FBA stock discovered in Germany
Hi everyone,
We’ve recently discovered that we have a bunch of stock stranded in Germany with FBA, and we’re not sure how best to deal with it. This is a legacy of us closing our EU marketplaces on the back of the Brexit regulations.
We would like to either have these returned to us here in the UK, or try to relist in Germany (or across the EU if Germany can be used as a base for that?)
As I understand it though, these items can’t simply be returned to us, unless we have an address in Germany to use before they could potentially be brought back.
And we need to have a German VAT registration before we can sell there, and presumably the same for any other EU countries also?
Any help and advice on this most welcome.
Thanks in advance.
0 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
without a VAT number there or return address you’ll need to dispose of it
German Storage Fees - Sell on Amazon / General Selling on Amazon Questions - Amazon Seller Forums
Seller_EnhtSvIDg0hRn
Thanks for the replies so far folks.
Quite infuriating this, as the retail value of these goods is around £2k and we never actually asked for these to be sent to the EU. It’s possible that Amazon did email us in the lead up to the new regulations, but I’m not sure about that.
So even if we could use a German address, would they still not allow us to to have the stuff sent there, before being forwarded to the UK?
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
You’re definitely in a pickle here because your goods arrived in Germany but VAT registration in Germany is prerequisite. I honestly don’t know what would happen if you created a removal request because you would actually be importing them to yourself but the stock is not represented by anyone over there.
I doubt Amazon will help you either, they don’t know how to answer anything black and white within the current rules and regulations let alone something that appears to be very much a grey area,
You have 2 problems, one of which is the hard bit and that would be getting Amazon to release the goods back to you. Organising a pick up or getting them to deliver back through their carrier program will be hard.
This unfortunately is typical of Amazon enticing you to take part in programs that are clearly broken and will not follow up. I am doing everything correctly and still Amazon cannot help so good luck with getting them to assist with anything out of the ordinary.
Sorry I can’t be of any help and you have my sympathy. You may have to ask for a disposal order or incur storage fees. IMHO, the system should not have allowed you to create such a shipment for in-bounding without a valid VAT certificate.
The last resort would be maybe to get yourself VAT registered, apply the number and an EORI number to your account and trade your way out of it. If you do end up trading in Germany it might be a blessing having stock already whereby you are hitting the ground running.
Seller_XCnB3ErTvBELx
Have you tried setting up a forwarding address in Germany?
Ship German - google it. provide this kind of service.
You will probably need to pay import VAT on the shipment but as it is only a one off situation it should get you out of a jam.
I made an arrangement with another seller based in Germany who took my returns for me from all EU marketplaces. In exchange, I take his returns of orders he fulfills to the UK from Germany and then sell them myself and send him a percentage. Saves us both some issues.
Seller_FZLmkAPnHuV4L
we have the same problem - 2 units in Germany - small and light - probably returns from years ago - worth £0.50 each - but they do not show on the FBA control panel so we can’t remove them. However, they do show on the FBA inventory in the reports. We have emailed SS and they haven’t found a solution yet.
Seller_afyjRDyMeCC5k
I just asked Amazon to Liquidate it. I got about 20% back and it was more cost effective than trying to get them back and saved storage charges.
It was doubly annoying as I arranged for everything to be returned after Brexit and Amazon had mislaid these and never sent them in time for the last pallet to come back.
Seller_AeSYBToQ271lM
I’ve got the exact same problem, three items in a German warehouse. Never sent them there haven’t sold in Germany for years. I’m getting charged a nominal long term storage fee each month which increases each month with no way of paying it. To top it off my German Amazon account is deactivated because I haven’t done the VAT thing. The same thing that when it came in post brexit I constantly clicked the button that declared I wasn’t required to be registered for VAT there as I stopped selling to Germany about 18months before brexit. Going round in circles with seller support. I don’t want the items back, happy for them to dispose but I can’t tell them to dispose them because my account is deactivated and the only seemingly way to reactivate is to register for VAT in Germany. Absolutely nightmare! I’m petrified one day my UK account will get deactivated beause of all this. I can’t even see the items in my inventory in Germany, theres no items in the inventory section let along quantities.
Seller_KBCvmRKLx6ft0
We had the same issue where Amazon were shipping our UK stock to customers in Germany pre-Brexit, using the FBA export (I think) program. After Brexit some returns were made and the items got stuck in Germany. I didn’t realise this and quite a bit of stock ended up being disposed of. I managed to get Amazon to reimburse for most of it as I didn’t give permission for them to store inventory in the EU! I had to email J Boumphrey’s team to get anywhere though.
Seller_9gdd0YxzfeeaH
After brexit I started using Ezi Returns to retrieve the stock I had stranded at the time and still use them on an on-going basis for the customer returns that continue to trickle in the the FCs. The process is pretty straight forward and they will consolidate several removal orders in to one return shipment if practical and fees seem pretty reasonable to me.
Seller_2Htw9xCla3oOQ
We have just realised the same thing, came out 2 days ago for some reason, I wondered if its a bug or something, as we never sold those items in Germany,
However we do have a German VAT number, I will talk to support first to see if this is not a bug and then see what we can do…
