Hey, all! This is a repost from another forum. It occured to me that during my 16 years selling on here, and reading forums, and sharing ups and downs, and getting help from, and helping other sellers, that some sellers do not KNOW how to report customer theft with FBA orders, and if possible request reimbursement for it. Hope this helps somebody. The below is a response to another seller in distress on another forum, and when I finished the outline, I realized I had just cleared given out the steps that are NOT written clearly anywhere, to be able to detect customer FBA theft, report it to Amazon, and get reimbursed for it under VERY limited circumstances. This is as easy to do as 1,2,3, until the format changes, which could occur overnight the way changes occur on here. This applies to FBA orders only! Here goes. And if you have more tips for sellers, PLEASE post them to help others out. Im betting I will learn some new stuff too if we get alot of good input! Here goes:

So when you get that FBA return from Amazon, you should be able to INSTANTLY figure out which customer that return came from, right? Incorrect. So when 4 of 5 returns come in in good condition, with a dented box, you can usually sell them as a used set and salvage your loss. But what about that 1 in 5 where the customer just destroyed your product, and stripped parts off of it, or worse, stole your product entirely and swapped it out with a cake tray stencil kit (happened to me once-true story). Boy, wouldn't that be nice! If Amazon actually put the original customer order number on the FBA return being sent, then you would know the exact customer committing fraud. That would be way too simple! Instead, they put a FBA return order number on the packing slip, which is a bunch of numbers and letters that have nothing to do with the original order # of the customer who returned the stripped out NEW product. You have to do your own research to find out who stripped your FBA product or swapped it out with a box of coals. They don't make it easy for you. Because simply giving out the order number the FBA Return came from would make it too easy to directly identify the source of the fraud.

1. FINDING THE SOURCE OF WHO STRIPPED/STOLE/SWAPPED YOUR PRODUCT: You have to look up your order history, and find the FBA returns for that product in the last 60 days to determine which customers returned them. You can look up the FBA returns report, OR look up the order history for that product, and see which ones are marked in RED as refunded, and see if the refund was just a promo credit or an actual 100% refund. Either way works. If it's just one customer, then you have identified your thief/product swapper. If more than 1 customer has returned it in 60 days, you would need to track each return, and see if you can isolate the one that came in your current return shipment. Usually if more than 1 customer has returned the item, it's harder (but NOT impossible) to track.

2. REPORTING THEFT TO AMAZON SO THEY CAN TRACK / STOP THEFT: Once you isolate which customer order the FBA return came from, you can report them via case creation under "buyer abusing return policy", and choose the option "buyer is returning items substantially different from original product". If they get enough of these reports about The fraudulent buyer, there's a prayer of a chance that they will actually suspend the buyer. More likely the buyer will lay low and order from a different seller who doesn't care enough to report the theft. We always report theft! Because we want to stay in business! But that won't get you a dime for the stolen product parts.

3. GETTING REIMBURSED (GOOD LUCK) 4 OUT OF 5 TIMES YOU WONT GET A REIMBURSEMENT. BELOW ARE THE LIMITED CONDITIONS THAT MERIT REIMBURSEMENT, AND THE ONES THAT DON'T (SAVE YOU FROM WASTING TIME TAKING PICS AND DOCUMENTING A CLAIM THAT IS NON-REFUNDABLE):

You would need to file a Seller Support claim under, " request FBA return order reimbursement." Then you need

• the FBA return order number, which is a bunch of numbers and letters, and can be found on the packing slip. You can also sort your fba order history and check the box "non-Amazon fulfilled orders" and it will bring up all the FBA return orders and find the FBA return order number that way.
• You will then need to drill down on the return order, find the shipping ID number where the product was returned to you,
• the LPN number on the return item itself, AND LASTLY,
• the FNSKU product number.
• FOR DOCUMENTATION, You have to be able to prove via pictures, and maybe even a small diagram, circling in RED what's missing or what was product was swapped out with, or even a side by side pic of original product vs what was returned (This HELPS SELLER SUPPORT ALOT)

Then and only then, WITH THE ABOVE CASE INFORMATION, and documentation, if the product is missing parts and there was theft involved, they may partially reimburse you for the customer stolen product. NOTE, BEFORE YOU FILE A CASE, TO SAVE TIME, don't even bother filing a case under ANY of the situations below, as they will not be reimbursed:

