Being ripped off by Amazon fees
This is a message to any new seller thinking about selling on amazon. BEWARE:
My selling started out pretty well several years ago, but after some time my fees just kept on going up and up.
-
At present my UK account presently averages fees of 35%.
-
My DE (German) account averages fees of 44% (bear in mind I have a DE VAT number and store goods in Germany)
-
My Spain, Italy, Poland and France accounts are now averaging 80% - 110% in fees. The goods for these sales come from my goods stored in Germany.
At 80%-100%, it was a no brainer for me to stop selling in Spain, Italy, Poland and France until they can recalculate the fees as one can clearly see that it’s not feasible to be making a loss while amazon make all my profit.
However after 2 weeks going back and forth with the ever so talented amazon seller support team, I finally got someone to recalculate my Spain fees and in turn got a reimbursement ID number stating I was due 500 odd Euros in the next 3-5 days. A week later there is still no money. Finally after another week speaking to “support”, I was told that the reimbursement was cancelled by the payments team due to insufficient evidence. Bear in mind, the evidence was given by the support team. So now I am back to square one with:
-
No sales happening in Spain, Italy, Poland and France.
-
Money due to me from sales in Spain, Italy, Poland and France
-
And last but not least, no way of resolving this because amazon support may as well not exist.
Below is a recent sale of one of my products on Amazon Italy showing a loss of 73 cents:
0 replies
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
I’m sorry, but the percentages your quoting don’t make any sense, unless you are including FBA fees as well. Which actually makes it an incorrect percentage, as you would have to cover that cost separately anyway in postage. Which frankly in a lot of cases, is cheaper using FBA than other sources.
The highest referral fees (excluding Jewellery 20.4% and Amazon devices 45.9%), is the standard 15.3%. And there are fair few categories that are as low as 7.14%. So struggling to get how you work out fees as high as 35%?
Why are the EU fees so high? Why did they agree to give you a refund? Was something being charged incorrectly?
Seller_EHYOwAkoZV3Hb
Advice to all new sellers. Read the Amazon rate card, understand the fee structure and the difference between local sales, EFN, Pan-EU etc, double-check your calculations and then (only then), if you are making a profit with your chosen selling price, go ahead.
If not, increase the selling price until the required margin is achieved. If price is now too expensive, don’t sell the item.
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Some of my amazon fees equate to about 50% the sale price as well, however I have taken that into account when setting my prices.
Quite often the SnL fee is about the same it would cost me to send the item with Royal mail anyway.
I looked at EFN, but chose not to do it cause I didn’t want to pay the additional fees.
If the fees strangely jumped up in price, Its possible that something got measured wrong and is therefore being charged incorrect fees, but EFN is set fees, and FBA is set fees, so it should be easy enough to work out your sale price based on it and realise very quickly if something changed so you can look into it.
Seller_3h73Wv2FjIws0
Why would anyone sell SKUs they make a loss on? Amazon display fees and you can just look at the breakdown when you make a sale. If its a loss just dont sell the item.
Seller_rGtEcZnu0JTRD
Reading the thread, seems like you need to re-evaluate your costs, as @NEil states Amazon fees are not cheap, but they are not extorionate either, and not even the highest for a marketplace, we have 1 marketplace that charges 20% comission on a wide range of products. I just checked ours on Amazon for yesterdays sales, and it only equates to 14% - see below.
@NEil is correct that you have to ignore the FBA fee when looking at what your costs are, as these are postage fees and normally a damn site cheaper than posting yourself, if you are using FBA then the cost of the fee has to be added after you calculate the product cost and if its not viable then you just go FBM. We do very little FBA as the fees do not work with most of our products as a lot of what we sell is Bulky and Heavy so this does make FBA expensive for us meaning we are 95% FBM.
Seller_ODfS7iDSvFEHP
Clearly all of you who are coming with these brilliant ideas haven’t looked at the attachment showing all the fees since 2021. The fees were all correct and then suddenly went bezerk over the last several months. Amazon have even admitted their wrong doing and issued a reimbursement but are now not willing to pay this reimbursement.
