Hi
I sold some earphones worth £89.99 brand new sealed, the customer returned them because they “hurt her ears”.
They have been returned and assessed as “customer damaged” and no longer in a sellable condition.
But Amazon are refusing to issue me a reimbursement….
Is this normal?
Obviously I am at a loss now with this product
Yes.
That is why we don’t sell expensive items on the online marketplaces. We get some of that on our own website but its NOT even close to the abuse we get from the online marketplaces.
Good to know. In that case, I won’t be sending anything over £20 into FBA anytime soon. Is FBM any better?
Not really, with FBM you get burned for the return shipping costs.
What an activist will do is send you a drama filled message about how terrible your product is and how terrible of a seller you are for shipping late. On top of that they feel that it is fake. Now, what do you do???
You know the shipping will add to the loss, do you just click refund and give it away or do you make them send it back. On a cheap item, they typically get it for free. If they don’t get it for free and you request them to send it back you will get a paragraph of disparaging negative feedback.
amazon should be held accountable for facilitating this kind of abuse on sellers. Latest stats released from a court case regarding how they have manipulated sellers shows 45% of the profit comes from 3 P sellers. Just shows how toxic big tech really is, all the profit from the people they crap on. This is from the amazon secret project codename “Project Nessie” that was disclosed by the FTC.
https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/amazon-e-commerce-prices/2023/10/04/id/1136902/
I am getting these daily. Unfortunately, I am not a refund monkey so they don’t stand a chance with me. If they cause me to receive a complaint, I will just appeal with invoices.
Yes unfortunately! I would send them to you and check if it’s true or not, then write Amazon and ask for a refund but only after you see the status of them!
I had a return(no reason for return) on an item and sent it to me to then find out it wasn’t even what I sell -.- the customer returned something completely different. Amazon refunded me only half of the price unfortunately but it’s more than zero I guess!
I thought you could open Safe-T claims to recover these expenses. Isn’t it the case anymore?
Pretty sure we did try that years ago and it did not work.
I tried Safe-T claims as well and lost each time. When a buyer returned an empty package, Amazon dismissed my appeal on the grounds that I did not document the state of the product (despite there was none) 
In the USA we turn ours over to the USPS postal inspectors. When they use the mail and defraud you it is a felony.
Not paying out is a problem with both market places, we need to have lawmakers step in. That is another sham that needs to be examined by the government(s).
We always took pictures and marked our more expensive items, especially when they were being shipped to CA, NY, IL, and sometimes NJ and FL. Now we are taking pictures of, and marking less expensive ones.
A customer purchased the original Limited Edition Disney Ewok Basket, and returned a later version for considerably less money. It was 100’s of dollars less.
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Opened a case with Seller Support, and they refunded the entire amount.
In my country it would also be a crime, however aren’t there any minimum loss figures below which they won’t even investigate? Have you seen them ever take action or actually prosecute anyone?
Thanks all for the feedback
They way I understand it no minimum amount of loss. Its all treated the same.
If all the sellers would start reporting the scammers to USPS and FBI it might slow the theft down.
Some doing online theft are criminals with past convictions so it is best to play possum when dealing with them. Do all the background and get enough information from public sources then present that to law enforcement.
Best thing to do is just click refund and do not let them know you are onto them. Threatening to call the law on them or putting up fight will only make them suspicious and as a result they will either cover their tracks or use techniques to cloak themselves.
If you let them feel like they got away with it chances are they will become more brazen, then to the point of doing even more to others and the evidence grows until it will become enough for a conviction.
Unfortunately, today’s progress in e-commerce is making crime more accessible than ever. Criminals are being treated as valued customers, while sellers are penalized. Most people wouldn’t dare to steal a bar of chocolate, but they don’t mind scamming a seller by lying about non-receipt or condition of returned merchandise. And all these people don’t see it as a crime, they go to bed and sleep without thinking twice that they scammed someone out of their goods / money. Morals and self-responsibility for one’s actions no longer mean anything. Free returns and generous refund policies is what taught people to believe that they are always right and entitled to freebies, just for being unhappy. No wonder that they then also feel entitled to keeping free items and seeking refunds without returns.
More going on with this, look at the hypocrisy of amazon and eBay. When the stuff comes back or we are ripped off we still pay the fees. Both sites pocket the money so they don’t care what so ever if the seller is abused. Wall Street crowd is so greedy they don’t care about small time people, all they are concerned with are the marketplace user base showing growth.
I suspect that it’s only a matter of a few years, before authorities introduce legislation that will strictly police internet e-commerce marketplaces. This will mean that the whole process will become more complex and less accessible to ordinary people, but it will also make it a crime for someone to deny the receipt of their order or to intentionally cause a seller to lose a dispute with Amazon/ eBay that lead to them losing their money / merchandise at their own gain.
Do you know of a single case where action was taken? To me it seems like a waste of time.