• If they destroyed the product and broke it, you get nothing. (DON'T BOTHER FILING A CLAIM-AMZ IS NOT RESPONSIBLE IF CUSTOMER DESTROYED YOUR PRODUCT
• If they returned a product that IS MISSING ALL PACKAGING (IE- originally came in a 40th anniversary collector's box), AND CUSTOMER returned it to FBA in a ziplock bag with a label on it and no original packaging, Amazon is not responsible for that. You get nothing. Your NEW $50 product is now a flea market item with no packaging, worth $5. EVEN THOUGH A RETAIL STORE WOULD NEVER, EVER TAKE BACK A RETURN MISSING THE BOX AND ALL PACKAGING, AMAZON DOES, AND THEY CHARGE ZERO RESTOCK FEE FOR IT, SO YOU BASICALLY JUST LOST YOUR PRODUCT. THAT'S THE WORST KIND OF FBA RETURN, BECAUSE GETTING A PRODUCT IN A BEAUTIFUL COLLECTOR BOX WITH ARTWORK, RETURNED IN A PLASTIC ZIPLOCK BACK, MEANS YOU JUST LOST 80% OF YOUR PRODUCT VALUE, AND ARE BETTER OFF SELLING IT USED ON THE BAY for $5. I KNOW. IT sucks. Just lost $50. But the product MUST actually be MISSING parts to be reimbursed. And packaging is not a PRODUCT part, according to Amz.
• If they modify the product and give it a new paint job , you get nothing. Got some products where customer repainted F15 fighter jet models their own colors. I CANNOT resell it as it is received, but Amazon wont reimburse it either. Sell it as a customer modded product on the bay for $5. Just lost another $50 item. SAD. :(
• *** The only way Amazon will reimburse you for an FBA customer damaged return, is if the customer literally stole parts or stole the entire product, and swapped the product for SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT (AKA STOLE YOUR PRODUCT). And if its just a few parts missing, prepare for a prorate. ***

But you need to report the customer for fraud or they will keep on doing it and you will have heartbreak after heartbreak until someone does report them for theft. They will steal and steal, and create false return reasons such as, " used item being sold as NEW, item broken, item missing parts etc", any false reason they can create to justify their fraudulent return. And CUSTOMER FRAUD will absolutely destroy your voice of the customer rating. If you have 10 different products, with 50 orders a piece, 500 orders total, and one single customer returns each of those 10 products just one time, and you get 10 returns total out of 500 orders, the voice of the customer satisfaction rating FOR ALL 10 PRODUCTS, will all go from perfect score Green status to RED!!

ALL 10 PRODUCTS, AKA, every item A CUSTOMER COMMITS FRAUD ON, when they return it, will be considered "poor rating" and all 10 products are now at risk of being suspended. Even if the only return for each product's history is just 1 return for each product, ALL from the SAME 1 fraudulent customer! But you know, as I have seen in the past, for a single customer to get 6 CONSECUTIVE DIFFERENT PRODUCTS that are ALL damaged or stripped of parts, that you know you shipped new in Factory cases to FBA, with ZERO other customer returns, that would be like lightning striking the same tree 6 CONSECUTIVE times. It's straight up fraud. And you need to report it. Too bad Amazon doesn't let us block dishonest buyers as I have posted on my other forum. I would block the buyer the second they return a swapped out/STRIPPED PARTS OFF a product and then that would save Amazon their lost Commission and us from losing everything, on the next 5-10 stolen orders. But Amazon won't let us block fraud. They won't even let us really contact the customer about it other than to inquire about more details on the return. All they let us do is sit back and report the fraud, watch the theft Stack Up, along with the losses, on Amazon's side and on our side, until the fraud department stop them. If no one ever reports them, they've got a free ticket to steal thousands of dollars of product, costing Amazon thousands and commission and sellers tens of thousands of dollars in swapped or stripped out orders. Great system isn't it? REPORT REPORT REPORT. EVEN IF YOU DON'T REQUEST A REIMBURSEMENT, REPORT ALL FRAUD.

All we need to do is be able to block customers we see committing fraud or having unusual suspicious activity on our side. Like they do on eBay and literally every other third-party site, BESIDES Amazon. But Amazon doesn't allow us to stop customers from ordering our own products, even if they have committed fraud the last 5 orders in a row, and cost us (and Amazon, EVERYTHING).

Just report the theft as shown above, request the reimbursement in the few times its actually customer theft (not just destroyed or missing packaging, but actually missing parts or stolen and swapped with something different), and pray that AMAZON DOES something about it.

God bless you all. Hang it there. We're all on this ship together! Post comments/other helpful hints below for others to learn from!

Lee