Hello all,

I am a new seller on Amazon and have been having problems with some customers who I feel are quite blatantly trying to scam me for a refund on their order.I have read a few posts about customers scamming low cost items and wondered what other peoples’ experiences are in relation to this matter?

Last week I received an order from a customer who, a few days later asked for a refund as their item had been not been delivered in time. Upon inspection, I found out that the item in question had an estimated delivery date of the 27th March so could not have possibly been late as the customer logged the return request on Monday 25th March! The order had been sent on time and I provided the customer with details of proof of posting, including date and time of posting. I also attached a copy of the order details which clearly stated the estimated delivery date and asked how an item can be late if it is not due for delivery for another two days? The customers’ response to this was to send a message with the words “IMMEDIATE REFUND”. Err, no. I responded by stating that they will receive a refund upon return of the goods and not before and if they had an issue with this them they should contact Amazon customer services.

I also received a message from a buyer stating they had not received their item. Ahh, this old chestnut. As an Ebay seller I am all too aware of this and 9 times out of 10 customers go strangely silent when you provide a proof of postage. Not in this case. The customer sent a message demanding to know where their item was. I sent a copy of the proof of postage and they replied by saying “IS THIS A SCAM?” No,dear customer, this is not a scam. Funny that the ones who are scamming the seller usually mention a “scam”. I usually deal with them by stating that Royal Mail UK take mail theft very seriously as it is a criminal offence and I report ALL incidences of alleged mail going missing to their fraud and investigation department. I also advise the customer that I will be sending their order details to Royal Mail UK for the purpose of their investigations. Funny thing is that my customers go very quiet when I tell them this and cease moaning about their “missing” order.

Anyway, I decided to give this customer the benefit of the doubt and sent another order tracked and signed for immediately. The customer then sent a return request stating the items were “not as described”. I messaged the customer asking them to explain why the item is not as described and got no response. So the first order “Goes missing” and the second order is not as described? Really? No. It again is quite obvious that the customer has received the first order and is just trying to scam the money back for the item. I am now awaiting return of the second item which, as of yet, has not arrived. So zero refund if the item isn’t back in my possession.

I fulfill my own orders at present because I simply cannot afford the costs to store my products in the EU fulfillment centres. It would save a lot of hassle if Amazon could deal with my customer service but at present this is not an option. Therefore does anyone have any more tips on how to deal with these scam buyers? I currently sell in France, Germany, Italy and Spain and have the most items going “missing” in France. I have spoke to Amazon seller support and they are about as much use as half a scissor. The last conversation with an Amazon representative led to him cutting me off because he couldn’t answer my questions about seller protection for self fulfilled sellers. I feel that Amazon make it as difficult as possible for you if you are a small business and offer little support.