EFN Problem
Serious problem with EFN, can anyone help? We are a UK own brand seller. We enrolled in the EFN program in the EU some time ago, and our products are stored in FBA warehousing in Spain. Because we are only VAT registered in Spain (not any other EU country), Amazon's rule is that products can only be stored in Spain. They are then distributed to customers both within Spain and in other EU countries. This works fine. However, the problem we are having is that when a customer returns a product that they bought in Germany (for example), this product is then sent back to FBA Germany. So far, also fine, because to abide by their own rules you would think Amazon would then forward the product back to FBA Spain (these are products in sellable condition). But they don't! Not only do they keep them in Germany (and other EU countries), they charge for storage there even though these products are not for sale because they are not in Spain. Also, because they are not in Spain when you go to Manage All Inventory and FBA Inventory, only the products in Spain FBA are listed. So we don't get proper visibility on those and these products outside Spain increase each time there is a return. And we are charged storage fees each month and now long term storage fees too, which are adding up. We have found out that only by doing a full Inventory Ledger report can these products be seen. We have contacted Seller Support and asked them these questions:
1. How do we stop returns being sent to non-Spain EU FBA warehouses?
2. How can we get the products that are already in non-Spain EU warehouse sent back to FBA Spain warehouses?
For number 1 we were initially told that the returns settings had been set up incorrectly but they were correct now, and that this would not happen again. However, it keeps happening.
For number 2 we were told that this is not possible, that they can only be sent to a third party address within the EU. We don't have such an address as we are UK based and rely on Amazon for warehousing.
We then contacted Seller Support again, and asked these questions:
A. Again, how do we stop returns being sent to non-Spain EU FBA warehouses?
B. As we did not request these products to be returned to non-Spain EU FBA warehouses (and this seems to be against Amazon's own policies), please can we be refunded the monies paid for non-Spain EU FBA storage fees?
C. As we don't have any address within the EU, if they cannot be sent back to Spain FBA our only option is to have these products destroyed (even though they are in sellable condition).
For A and B we received no response about this. For C we were sent information about how to send the products to a 3rd party address within the EU (which we don't have), and the question about destroying the products was ignored.
At this point we gave up with Seller Support and I contacted a third party Amazon service provider and asked them for a quote to get these products destroyed. They have now been looking into this for a week and they cannot yet find out how to do this.
Has anyone experienced a similar situation? Or if someone from Amazon would respond and help, even better. In all fairness we should really have the storage costs refunded, and be provided with a way to stop this happening again, otherwise it is a drain on our business and undermines the viability of the EFN program.
@Sakura_Amazon_
@Sarah_Amzn
@Winston_Amazon
@Simon_Amazon
@Julia_Amzn
@Ezra_Amazon
EFN Problem
Serious problem with EFN, can anyone help? We are a UK own brand seller. We enrolled in the EFN program in the EU some time ago, and our products are stored in FBA warehousing in Spain. Because we are only VAT registered in Spain (not any other EU country), Amazon's rule is that products can only be stored in Spain. They are then distributed to customers both within Spain and in other EU countries. This works fine. However, the problem we are having is that when a customer returns a product that they bought in Germany (for example), this product is then sent back to FBA Germany. So far, also fine, because to abide by their own rules you would think Amazon would then forward the product back to FBA Spain (these are products in sellable condition). But they don't! Not only do they keep them in Germany (and other EU countries), they charge for storage there even though these products are not for sale because they are not in Spain. Also, because they are not in Spain when you go to Manage All Inventory and FBA Inventory, only the products in Spain FBA are listed. So we don't get proper visibility on those and these products outside Spain increase each time there is a return. And we are charged storage fees each month and now long term storage fees too, which are adding up. We have found out that only by doing a full Inventory Ledger report can these products be seen. We have contacted Seller Support and asked them these questions:
1. How do we stop returns being sent to non-Spain EU FBA warehouses?
2. How can we get the products that are already in non-Spain EU warehouse sent back to FBA Spain warehouses?
For number 1 we were initially told that the returns settings had been set up incorrectly but they were correct now, and that this would not happen again. However, it keeps happening.
For number 2 we were told that this is not possible, that they can only be sent to a third party address within the EU. We don't have such an address as we are UK based and rely on Amazon for warehousing.
