Pricing error sold €20,000 worth of products in 1 day below the FBA fulfillment cost?
We are unsure how the error occurred, we believe it was not human error but it is impossible to prove. 760 Units were sold in 24hrs in Sweden (a brand new marketplace for us) with 1 customer ordering 105 units alone through FBA. All these products were sold at below the actual FBA cost. What should have accounted for over €20,000 in sales revenue is now sold for -€3 each due to the FBA fee, we now owe Amazon over €3000 in fulfillment costs with no revenue whatsoever from the products. We are at a complete loss of €23,000, and being told we have no recourse.
How is it possible for this to occur without something on the Amazon system catching this as an error. The SKUs affected have sold for years on Amazon on different marketplaces with a huge amount of sales history which should have shown the Amazon system that the price was less than 10% of what it should be. Seems that there is no protection in place for sellers? Does anyone have any insight into how this can occur with no protection and what options there might be?
Seems that anyone with one mistake in pricing could bury a business in hours, it is also impossible to stop the orders once they are made.
14 replies
Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO
Is it because Sweden doesn’t use the euro - so a currency conversion error?
Seller_saK5Ah2SaNYjL
Definitely a currency error. Sweden’s quite easy to work out really it’s 10 SEK to the EUR. You just have to multiply by 10.
Seller_r14NdyLFxbzeU
setting up a new marketplace is often helped by a migration tool, you can keep the listing and entry values - local markets you cater in for fba fees (sounds like a new price failed update wasn’t checked in on the new marketplace). i also heard that a trader also used this tool in reverse and erased the UK marketplace over-writing it with a 0 string (only taking 2 clicks), leaving a few 1000 items stranded… this happened a few years ago.
price checking 3rd party can also update prices to match marketplace -1p (or current currency), these where popular about 15yrs ago with the whole my inventory is all valued at 1p + p&p, stories of long ago (still a being talked about today for putting business out large sums)
you can find out which by a simple look on the marketplace those SKU will have 0 stock but will hold a current price for those (as long as you didn’t stop-loss by changing the price)
Seller_FcBsp3LVJUSNQ
I would say you should have cancelled those orders but 760 would cripple your account! The customer that ordered 105 clearly knew there was a pricing error and that is why they ordered so much. If you haven’t sent the orders out yet I would consider not sending them, contacting seller support and praying to all the gods that a human looks into your case. This is a horrible situation and I wish you the best of luck!
Seller_n33KwLeg9XOvi
Very little.
Well this is Amazon
Never take your eye off sales - check Manage Orders regularly - take ownership of your business (if it is yours). Sadly Amazon won’t cancel these orders. Looks like you’ll be taking the hit on this.
Seller_QOwDDuKmoItYH
Have they been despatched by Amazon yet - can you cancel the orders?
