The problem I've had is that the descriptions of software are frequently wrong when Amazon puts them in their system. For example, I was going to buy TurboTax Premier, since Amazon said that the state e-file was free. The comments said otherwise.

Absolutely depends on the seller. You know what you're getting when Amazon is the seller (and not just the fulfiller). However, some sellers out there are really good. Although not a technology example, eBags is great - free returns within 30 days and super fast processing, based on a recent experience. Check out seller ratings and return policies.

Note that the manufacturer itself might also be a seller on Amazon, which I would deem safe, although (again) look at the shipping and return policies.

Agree with comment above that downloading is my preferred way to purchase software on Amazon (it being tax season and all).

Software will not appear on certain country's Amazon site either by your log in locale or the .ip you are logged in from due to licensing restrictions.

Some software would not install from certain country if you do not have a activation code for that countr.

BTW: all my Amazon purchase of software (direct using Amazon prime) has been trouble free.

Another issue could be an PH .ip address. I had issue in PH trying to log into my banking site and was denied due to insecure .ip address.

I manage an Amazon Seller account with $300,000/month in sales. We ship some products ourselves but use the Fulfillment by Amazon program for the majority of what we sell.

I agree with this. All it would take is two customers to complain and Amazon will immediately pull all the seller's inventory while they investigate the product themselves. If the copies were found to be bogus, Amazon would ban the seller from selling any product on Amazon again (if the seller was very large with very high ratings and this was a first time offense, they might get by with a warning and confiscation of inventory). I have friends who are permanently banned from selling on Amazon without any avenue of appeal for a relatively minor mistake they made selling something.

You should contact Amazon again, escalating the issue if needed. Items fulfilled by Amazon are covered by Amazon's return policy, not the seller's.

We get lots of returns every month that were returned simply because the buyer changed their mind. For our "Fulfillment by Amazon" sales these customers automatically get a full refund even though our return policy stipulates a 15% restocking fee if there is nothing wrong with the product and it is no longer in the new unopened condition we sold it as. We take losses on these returns but consider it an acceptable cost of using the FBA program.

-------------------------------------------

Who should you trust buying on Amazon? (My opinion)

1) Amazon themselves or any seller with 97%+ positive feedback and over 100 ratings.

- Aprox in 1 in 10 Amazon customers leave feedback, so 100 ratings means about 1000 sales.
- An unsatisfied customer is much more likely to leave feedback than a satisfied one. So 98% positive feedback means more than 98% of customers were happy (most didn't leave feedback).
- Amazon (unlike Ebay) counts neutral feedback against the positive feedback % so an Amazon seller with 2 neutral ratings and 98 positive and 0 negatives would show up as 98% positive feedback.

2) Any Amazon seller worth buying from has their return policy published with details about their return policy.

----------------------


Side Note: A small % of feedback comes from customers who are bitter and will leave feedback for no apparent reason. The only recent negative feedback on the seller account I manage comes from a buyer with the screen name "morally wounded" who left us the feedback "bad seller, 1/5" without contacting us about any problem. We reached out to this customer asking what happened, if there was anything we could do to make things right, and offering return for full refund or to keep the product with partial refund. The buyer stopped answering emails and the phone number on the order does not accept incoming calls so there is nothing we can do to make this customer satisfied. We would be willing to give in to even unreasonable requests from the customer to make them satisfied. I am amazed by the very rare Amazon seller who somehow has managed a 100% positive feedback rating as in my experience there are some rare bad apple customers who cannot be pleased.