We then contacted Seller Support again, and asked these questions:
A. Again, how do we stop returns being sent to non-Spain EU FBA warehouses?
B. As we did not request these products to be returned to non-Spain EU FBA warehouses (and this seems to be against Amazon's own policies), please can we be refunded the monies paid for non-Spain EU FBA storage fees?
C. As we don't have any address within the EU, if they cannot be sent back to Spain FBA our only option is to have these products destroyed (even though they are in sellable condition).
For A and B we received no response about this. For C we were sent information about how to send the products to a 3rd party address within the EU (which we don't have), and the question about destroying the products was ignored.
At this point we gave up with Seller Support and I contacted a third party Amazon service provider and asked them for a quote to get these products destroyed. They have now been looking into this for a week and they cannot yet find out how to do this.
Has anyone experienced a similar situation? Or if someone from Amazon would respond and help, even better. In all fairness we should really have the storage costs refunded, and be provided with a way to stop this happening again, otherwise it is a drain on our business and undermines the viability of the EFN program.
@Sakura_Amazon_
@Sarah_Amzn
@Winston_Amazon
@Simon_Amazon
@Julia_Amzn
@Ezra_Amazon
Spencer_Amazon
Hello @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
What a situation, I am going to set up a meeting with my contact to find out exactly what is going on and how we can solve it.
I will let you know.
Regards, Spencer
133 replies
Spencer_Amazon
Hello @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
I am Spencer with Amazon.
Have you had a chance to contact seller support on this issue?
Let me know if you need additional help.
Regards, Spencer
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Hi again Spencer,
Last week, in reply to the email in my post above, I was told by the same contact at Amazon that for the non-Spain EU FCs everything can be either removed or disposed of by completing and uploading a flat file.
I followed the instructions for that but couldn't get it to work. I sent the flat file and error report back to the contact at Amazon last week and asked what needs to be done to get it working. I am now waiting for a response to that.
Meanwhile we've been charged yet more long term storage fees for Italy, and I am concerned that there will be more coming up for the other countries.
This has been going on for so long now (over 3 months now) and we have all spent so much time on it. I really hope it can be properly and finally resolved soon.
Is there anything you can do from your side to help this move along?
Spencer_Amazon
Hello @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
Sure I will, I saw you added your comments to your case. I will ping my contact again and see if he can do something to expedite it.
We will stay in touch.
Regards, Spencer
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Hi Spencer,
I was helped by the contact at Amazon to get the flat file to work correctly. I filled it out to dispose of all the products in the non-Spain EU FC centres (because we don't have third party warehousing within the EU, we cannot remove them). I then got the info that they had been disposed of successfully within our orders page. This is now over a week ago. But now when I check the inventory ledger it says that all these products are still in the same places as they were and none have been disposed of. This is getting really crazy, what can be done about this please? I have reopened the case with the same contact at Amazon to let them know about this and asked for more help.
In addition to this there is now another related situation whereby an automated removal order has been created for Amazon Italy - which is one of the unauthorised warehouses, and as we know from the case above the only way to remove/dispose of anything from there is by flat file (which itself doesn't seem to be working, as per above). And, the product to be automatically removed from Amazon Italy, according to the inventory ledger, does not, and has never, existed in an Amazon Italy FC. The case number for this is 10378860202.
It's been nearly 4 months now since we started this case, and apart from most of the reimbursements being paid, we now have the same problem as when this began plus an additional one for Italy.
I really hope everything can be resolved so we can all stop working on this, it's a massive waste of all of our time. Thank you.
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
I just received a reply from the case 10378860202 saying that the automatic removal settings are set to "dispose" for Italy. They included a link that they said shows this. When I followed the link all that it says on the pages is this:
"Invalid request URL from client
The requested URL is not well formed."
I've replied and asked they look into it properly.
Spencer_Amazon
Hello @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
I will follow up on the case.
Regards, Spencer
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Hi Spencer,
I've now been told that the products that were in the non-authorised EU FCs have been disposed of and that the Inventory Ledger that says they are still in the FCs is incorrect. I guess I need to wait to see if we get charged any more long term storage fees before I know if this is correct or not.
But the other really confusing issue is that I have also been told that to remove or dispose of inventory in the non-authorised EU FCs we can simply set up automated removal / disposal requests for each of the unauthorised EU countries (ie, all countries other than Spain) - ie, manually uploading flat files for every removal / disposal is not required. This is difficult to believe seeing as this case has been going on for nearly 4 months now, and if it was as simple as that I'm sure someone would have told us about it by now. It's also unclear exactly where these automated removal / disposal requests can be set up (if they actually can be).