But yes, it’s my calculations 
Seller_ODfS7iDSvFEHP
I finally received a response from an intellectual at amazon support:
Hello from Amazon Seller Partner Support,
Thank you for contacting us. My name is Tebibu. I will be glad to assist you to find a resolution to your case.
I understand that you are concerned about incorrectly charged fees. We certainly understand how important this is to your business and we apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
I am sorry to see that you had to contact us multiple times on this case and I empathize with your frustration on this matter.
Please be informed that I have changed the product fee category which was resulting in the incorrect charges and I have also contacted the relevant team to investigate and issue a reimbursement for the previously charged fees. I will keep you updated of any developments.
We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard.
Thank you for selling with Amazon.
Tebibu
Amazon.co.uk Seller Support
But @NEil @Retro_Emporium …yes it’s my calculations 
Seller_uK2aGVnqbtliE
Glad you raised this topic again.
I sell books and knitting patterns. The latter mostly cost £2 plus £2.80 postage - total £4.80. Amazon fees are £2.31 (which incidentally takes some of the postage charge which should be illegal in my opinion). Amazon therefore takes 48% in fees. This supports the OPs statement and shows the ripoff.
I would actually like to sell the patterns for £1 as I personally am not into ripping off peope but, with Amazon swiping some of the postage costs, I would make a loss.
Being ripped off by Amazon fees
This is a message to any new seller thinking about selling on amazon. BEWARE:
My selling started out pretty well several years ago, but after some time my fees just kept on going up and up.
-
At present my UK account presently averages fees of 35%.
-
My DE (German) account averages fees of 44% (bear in mind I have a DE VAT number and store goods in Germany)
-
My Spain, Italy, Poland and France accounts are now averaging 80% - 110% in fees. The goods for these sales come from my goods stored in Germany.
At 80%-100%, it was a no brainer for me to stop selling in Spain, Italy, Poland and France until they can recalculate the fees as one can clearly see that it’s not feasible to be making a loss while amazon make all my profit.
However after 2 weeks going back and forth with the ever so talented amazon seller support team, I finally got someone to recalculate my Spain fees and in turn got a reimbursement ID number stating I was due 500 odd Euros in the next 3-5 days. A week later there is still no money. Finally after another week speaking to “support”, I was told that the reimbursement was cancelled by the payments team due to insufficient evidence. Bear in mind, the evidence was given by the support team. So now I am back to square one with:
-
No sales happening in Spain, Italy, Poland and France.
-
Money due to me from sales in Spain, Italy, Poland and France
-
And last but not least, no way of resolving this because amazon support may as well not exist.
Below is a recent sale of one of my products on Amazon Italy showing a loss of 73 cents:
Being ripped off by Amazon fees
This is a message to any new seller thinking about selling on amazon. BEWARE:
My selling started out pretty well several years ago, but after some time my fees just kept on going up and up.
-
At present my UK account presently averages fees of 35%.
-
My DE (German) account averages fees of 44% (bear in mind I have a DE VAT number and store goods in Germany)
-
My Spain, Italy, Poland and France accounts are now averaging 80% - 110% in fees. The goods for these sales come from my goods stored in Germany.
At 80%-100%, it was a no brainer for me to stop selling in Spain, Italy, Poland and France until they can recalculate the fees as one can clearly see that it’s not feasible to be making a loss while amazon make all my profit.
However after 2 weeks going back and forth with the ever so talented amazon seller support team, I finally got someone to recalculate my Spain fees and in turn got a reimbursement ID number stating I was due 500 odd Euros in the next 3-5 days. A week later there is still no money. Finally after another week speaking to “support”, I was told that the reimbursement was cancelled by the payments team due to insufficient evidence. Bear in mind, the evidence was given by the support team. So now I am back to square one with:
-
No sales happening in Spain, Italy, Poland and France.
-
Money due to me from sales in Spain, Italy, Poland and France
-
And last but not least, no way of resolving this because amazon support may as well not exist.
