Returnless Refund, basically theft
Hi
I had a customer order a VHS tape from me, unfortunately he did not want the VHS tape he wanted the DVD.
Buyer went to Amazon and because the item is under £20 they gave him a “returnless refund” where by they fully refunded him, for HIS error, out of my account and told him not to return the purchase.
Because he made a mistake the shipping cost and the purchase price have been refunded to him using my money and I don’t get the item he mistakenly ordered returned to me.
This is theft is it not?
62 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
For it to be returnless is it from another country ?
If so, this policy was introduced last year and the only 2 ways round it are to either add a local return address in the other country or stop selling outside uk
Seller_8OKJuv67Cg27t
No
UK seller, UK buyer and return address supplied
Seller_8OKJuv67Cg27t
No A-Z claim.
Buyer emailed me and said you’ve sent me a VHS, I wrote back and said that’s what you ordered, here is a copy of your order, see where it says VHS. Told them that if they wanted to return it I wouldn’t be responsible for return postage as the error was theirs, buyer evidently went straight to Amazon who didn’t even consider buyer might be at fault and gave them this refund
Seller_8OKJuv67Cg27t
Got the below response from Customer services
After this I was asked for proof of delivery which I pointed out the irrelevance of, and now have just told me I’m not eligible for a safe t claim.
Thank you for contacting us regarding your concern.
I’m very sorry to hear that Amazon processed a returnless refund without even knowing if who’s at fault. We apologize fore the inconvenience this has been caused you and I know that this is not right as we have to investigate this properly and we thank you for bringing this issue to us.
We know how upsetting it can be to work hard on building up your store only to run into this kind of problem. It’s crucial that we resolve this, so we’re delighted that you contacted us about it.
I would like to inform you that you may need to file a Safe-T claim for this, the Seller Assurance for e-Commerce Transactions (SAFE-T) process allows you to file a claim for reimbursement when Amazon manual payment is required for your order. At Amazon’s sole discretion, you may be issued a reimbursement in cases where Amazon determines that you were not at fault.
Below is a list of possible cases where you could be considered eligible for a reimbursement. These situations do not guarantee a reimbursement, and Amazon maintains sole discretion to determine what reimbursement value, if any, is issued.
You may be eligible for reimbursement if:
• Your service appointment could not be completed, and is eligible for a Trip Credit
• You have been charged a penalty fee that you believe is incorrect and would like to dispute it
• Amazon determines that the order was cancelled unintentionally or incorrectly
• Amazon has pre-approved a second service appointment for correction of an issue
Note: The claim should only be requested after documenting that the second appointment is completed.
With all reimbursement claims, its your responsibility to reply to information requests from Amazon investigators. Failure to provide sufficient information will result denial of your claim.
Seller_l78koE9kGCu59
No.
The custoer made a mistake and called Amazon to action a return. The fact hey made a mistake and then chose to call Amazon suggests they’re an older user or an occassional buyer. They didn’t take the item from you - it was gifted to them by Amazon.
Eitherway it’s very wrong. Especially when 2 days ago the seller poll asked if we trust Amazon to fairly deal with our customer returns (or words to that effect).
Not cool Amazon!
Seller_DnL3AXoQFgZKI
For Everyone - Go to this page and double check your settings - https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/returns/settings
Seller_qEg829N9Qv5WN
I tell you what is theft.
Customer bought one product from Amazon costing >£50 sent RM First Signed For and the same product but smaller quantity from the Bay.
Next day the same customer bought the same product size as she bought from the Bay.
Simplified: one customer bought 3 items, from two market places sent in three separate large letter envelopes.
She said via Amazon email neither had arrived. I sent RM proof of delivery, including name of person who accepted it.
I receive notification of an A-Z full refund on both from Amazon.
Within 7 minutes I receive email from the Bay of a request from the same customer. Not received.
I sent RM proof of delivery etc.
The Bay have accepted this.
The gap in the way sellers are treated is immense.
BTW: My Amazon account is now at risk of deactivation.
As I do not have UK competition products from the European mainland (costing more) with an additional £9+ delivery charge and taking a week longer to deliver, are the Buy box/featured product!
Seller_ZRnWK6GfrBrKY
We had a few returnless refunds recently (FBA) where Amazon had refunded the customer but had also told them they did not have to return the item. Item value was £100. We opened a case with SS who told us the following;
" We would like to inform you that At our discretion, we can give a refund without requiring that the customer return the item. "
This is theft/fraud plain and simple. It is buyers manipulating the system at the seller’s expense.
Seller_DSmBlrx75rMb8
It’s getting ridiculous at this point, what Amazon are doing, and enabling their robbing customers to do.
We had an order last month, going to the USA (so yes, i understand that returnless refunds are in place), but they opened a return claiming they could buy the item cheaper elsewhere.
It wasn’t that the product was faulty, or that it was a fault on our part, they just had a change of mind, and STILL get to keep the $100+ item.
If the error was on us, then fair enough, but I feel that when a customer wants to return a product for a reason like that, then they should, no matter where the order was posted from.
I am currently trying to speak with seller support about it and they haven’t flat out denied me yet. They just said if we don’t receive the goods back after 15 days of the return autorisation, to reply back to the case, so we’ll see what happens.
I know for a fact though they’ll be backing the customer on this, though.
For this reason we have removed all the more expensive items from Amazon USA. No way we’re taking $100+ hits from robbing customers every time.
Amazon have just gotten too lazy with all of this now, when they should be able to afford the staff to do real work, not just reply back to cases with copy and paste replies, 95% of the time which are wrong responses any way!
Seller_b2Dv7d1fJbP8M
Haven’t Amazon just announced additional changes to their returnless policy from 31 Aug. This isn’t going to get any better.
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/headlines.html?ref=nswg_scgw_GQCALJ4SQBH659LZ_en_GB_0_nslp&id=GQCALJ4SQBH659LZ&communicationDeliveryId=99821ea2-cb02-4345-ac9b-3ab7e0ee23b1
