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FBA Returns and refunds
It appears that Amazon is issuing refunds to customers before the items are returned, and many of these items are not being added back to inventory. To investigate, I reviewed the transactions and ran a customer return report, only to find discrepancies between the refunds and returned items. I compiled a list of the affected items and used a VLOOKUP to identify over 200 items that were refunded but never returned.
Since I don’t sell high-ticket items, this was a significant concern. I initially sent Amazon the list, but they informed me that some of the listings were Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) and refused to investigate. To address this, I removed the FBM items from the list and resubmitted it. They then instructed me to open a case for every 10 orders. After doing so, I am now successfully being reimbursed for all affected orders.
10 replies
Seller_kh77A9MtOsq7P
Can you tell me which return report you used?
Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn
Amazon do refund customers and don't ask for the items back. This is fairly normal especially for lower priced items where it may cost more to return the item than the value of the item.
What should happen is that after around 42 days you get a reimbursement for the return as it has not been returned.
There are some categories though such as Shampoo which are not supposed to be returnable unless faulty. In these situations where Amazon do refund and not ask for a return you may not get a reimbursement.
Angie_Amazon
Hello @Seller_uT8PCnLHzwJun,
Thanks for sharing your process. This is helpful information for sellers experiencing similar issues with refunded but unreturned items.
If there is anything I can do to help out, please let me know.
Regards,
Angie 🐝
Seller_DrOdTDdA3ZJmN
Hello,
What reports do you use and compare? Can you explain in detail?
Seller_tRuvBEHDedp4q
You are lucky that these were FBA returns and you had some come back
For FBM items where customer has used the label and so the 'refund on first scan' takes effect, Amazon refund but if the courier then fails to actually return the item the seller loses out.
Claims to the courier are impossible - they either want to know details like address of post office that accepted the parcel, when it was returned, the colour eyes of the person doing the return (ok that's a joke but you get the idea) OR they simply refuse as it was Amazon who issued the label (even though seller is charged for it).
So seller has paid for the return, Amazon have refunded and seller does not get the item back and cannot claim for the loss.
Ive tried several times with Royal Mail and get refused each time. Other sellers have similar problems with other couriers
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