Below is a recent sale of one of my products on Amazon Italy showing a loss of 73 cents:
0 replies
0 replies
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
I’m sorry, but the percentages your quoting don’t make any sense, unless you are including FBA fees as well. Which actually makes it an incorrect percentage, as you would have to cover that cost separately anyway in postage. Which frankly in a lot of cases, is cheaper using FBA than other sources.
The highest referral fees (excluding Jewellery 20.4% and Amazon devices 45.9%), is the standard 15.3%. And there are fair few categories that are as low as 7.14%. So struggling to get how you work out fees as high as 35%?
Why are the EU fees so high? Why did they agree to give you a refund? Was something being charged incorrectly?
Seller_EHYOwAkoZV3Hb
Advice to all new sellers. Read the Amazon rate card, understand the fee structure and the difference between local sales, EFN, Pan-EU etc, double-check your calculations and then (only then), if you are making a profit with your chosen selling price, go ahead.
If not, increase the selling price until the required margin is achieved. If price is now too expensive, don’t sell the item.
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Some of my amazon fees equate to about 50% the sale price as well, however I have taken that into account when setting my prices.
Quite often the SnL fee is about the same it would cost me to send the item with Royal mail anyway.
I looked at EFN, but chose not to do it cause I didn’t want to pay the additional fees.
If the fees strangely jumped up in price, Its possible that something got measured wrong and is therefore being charged incorrect fees, but EFN is set fees, and FBA is set fees, so it should be easy enough to work out your sale price based on it and realise very quickly if something changed so you can look into it.
Seller_3h73Wv2FjIws0
Why would anyone sell SKUs they make a loss on? Amazon display fees and you can just look at the breakdown when you make a sale. If its a loss just dont sell the item.
Seller_rGtEcZnu0JTRD
Reading the thread, seems like you need to re-evaluate your costs, as @NEil states Amazon fees are not cheap, but they are not extorionate either, and not even the highest for a marketplace, we have 1 marketplace that charges 20% comission on a wide range of products. I just checked ours on Amazon for yesterdays sales, and it only equates to 14% - see below.
@NEil is correct that you have to ignore the FBA fee when looking at what your costs are, as these are postage fees and normally a damn site cheaper than posting yourself, if you are using FBA then the cost of the fee has to be added after you calculate the product cost and if its not viable then you just go FBM. We do very little FBA as the fees do not work with most of our products as a lot of what we sell is Bulky and Heavy so this does make FBA expensive for us meaning we are 95% FBM.
Seller_ODfS7iDSvFEHP
Clearly all of you who are coming with these brilliant ideas haven’t looked at the attachment showing all the fees since 2021. The fees were all correct and then suddenly went bezerk over the last several months. Amazon have even admitted their wrong doing and issued a reimbursement but are now not willing to pay this reimbursement.
But yes, it’s my calculations
Seller_ODfS7iDSvFEHP
I finally received a response from an intellectual at amazon support:
Hello from Amazon Seller Partner Support,
Thank you for contacting us. My name is Tebibu. I will be glad to assist you to find a resolution to your case.
I understand that you are concerned about incorrectly charged fees. We certainly understand how important this is to your business and we apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
I am sorry to see that you had to contact us multiple times on this case and I empathize with your frustration on this matter.
Please be informed that I have changed the product fee category which was resulting in the incorrect charges and I have also contacted the relevant team to investigate and issue a reimbursement for the previously charged fees. I will keep you updated of any developments.
We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard.
Thank you for selling with Amazon.
Tebibu
Amazon.co.uk Seller Support
But @NEil @Retro_Emporium …yes it’s my calculations
Seller_uK2aGVnqbtliE
Glad you raised this topic again.
I sell books and knitting patterns. The latter mostly cost £2 plus £2.80 postage - total £4.80. Amazon fees are £2.31 (which incidentally takes some of the postage charge which should be illegal in my opinion). Amazon therefore takes 48% in fees. This supports the OPs statement and shows the ripoff.
I would actually like to sell the patterns for £1 as I personally am not into ripping off peope but, with Amazon swiping some of the postage costs, I would make a loss.
