We have been fighting with SS over the last couple of days regarding a counterfeit product we received in a FBA return. Amazon staff either knowingly or unknowingly have been returning counterfeit EOTECH products to us for 3 years now. We understand that staff are not privy to counterfeit identification although some returns are painfully obvious and were neglected for review. As of March, we are not being provided a proper reimbursement for incorrect units received or counterfeit units received with falsified dispositions of "Damaged / Customer Damaged / Unsellable" - We have already updated our sourcing costs for these items and did so before reimbursement cases were made / reimbursements were issued.
This current product we have been fighting with SS over, they seem to believe that a $300 reimbursement is "within policy" to provide for receiving a counterfeit unit in FBA returns where the sourcing cost is almost double of that. So the reimbursement is Not 10%, not 20%, but almost 50% less of the sourcing cost.
Amazon SS is now refusing to provide the proper supplemental payment with the same copy/paste message regarding Amazon reimbursement policy.
Amazon is only following dispositions regarding this reimbursement although it has been clearly falsified by both the customer and Amazon staff receiving the unit. These are two instances of fraud in which the customer has now been enabled to return a counterfeit product and Amazon somehow thinks it's within policy to refuse accountability and pay us what is due for their mistake.
As previously mentioned, this has been going on for 3 years in which we have documented hundreds of Amazon claims made for counterfeit units. As Amazon will pick sides with the customer, we have never seen these consistent counterfeit return claims actually benefit us. We've been fortunate enough to get reimbursed properly, until now.
Now we fear this will continue to be an ongoing issue which ultimately will hurt our business and seems to be a generally Unfair Practice so we are considering making a documented report to the FTC of all the cases made for counterfeit units we've received in Amazon FBA Returns as we cannot sit back and allow Amazon to continue to commit fraud when they aren't taking accountability for their own employee's mistakes.
It seems fraudulent to allow the disposition to determine the decision under the new policy that states: "For items that were in unsellable condition when lost, damaged or removed from the Amazon fulfillment network, we will reimburse at a reduced estimated cost of the unit, and we may request additional information or documentation to help us determine this adjusted value."
Although evidence provided photographically would show that Amazon staff failed to review the item making the disposition invalid.
We are wondering if any other seller has been experiencing this issue regarding improper / counterfeit returns and Amazon not providing the ample reimbursement.
For Moderator Review: See Cases 17631872021 , 17660988951
