Buyers and sellers must first take into account Amazon’s refund policy if they wish to avoid unpleasant surprises. Despite this, the system has a lot of what-if possibilities and is quite sophisticated. Who has the time to spend hours reading every word?
Almost often, returning an item to Amazon results in a respectable refund. On the other side, returns are challenging even before we start the reimbursement procedure. It’s advised that you read the article on
Selling on Amazon is a great way to generate money, but dealing with Amazon returns is a drawback. One of the most annoying Amazon letters for FBA sellers opens with “Refund initiated for order #102-12345-67890.” Receiving a return notice is not only annoying, but it could also make you wonder about something.
- Is this a replacement for one of the pricey items I just sold?
- Will the purchaser assert that the product was defective, which would damage my seller ratings?
- Can the returned item be sold again, or has the purchaser damaged it?
- Will the client now leave a negative review for me?
- What will I do as a result of this return to protect my account?
You must take a few crucial steps as an FBA vendor to protect your account from returns. If you don’t stay on top of your returns and take the necessary precautions to make sure your account is taken care of, you could suffer consequences.
So how do you protect your account in the event that a customer returns something they no longer want?
Follow These Five Steps When Handling Amazon Returns:
- Return Notification Email:
When a consumer requests the return of an item delivered via Prime, Amazon processes the refund without holding up the refund until the item has been received. When a refund has been applied to your account, Amazon will let you know. So that you have a record of the refund and can verify that it is handled within 45 days, you can organise these emails in a folder that you can create in your email app.
- Seller Feedback Score:
After requesting a refund, one of the first things a client does is provide feedback for the seller. Regardless of whether the customer left you with negative feedback or not, I think it is a good idea to get in touch with them and express your sincere regret for the unpleasant experience. I’d probably say something like,
It’s possible that sending the email alone would stop the customer from leaving unfavourable feedback. If the consumer has already provided unfavourable feedback, sending them this email makes you seem like a helpful person, and they may opt to take it down.
- Inspect Returned Items To FBA:
A warehouse employee will inspect the product when it is returned to Amazon to decide if it should be added to your inventory as fulfillable or unfulfillable. They will mark an item as “Client Damaged” and remove it from your fulfillable inventory if they see that a customer has opened it. An item could not be re-added to the fulfillable inventory if it was returned as “Defective.”
However, a warehouse employee will choose to resupply a product if they find that the consumer hasn’t opened it, the packing isn’t damaged, and it wasn’t returned as “Defective.”
Regardless of their choice, you should have all returns sent back to you for in-person assessment. As they labour quickly to fulfil their tasks, the warehouse workers may miss something during their inspection. A product must also be in new packaging in order to be considered to be in new condition.
Consumers will start to doubt the brand-new state of your goods if there is even a small break in the packaging or a piece of shrink wraps missing. And even if the warehouse worker was the one who assessed the state after the return, your vendor account will take a major blow if a prospective customer returns an item that you’re trying to promote as new and lists it as used.
- Check The Reason For The Return:
Follow these measures to run a report to determine the reason:
- Register at Seller Central.
- Choose Customer Concessions from the Reports menu, then Fulfillment, and finally Returns.
- I usually run the report for 30 to 60 days, depending on how soon the item was returned.
- Determine why the item was returned by locating it on the report.
- For whatever reason, not all of your returns will be included in this report. You should file a Seller Central ticket and ask why the item was returned if the one you’re looking for isn’t shown on this report.
- Inspect Items Returned To You:
You can sell a returned item on Amazon if you inspect it and find that it is brand new and unopened. To safeguard your sale account, it requires some time, work, and a tiny sum of money (less than $1) to have these items returned to you for inspection before being sent back in.
A further measure of security is provided by looking over the return’s explanation. Customers may return an item for a variety of reasons, including ordering the wrong item, no longer requiring it, making an unauthorised purchase, receiving the wrong item, and more. For some returns, the buyer must cover the cost of return freight.
You can double-check that any products returned as “Defective” are actually defective due to the free return shipping issue. Unfortunately, some customers would rather utilise the reason for their return being “Defective” in order to get free return postage. They are unaware that what they are doing are hurting third-party Amazon vendors. It’s the simplest method for them to achieve their goal of saving $5 on delivery.
You should get in touch with Seller Central straight away if you find out that an item has been returned to you marked “Defective” but has never been opened or if you inspect it and find that it is not flawed in any way.
In your message, let them know that although though the item was returned as defective, you are confident it is not, and you think the purchaser was only trying to gain free shipping. Include a picture of the returned item along with the Amazon return packing slip in your post, as well as a close-up picture of the packing slip showing the numbers and text.
It is your responsibility as a seller to determine why an item is flawed and then refrain from selling it.
In the past, whenever I’ve done the aforementioned with non-defective goods, Amazon has reacted in one of two ways:
- A note thanking me for bringing this to their attention and informed me that they will add a note to the customer’s account regarding the incident after determining from my photo that the product is unopened or not faulty (if a customer continues to engage in “buyer harassment,” their purchasing account could be canceled).
- The message mentioned above along with a statement that they are asking for payment for this item on my behalf.
Since you can just return the item to Amazon for resale if it is still brand-new and unopened, Amazon will not give a refund. In most cases, they’ll give you a refund if it’s been opened.
Conclusion:
By taking these precautions, you may help safeguard your account against potential dings that could result in the suspension bots that every Amazon seller dreads. Refunds won’t be a problem as long as you keep an eye out for your account’s security.