Amazon is sending customers refunds for some really, really old returns

Amazon is issuing refunds to customers who’d returned products but never received their money back, in some cases from as long ago as 2018.

“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,” Amazon said in emails to customers, according to Bloomberg. “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 had hinted refunds were coming during its most recent earnings call on May 1st. CFO Brian Olsavsky confirmed that the company was reporting a one-time charge of $1.1 billion, partly attributable to “some historical customer returns,” along with the costs of stockpiling inventory in preparation for Trump’s tariffs.

There have been reports of the belated refunds from Amazon customers on Reddit, X, and LinkedIn for over a week, with one poster claiming to have received almost $1,800 this week for a TV returned to the retailer in 2018. Others claim to have received money from Amazon with no explanation why, and some report receiving refunds for products they never returned in the first place.

The company is currently facing a potential class action lawsuit that alleges it systematically failed to issue refunds to customers, or reversed refunds that had been issued. The suit was filed in 2023, but this April a judge rejected Amazon’s move to have it dismissed. It’s currently awaiting certification, a necessary step before other Amazon customers can join the class action.