Why do Amazon make these assumptions?
We were notified by a customer on Friday that she had not received her item. We immediately sent the following reply through the correct system:
Dear xxx,
I understand that you have not received your order and I can understand your frustration. Having checked our records, I can see that we posted your xxxx on July 28th so we will have to assume it is lost. We always have these items in stock so there is never a delay in posting apart from weekends and bank holidays.
I am posting another xxxx today by first class post so you should have it either tommorow or Monday but if you don’t please let me know.
Today, Sunday, I get a message from Amazon:
We have granted an A-to-z Guarantee claim of £7.96 on order xxxxxx. We have debited the amount from your account and have counted the claim against your Order Defect Rate.
I can’t prove that the original item was send because we cannot afford to use tracking on an order value of £8.00
I have put in an appeal, am I likely to get my money back and the claim against my defect rate removed.
This is not about the £7.96
This was a merchant fulfilled order.
Fed up with being treated like s–t
26 replies
Seller_77IcbQKVGdZo0
I always refund immediately for any low value untracked item that a customer says that they have not received. Telling them to re-order if they would like the product again.
As soon as the customer has sent you a message they have a period of time (I think it is 48 hours) and then they can file an A-Z Claim.
There is not enough time to get a replacement to the customer in that timescale and some customers knowingly use the message and then A-Z Claim to get a free item for an untracked item.
It is a rubbish system but in my experience it is better to refund for a low cost item than send out a replacement.
Seller_EHYOwAkoZV3Hb
Have used CRL for a few years and having delivery confirmation has meant that we can now defend claims on the vast majority of cases. Some are at the sorting office awaiting the customer to arrange redelivery and some are just false claims.
Having delivery confirmation means that orders are shown as delivered on Amazon Orders screens so fewer people are likely to try it on. Those that do tend to suddenly find the items when they are shown proof.
Most claims tend to be for orders that don’t get scanned by the postie and even for those, it’s only a small percentage of them as most of our customers are decent and honest.
I guess it depends what you sell. Some categories encourage more false claims than others. And I agree, refunding a genuinely lost order is better than resending to prevent such issues but I’ve been guilty of resending myself.
All IMHO.
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
I have to say I usually reply offering the customer a replacement or a refund, and most of the time they want a replacement. I would never just send one.
I haven’t had much problems with items not arriving, or people opening a-z etc.
Seller_0lQP368tpx7Wc
Most of the items we sell are under £20 but I would hate to be having this issue with more expensive products.
Seller_FEO0des6cjAyK
you can ask the customer to withdraw the A-Z
Seller_lnQKaZJGTX769
amazon treat customers as Gods and sellers as a lower form of life.
Seller_Qvd3h40mpqhkC
when ever an amazon customer says they have not received the item i refund, and send them a message that its been refunded automatically and if they still want to re-order… in the message i state that whilst the item was sent non-customer trackable i point oit that its barcoded and RM can trace it internally and its our policy to pass details of all reported losses to RM so we can make a claim… surprisingly some do come back quickly to say they have ‘found’ the item
you are also wrong stating you can not prove the item was sent… just because its not tracked, the post office will still provide proof of postage… this you can use to claim your costs back from royal mail
royal mail pay in full for the lost items… so i look at it that i have sold the item anyway as i still have the money
Seller_0lQP368tpx7Wc
Most of our Amazon sales are FBA but as I previously stated, we sell a few low cost items FBM. I tend to drop these in the post box as our post office is a distance away so I can’t get proof of posting. I’m not talking much money here, my rant is on principal. Sellers always come second.
Seller_XrX9BPqGnGQ2M
Amazon only has 2 rules…
Rule #1. The customer is ALWAYS right
Rule #2. If the customer is clearly wrong, refer to rule #1.
About 90% of my sales are untracked. I’ve weighed up the risks against cost and it’s my decision to do this quite happily. However, it’s amazing when you simply reply that “according to my report, it shows as delivered”. I never hear from the majority of claimants ever again.
