… this year has been shocking.
Is anyone getting anything receipted into FBA?
I know they are on strike today but I am getting nothing in.
To add insult to injury they are auto returning my stock that has been there over 270 days. There is more being unreceipted than receipted.
My shipments are getting received just like usual and I am not experiencing any Christmas related delays. But I am doing FBA in the US and Canada. @AmazonUKForumRefugee is based in the UK, maybe he can share some insight.
You canprevent this from happening in your Automated fulfillable inventory settings:
They have not made it very clear what happens to stock if it gets to 270 days old and there is not an automated setting.
Amazon will be removing your aged inventory by default unless you opt out. However, they will always send repeated warnings unless you opt out of these communications.
It is no longer possible to opt out. That option has been removed.
No issues with the shipments I send. I don’t send pallets, only parcels using UPS. The odd delay of a few days but nothing serious. I sent a FedEx shipment this week as the parcels were 125cm long and UPS was too expensive and they were received into Amazon and in stock 2 days after I sent them.
But I am seeing more inventory being lost. I am beginning legal action for 1 shipment today where 3 units were lost and Amazon is saying “we are right, you didn’t send them”.
I always take legal action unless it’s a very small loss and always win.
It must be possible to opt out. Could you post a screenshot of what are you seeing when you open the Automated Fulfillable Removal Settings?
How does this work? Are you sending them a LBA or submitting a small claims dispute?
Do you actually have a judge decide that Amazon has to pay you money and also reimburse your costs?
The opt out radio button is greyed out and there is a message saying it is no longer possible to opt out.
I email [email protected] stating that as the issue has not been resolved, I am giving them 7 days to review the case.
After 7 days, I go to the UK Small Claims Court online and begin a case. There is a small charge that you will get back together with your costs if you win.
This does not apply to non-UK companies or individuals. The claimant has to be based in the UK.
Both sides present their case online via documentation. If Amazon disputes the case (they always do), a court date is set (probably 2-3 months in the future). The location of the court is the claimant’s choice so I always chose a court near me.
In my experience of the 5 claims I have made against them, they leave it until the last few days before the date and then make an offer. The offer should be what you have claimed for unless you have claimed for ridiculous things. So it’s your actual loss, taxi to the court, solicitor’s fee if you have used one (I never do), court fee etc.
I’ve not gone to actual court yet although I did for a previous company I worked for. You just present your case in front of a judge, it’s very cosy and friendly.
That is interesting, are you able to take the buyers that rip you off into court?
Wow! Now I am speechless! This is exactly my experience. And also everyone else’s experience whom I have ever spoken to (through OnlyFans, FB or elsewhere) regarding their litigation against Amazon.
It’s such a shame that sellers from different countries don’t have the Small Claims route available. Amazon would have to treat everyone fairly if this was the case and also reflect it in their policies.
As you know, I have a High Court lawsuit against Amazon. I am not based in the UK and it has been extremely difficult for me to establish a jurisdiction in the country.
A complex lawsuit like this involves countless sub-negotiations, sub-cases, sub-judgements and it can drag for a decade.
Throughout the entire litigation, Amazon behaved exactly how you described - confident, uncompromising, hardball, with everything carefully argued and prepared as if they were looking forward to fight it, only to come up with a generous offer at the last possible moment and then proceeding into a complete meltdown when I did not accept what they offered me - doing every possible thing on the planet to avoid that hearing.
Other sellers also had Amazon approach them with a good offer just before a hearing. I have been wondering why would Amazon take the risks of public hearings/ judgements like this, if they actually prefer to settle every case out of court. However, from what I later learned, apparently 99.99% of sellers (claimants/plaintiffs) involved decide to back down and withdraw from litigation when seeing how vigorously Amazon appears to be prepared to fight their claims. Only the bravest proceed to get their settlement offers from the company (like me or you).
But good to know that the pattern works for small claims as well - just like I suspected.
Sadly, US-based sellers such as @skeeter or @FunkyMonkey may not be as lucky, since they could be forced into arbitration.
Back when amazon attacked my company our attorney at the time turned out be someone that has no balls. He was scared to go up against amazon and I don’t believe he was operating in my best interest at the time. Also at that time, this never crossed my mind, his political affiliation is Democrat and it is now very clear how all of them band together. The binding arbitration was the issue and we needed to convince a judge to side step that and get it into a court room.
If you think back to 2017 when Amazon was openly “screwing” FBA sellers, and we exposed how they were cheating us, way down under the covers. I actually recovered about $8,000. And we’re a small family business.
A few of us put together a case against Amazon. We had all the documentation to prove it. We went to every relevant government agency (US, state, and local). The White House. Investigative reporters, high profile lawyers, National TV reporters. (And my brother.) We were prepared to testify before Congress.
We couldn’t find anyone with “guts” enough to take them on.
Yes, you are able to however if Amazon hear about this, maybe because the customer told them, they would suspend your account as it is against T&Cs to take action direct with customers.
At least Amazon, although they pay “tough” if you take them to court, they don’t damage or suspend your account to spite you. This was not my experience with DPD, the major UK parcel courier, who suspended my account with them when I took them to court for overcharging me. They did repay me what they overcharged but I was not able to use them again.
In the past, there used to be a clause stating that taking buyers to court is viewed as a violation of code of conduct. The paragraph has now disappeared.
From what I understand, Amazon won’t do anything if you just take a customer to the court. However, if you threaten them with a legal action through buyer-seller messaging, this is viewed as being against the rules.
Based on my several years long experience assisting Amazon Sellers, there are many individuals, I call them “Karens”, who have a habit of threatening a legal action, when they never mean it.
Some time ago a suspended Etsy seller contacted me who got banned from the platform for threatening buyers with legal action. I firstly got really interested, as I found it to be unfair. However, then I saw that the seller actually aggressively threatened and intimidated the buyers. And when I asked her how did the legal action turn out, she told me she had no money and no lawyers.
There is a very thin line between exercising your legal rights and making threats which can be deemed harassment.
DPD doesn’t seem to care about a potential negative publicity.
Amazon, unlike DPD is a monopoly. They can’t risk making it appear like they are seeking to retaliate against those seeking a remedy.
That’s good to know.
