A to Z: Customer didn't return item, Amazon refund them anyway?
We have had a lot of issues with Amazon’s A to Z cases - we upload tracking to virtually every INR case and they STILL find in favour of the customer.
This week we had one where a customer claimed they received the item, returned it & we ignored all of their msgs. This is completely untrue and Amazon can see the msgs the buyer did/did not send to us, and the fact we replied to all of their msgs.
We received nothing back from the customer, they then opened an A to Z claim and Amazon have refunded them saying we should have refunded the buyer already. But we never received the return from the customer, hence why a refund was never processed. I don’t think the return was ever posted to us.
I appealed the case and Amazon have still found in favour of the buyer?
So we’re down the item, the money for the item, and our account metrics have taken a hit.
Another one, customer claimed the item was faulty, we asked them to return to us for testing. Amazon appear to have opened an A to Z claim on their behalf and given the customer a full refund without them having to send the item back to us. Again we’re down the item, the money for the item, and our account metrics have taken a hit.
What on earth is wrong Amazon?
10 replies
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
They are blatantly encouraging and even endorsing fraud.
I don’t know, but if challenged, I am sure what they are doing has an element of illegality about it - to refund out of YOUR money without YOUR prior knowledge and consent - though I guess that somewhere in the small print of their policies it will be all above board, for them. 
Seller_RPitam26mPVyP
We’ve just had another one.
Customer claims item arrived destroyed, faulty, unusable. We asked for a photo.
Amazon get involved and say the customer doesn’t need to send a photo. We must refund the customer in full, ASAP.
I just cannot understand what’s going on. Have Amazon completely taken leave of their senses?
When I had a faulty item that I bought on Amazon they made me return the goods. Once I returned them, they refunded me.
Why have they singled me out and decided if someone complains about an item, I MUST refund them in full and I have absolutely no right to ask for the item to be returned (with me paying the return postage), and they won’t even have the buyer send me a photo?
It absolutely stinks and selling on Amazon becomes more of a joke by the day.
Seller_CkBmKJ4ClQCbF
This is a big issue for my business as well happens at least a few times a day.
I call them chancers to put it nicely.
Years ago I worked in a big department store and they had a system where they would mark a percentage of their products down as theft. Every quarter they would mark in this percentage and I always thought it was strange to plan into the figures lost through theft. The point of this story is I now implement this into my business and count all the A-Z chancers in this “percentage”. There is nothing the big department store could do to stop it and they accepted this and factored it in. I now do the same as amazon just refund and there’s nothing we can do. So out of every 100 items sold I expect a certain number to be falsely claimed through A-Z and it has really helped my business to adopt this… as crazy as it sounds.
Seller_RPitam26mPVyP
We’ve had another one 5 mins ago. Customer claimed to have returned the item - we’ve received nothing. Asked for tracking, said they don’t have it. Asked for a post office receipt or proof of postage, don’t have it.
They’ve contacted Amazon who have refunded the customer in full at my expense.
I’ve run out of words for this now, absolutely sick of it. Currently speaking with a few journalists from various outlets whose first response was ‘you’re lying’. When I’ve shown them the emails, messages and A to Z claims they’re as perplexed as I am.
So sick of it. And if you contact Seller Support you get stuck in an infinite loop of automated help options or if you’re really lucky, you’ll be tended to by completely unhelpful support staff.
Seller_Gyxl3CWGjSd3N
Yet more marketplace abuse of 3rd party sellers.
