Product delivered after held in customs, Amazon already paid refund
Hi all,
Recently a customer bought an item from us that we shipped internationally (to Lithuania). The shipment got stuck in customs for about a week which the customer was made aware of in a message and could see in the tracking information. During this time the customer requested a refund and this was automatically approved by Amazon. Meanwhile, a few days later the shipment was delivered and according to the shipping tracking details it has been delivered.
The customer has been very negative that the package was not delivered (while held in customs) and after the refund (which Amazon paid out without us having received the product back) he left a negative review.
We are now of course worried we will not get the product back. It is a rather expensive product and the shipping costs for him to return it to us will also have to be taken by him of course.
What have you done in a similar situation? Since Amazon just approves the refund request without checking with us first if we have received the product back, we risk losing the product and initial shipping cost in the end without any revenue.
This is similar to someone walking into a physical store and asking to return a product, without having the product with him, and getting the refund anyway.
We are fairly new to Amazon and have to admit are a bit surprised we were not even asked what we thought about the refund (there was no option to object to it).
Thanks!
33 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
Firstly did you send IOSS - if applicable ?
Or DDP if expensive as you state
Secondly, unfortunately there is nothing to make the buyer return the items, they can just keep it
You may want to look at your sales and think about extending handling and transit times or, switching off EU altogether as fbm
You need to read the international returns policy on this
Seller_tRuvBEHDedp4q
Unfortunately this is the way Amazon operates.
They give an estimated delivery date to customer - but expect you to deliver on or before that date (they really should look up what the word estimated means)
Once the date is passed they send customer a message saying ‘looks like your delivery is late - you can request a refund’
Now customer is supposed to send you a message informing you first of the non/late delivery before any automatic refund is issued by Amazon - but if you had already communicated about the delay at customs, then that will be sufficient communication for Amazon, so as soon as customer went to Amazon about the delay, Amazon would issue refund as delivery was late.
Now if delivery shows delivered, you can ask Amazon to re-charge the customers card. But often Amazon will say the customer has to authorise Amazon to do that - and as you have found, if you get an uncooperative customer, it is unlikely to happen.
Seller_rLJoH04FxZpLY
From the sound of it and the experiences you share, selling internationally is something we should avoid. I have asked Amazon to do a re-charge, provided them with the shipping information showing the product has been delivered. Meanwhile we have paused all our selling on Amazon until it gets more clear how Amazon handles this. We operate physical stores as well and barely the idea of refunding a customer who walks into a shop without bringing the product to be refunded is bizarre to say the least.
Seller_rLJoH04FxZpLY
Thanks. We could extend the shipping times even more but the risk of the customer asking for a refund and keeping the product is still there. In a situation where the refund has been given and the product not returned, it sounds like the seller has a large risk of making a loss. That can of course happen also when you sell locally.
Seller_rGNl7DgMf1CPH
I had this happen twice soon after we left the EU, money refunded before it was confirmed delivered on track and signed.
I stopped selling to the EU, to many ways to lose money now.
Seller_b5LDA3tnfaBEG
Turn your international off! Honestly this will cause you more grief than its worth tbh. We still ship internationally but not through Amazon. We stopped a couple of years ago, in our experience the cost of losing orders, money and the sometimes rude and negative comments are not worth the stress or the impact it has on the metrics. The final straw was right at the beginning of Brexit when we sent an item to Italy, not only did it take forever, there was a custom charge that we had to pay via a partial refund which then left nothing left and we actually lost money.
Seller_cRmriwt5ZCgkv
We stopped shipping to EU long ago, Amazon make it so difficult to deal with EU sales when it should not be that hard, but with experiences like you describe its just not worth it until Amazon get real and stop the theft from buyers.
Seller_rLJoH04FxZpLY
Thanks everyone. Much appreciated feedback here. I opened a support ticket explaining that the shipment was delivered according to the shipping company but the refund was also already issued. Asked for a re-charge by Amazon. Received something similar to an automatic message back from support explaining how A-Z guarantee works for buyers. No answer given about the specific case or a re-charge. Is your experience that the support system relies on some kind of auto-responses like this? How do you usually manage to get to talk to someone on the other end who reads your ticket?
Seller_rLJoH04FxZpLY
Are you selling more expensive products on Amazon or has the issues with refunds caused you to only sell lower cost items?
If Amazon has the view that the customer can get both the refund and keep the product as long as it was just a few days late in the delivery, then obviously that makes it impossible to sell more expensive items on Amazon. The product we shipped in this case had a high value so the loss for us is substantial including both the product value and the shipping costs.
Again if I told my staff in our physical stores to refund customers even if they don’t bring the product back they would most likely think I had gone mad. But that is what is happening here on Amazon right now.
