Return request
A customer has ordered the wrong item from us mistaking a product which is very similar in name to another but yet is very different in reality. We have A and B listed she bought A when she should have bought B and now claims that on our listing (product discription is not accurate) which is not the case. I have checked both listings A and B and the product description are accurate. Now she asking for a return and a refund. How can I contact Amazon to show that this is her error and not ours so that we are not financially penalised. We are happy to accept a return but only if the customer pays the return postage.
50 replies
Seller_lljyzgTxr5fgI
Not worth the hassle. This happens all the time; the customer buys the wrong item and then claims the product description is incorrect in order to get free return postage. Simply accept the return and (providing the goods are in the condition they were sent) refund in full. If necessary, arrange the collection of said goods yourself to keep the return costs down. The alternative will be the customer will open an A-Z, which you will likely lose and they may also get to keep the goods too. We all know it’s not right, but that is the way of Amazon. This is also how I would process this problem, if presented to me.
Such returns are a very common part of everyday selling on Amazon and a lot of sellers “build in” the cost of such returns when pricing.
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
Difficult to judge without knowing the exact details but the long and the short is that unless a product is bespoke they are entitled to return it for any reason even change of mind.
Now here is the thing, you are happy to do a return but don’t want to pay for the return postage, the only thing you can do is accept the return request and then wait for the item to be returned.
Once it has been returned you may have the option to deduct the return postage and can also reduce the refund amount if you feel that it is not in the same condition etc.
In the first instance, accept the return, wait for it to come in and then make a decision on the refund amount when it arrives.
Sometimes customers raise returns and then don’t bother, sometimes it comes back damaged, sometimes everything is perfect and can be popped back on the shelf for someone else in which case the postage is a judgement call especially if the customer just wants to return but rebuy the correct item.
Shorting them on the postage could still leave you open to a claim so you need to decide whether keeping the return postage is worth it to you.
Part and parcel of dealing on Amazon and you have to factor these things in. Also review the listings to ensure absolute certainty, sometimes descriptions can be subjective especially when you are reading them with knowledge of your product.
Seller_OC4AKQTpHwKwL
As he others have said, this is Amazon. You will never beat a customer for A to Zs or for the wrong item being purchased.
It is our fault if they give the wrong address, they make a mistake with the order, if Royal Mail are late. We will soon be held accountable if they are late for work, if their boss catches them skiving, if they get wet in the shower, get indigestion for eating too fast - the list will grow over time.
Seriously though, we have just had our first Auto Refund - let’s see what we get back now.
We have no idea of how hard it will be to file a Safe T claim - the horror stories have already done the rounds.
If we don’t get the money back, this could be considered theft maybe?
People have said on the forum that Amazon want everything FBA. This business model is incredibly flawed. Why wreck what has been working for nearly 25 years? Why would you want to have to pay staff to pick & pack in warehouses - when you have any army of distributors which actually pay for the privilege of working for you.
If you get rid of sellers, are you not losing all of the fees both on support & sales paid for doing nothing? If people don’t sell themselves on their own websites like us, they may not afford the products to send to Amazon.
The next few weeks will be very interesting.
Seller_DJwE1RXTpAHPh
buyers expect prepaid shipping labels because they are never in the wrong and should not have to bear these costs under any circumstances. buyers should never have to pay for return shipping, even when they set the reason to ‘unauthorised purchase’ - this one is 100% the seller’s fault and there should be no question as to who pays for return shipping there.
Seller_pVyWRIimrIfUS
This is exactly why we prefer to sell on eBay! Thier charges are lower, it is far easier to list an item and edit it and if there is a disput there is always someone at the end of the telephone that you can talk to and reason with and generally, though noit all the time, they come down on the sellers side not the purchaser that is trying it on!
Seller_eUZoswVe9cyRq
Welcome to the world of selling on amazon - the customer is ALWAYS right and you are wrong, you will make more money than you loose unless you loose more money than you make - if you contact customer services they will put you on a carousel until you decide to get off. Enjoy
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
I’m probably one of the sellers that you guys all hate and “blame” for all your problem customers…
My items are all cheap, in fact I pay less for a lot of them than the cost of a 2nd class stamp.
So when a customer wants to return one I just refund it, because that works out cheaper for my business in the long run, my profit on that order is already pratically wiped out by the fact I have to refund the original postage I paid, without paying return postage on top of it, and if I did receive the item back I’d have no profit on the next order because of the return postage… so why bother.
And that was all before Amazon started charging me £3.30 for return postage (which is often 50% MORE than what I charged the customer for the entire order in the first place), which means I would take the next 3 or 4 orders just to cover the cost of that return!
Unfortunately on Amazon even if it was the customers fault, there is no way Amazon charge the customer, and if I have to accept the return of £3.30 there is no possible way for me to deduct this off a £2 order, in which case I am open to A-Z - its just not worth the hassle.
on Ebay I would tell them to return it, but on Amazon its financially not visible, not for the small amount of return requests I actually get and the high return postage charge…
