Forum

Amazon dilemma
 

Hi everyone,

I need some Amazon advice from some experienced Amazon sellers.

My account was placed on a review 2 days ago for selling too much, too fast and I believe I went over their "invisible" weekly monetary threshold. I've only begun selling on Amazon about a month ago. All real info and legit products. I've sold about 15 items and had ZERO feedback. Just yesterday, I received a 1 feedback and now am at 100%.

They placed my acct. under review, but told me to keep sending products out if they are sold.

Today I just received a message from a customer that I sent a product to last week (before I was placed under review). He wants a refund and to return the item. He didn't say why. If I accept his return, the item will now be opened and "used"...and will reduce it's selling price by about 40% due to it being used.

If I refund him....hopefully he will give me good feedback. If I don't, he might leave bad feedback.

If I do, Amazon will see a refund/return...and will probably ding me for that.

What should I do?

Thanks!

Well either way you look at it you will need to refund the customer. If you don't choose to do so on your own and they file a A-Z claim with Amazon then not only will you still be giving them there money back but now you will have a claim on your file which won't look good if you are trying to get your account back.

You're probably stuck having to refund the customer - sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. I had Amazon review my account when it was new and nothing came of it, so I wouldn't worry unduly about that. You might want to try contacting your other buyers and asking in a personal way if they could leave you feedback - Amazon likes to see that - although it can backfire: I got one negative feedback from doing that.

Good luck!

Thanks cardfelon and MrMondo! I wish there was a way I could refund the customer outside of Amazon but all the messages go through the Amazon message center.

If after the refund, the customer leaves a Pos. feedback....does that cancel out the "strike" against me for having to refund someone?

I don't think they consider having to give a single refund a strike against you. If they see excessive ones they might, but refunds are to be expected.

Yeah, they watch the 'DEFECT' rate. A defect is a negative feedback or an A-Z claim. If you give the refund the buyer won't file the A-Z claim.

How do I handle the refund / return? Do I message the customer and ask for him to return the item to me and then I issue the refund though the "refund order" button? I searched the seller help area and don't see any info on how I request the item back.

yes you just tell the buyer you'll be happy to give a refund and then give them your 'return' address and say a refund through Amazon will occur as soon as the item is returned. Then when you use the "refund" button and include the note that you are very sorry they didn't like it.

Thanks oWell!

HealthNut88, you might also want to know that Amazon policy allows you to charge a restocking fee of up to 20%. Whether you actually want to do so is up to you - I would say you are certainly justified in doing so if the product was opened and not defective, and Amazon would not give you grief about it, but on the other hand it might lead the buyer to post negative feedback.

I think it's best to find out the reason for return. If you are lucky, you might be able to work with the buyer and get this resolved without getting the item returned.

Since the buyer didn't indicate any signs of defects on item when requesting a refund, I assume he or she just changed mind about purchasing the product. If that's the case, make sure you specify such reason when making the refund from your seller account. I think Amazon may look for reason to refund and they know buyer remorse can be one.

Just to be for certain healthnut88 you are not obligated to refund item if customer gives no valid excuse which may be because of buyers remorse. Amazon's return policy is such if it is not a defective, you are not obligated to refund if because of buyer remorse. Granted, with your account new, this may not be the route you'd want to take given that you don't want a possible negative feedback/a-z claim. Ask customer through amazon email why it is they want to return item to you. It would be obvious to anyone at amazon reading emails that this is buyers remorse.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm just going to refund them with no questions asked. With hopes of getting a positive feedback from them and live to sell another day (If I get through the 30 day suspension). :help:

Again, thanks for all the replies! :hail:

But Amazon thinks the customer is always right. Why draw attention? If you refuse the refund the buyer will probably for sure file the A-Z claim and then you're done. The buyer will NEVER admit buyer remorse. I've been selling on the internet since 1996 and the most you'll get is 'once I got it I didn't like it'. Enough for Amazon to side with the seller. When someone says they decided they didn't want it just refund the cost minus shipping and/or re-stocking if you can and move on. It's not worth risking suspension as long as you get the item back to re-sell anyway.