Amazon policy on customer is always right

#1

Dear all
This may sound like venting however I feel I have a valid point
I had an a-z claim regarding a product being unsuitable and they would like to return
Ok this is no problem however they had stated it had upset her skin and stained her towels
This means this stock is now unsellable to me
I explained this in a lengthy email to the customer on 2 occasions offering to pay the return postage and give a 50% discount which I felt was fair
After no response with 2 separate emails sent the buyer then opened a case I submitted all my evidence ie the emails
And Amazon won in their favour and refunded them

Is this just me or is it a case of if I just ignore the emails the seller has sent and then deny they even contacted the buyer which is what happened

Hmmm maybe it’s time to just leave Amazon they charge enough in fees yet there seems no support at all to us sellers so I’m now without the return of the product and also down on the money

Cheers Amazon

#2

Seems reasonable to me.

If I bought some cream from the high Street shop and I re-acted badly I’d take it back to the shop for a refund and most major retailers would refund.

As a distance seller you have more responsibilities towards your customers than High Street retailers and the customers have a lot more rights.

These sort of things should all be priced into your goods.

Kevin

#3

well how ridiculous!

You dont make the product and so how could you be responsible. I am taking it it is some kind of skin product. Well like any product someone can react to it. And as for staining the towel!!Well lots of make up and creams would do that and really thats also not your problem. Next thing theyd be saying hair dye stains the towels and their skin reacts and blaming you. Even perfumes can react with some people. How is this your fault, I am assuming you sell many of these and other people have no problem. !

seriously just how much is our fault.

Just an example .- today i took a dog harness i sold a month ago back to the maunfacturer. I didnt know how it had broken. But they showed me how the dog had not only chewed a buckle off but chewed on the other one too-. How is that our fault as a retailler. Of course the manufacturer refused me a replacement as they said they cannot be responsible for the dog . But you can bet if that came up as an A to Z claim that Amazon would just rule for the customer!

Edited by: PetsNcharms on Jun 10, 2016 3:53 PM

#4

I would have thought that as long as the product is legally on sale (ie contains no banned ingredients) and the contents are fully explained on the bottle, it is up to the customer to make a decision whether to buy it and use it.

If the product has known allergic reactions or side effects mentioned by the manufacturer then you should make sure your product details show this clearly. For example products using nuts are a known trigger point for many sufferers. Some products bear a warning not suitable for children etc…

It does not mean though that if you are selling a product made from nuts for example you should no longer sell it at all !

I cant see that once a skin product has been opened and used that a customer can automatically expect a refund and for personal hygiene reasons it cannot be sold to another buyer. You might though depending on the circumstances offer a goodwill refund as you have. I think its up to you and not an Amazon policy requirement.

It may be that this is the first time the customer has discovered that she/he is allergic to something in the cream. That is not the sellers fault. If customers do have allergies then one would hope they would be careful to read the contents.

I would appeal the A-Z and state that the product was as described and is legally on sale. That on the basis of goodwill only you have offered a partial refund which the customer has already refused although it is more beneficial to them than than Amazon’s own policy which does not allow for the return of these items because of hygiene. If you get nowhere ask the escalation team to intervene. Depends how damaging it is to your metrics.

From the info you gave us I cant see how you can possibly be at fault.

#5

Seller Support are good at telling sellers and buyers what they want to hear but it makes no difference to the people who are making the A-Z claim decisions.

#6

I think the problem here was that the seller was only prepared to offer a 50% refund, and that’s what led to the buyer contacting Amazon and being advised to file an A-Z claim in order to get a full refund. Without bending over backwards it’s always best to try and avoid A-Z claims as a seller.

#7

Thanks for all your responses

The reason I had contacted the buyer was to offer a solution and hoped they would respond to be able to come to a resolution the product does show on the website all the ingredients etc so I’m not sure what else I could I was happy for this to be returned and if the buyer had thought this wasn’t a suitable resolution ie 50% I was happy to work with them

My point I was trying to make was the customer outright stated I hadn’t contacted them even though I sent 2 emails incase for some reason they didn’t get the 1st as this can happen

The reason stated for the return was this had burned their skin and had stained their towels this is a product I have sold for many years and well understand everyone’s skin reacts differently but what I’m peeved about is in no way had the A-Z team had taken into account I had contacted the buyer when they stated in their claim I hadn’t even supporting evidence so what’s the point of having the claim of you were going to just side with the customer even though they had mislead them by stating no contact was made

So as I said before I’m now the 1 with one product down which I would have happily used myself so it wasn’t wasted and down the money with little or hardly any major response from the buyer in the case

#8

See attached the a-z claim sent to me this morning

Stating seller has not responded

Which is an out an out lie on the buyers side

Edited by: Jessica@SellerSupport on Jun 14, 2016 1:30 PM
Removed screenshot as it contains private information

#9

If true, I think getting the goods back and refunding in full with as little fuss as possible was a no brainer!

Unless of course you want a claim for damages and the publicity that would go with it.

