A-to-Z Appeals Made Simple
Hello Sellers,
Receiving an A-to-Z claim can feel frustrating, but understanding the appeal process can help you protect your account health and potentially reverse unfavorable decisions. Let's walk through everything you need to know about appealing these claims effectively.
🔍What Is an A-to-Z Claim?
The A-to-Z Guarantee protects customers when they experience issues with Marketplace orders whether it's a delivery problem or an item condition issue. If a customer doesn't receive a resolution after contacting you and waiting 48 hours, they can file a claim with Amazon. Once filed, claims are either auto-granted or manually reviewed by Amazon's investigation team.
⏰Understanding Your Appeal Window
You have 30 calendar days to submit an appeal after a claim is granted in your favour and your account is debited. This is your opportunity to provide new information that could dispute the decision and potentially reverse the claim.
📝 How to Appeal: Step-by-Step
Step 1: Access Your Claims
- Go to the Performance menu in Seller Central
- Select "A-to-z Guarantee Claims"
- Click on the "Option to Appeal" tab
Step 2: Locate Your Claim
- Find the relevant claim you want to appeal
- Select "Appeal decision"
Step 3: Build Your Case, enter your comments in the text box with any information that helps Amazon understand why the claim should be reversed. Focus on providing:
- For delivery-related claims: Dispatch method, proof of delivery from your carrier (signature confirmation, carrier details)
- For returns-related claims: Domestic return address, return shipping details (like prepaid labels), and explanation of why a return request was rejected
- Customer communication: Any correspondence showing the customer acknowledged receipt or expressed satisfaction with the transaction
⚠️Important Note: The text box doesn't support attachments. If you need to share documents like proof of delivery, use Buyer-Seller Messages to send them to the customer, then mention in your appeal that you've attached additional information via Buyer-Seller Messages.
Step 4: Submit Your Appeal Click "Submit" when you're ready. Amazon will review the information you provided.
⏳What Happens Next?
After you submit your appeal, Amazon's investigation team will review your case. If they need additional information, they'll contact you via email. You must respond to any information requests within 48-72 hours.
When your appeal is successful, either the refund cost or the impact to your Order Defect Rate (ODR) may be reversed. Keep in mind that it may take up to 7 calendar days for the ODR reversal to reflect on your Orders page or for your selling account to be refunded.
Pro Tips for Successful Appeals
✓ Act quickly - Don't wait until the last day of your 30-day window
✓ Be specific - Include order IDs, dates, tracking numbers, and concrete evidence
✓ Stay professional - Present facts clearly without emotional language
✓ Document everything - Keep records of all customer communications
📚 Need More Help?
For additional guidance on A-to-Z claims, visit the A-to-z Guarantee Claims help page or learn more about responding to claim notifications.
I want to hear from you! What are your thoughts? How do you appeal? Do you have a format you use? Let me know!
A-to-Z Appeals Made Simple
Hello Sellers,
Receiving an A-to-Z claim can feel frustrating, but understanding the appeal process can help you protect your account health and potentially reverse unfavorable decisions. Let's walk through everything you need to know about appealing these claims effectively.
🔍What Is an A-to-Z Claim?
The A-to-Z Guarantee protects customers when they experience issues with Marketplace orders whether it's a delivery problem or an item condition issue. If a customer doesn't receive a resolution after contacting you and waiting 48 hours, they can file a claim with Amazon. Once filed, claims are either auto-granted or manually reviewed by Amazon's investigation team.
⏰Understanding Your Appeal Window
You have 30 calendar days to submit an appeal after a claim is granted in your favour and your account is debited. This is your opportunity to provide new information that could dispute the decision and potentially reverse the claim.
📝 How to Appeal: Step-by-Step
Step 1: Access Your Claims
- Go to the Performance menu in Seller Central
- Select "A-to-z Guarantee Claims"
- Click on the "Option to Appeal" tab
Step 2: Locate Your Claim
- Find the relevant claim you want to appeal
- Select "Appeal decision"
Step 3: Build Your Case, enter your comments in the text box with any information that helps Amazon understand why the claim should be reversed. Focus on providing:
- For delivery-related claims: Dispatch method, proof of delivery from your carrier (signature confirmation, carrier details)
- For returns-related claims: Domestic return address, return shipping details (like prepaid labels), and explanation of why a return request was rejected
- Customer communication: Any correspondence showing the customer acknowledged receipt or expressed satisfaction with the transaction
⚠️Important Note: The text box doesn't support attachments. If you need to share documents like proof of delivery, use Buyer-Seller Messages to send them to the customer, then mention in your appeal that you've attached additional information via Buyer-Seller Messages.
Step 4: Submit Your Appeal Click "Submit" when you're ready. Amazon will review the information you provided.
⏳What Happens Next?
After you submit your appeal, Amazon's investigation team will review your case. If they need additional information, they'll contact you via email. You must respond to any information requests within 48-72 hours.
