlier) to better understand the status and help us resolve the return. Given the time elapsed, we've decided to err on the side of customers and just complete refunds for these returns."

Amazon says it's applying the refund to the original payment method, or, if that's not available, as an Amazon gift card.

A LinkedIn post shows several replies from customers detailing their experience. Responses ranged from less than $20 to over $1,200 back for one customer who purchased a propane grill. 

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An Amazon spokesperson speaking to Bloomberg declined to say exactly how much it's sending out, but "executives hinted it may be hundreds of millions of dollars." Since Amazon hasn't issued a public statement on this yet, I've reached out and will update with a response. 

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