AMAZON - you have to address the inadequacy of your messaging system
AMAZON - you have to address the inadequacy of your messaging system
If you want to retain merchants like myself on your platform (merchants who have a great track record, treat customers well, always sort any small issues fast and are generally a positive addition to your brand platform), then you really need to start treating us better.
One of the main problems I come across time and again is the inadequacy of your customer contact system. So many times messages seem to get lost in customers spam filters, or are never seen or responded to at all.
You have recently allowed phone numbers on orders but expressly refuse to let us use them to contact customers regarding orders. Are you REALLY that paranoid that we might call our customers and ask them to do a deal off-site, loosing you a few pennies?
We don’t get to see customers email addresses either, so we can only make contact through YOUR system, but if that system means customers are not receiving or reading correspondence, what is the point?
I recently had to refund a customer after marking an order as shipped. We noticed the stock item turned out to be faulty as we were packing, so we couldn’t ship, so yes, my error because I had marked as shipped prior to actually shipping (that’s another bugbear with your system - I cant mark orders as PRINTED).
The customer got an instant refund, and a mail was sent apologising, but the customer doesn’t appear to have received the notifications, and has left -ve feedback. And of course our efforts to tell the customer that if they look in their account they will see a full refund are pointless because they are NOT SEEING THE CONTACT EMAILS.
You rattle on about Merchants needing to give high levels of customer service, you put customer service metrics on our accounts, and you PENALISE us for getting it wrong on the odd occasion with your utterly ineffective feedback system, yet you continue to make it IMPOSSIBLE for us to keep our customers well informed about their orders.
AMAZON, I feed this kind of info back to you every time you ask for feedback, but you fail to address anything. Ever. Perhaps you are not getting my Emails? You might want to check your spam folder…
AMAZON - you have to address the inadequacy of your messaging system
AMAZON - you have to address the inadequacy of your messaging system
If you want to retain merchants like myself on your platform (merchants who have a great track record, treat customers well, always sort any small issues fast and are generally a positive addition to your brand platform), then you really need to start treating us better.
One of the main problems I come across time and again is the inadequacy of your customer contact system. So many times messages seem to get lost in customers spam filters, or are never seen or responded to at all.
You have recently allowed phone numbers on orders but expressly refuse to let us use them to contact customers regarding orders. Are you REALLY that paranoid that we might call our customers and ask them to do a deal off-site, loosing you a few pennies?
We don’t get to see customers email addresses either, so we can only make contact through YOUR system, but if that system means customers are not receiving or reading correspondence, what is the point?
I recently had to refund a customer after marking an order as shipped. We noticed the stock item turned out to be faulty as we were packing, so we couldn’t ship, so yes, my error because I had marked as shipped prior to actually shipping (that’s another bugbear with your system - I cant mark orders as PRINTED).
The customer got an instant refund, and a mail was sent apologising, but the customer doesn’t appear to have received the notifications, and has left -ve feedback. And of course our efforts to tell the customer that if they look in their account they will see a full refund are pointless because they are NOT SEEING THE CONTACT EMAILS.
You rattle on about Merchants needing to give high levels of customer service, you put customer service metrics on our accounts, and you PENALISE us for getting it wrong on the odd occasion with your utterly ineffective feedback system, yet you continue to make it IMPOSSIBLE for us to keep our customers well informed about their orders.
AMAZON, I feed this kind of info back to you every time you ask for feedback, but you fail to address anything. Ever. Perhaps you are not getting my Emails? You might want to check your spam folder…
218 replies
Seller_2MDS66zdjPMUU
Too busy fixing the forums… fiddling and Rome come to mind
Seller_lvc1scfq0rH8Y
The mail system is EXACTLY how Amazon wants it. They’re not interested in it working to our, and customers, benefit.
Seller_MhO7GRsBziFEN
I was just about to make a post on this subject so glad I found your thread first 
I’ve had two very angry messages from buyers today, irate at my “p**s poor customer service” due to not replying to their emails. Although of course I have replied and I can clearly see my responses in my Amazon messages.
I don’t know whether my responses are going into spam filters or whatever but it’s clearly going to affect my metrics.
One particularly angry customer’s email hasn’t even come through with the order ID and I can’t find (on a quick search) any orders that seem to match their name but do suspect it is an actual bonafide customer.