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
I’m sorry, but the percentages your quoting don’t make any sense, unless you are including FBA fees as well. Which actually makes it an incorrect percentage, as you would have to cover that cost separately anyway in postage. Which frankly in a lot of cases, is cheaper using FBA than other sources.
The highest referral fees (excluding Jewellery 20.4% and Amazon devices 45.9%), is the standard 15.3%. And there are fair few categories that are as low as 7.14%. So struggling to get how you work out fees as high as 35%?
Why are the EU fees so high? Why did they agree to give you a refund? Was something being charged incorrectly?
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
I’m sorry, but the percentages your quoting don’t make any sense, unless you are including FBA fees as well. Which actually makes it an incorrect percentage, as you would have to cover that cost separately anyway in postage. Which frankly in a lot of cases, is cheaper using FBA than other sources.
The highest referral fees (excluding Jewellery 20.4% and Amazon devices 45.9%), is the standard 15.3%. And there are fair few categories that are as low as 7.14%. So struggling to get how you work out fees as high as 35%?
Why are the EU fees so high? Why did they agree to give you a refund? Was something being charged incorrectly?
Seller_EHYOwAkoZV3Hb
Advice to all new sellers. Read the Amazon rate card, understand the fee structure and the difference between local sales, EFN, Pan-EU etc, double-check your calculations and then (only then), if you are making a profit with your chosen selling price, go ahead.
If not, increase the selling price until the required margin is achieved. If price is now too expensive, don’t sell the item.
Seller_EHYOwAkoZV3Hb
Advice to all new sellers. Read the Amazon rate card, understand the fee structure and the difference between local sales, EFN, Pan-EU etc, double-check your calculations and then (only then), if you are making a profit with your chosen selling price, go ahead.
If not, increase the selling price until the required margin is achieved. If price is now too expensive, don’t sell the item.
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Some of my amazon fees equate to about 50% the sale price as well, however I have taken that into account when setting my prices.
Quite often the SnL fee is about the same it would cost me to send the item with Royal mail anyway.
I looked at EFN, but chose not to do it cause I didn’t want to pay the additional fees.
If the fees strangely jumped up in price, Its possible that something got measured wrong and is therefore being charged incorrect fees, but EFN is set fees, and FBA is set fees, so it should be easy enough to work out your sale price based on it and realise very quickly if something changed so you can look into it.
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Some of my amazon fees equate to about 50% the sale price as well, however I have taken that into account when setting my prices.
Quite often the SnL fee is about the same it would cost me to send the item with Royal mail anyway.
I looked at EFN, but chose not to do it cause I didn’t want to pay the additional fees.
If the fees strangely jumped up in price, Its possible that something got measured wrong and is therefore being charged incorrect fees, but EFN is set fees, and FBA is set fees, so it should be easy enough to work out your sale price based on it and realise very quickly if something changed so you can look into it.
Seller_3h73Wv2FjIws0
Why would anyone sell SKUs they make a loss on? Amazon display fees and you can just look at the breakdown when you make a sale. If its a loss just dont sell the item.
Seller_3h73Wv2FjIws0
Why would anyone sell SKUs they make a loss on? Amazon display fees and you can just look at the breakdown when you make a sale. If its a loss just dont sell the item.
Seller_rGtEcZnu0JTRD
Reading the thread, seems like you need to re-evaluate your costs, as @NEil states Amazon fees are not cheap, but they are not extorionate either, and not even the highest for a marketplace, we have 1 marketplace that charges 20% comission on a wide range of products. I just checked ours on Amazon for yesterdays sales, and it only equates to 14% - see below.
@NEil is correct that you have to ignore the FBA fee when looking at what your costs are, as these are postage fees and normally a damn site cheaper than posting yourself, if you are using FBA then the cost of the fee has to be added after you calculate the product cost and if its not viable then you just go FBM. We do very little FBA as the fees do not work with most of our products as a lot of what we sell is Bulky and Heavy so this does make FBA expensive for us meaning we are 95% FBM.
