Amazon stiffed you on a refund? You might be due a piece of this class-action settlement

Amazon is set to pay out more than $300 million to customers who claim the online gigaretailer’s return process failed them. Customers who received incomplete or late refunds, or no refunds at all, for returned items over the past nine years will be eligible to claim a piece of the settlement.

As brought to our attention by Top Class Actions, Amazon has agreed to pay out $309.5 million to customers who weren’t correctly refunded for purchases made from September 5, 2017 to February 12 of this year. The suit claimed that Amazon’s return and refund practices violate Washington state law.

Most customers covered by the class-action (Subclass A) will receive their cut automatically, which will include unpaid refunds “plus an amount proportional to any potential prejudgment interest.” Some affected customers (Subclass B) will need to submit a claim form and supporting documentation, according to Top Class Actions, though it’s not clear to me what the distinction between the two groups is — only that Subclass B includes everyone affected not covered by Subclass A.

In addition to the settlement payouts, Amazon’s apparently also agreed to try to complete other partial refunds not covered by the suit. It’s also agreed to change its return practices to reprocess refunds that weren’t able to be completed due to payment processing issues after 30 days.

It also says it’ll notify customers about return status, and automatically refund some some returns that haven’t been completed within 90 days of being initiated. Top Class Actions says these additional measures will only remain in place for one to two years, however.