#10

However, i think you will see the OP had offerred a refund and was not the point they were making. My comments were more in response about how responsible they actually are for someone reacting to a skin proroduct as another poster seemed to imply that they were responsible and would perhaps prefer the bad publicity. well its not their product they don’t make it! Same if I sold some well known popular interantionally available brand of dogs shampoos (which I do) and someones dog had an allergic reaction to it but 100,000 plusdidnt react! Does that make it a dodgy itemand me responsible for their dogs reaction? I don’t think so!

Edited by: PetsNcharms on Jun 10, 2016 4:26 PM

#11

The buyer could be telling the truth.

You sending and them receiving - not the same.

#12

Dear all
Thank you for your replies it’s good to know I’m not the only dealing with nonsense
The funny thing is I never even questioned the issue with the customer as yes these things can happen with sensitive skin I’m a trained in beauty and no I didn’t make the product as was even happy to refund the customer their return postage but nope they ignored me stated I hadn’t contacted them even though I submitted that in my case both emails I even spoke to seller support if that’s what you want to call them and they agreed with the route I wanted to take by contacting the buyer 1st
However none of this was taken into account
Amazon take roughly £2000 in fees etc from me on a monthly basis so pleased I moved to open a website and can ditch them
And the cherry on top of the cake I was told by the A-Z team to review my listing to stop any further cases being opened against me

It’s strange how they let you appeal your case but what’s the point I’ll just get told the same crap again

#13

okay point taken there then. Yes it is always so difficult. I have another one on ebay where a very specific type of product has been quite obviously torn They are claiming they put it in water and then noticed as the gel came out Well I have to tell you the photo looks like its been ripped quite possibly by the dog. Now I have never had this happen and sold hundreds of this very good well made and known brand. Its not a tear in the seam its beeen ripped on the material as far as I can see from a photo and no way could you miss that big tear on opening the bag. Nor would you have had to put it in water for the gel to come out. So far she is refusing to return the item to me (have offerred to pay return postage) have explained need to see it and send it to manufacturer myself if it is a defect. This in itself is strange to refuse to return it. Well if it was on here i imagine theyd be putting an A to Z and getting a refund from Amazon

I purchased an ink cartridge off amazon uk recently and it didnt work. I was sent a repacement with a form to complete agreeing that if i did not return the faulty cartridge by a date they would charge me. Well I didnt and they charged me.- Why is this not done for all sellers. Why are we treated differently and have the same opportunity to stop ourselves being taken for a ride.

Edited by: PetsNcharms on Jun 10, 2016 4:50 PM

Edited by: PetsNcharms on Jun 10, 2016 4:51 PM

#14

Well let me just state it had delivered I’m not a mind reader as well as many other things hence why I had sent 2 just to be on the safe side, I state 2 separate occasions
Like I said what am I supposed to do of all the emails that are sent daily this was the only buyer that didn’t get theirs

I didn’t call the buyer a liar and ask them to provide further details to the issue with the towels and their skin I mearly tried to come to a resolution I would have in the end given a full refund if my 1st solution wasn’t acceptable

But I even submitted both emails in my a-z case and this seems to have been overlooked this was the main point I was trying to make

#15

Well then based on that Amazon needs to look at their emailing system as I followed it through this way twice

There was no number on file for me to contact on on the order so instead of pyshically going to the customers house which wasn’t an option what am I supposed to do

So then I’m deemed a liar how is that fair when the emails show as sent from my side and when I’ve emailed customers before through Amazon it throws it back if there is a problem

And out of all the customers I have this was the only one not to get their email

An email was sent twice to the customer over 48 hour period…

Amazon doesn’t provide the customers personal email

#16

The emails often go into spam box. You may check yours daily but not everyone does.

When buyer does not respond or response indicates the first message has not arrived you can print out the email and do a covering letter.
Stops numerous problems before they grow.

Buyers will forgive many things but they do not take well to being ignored.

Edited by: Martin on Jun 10, 2016 5:56 PM

#17

You will find plenty more buyers do not get emails.
I get over 50 a year who do not. And only sending a couple hundred emails.

They will have made the claim because you were ignoring them.
Up to you then. Did you bother sending a letter laying out your offer and ask buyer politely to withdraw the claim?

Edited by: Martin on Jun 10, 2016 6:06 PM

#18

You know what is the problem lilshop?
as soon as the buyer has any sort of problem and contact the customer support, customer support first suggestion to the buyer is to open a claim.
Happened to me a year ago that a customer complain that I did not refund the postage to return the the item back for an item he no longer wanted and customer support advised buyer to open a claim (i assume). Of course buyer followed the advise
It shouldn’t be like that

#19

If you get an A-Z claim the chances are you will lose no matter what, the whole system is about the customer always being right even when it is clear it is a scam, Amazon just don’t believe that there are some really bad customers out there, in 9 years I have manage to win one A-Z, only to find it still has an impact on my matrics, so if you get an A-Z it is better to role over and die that way it doesn’t have an affect on your matrics, the whole system is simply just set up to deny the sellers no matter what.

#20

this is so true amazon has different policies for sellers and different for themselves.they can refund a buyer without returning item if its a seller and if themselves they will charge the buyer again if he doesnt return.
many of buyers have also started misusing amazon’s lenient behaviour towards them and even ask you for returns after 6 months to 1 year even if they use and break the item and also amazon can help them open a claim after an year as well.what a policy.such a shame