So frustrating but that’s Amazon for you!
BB.
Seller_RdjBVqcdfZmO4
At this point, I am starting to think whoever in charge at Amazon (Jeff Bezos probably not involved at this point) just doesn’t care. They are going to get paid either way due to sheer amounts of sales and sellers that remain. Sellers are getting the short end day after day and they seem to have 0 intentions to fix this.
We have a few cases on SS that have been open for months now and they attempt to close them on a regular basis without even attempting a resolution. We have even tried asking Amazon to contact a customer on our behalf to tell them to check their spam folder however as per usual, the customer does not receive our emails.
I have also found out that sometimes emails just don’t go through at all. I always send proof now as a screenshot that we have replied in the past and customers have said “It never came through” and that they were checking their spam folder on a regular basis. This is just one of the many things wrong with Amazon that could have been fixed.
Seller_AosJD54bRJJWc
Definitely something wrong with the messaging system. More and more buyers just don’t seem to be receiving messages. Very annoying m.
Seller_lx3tBQ67kUzc8
I really hope someone at Amazon reads this and they do something about the message system. It’s resulting in a poor customer experience so you would think it would be a priority to fix.
Seller_A0OTlwV7zzHv5
This morning we have received 26 ‘Your message to a buyer could not be delivered’ emails from Amazon each referring to a different Royal Mail tracking email sent to a customer.
+"We were unable to deliver the message you sent because the buyer has chosen to opt out of receiving unsolicited messages from sellers.+
+However, even if a buyer has opted out of unsolicited messages, if you need to send them a message critical to completing his or her order, you can include the word [Important] in the subject of your message or use the Buyer-Seller Messaging interface on Seller Central:+
+Go to Manage Orders.+
+Click the buyer’s name in the list, which will take you to Buyer-Seller Messaging.+
+Select “Additional Information Required” as your subject, write your message, and click Send+
+If you tried to respond to a buyer and received a message that the buyer has opted out of unsolicited seller messages, please respond to the buyer on the original message thread (instead of starting a new thread) and make sure that his or her original message is included in your reply.+
+For your reference, the following messages are considered “critical” to complete the order:+
+Product customization questions+
+Delivery scheduling+
+Issues with a shipping address+
+The following messages are “not critical” to complete the order:+
+Requests for seller feedback or customer reviews+
+Order, shipment, or delivery confirmations+
+Proactive customer service (for example: product manuals, tips for using the product, FAQs, suggestions if something goes wrong)+
+Out-of-stock or delay notifications and offers of alternate products (please cancel the order instead)+
+Learn more about Buyer-Seller Messaging and what messages are considered critical to completing orders.+
+Sincerely,+
+Amazon Seller Support+"
How is this improving the buying experience?
Seller_Jj3RbP7yEYxg1
the exact same thing here, I immediately emailed a buyer after an order came through explaining there was an issue,
2 weeks later I got a 1 star negative for terrible customer service and not contacting them, amazon refuse to remove the feedback even though they can easily see my communication to the buyer
the problem is a normal buyer will not know where to find messages from sellers on the amazon platform easily, I struggle at times and have been using amazon over 10 years !
they need to make it where it’s immediately obvious there is a message waiting for the buyer, i.e a pop up when they log in? or next to the order in the buyers orders it could say - seller has messaged you about this order please click here?
they tell us it’s all about good customer service but if we cannot contact the buyer what else can we do?
Seller_0msMReDTskp1Y
I’ve noticed that over the last week or so, I’ve stopped receiving messages sent by customers in my email. I’ve certainly not opted out of this (and as a seller it would be daft if you are able to) so I can’t see why it is happening.
A side effect of this is that I can’t add the [IMPORTANT] flag when I reply to messages via the messaging system so I’ve got a few customers becoming more and more irate that I’m ignoring them.
Seller_y7wlA8Npjq1Or
In a nutshell the Ebay message system is far superior. As is the feedback system. In fact at the moment the Ebay system is a far better experience for both seller and customer.
Maybe amazon is easier to list on but I think as it stands today Ebay are slowly tipping the scales.
I like to feel in control of my business but with the A-Z problems tracking problems feedback problems and messaging problems it just not there.
