Targeted by a competitor? Serious rise in Returns and A to Z?
Not sure if anyone else is going through this of if its just me. This past week or so alone we’ve been hit by so many return requests, A to Z and customers messaging saying INR.
This is devastating. On a average week we get 1-2 requests. I’ve had 10 already in just 4 days. i hate this platform sometimes!
38 replies
Seller_mPyAux0gAEvUS
We’ve had a huge rise in return requests and A-Z cases too.
I think the current climate is causing people to really question whether or not they need the items they’re purchasing. It’s just a shame they can decide that until they have received the product and not before they order and pay!
Amazon have been awful to us recently and I think the buyers are learning that they can take the pi*s and Amazon let them get away with it.
Seller_xUKHc5xSYJmI4
We all go through this issue you describe usually a coordinated activity. The age group of the people doing it will be the same age group as your competitor.
Seller_ZQyopdiwkUHOZ
Sometimes you get hit by a flood at once, and sometimes you’ll go a couple of weeks without any at all. Based on the numbers, I seriously doubt a competitor is targeting you. The numbers aren’t large enough for that, imo.
If it continues at this rate or if it increases then it might be time to ask the question. What you should do first, though, is check the listing(s) and make sure something hasn’t been changed or updated that might be causing a higher volume of returns. It’s also worth checking to see if a competitor selling the same of similar product(s) might have significantly marked their prices down. It’s not impossible that buyers are seeing a better offer from somewhere else just after buying and are returning your in order to get it for cheaper from a different seller.
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
Have you checked your shipping tracking for verified deliveries? How are you marking the items shipped - are you uploading shipping yourself, linked from an RM account, using Amazon buy shipping?
Seller_zjSVzrZV26EFo
hi
we’re a low volume seller of high value items and as i mentioned our norm is 1-2 returns a week, maybe the odd A to Z every few months.
But had 10 requests of various kinds all in 4 days, I know you say 10 might not be a lot but against the number of orders we do it is.
I can’t seem to see any pattern at first glance in terms of product, region of buyers location, names. if its random then I’m incredibly unlucky.
@PeterB orders are self fulfilled via click and drop RM tracked or tracked courier, depending on goods/order value.
of the 10 requests , 2 are INR complaints, the rest are returns. the return reasons are all BS as well as half of them say we missed delivery estimate but on all those returns our orders were delivered either on time or BEFORE the Amazon delivery eta, not a single return claimed for missed delivery was actually delivered even a day late
only 1 return was claimed as faulty goods so far and we are confident that the goods are not faulty and its possibly going to end up a switcheroo by the buyer so we will film that return when it comes back as amazon issued a refund at first dispatch already 
@The_Little_Shop this is a good point and I’ll check the listings now, there’s 4 different listings the requests all originate from, I’ll check them now.
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
have you checked if your bullet points are still present on your listings - maybe vital size info etc has been removed
Seller_zjSVzrZV26EFo
not sure if anyone has tried this but thought I’d put some statistics into the mix.
clicked on returns page, selected ALL returns (pending, closed, refunded etc) across all marketplaces
days divided by number of returns in that period to work out average number of days between each return request.
So under 365 / requests = return request looking back at a 1 year average on average every 3.5 days
180 days / requests = return request on average every 3.75 days (higher the number is better)
50 days / requests = 2.77 days (getting worse, more returns)
30 days / requests = request average every 2.7 days (worse still)
14 days / requests = return request average every 1.27 days (terrible!!!)
7 days / requests = return request average every 0.88 days (lost for words now)
3 days / requests = return request average every 0.6 days (**** me)
So I’ve gone from averaging a return nearly every 3-4 days to almost 2 a day something is not right!!
Seller_ZQyopdiwkUHOZ
I hesitate to mention it as it would almost certainly have been your first port of call, but have you looked at the buyer comments in the return request details to see if there’s any common thread?
Seller_LVJaidBR9PT5Z
Yes getting loads more than usual at the start of this year, thinks its down to many things, but also people abusing the a-z system and more finding out about it as amazon just promote scamming at this point by giving them away without reviewing first.
