> Returns are the absolute worst - every experience I've had is at least a 10+ minute wait.

> The shopping (and return) experience at Amazon is so far superior

I don't get it.

An Amazon return process will also take me 5-10 minutes to complete online, and then it requires me to have a printer and packaging on-hand to ship the item back to Amazon. Then to get a replacement I need to wait multiple days for both the return to process, and the replacement to ship.

I live in a suburban area, so for a physical store I drive 15-20 minutes, wait 10 minutes for the return to process, and then get in my car with the replacement and drive back home. I can get the entire thing done in less than an hour. I don't need to print anything, I don't need to box anything up. I can go from noticing a part is defective to having a replacement in my hand in an hour.

You seem to be optimizing for different metrics than me, or you live way farther from most physical stores than I do.

It's annoying to type in a pin, I guess, but I'm happy to take that ~15 second loss if it means I can save 2 days of waiting for a package to arrive.

Maybe you don't have Amazon dropoff locations, but essentially I walk in the door, walk to a staff member handling returns, and they scan a QR code on my phone and I hand over the item. Never encountered a line and am always out within a minute.

It doesn't need to be packed in a taped box with a label on it.

That's kind of cool, good to know. Unfortunately in my small metro area of 2.5M people, there are exactly three locations to drop-off, two of which are downtown and not easy to drive in and out of.

Hopefully they are planning to expand those options.

That might explain the difference. I've never taken advantage of the dropoffs, I'm not sure if there are any near me.

For a while now, you can just bring the item to a UPS store and scan a QR code on your phone. You don’t even need to wrap it. This is so much better than the old hassle.

I recently bought a camera lens from Amazon. It was listed as new, but when I received it, the lens caps for both the front and back were missing, the packaging was dirty, and so was the lens. It was obviously not new.

When I started speaking with customer support, I told them that the manufacturer had listed the lens caps as included accessories on the item's listing. The support agent told me that I didn't buy it from the manufacturer, I bought it from Amazon, so there was no guarantee for everything being included. They then went further and advised me that they personally only buy items like this from a retail store for this reason. I was flabbergasted that Amazon's own support team was telling me not to shop on Amazon.

This was one of the worst experiences I had ever had on Amazon, I returned the item and purchased it for a premium from B&H.

What is the point of online ordering if I still have to go to the post office?

>Online order/store pickup. Why do I have to wait in line and have my ID checked?

How else is this supposed to work? They're just going to leave the stuff lying out and you're going to pinky swear to only take your order and not someone else's more expensive order?

You put them in locked boxes that are controlled by a kiosk. Unlock your box by scanning the code or typing it in.

A very popular solution in Poland, used majorly with our local equivalent of eBay (who made and owns the system).

Made "courier" delivery times the norm.