Amazon Is Giving Refunds For Years-Old Purchases: Here’s How You Could Get Yours

Amazon sent emails to qualifying customers about their refunds

“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,” Amazon said in emails to multiple customers, according to Bloomberg.

“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,” the email continued.

Amazon spokesperson Maxine Tagay assured Amazon customers that the refunds would be an easy process and that they would be making changes to avoid lapses in refunds in the near future.

“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,” she said in a statement shared to USA Today.

How much will Amazon pay in refunds?

On Tuesday, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed that some customers will receive refunds but did not disclose the overall payout, according to Newsweek. However, company executives hinted it may be hundreds of millions of dollars, per Bloomberg. Amazon’s first-quarter earnings report revealed new details, including the retailer’s performance and where some money had gone.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky spoke on a conference call on May 1, stating that Amazon took a one-time charge of about $1.1 billion, according to Bloomberg. The charge included “some historical customer returns” that were unresolved, and the overall cost of stockpiling inventory in anticipation of tariffs, Olsavsky said.

‘I’m probably not the only customer who has experienced this’

The Verge reported that some Amazon customers have shared their experience with overdue refunds on social media, including Reddit, Linkedin and X, formerly known as Twitter.

One customer, Steven Pope, founder of My Amazon Guy, a company that helps people sell products on Amazon, shared in a Linkedin post how much he would receive in a refund from a purchase years ago.

“WILD — Amazon just refunded me finally for a return in 2018!” Pope said in the post, adding, “$1,798.81 is being credited to me today in 2025 after 7 years.”

“I’m probably not the only customer who has experienced this but isn’t that crazy!? 7 years to payout a return???” he continued.

Pope then shared the email he and other customers received from Amazon.

A class-action lawsuit filed against Amazon

In November 2023, a legal complaint was filed by Holly Jones Clark of Kentucky, alleging that the retailer failed to issue refunds for items returned within the 30-day return policy window, according to NBC Chicago.

The lawsuit claimed Amazon either reversed instant refunds or never issued them at all and that the errors later appeared on debit and credit card statements.

In April, a federal judge denied Amazon’s plea to dismiss the case, per Bloomberg.