The incompetence that is Amazon Seller Support...
Where to even begin...
A couple months back i made the decision to switch from FBA to FBM, the fees involved for FBA were just getting to unsustainable levels and i had a number of complaints from customers telling me their parcels were arriving seperately or with damaged packaging.
Towards the end of last month i placed my first removal order, i decided i was going to do this in two batches so i could continue selling and have no interupption, over the following weeks the packages filtered in until all the completed goods had been recieved... or so i thought. Upon doing our stocktake it became clear that one or more parcels were missing, more than that one of our parcels turned up containing 3 bottles of a hair oil, we sell dog apparel so this had no place in being in with our goods, one of the bottles of oil had burst and damaged £299.98 worth of our products.
We contacted Amazon to alert them to this and the missing goods which didnt arrive, the issue of the damaged goods was glossed over by amazon and they directed us to identify the missing parcel. In our eyes this was amazons first mistake as it should surely be their responsibility as the sender to identify these parcel(s) rather than us combing through every tracking ID. Nonetheless we pressed forward and compiled a spreadsheet detialing every single parcel that was sent as part of our removal order and successfully identified 2 parcels which did not arrive with one of these parcels containing over £900 worth of goods and its this parcel we chose to focus our attention on given its significant value.
I sent amazon the requested Tracking IDs, Shipping IDs and Carrier Details along with a breakdown of the parcels contents
Remember this parcel DID NOT ARRIVE so what did amazon request when we notified them of this ?
- Pictures of the shipping label
- Packing Slips
- Picture of the box itself
- Proof of delivery
and its here where the string of Amazons Incompetence begins...
The following message i sent emphisised the fact that i could not possibly provide these details as the parcels DID NOT ARRIVE and the sellers response ? to notify me that 14 units of the order were cancelled... a fact i was already aware of and a fact that didnt change the fact that the tracking number i sent him still showed the parcel was lost adding to the point that he'd pointed out 14 irrelvant units when this parcel contained 33 units.
So fast forward one week and around 8 phone calls and countless emails later it finally gets through to the thick headed support team that they had infact lost a parcel and after sending me random corresponants in German (im British) they eventually reinbursed me... for less than half the amount of the retail value.
Which brings us to the current situation,
For the past 2 weeks we have been speaking on the phone to amazon every day escalating this matter only to be hit with the same copy and paste responses. The sticking point seems to be that Amazon wish to reinburse us what they think is the manufacturing cost however we have continously told them that this is insufficent as we cannot replace these items at that value as we recieve quantity discounts based on the order amount, we would have to replace an order for over £9000 in order to get those items at the same price. Given this we are adament we recieve the retail value of the goods.
It is here that i must point out that amazon also deducted FBA and Commision Fees from this reinbursement as it is reinbursed "as a sold item" only the item wasnt sold and amazon didnt fulfill the item... they lost it. So i was charged FBA and Commision on these items as well as the money i paid to remove them !! If these items had been returned to me as intended i would have been able to sell them on my various other sale platforms meaning i would not have paid amazon these added fees.
There are a number of irregularities in the reinbursement report itself, for starters
AK9 Tac Collar Small Black - £17.13, Amazon paid me the retail amount minus the FBA and Com Fees
However ive been told by amazons support agents that they only reinburse the manufacturing fee ?
Then we have the following...
AK9 Tact Harness XSmall Magenta, AK9 Tact Harness Small Red, AK9 Tact Harness XSmall Red, AK9 Tact Harness XSmall Black
all of the above SKUs we're reinbursed to the amount of £6.13 per unit (i sell these for £44.99) however,
AK9 Tact Harness Medium Grey was reinbursed at £27.88 per unit, the item is exactly the same as the above SKUs, they sell for the same amount and the cost the same amount to manufacture, the only difference is size and colour. Yet im still told the system reinbursed me correctly ?
I have now spoken to over 15 Amazon Support agents via the phone and whilst a few of them were understanding and made a geniune attempt to help me the majority have been grossly incompetent and unwilling or unable to understand the situation at hand. I am now in a scenario in which the only way i can see a resolution is to have a solicitor take control of this matter, i have repeatedly asked to speak to a specialist team that handles reinbursements directly so we can work together in resolving this matter only to be told "thats not possible", ive had multiple agents request a call back from said team and after 2 weeks ive still to recieve a single phone call.
As things stand Amazon have effectively stolen £521 from me in lost retail value. In order to recoup these losses failing a resolution i have had to close all of my EU marketplaces and if i am not properly compensated i will have to also close my UK store also as i cannot in good consciousness continue to work with a company who would be so willing to rip off its sellers and treat them with such disdain.
