I can't say bad words about the EU version of amazon when it comes to customer service. Yes the counterfeit stuff is there but the free returns mitigate that.

To the grandparent poster: you wont be able to order e-books off the uk version... and would have to use .com one.

As a frequent traveler across the EU, this bit me both on amazon.de/fr.

I'm not sure if there are exceptions to these rules, but free returns are frequently only free if within the same country and it's not unique to amazon.

That is false - I do order outside and it costs around 10 + 10euro/kg for around 7-10days delivery (express within 2-3days is around double). When I returned anything (3x times) - amazon paid back the shipping costs, BOTH my own sending and the bill sending back to them. If the item was part of a bigger order, they paid back partially my own cost for sending it to me initially. And they always foot the bill for the sending back in full.

More also, there was a hard drive that failed 2nd day I installed, I complained, they called and did send one immediately prior I even returned the original one to them, which they reimbursed the bill for. The drive arrived the next day (shipped by courier/air). Like I've said - I cant say bad words about their service in the EU.

My last cross-country return was in 2017 for a lens (sold and shipped from amazon) and I had to pay for the shipping myself to amazon.fr from italy. Didn't get a refund for the shipping cost, although the replacement arrived for free. Note that the lens was originally shipped to france. I was substituting for an identical item, which usually gets shipped right away. However, in this case, I had to wait for the return to be processed.

I had the same scenario in 2016, but from germany (shipped to germany, returned to france).

Note that I cannot complain for the service itself. I only had great experiences in return from amazon in general, but your description comes unexpected from me.

I've gotten my international return shipping always refunded when returning to amazon.de, amazon.it and amazon.fr (when the item was faulty or the item was otherwise eligible for free returns).

Here's the relevant amazon.de help page: https://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G...

> If your item was eligible for free return but you paid a delivery fee, we'll issue a refund for the delivery charges.

Edit: However, they should tell you in advance (before you order) if you will have to pay if you decide to return your order. If they don't tell you that you must pay for your return, the trader will have to pay for it. You don't have to pay any other charges that you were not informed of. [0]

[0]: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/gua...