We could never understand why Amazon allowed ebooks to be
returned and found it very frustrating when every month one always appeared in
the Kindle reports. Was it a lost sale? Did they not read what the work was
about and returned it as rejected? Did they just not like it and returned it
unwanted? Did they read it and then returned it for their money back on a free
read? We will never know as Amazon doesn’t say.
Now just to raise the questions further Apple has just
started to allow European users of their iTunes stores to
“return” goods without giving a reason.
This may bring Apple in line with EU regulations passed in
June which mandate online sellers to offer a “right of withdrawal” from
distance sales. It is not in the interest of authors, publishers and even Apple. The
regulations stipulate that customers may withdraw from an
off-premises contract with 14 days of purchase without giving any reason.
Apple’s iTunes
terms and conditions have now been updated to include a “Right of cancellation”
and states, “if you choose to cancel your order, you may do so within 14 days
from when you received your receipt without giving any reason, except iTunes
Gifts which cannot be refunded once you have redeemed the code.”
The previous
position was on a case by case basis and geared towards issues where the file
had failed to download. This sensible approach still prevails outside the EU,
but inside we appear to be in the grip and influence of some misguided mandarins
in Brussels who understand little and take bold and misguided leaps into the
dark.
Nothing new there then!
