Repeated Duplicate Pending Orders Linked to Same Buyer — Seller Told to Ignore, but Risk Remains
Over the last three weeks, I have seen an increased number of cases where the same buyer appears to place two orders for the same SKU within a short time window. In some cases both orders pass through Pending before becoming actionable. In other cases one order remains Pending with buyer details hidden, while the confirmed order page shows “See all 2 orders from this buyer,” suggesting the system has linked both orders to the same buyer.
I have contacted Seller Support about this issue on several occasions. I was told to ignore the Pending order unless it becomes actionable. I understand that advice for isolated Pending orders, but it does not address the repeated duplicate-order pattern. When both orders later clear, the seller has to choose between shipping a likely duplicate, cancelling one with possible metric consequences, or waiting for buyer confirmation while the dispatch clock continues.
My concern is not the existence of Pending orders by itself. My concern is the seller-side consequence when two linked orders for the same buyer/SKU appear within minutes of each other and both may later become actionable.
Could Amazon please confirm whether this is expected checkout/payment-verification behaviour, and what cancellation reason sellers should use if both linked orders clear but appear to be an unintentional duplicate?
Repeated Duplicate Pending Orders Linked to Same Buyer — Seller Told to Ignore, but Risk Remains
Over the last three weeks, I have seen an increased number of cases where the same buyer appears to place two orders for the same SKU within a short time window. In some cases both orders pass through Pending before becoming actionable. In other cases one order remains Pending with buyer details hidden, while the confirmed order page shows “See all 2 orders from this buyer,” suggesting the system has linked both orders to the same buyer.
I have contacted Seller Support about this issue on several occasions. I was told to ignore the Pending order unless it becomes actionable. I understand that advice for isolated Pending orders, but it does not address the repeated duplicate-order pattern. When both orders later clear, the seller has to choose between shipping a likely duplicate, cancelling one with possible metric consequences, or waiting for buyer confirmation while the dispatch clock continues.
My concern is not the existence of Pending orders by itself. My concern is the seller-side consequence when two linked orders for the same buyer/SKU appear within minutes of each other and both may later become actionable.
Could Amazon please confirm whether this is expected checkout/payment-verification behaviour, and what cancellation reason sellers should use if both linked orders clear but appear to be an unintentional duplicate?
8 replies
Seller_19xPhE8YgkmxW
Hi jfmamj,
It is possible that this is a 'fail safe' applied by Amazon Systems, in case the Buyer has inadvertently placed the same order twice (when it would be easier to place an order for 2 items), the System might message the Buyer to ask them to check that they intended 2 identical orders...
Once the first order has cleared Pending, the second order might remain Pending until confirmation is received
Just a thought
All Best
Brian
PS I have read comments a long time previously that a Buyer, placing an order may not receive (what they view as) a timely response from Amazon and assume that the order has not 'taken' and reorders... this might have prompted the above 'fail safe' mechanism which is still in place
Seller_kSZCywEhJQQ8J
**Update after Seller Support chat — case 12584812492**
I have now discussed one of these duplicate-order cases with Seller Support in live chat.
In this case, the buyer placed two orders for the same ASIN within about 10 minutes. The first order was dispatched. The buyer then confirmed through Buyer-Seller Messaging that the second order was accidental and that they only wanted one item.
Seller Support confirmed the following:
* If the buyer does not cancel through the official buyer cancellation button, the seller-initiated cancellation still counts against the seller cancellation metric.
* Buyer-Seller Messaging evidence is not enough to make the cancellation buyer-initiated for metric purposes.
* There is no standard manual override path to prevent the metric impact.
* If the buyer does not act before the ship-by deadline, the seller has to decide between cancellation-rate impact and late-shipment risk based on current Account Health.
* Seller Support advised that if this later causes an Account Health issue, I should create a new case and reference case 12584812492, because the previous notes and buyer confirmation are documented there.
This is the part I would appreciate moderator clarification on.
The issue is not just whether a seller can cancel an order. The issue is that Amazon can hold buyer-message evidence confirming the duplicate order was accidental, but the cancellation metric system does not appear to recognise that evidence unless the buyer uses the official cancellation workflow.
Could a moderator please confirm whether there is any correct escalation route or cancellation reason for this specific situation?
Same buyer, same SKU, same quantity, orders placed minutes apart, buyer confirms one was accidental, but buyer does not use the official cancellation button before the ship-by deadline.
At the moment, the guidance appears to leave the seller choosing between two possible defects: cancellation-rate impact or late-shipment risk.
Seller_IljBdhWypMNhx
is this from a Business customer? We have seen something like this before on FBA.. the order was pending for weeks but same ASIN was purchased in smaller qty in following days/week.
ChatGPT take is that as business order require authorisation and the order was stuck in workflow. The buyer then placed a smaller order that might not have reached the authorisation limit and thus able to get the order through. The stock has actually been allocated to those pending orders and we have to ship more in very quickly. The orders expired after 1 month and by the way, the stock has not been returned to our inventory. Any attempt to get that reconcile with cases opened had not been successful. No doubt, they might surface 3 years later like what happened with stock turned up in Germany and France recently but we have stopped selling in those stores since Brixit
This only happened twice so far and this is the only explaination we can come up with.
Seller_0XWc3TbYeT9US
Not sure on goods value on these orders, but it may be a factor.
Where we have experienced similar (buyer placing identical orders minutes apart) and it has been spotted, we have checked with the buyer and, to my recollection, it was because their one-time spend on the business card they were using was capped, so instead of ordering two units (as this was above the cap), they placed two orders for one unit to circumvent.
Just a thought.