When your appeal is successful, either the refund cost or the impact to your Order Defect Rate (ODR) may be reversed. Keep in mind that it may take up to 7 calendar days for the ODR reversal to reflect on your Orders page or for your selling account to be refunded.
Pro Tips for Successful Appeals
✓ Act quickly - Don't wait until the last day of your 30-day window
✓ Be specific - Include order IDs, dates, tracking numbers, and concrete evidence
✓ Stay professional - Present facts clearly without emotional language
✓ Document everything - Keep records of all customer communications
📚 Need More Help?
For additional guidance on A-to-Z claims, visit the A-to-z Guarantee Claims help page or learn more about responding to claim notifications.
I want to hear from you! What are your thoughts? How do you appeal? Do you have a format you use? Let me know!
38 replies
Seller_HetZ8jdM3gAgI
@Joey_Amazonhave you given this same information to the A to Z team who decide these claims or the customer service teams/Chatbot who opens A to Z cases in direct contradiction to what you have mentioned here? "The A-to-Z Guarantee protects customers when they experience issues with Marketplace orders whether it's a delivery problem or an item condition issue. If a customer doesn't receive a resolution after contacting you and waiting 48 hours, they can file a claim with Amazon. Once filed, claims are either auto-granted or manually reviewed by Amazon's investigation team."
We have A to Z claims opened with no prior contact from customers, cases where the customer doesn't know why it was opened, several where it looks like they were trying to contact us to ask a question and a case was open. Some where we are in ongoing talks with the customer to resolve a misdelivered item by Royal Mail and the case is open.
The forums are littered with discussions about deliveries with GPS, signatures, people in doorways taking parcels in and Amazon still saying that as there is not enough evidence to prove the customer received the item so they will be refunded and it counts as an ODR.
Seller_ZQyopdiwkUHOZ
The absolute best way to make sure an Atoz goes in your favour is to be the buyer side of it. If you're the buyer, literally nothing else needs to be in your favour.
Photo and signature of you receiving it at your door? INR granted.
Order is a page of stickers? Fluid leaked from the package damaging your carpet, have another £100 for the damages.
Failed to return the item before the return label expired? There's no available tracking on the return label so it must be invalid, have your money back.
Shall I go on?
Seller_6A9BM76EEV5EG
"If a customer doesn't receive a resolution after contacting you and waiting 48 hours, they can file a claim with Amazon"
How come most claims come without receiving a single word from the buyer before hand?
Seller_QFivb25YBNqBc
How do we prove that the buyer is lying? They lie to get a refund and keep the item.
How do we prove that what the buyer returned is different from what was returned, used, or an empty box?
Seller_RguKGMHvWFmo3
IMO this is wrong.
Who has ever had an A to Z overturned even if you provide all the evidence including photographs? No one
ODR is applied even when you have used Amazon Buy Shipping
An A to Z would be granted even if you walked it there yourself, took a photo of you, the buyer and the item, got a signature took a photo of you all with that signature.
Its not fit for purpose and I find posts like this are triggering for many due to the rules vs reality from sellers.
Seller_znTeHti2qvorY
Dear Joey,
It’s encouraging to see you commenting on what is arguably the most challenging subject for sellers.
If there is a genuine intention to improve the system, I believe it is important to take on board insights from those of us who have been in business for nearly 50 years. From that perspective, I would strongly suggest reconsidering the current heavy reliance on AI-driven case handling and the A–Z claims process, as well as the effectiveness of seller support in this area.
When a seller appeals an A–Z decision, there should first and foremost be a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Sellers should have access to a live chat or direct communication channel with staff who are specifically part of the A–Z claims team, rather than being routed through generic support.
What is particularly demoralising is when a seller has clear evidence that a buyer is misleading or acting dishonestly, and yet the system appears to move too quickly to side with the claim without proper engagement with that evidence. After carefully assembling and presenting a case—often through significant time and effort—the response can feel like a standardised rejection that does not reflect the specifics of the situation.
This process leaves many long-standing, honest sellers feeling unheard and unsupported. If the goal is a fair and trusted marketplace, then the appeal process needs to be more transparent, more human, and more responsive to evidence.
Seller_QFivb25YBNqBc
@Joey_Amazon, you have heard from us. Please say something.
Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn
Amazon need to review the signature requirement as a basis to win an A-Z
Signature confirmation is not customer friendly. If an item can be left safe or pushed through a letterbox a customer expects this to happen if they are not in. The last thing a customer would want is a missed delivery because a signature is required.
There are better tools such as GPS coordinates available to show that the parcel was delivered to the right address. Photographic evidence can also be used and compared to Google maps etc.
On top of this for couriers such as Royal Mail signature confirmation is an additional charge and would hurt profits too much by putting on every item.
Seller_MVOHLS2lSSJOt
You can follow this step by step provide all information just for it to be denied and a clear buyer scam be granted. Regardless of what we do its useless. Your system is just flawed.
Seller_KlbXZHzQGSDZv
Best way to win an appeal unless you have a signature for the delivery is to not bother spend the time you would have lost appealing the appeal to better your business.