Seller_rGtEcZnu0JTRD
Reading the thread, seems like you need to re-evaluate your costs, as @NEil states Amazon fees are not cheap, but they are not extorionate either, and not even the highest for a marketplace, we have 1 marketplace that charges 20% comission on a wide range of products. I just checked ours on Amazon for yesterdays sales, and it only equates to 14% - see below.
@NEil is correct that you have to ignore the FBA fee when looking at what your costs are, as these are postage fees and normally a damn site cheaper than posting yourself, if you are using FBA then the cost of the fee has to be added after you calculate the product cost and if its not viable then you just go FBM. We do very little FBA as the fees do not work with most of our products as a lot of what we sell is Bulky and Heavy so this does make FBA expensive for us meaning we are 95% FBM.
Seller_ODfS7iDSvFEHP
Clearly all of you who are coming with these brilliant ideas haven’t looked at the attachment showing all the fees since 2021. The fees were all correct and then suddenly went bezerk over the last several months. Amazon have even admitted their wrong doing and issued a reimbursement but are now not willing to pay this reimbursement.
But yes, it’s my calculations
Seller_ODfS7iDSvFEHP
Clearly all of you who are coming with these brilliant ideas haven’t looked at the attachment showing all the fees since 2021. The fees were all correct and then suddenly went bezerk over the last several months. Amazon have even admitted their wrong doing and issued a reimbursement but are now not willing to pay this reimbursement.
But yes, it’s my calculations
Seller_ODfS7iDSvFEHP
I finally received a response from an intellectual at amazon support:
Hello from Amazon Seller Partner Support,
Thank you for contacting us. My name is Tebibu. I will be glad to assist you to find a resolution to your case.
I understand that you are concerned about incorrectly charged fees. We certainly understand how important this is to your business and we apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
I am sorry to see that you had to contact us multiple times on this case and I empathize with your frustration on this matter.
Please be informed that I have changed the product fee category which was resulting in the incorrect charges and I have also contacted the relevant team to investigate and issue a reimbursement for the previously charged fees. I will keep you updated of any developments.
We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard.
Thank you for selling with Amazon.
Tebibu
Amazon.co.uk Seller Support
But @NEil @Retro_Emporium …yes it’s my calculations
Seller_ODfS7iDSvFEHP
I finally received a response from an intellectual at amazon support:
Hello from Amazon Seller Partner Support,
Thank you for contacting us. My name is Tebibu. I will be glad to assist you to find a resolution to your case.
I understand that you are concerned about incorrectly charged fees. We certainly understand how important this is to your business and we apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
I am sorry to see that you had to contact us multiple times on this case and I empathize with your frustration on this matter.
Please be informed that I have changed the product fee category which was resulting in the incorrect charges and I have also contacted the relevant team to investigate and issue a reimbursement for the previously charged fees. I will keep you updated of any developments.
We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard.
Thank you for selling with Amazon.
Tebibu
Amazon.co.uk Seller Support
But @NEil @Retro_Emporium …yes it’s my calculations
Seller_uK2aGVnqbtliE
Glad you raised this topic again.
I sell books and knitting patterns. The latter mostly cost £2 plus £2.80 postage - total £4.80. Amazon fees are £2.31 (which incidentally takes some of the postage charge which should be illegal in my opinion). Amazon therefore takes 48% in fees. This supports the OPs statement and shows the ripoff.
I would actually like to sell the patterns for £1 as I personally am not into ripping off peope but, with Amazon swiping some of the postage costs, I would make a loss.
Seller_uK2aGVnqbtliE
Glad you raised this topic again.
I sell books and knitting patterns. The latter mostly cost £2 plus £2.80 postage - total £4.80. Amazon fees are £2.31 (which incidentally takes some of the postage charge which should be illegal in my opinion). Amazon therefore takes 48% in fees. This supports the OPs statement and shows the ripoff.
I would actually like to sell the patterns for £1 as I personally am not into ripping off peope but, with Amazon swiping some of the postage costs, I would make a loss.
