Cant opt out of Pay by Invoice Business customers
This is my first posting so please be gentle on me.
Just did my regular disbursment and noticed i had an outstanding invoice balance and after looking into it for a fair while discovered it was a business customer who purchased a £12 item over the weekend which i shipped today. The payment date is the 30th August. I had previously looked into the b2b but opted out as was not prepared to give credit to other businesses as im not a big company and cant afford to be giving credit.
I read the help sections on Amazon incase i had missed something an not opted out correctly but no. I had done everything right. It appears there is no way to opt out of giving credit to any other business seller. Amazon now has made the decision to take control of all business sellers and make us provide 30 days credit to any other business seller on a wide range of our products of Amazons choosing and we have absolutely no say in the matter.
If the customer then doesnt pay after 30 days we have to wait another 14 days for Amazon to pay us. Has anyone else heard anything on this. Is it new or has it been going on for some time.
Cant opt out of Pay by Invoice Business customers
This is my first posting so please be gentle on me.
Just did my regular disbursment and noticed i had an outstanding invoice balance and after looking into it for a fair while discovered it was a business customer who purchased a £12 item over the weekend which i shipped today. The payment date is the 30th August. I had previously looked into the b2b but opted out as was not prepared to give credit to other businesses as im not a big company and cant afford to be giving credit.
I read the help sections on Amazon incase i had missed something an not opted out correctly but no. I had done everything right. It appears there is no way to opt out of giving credit to any other business seller. Amazon now has made the decision to take control of all business sellers and make us provide 30 days credit to any other business seller on a wide range of our products of Amazons choosing and we have absolutely no say in the matter.
If the customer then doesnt pay after 30 days we have to wait another 14 days for Amazon to pay us. Has anyone else heard anything on this. Is it new or has it been going on for some time.
41 replies
Seller_lplZIMdO5UBa7
Its been like this since inception, we have never had then option to opt out.
Seller_5mLDKnKu2zhvV
It’s interesting that Amazon have sellers fund their line of credit, whereas PayPal do it themselves and sellers are never aware of credit that may or may not be used when making purchases using PayPal.
I can only think this is because Amazon have cashflow issues and can’t afford to fund the credit themselves, but don’t want PayPal to be ahead of the curve so are using sellers to fund this for them.
Thoughts?
Seller_n0bJDRRezJ2p6
I had one of these about 2mths ago. The payment took 30days to clear (ie before amazon would pay it on to me in their weekly payment. Annoying and I agree with the OP. Makes no sense at all.
Seller_KulsDVR2lDVX5
Have you had a return yet? Amazon immediately takes the money for the sale from your account. You have to wait up to 45 days to get it back and Amazon take anotherdiscretionary ‘cut’ for processing the return/refund. The story is this is so the customer gets the money back as soon as they return the goods. Pah. This is to improve their own cashflow, period. This even if the goods have been lost, by the FBA process. As PeterB says this is Amazon’s house they make all the rules, fair or unfair if you want to sell here you have no choice.
Seller_I3E6fQQqOFqlF
Amazon are big and greedy. If you sell direct to Amazon they fine you for all sorts of things and actually make more from the fines than everything else they charge for. Unfortunately they are the biggest selling platform on line with the biggest footfall. If you want to sell on here you just have to suck it up and play by their rules. Our sister company has stopped selling direct as it was working out to be unprofitable.
Seller_aOogeQQcgrYam
So what’s the best option for relatively small sellers that can’t afford to offer credit?
Simply cancel any orders made in via a PO?
Seller_cJms0GbotqqtV
If you are signed up to Amazon’s VAT calculation service, you are automatically enrolled for B2B transactions.
Yesterday I had an Amazon message that stated my VAT details were incomplete. When I looked more closely, it was sneaky way of trying to get me to sign up to the VAT calculation service. I won’t be doing so.
Paul
Seller_xUKHc5xSYJmI4
When you register for automatic invoicing you opt for 30 day credit with business customers. Payment terms are 30 days from date of invoice and once you cash in it takes 3-5 days for the funds to appear in your bank account. Amazon takes all the risks when payment is not made within 30 days.
The system is designed to encourage businesses to place larger orders and even request a discount before purchasing. For example 5% discount. Personally if the orders are small like in your case £12.00 then it may not be worth offering any discount. Most sellers online now offer free shipping and returns are refunded in full with any exceptions that may apply which is already a good incentive to customers.
If your worried about £12 not being paid on time and a VAT registered business its a concern. Offering credit to businesses does have its advantages in the long run.
Seller_aM6EyM3iNnXkL
Hi Divinity,
I had posted on this matter a few days ago. Yes, unfortunately, we are all subject to allowing 30 day invoicing but with the apparent reassurance that amazon will without question (?!) reimburse the seller if the invoice is not paid within the 30 days.
We are a retailer and as such would never allow any customer to purchase on 30 days but this is Amazon and you already know that Amazon does not work for us, we work for them so we all have to ride with this, unfortunately 
Thankfully, so far we have only had one business buyer use 30 day invoicing but I’m sure as time rolls on this will, unfortunately, become more frequent…which is no help at all towards cashflow so thank you Amazon for not having an opt-out option! 
All the best
Lee
Seller_SHpe5c4eREBFN
To clarify some of the comments on here, the 30 day credit offered to registered business customers is nothing to do with the vat calculation service. It is a completely separate policy and has been automatically applied to all sellers. No choice I’m afraid. Well, there is, as has been said, you can walk away from selling on Amazon if that suits you better!
