New Amazon seller using FBA, inventory lost, pitiful reimbursement value

#1

Hi all,

I am a new seller on Amazon. I design and manufacture my own 3D Printed products. I have had reasonable success selling these on Etsy, so I thought the next natural progression for me was to try Amazon.

Due to the nature of 3D Printing, I thought FBA would be the best option where I could print out the products in advance and have them available for immediate despatch by Amazon.

I duly printed out 150 products (50 of each colour) totalling nearly 700 hours of print time. I purchased barcodes and read up on the FBA requirement for sending products in that needed no further processing.

I sent the 3 boxes on 10th January. All boxes were in Receiving state by 17th Jan (1 of the boxes got sent to a different fulfilment centre due to me inputting incorrect dimension units).

The products in this box have been received and shows the correct quantity.

However, the other 2 boxes only show that 50 of the units have been located. At the end of last week I got an email from Amazon saying that one of the boxes had been lost and that they were going to reimburse me.

Amazon have offered me a reimbursement rate of 57p per item, even though the price of each is set at ÂŁ11.49.

I am absolutely flabbergasted (not to say extemely angry) that they seem to have screwed my first order up so much. I find it hard to believe that a company such as Amazon, who do this sort of thing every day, have been so incompetent. How can they lose a box in their fulfilment centre?

However, what is really infuriating is that I cannot seem to get hold of anyone in any authority who can help me with this or even explain what is going on. I want to ask how they have misplaced my products that have been received. I also want to ask them why they have only given me a reimbursement value of 57p. Each item costs me ÂŁ1.70 in filament cost and 60p in other component costs, not to mention over 3 hours over print time.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can resolve this issue? Anyone been in a similar situation? Were you able to speak to anyone? I feel completely deflated and let down by what seems to be total ineptitude and a failure by Amazon to take responsibility

#2

Every FBA seller has fc losses,virtually every shipment we send has losses.There’s really nothing you can do about it.We have items turning up regularly months & occasionally over a year after being lost at which time any reimbursment is taken back.I assume your product has no sales history thats why you receive basically whats Amazon values as a piece of plastic,with more sales history you would get a higher figure & as you make the items yourself,when Amazon ask for an invoice to establish value you need to create an invoice from your “manufacturing department” to your “sales department” showing the cost of your product.Amazon never really takes responsibilty for any errors its fc staff make.
You unfortunately have found how Amazon FBA works & has always worked,you just have to accept it or stop selling.
Amazon has always been buyer friendly not seller friendly.

#3

Unfortunately as @russ says they lose mountains of stuff. I can’t remember the last time they managed to receipt a shipment correctly and I send around 10 shipments a week.

Anyway my main point for replying was to say make sure that you request a cubiscan on the item that you have input the wrong measurements. This will ensure that you are not being overcharged for FBA fees. If they have overcharged you they will reimburse any incorrect fees.

#4

Thanks @russ.

I’ve got to admit that in one way I’m really surprised to hear that Amazon do so badly with inbound shipments, but in another it sort of isn’t surprising to hear. Bit of an eye opener though.

It’s taken the wind out of my sails, and I may just knock FBA on the head - I don’t think I could live with the inner anger/frustration if this is a regular occurrence, especially if there’s no-one I can speak to at Amazon

#5

Thanks @Paul73

Ironically the oversize items have been scanned correctly and the FBA fees are all correct. It’s the other boxes that have had the problem.

#6

You can challenge the value that you have been paid.

However, you do need to understand how they work it out first.
What is basically supposed to happen, is that you will get an average value from the prior selling history.
But that is not cost price, it is selling price, less fees etc.

So you need to present to them, proof of the actual cost of the item.

Have a read through the below, it explains how it is worked out.

https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/help/hub/reference/G200213130

#7

The saga continues.

I have just heard that Amazon have lost a second box as well, although interestingly they say they counted 2 items (in a box that contained 50) and that the other 48 weren’t delivered.

My guess here is that they have completely screwed up the checking in of my inventory. I think they checked in one box correctly, which contained 50 items. For the other box I don’t know how they counted 2 instead of 50. Perhaps for this box they didn’t count the number of items in the box, but instead counted the 2 boxes that both sets of 50 items were sent in.

The result is that of the 150 items I sent in, Amazon are saying that they didn’t receive 98 of them, even though all 3 boxes were registered as delivered. There seems to be absolutely nothing I can do to get this rectified. The 700 hours of printing all seems to be for nothing. I am devastated and deflated. I was looking forward to seeing how my products would sell on Amazon, but it has turned into a stressful nightmare.

The only thing for me to do now is to close my account and go off and lick my wounds. However, before I do that, I’d like to get the inventory that they do have back to me. Has anyone get any recommendations on how to do this? To be honest I’m tired of trying to get any support from them, and just want this closed off as soon as possible.

I’m finding it difficult to comprehend that a company as big as Amazon is able to get away with such appalling service. It really seems that they genuinely don’t give a toss.

#8

Were there any barcodes on the outside box for the items inside ?

#9

No, none at all. I believe that I followed Amazan FBA instructions to the letter

#10

Were all the items loose inside that outer box ? No bundles in internal boxes or bags?
And was each individual unit labelled ?

#11

All items were in individual plastic bags (to Amazon’s specification) in the outer box and all were correctly individually barcoded.

I’m really finding it hard to comprehend how they could have screwed up so much.

Thanks for your replies.

closed #12

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