Returns Advice
Hi Everyone,
I've been selling on Amazon for 2 years now and mainly been selling second hand books with barely any returns. I've just started doing Online Arbitrage via FBM. So the products I'm selling at the moment are Nintendo switch games which are download code only included (No gamecard).
Just wondering if anyone could give me any tips with regards to returns as I expect these could be something that end up getting a fair few returns were people try use the code and then send it back. If the items are returned to you and the packaging seal as been taken off are you within your rights as a seller to take a restock fee off the refund total?
Apologies if these are silly questions, just wanting to prepare myself and workout best how to deal with any potential returns for this type of product.
Thanks
Returns Advice
Hi Everyone,
I've been selling on Amazon for 2 years now and mainly been selling second hand books with barely any returns. I've just started doing Online Arbitrage via FBM. So the products I'm selling at the moment are Nintendo switch games which are download code only included (No gamecard).
Just wondering if anyone could give me any tips with regards to returns as I expect these could be something that end up getting a fair few returns were people try use the code and then send it back. If the items are returned to you and the packaging seal as been taken off are you within your rights as a seller to take a restock fee off the refund total?
Apologies if these are silly questions, just wanting to prepare myself and workout best how to deal with any potential returns for this type of product.
Thanks
4 replies
Seller_0XWc3TbYeT9US
Opened computer games are explicitly prohibited from return and you are not obliged to provide ANY refund at all. They are specifically stated as excluded in Amazon's Returns Policy as well as (if you really want to know) The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (Section 28 (3)(b).
HOWEVER - and it's a big however - if such an item is returned, there is no real way to "deny" the return on the Amazon system and any customer putting an A-Z Claim in will instantly be refunded in full if the tracking shows it came back 72+hours ago. And they will deny any appeal, because you haven't refunded within 72 hours, end of.
My advice is always to partially refund. That way an A-Z Claim will not get processed automatically, they will write to you and you can advise that it was returned opened in contravention of policy, there is no entitlement to a refund but you have provided a partial refund anyway. Oh - and report the customer for violating returns policy, please, not enough people do this (report a violation, top of Account Health page)! It won't help stop an A-Z Claim, they dont' check for violations, but if enough people did it Amazon would appreciate it's a problem.
The portion you refund is very much up to you, in our experience anything less than 50% stands a chance of still being refunded in full from your funds by A-Z, 50% or more they will sometimes close, sometimes refund the customer from their own funds but generally you're left alone - either way they shouldn't impact your metrics,. The problem with Code in Box games is you can't tell if the code has been used or not, so they are basically worthless when they come back.
Hope this helps some :) Wish there was a way to "Deny" a return, if there is and I've missed it all this time please let me know!
Seller_vijjPUI46bUSN
That’s brilliant really appreciate your help and thank you for going into such detail, it’s a massive help
I’ve had a look on my return settings today and set my Return Merchandise authorisation to seller authorised but was also trying to turn off return at first scan but I can’t seem find it. Any ideas how to do this? I’ve read previously that you can opt out of first scan. How true this is I’m not sure.
Very good advice regarding the partial refund, I was reading up regarding a restock fee which sounds like a similar kind of thing. I was thinking minimum 50% to cover original cost of goods and postage as like you said it won’t be usable again once opened. What sort of percentage have you usually been giving as partial refunds?
My main concern was same as what you said with it being a video game with download code only is that people would open the game, use the download code and then send back for a full refund. It suddenly occurred to me last night that this kind of product could be open to returns abuse potentially so was looking to come up with a plan to counteract this. Probably overthinking it due to some of the horror stories you read on the forums regarding returns and A-Zs
Thanks
Liam
Seller_0XWc3TbYeT9US
I am not aware of being able to turn off the "refund at first scan" option, if someone knows different I would like to know!
For opened games we generally do 50%, as I mentioned previously it seems to be the minimum that will allow an A-Z claim to be found in your favour. Most of our games are physical disk, however, so do have some resale value, whereas code in box units we tend to just write off (or give to a friend to try out).
be prepared for stroppy emails from customers! People generally aren't aware, or at least claim to be unaware, of the law regarding opening software, blu-rays, etc. or indeed any requirement to maintain goods in new condition whilst assessing them for suitability before returning. We do get negative feedback because of this, comes with the territory I'm afraid. Everyone expects all their money back irrespective - basically because if they bought it from Amazon directly Amazon would refund them in full because their staff don't care about making money or not :)
Seller_vijjPUI46bUSN
I read it somewhere on the forums but not sure how true it is, would be good if you can turn it off.
I think 50% sounds about right and reasonable too, I did some calculations last week after your message and 50% would break me even with cost of products & Shipping costs, so wouldn't be too bad, not ideal but better than making a loss.
End of the day I cant understand how they can get away with leaving negative feedback for something like that when its a law and to be honest they would be getting a partial refund which you wouldn't have to give them.
Have you had a lot of negative feedback from this? My only concern with getting negative feedback is that It would effect my ability to win the buy box .I've only got a feedback score of 6 currently so it would have such a negative impact if I was to get a few negative feedbacks in a short space of time, I've found over the past 2 years of selling books that you never seem to get any feedback.
