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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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Amazon is issuing refunds to an unspecified number of customers for products they returned years ago but whose orders had remained "unresolved," according to the company's executives.
A spokesperson for the world's biggest online retailer confirmed on Tuesday that refunds are being sent to some customers, as reported by Bloomberg, but has not confirmed the scope of the operation.
Why It Matters
The refunds come at a time when Amazon faces a consumer lawsuit which alleges that the company systematically failed to adhere to its own return policies.
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The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, accused Jeff Bezos' company of reversing instant refunds from customers who had correctly returned items by leaving them at designated kiosks instead of bringing them back to an Amazon facility or never issuing them at all.
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What To Know
Steven Pope of Alpharetta, Georgia, was among the customers who received a refund from Amazon years after he returned the product he bought on the online platform.
"WILD—Amazon just refunded me finally for a return in 2018! $1,798.81 is being credited to me today in 2025 after 7 years," he wrote in a post on LinkedIn earlier this week. "I'm probably not the only customer who has experienced this but isn't that crazy!? 7 years to pay out a return???"
It is unclear whether there is a relation between the recent refunds and the lawsuit filed in the federal court in 2023. Amazon previously tried to get the lawsuit dismissed, but a federal judge denied its request in April.
Speaking on a conference call after Amazon's release of its latest earnings on May 1, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said that the retailer was taking a one-time charge of about $1.1 billion in the first quarter.
The charge, he said, was in part related to "some historical customer returns" previously unresolved and in part to stockpiling inventory ahead of the implementation of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs.
What People Are Saying
An Amazon spokesperson told Newsweek: "Following a recent internal review, we identified a very small subset of returns where we issued a refund without the payment completing, or where we could not verify that the correct item had been sent back to us so no refund was issued. There is no action required from customers to receive the refunds, and we have fixed the payment issue and made process changes to more promptly contact customers about unresolved returns going forward."
An email sent by Amazon to customers receiving years-old refunds, shared by Steven Pope of Alpharetta, Georgia: "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."
What Happens Next
The lawsuit against Amazon is in the discovery process.
If you are among the customers who are receiving refunds from Amazon years after their returns, I'd love to hear from you. Contact me by email at g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.
Update 5/23/25, 4:35 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a comment from an Amazon spokesperson.
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