Refunds scam
Hello,
I've noticed recently that many customers request refunds citing "Item not received," even though I use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). When Amazon processes these refunds, the customers receive the full amount they paid, while Amazon retains its fees. As a result, I end up losing money because I am essentially paying more back to the customer than what I initially received. This issue is causing significant financial losses, and I don't understand why it should impact only the seller, especially when using FBA. The whole point of using FBA is to avoid dealing with shipping problems and financial losses due to delivery errors or potential scams where customers claim non-receipt to get their money back while keeping the product.
Another issue arises when customers return cosmetic products exactly 30 days after purchase with empty bottles, claiming the product is "fake" or caused skin irritation. These returns harm my account health and can lead to product removal due to suspicious feedback, despite my appeals to Amazon with original invoices from wholesalers.
While I'm not against all refunds and returns, there are numerous suspicious requests, resulting in significant financial losses.
Refunds scam
Hello,
I've noticed recently that many customers request refunds citing "Item not received," even though I use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). When Amazon processes these refunds, the customers receive the full amount they paid, while Amazon retains its fees. As a result, I end up losing money because I am essentially paying more back to the customer than what I initially received. This issue is causing significant financial losses, and I don't understand why it should impact only the seller, especially when using FBA. The whole point of using FBA is to avoid dealing with shipping problems and financial losses due to delivery errors or potential scams where customers claim non-receipt to get their money back while keeping the product.
Another issue arises when customers return cosmetic products exactly 30 days after purchase with empty bottles, claiming the product is "fake" or caused skin irritation. These returns harm my account health and can lead to product removal due to suspicious feedback, despite my appeals to Amazon with original invoices from wholesalers.
While I'm not against all refunds and returns, there are numerous suspicious requests, resulting in significant financial losses.
4 replies
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
The customer does receive a refund right away, but since the item wasn't received or marked as delivered, it was never released from your account level reserve anyways for payment. So you didn't actually lose any money.
If the item finds it's way back to the fulfillment center, it will get rechecked in and available for resale. if that does not happen within 45-60 days, Amazon provides you a reimbursement for the lost product.
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
That isn't the whole point. The whole point of using FBA is to save money on shipping costs and provide faster shipping to your customer.
Seller_T2N9qK9aX55sg
Check our FBA returns, and reason customers are giving it, most of our retruns, even though customers used the product, are being put back as sellable units.
The whole thing, who ever decides whats sellable and what is is not is crazy.
Example
Product performance/quality is not up to my expectation - Reason - Not good quality - Unit returned to inventory
Customer Damaged Unwanted item Unit returned to inventory
Product performance/quality is not up to my expectations - Reason - Doesn't work - Unit returned to inventory
So what we found out, people are swapping fakes products with real products, and returning the fakes to real orders, which amazon than puts it back as sellable, and when products gets resold again, real sellers get stuck with bad reviews.
