Anyone has any luck with LBA to Amazon Legal?
Hi there,
Was wondering if anyone could advise if its worth contacting Amazon Legal with a letter before action.
Keeping it as brief as possible.
- Signed up to PAN-EU and VAT services 3-4 years ago or thereabouts
- After my first free year I contacted SS to ask when I would be billed. They said “not yet” we’ll let you know in advance and you’ll be able to cancel. Think these cases are now gone from my case log.
- Oct 2020 when I received a badly put together email which said I was about to be billed but if I cancelled I wouldn’t be charged. Specifically, it said “You will need to unsubscribe within days of receipt of this communication in order to not be charged.” - that’s right “blank days”
- I thought I had unsubscribed right away but I can’t find any record and Amazon say they never got my unsubscription so I’m willing to accept that maybe I didn’t complete it.
- No charge or communication from Amazon for a few weeks so in March 2021 I contacted them again to ask if/when I was last charged and how I can stop future charges.
- The reply said, “we’ve not charged yet, you’ll get an invoice soon and you’ll have chance to cancel with no charge being made”
- I filled in the cancellation request again and started the process of ending VAT services.
- Few days later I get a bill for 2400EUR
- SS won’t refund the 2400EUR and aren’t able to reinstate VAT services.
- Cancelling suddenly based on Amazon’s info that I wouldn’t be charged has meant that I’ve incurred charges outside Amazon to submit VAT returns while deregistering for VAT. I wouldn’t have incurred these charges if I’d stayed with VAT services.
TLDR - Amazon said if I cancelled VAT Services I wouldn’t be charged 2400EUR but after I cancelled they still charged me anyway.
Wondering opinions on if it’s worth a LBA to Amazon Legal?
Do I have a leg to stand on?
Is there any possibilty that sending a LBA might hurt my account? (I really don’t want them to give me 2400EUR back and then close my account!)
Thanks!
Dave
32 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
just to check
you signed up in 2017 / 2018 and i presume there was a free period of a year ?!
when you were then billed in 2021 - even though you had cancelled - you only cancelled your future subscription therefore the bill was for years 2018/2019 and 2020 - 2021 onwards is cancelled ?!
by the looks of it, the bill was for the active years minus your free period
Seller_Sp0MDHOM1olT2
Yes, there was a year free. After that year I asked when I would be billed and they basically couldn’t answer (typical seller support) but said I’d be told when the bill was coming and I’d have chance to cancel before then.
Looks like they never got round to billing anyone until oct 2020 when they said “You’re about to be billed for Jan 2020 - Jan 2021 but if you cancel within blank days you won’t be charged”
My gripe was that when I got in touch March I was told that the changes mentioned in the Oct 2020 email had been delayed and if I cancelled now, I wouldn’t be charged. So I cancelled (incurring more costs and losing the service) but they charged anyway.
Seller_Sp0MDHOM1olT2
Yes, the unsubscription in March was successful and I have confirmation of it.
Seller_NoMNQDGnEW5Bx
It should be a lesson to amazon in sending garbage emails out via seller support
Seller_Sp0MDHOM1olT2
Has there ever been any suggestions ever that threatening to take Amazon to small claims court can adversely affect your account?
While it’s a lot of money, I don’t want to risk my account in any way!
Seller_l78koE9kGCu59
ALWAYS take screenshots of any comms like this. I don’t do it anywhere else but I do with literally everything on here. Even each response as I too have noticed entire cases disappearing from the log previously. I now take daily screenshots of my acc health pages and all branch pages and anything I may need to “defend myself” in the future.Totally paranoid overkill but I;d rather a few folders full of screenshots go unused than to need them and not have them.
It’s horrible that it has gotten this way but hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel and things will improve like they did when eBay realised that sellers are the actual money makers for them.
Seller_xUKHc5xSYJmI4
Hi
Have you tried Amazon dispute resolution ?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G9NMDH46UFNMFNKN
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
I would put it down to experience I’m afraid and I know that is a real cop out. Just lick your wounds and if you are de-registered be thankful it has cost you only 240.
For my sins, I was exactly in the same boat, unable to do much in the VAT registered countries other than Germany and it seemed pointless to have so many VAT registrations. When it was free, you had very little benefit but a way to improve over time.
Soon as Brexit hit all of a sudden, Nobody at Amazon or their contractors are tax experts and purely file returners. Can’t get anything into Europe and absolutely nobody at Amazon helping you to get the stuff to fulfillment centres, The answer is always the same, contact and find your own international tax advisor and wonder why you signed up to these services in the first place wrongly assuming these people are here to help.
I’m heavily invested into this horrible scheme and will just have to swallow these bills as I can see the consequences of cancelling. The more invested into it (even if you get free registrations etc) the bigger the consequences are when you want to get out.
I hate the term but I say it all the time when it comes to Amazon, just suck it up and move on. It sounds to me that you don’t want to risk funny business going on with your account in retaliation for taking them to court. The reality is that it will cost you more than the recovery in stress and you are not guaranteed to win so could be more out of pocket
Consider the costs of your time on this, just be proactive, you may be a trail blazer for other sellers but you like everyone else just have to look after your own interests.
The minute you just turn your back on the claim, you will almost find it liberating.
Seller_Sp0MDHOM1olT2
Just a quick update for anyone else in the same situation.
After multiple refusals to refund me from seller support I sent it back once more after this thread. Amazon held on to it for a few weeks and then a couple of days ago sent me a very short message saying that they had authorised the refund. 2800 EUR was back in my account within an hour or so. 