I had expected everything to be resolved about this by now and had ordered more products to be made at the factory in China to be sent to Spain FCs. But until this is resolved I think it is too high risk to send any more products to Spain for EFN, so I have cancelled that for now, we will do some FBM into the EU from the UK for now and see how that goes.
In theory the EFN system should work though, and if there is a system that works to get any returns removed or disposed of then we definitely want to do it. I really don't want to give up on this, but it's already taken so long, and taken up so much time. Is there some way you can find an understandable working solution without our side having to spend any more time and effort on this?
Spencer_Amazon
Hello @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
I am continuing to loop our partner teams in. As this is a different issue than our original cases, I have requested another look into this situation.
I also hope this will be solved soon.
Regards, Spencer
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Ok, thanks Spencer. Please let me know when you hear something.
Although this is a different issue it is an issue within the same problem, the EFN Problem. Amazon closed the cases because they said it was a different issue, which is understandable as they have to have some sort of bureaucratic system in place. But instead of transferring it to a new case for the new issue they just shut everything down and gave up on solving the actual problem altogether. Surely there should be something in place that sees the bigger picture so that problems actually get solved instead of just boxes getting ticked. I'm hoping that's you in this case. Anyway all I can do now is wait and see what happens.
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Hi Spencer,
More long term storage fees have been charged for Italy again, so it seems the Inventory Ledger was correct and the products have not been disposed of.
PLEASE, PLEASE, can something be done about this urgently!!!!
This is now not a different issue, it is exactly the same issue that I opened this thread with 4 months ago. This is what I wrote at that time:
"Serious problem with EFN, can anyone help? We are a UK own brand seller. We enrolled in the EFN program in the EU some time ago, and our products are stored in FBA warehousing in Spain. Because we are only VAT registered in Spain (not any other EU country), Amazon's rule is that products can only be stored in Spain. They are then distributed to customers both within Spain and in other EU countries. This works fine. However, the problem we are having is that when a customer returns a product that they bought in Germany (for example), this product is then sent back to FBA Germany. So far, also fine, because to abide by their own rules you would think Amazon would then forward the product back to FBA Spain (these are products in sellable condition). But they don't! Not only do they keep them in Germany (and other EU countries), they charge for storage there even though these products are not for sale because they are not in Spain. Also, because they are not in Spain when you go to Manage All Inventory and FBA Inventory, only the products in Spain FBA are listed. So we don't get proper visibility on those and these products outside Spain increase each time there is a return. And we are charged storage fees each month and now long term storage fees too, which are adding up. We have found out that only by doing a full Inventory Ledger report can these products be seen. We have contacted Seller Support and asked them these questions:
1. How do we stop returns being sent to non-Spain EU FBA warehouses?
2. How can we get the products that are already in non-Spain EU warehouse sent back to FBA Spain warehouses?
For number 1 we were initially told that the returns settings had been set up incorrectly but they were correct now, and that this would not happen again. However, it keeps happening.
For number 2 we were told that this is not possible, that they can only be sent to a third party address within the EU. We don't have such an address as we are UK based and rely on Amazon for warehousing.
We then contacted Seller Support again, and asked these questions:
A. Again, how do we stop returns being sent to non-Spain EU FBA warehouses?
B. As we did not request these products to be returned to non-Spain EU FBA warehouses (and this seems to be against Amazon's own policies), please can we be refunded the monies paid for non-Spain EU FBA storage fees?
C. As we don't have any address within the EU, if they cannot be sent back to Spain FBA our only option is to have these products destroyed (even though they are in sellable condition).
For A and B we received no response about this. For C we were sent information about how to send the products to a 3rd party address within the EU (which we don't have), and the question about destroying the products was ignored.
At this point we gave up with Seller Support and I contacted a third party Amazon service provider and asked them for a quote to get these products destroyed. They have now been looking into this for a week and they cannot yet find out how to do this.
Has anyone experienced a similar situation? Or if someone from Amazon would respond and help, even better. In all fairness we should really have the storage costs refunded, and be provided with a way to stop this happening again, otherwise it is a drain on our business and undermines the viability of the EFN program."
Spencer_Amazon
Hello @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
I have contacted our partner team and asked them to prioritize this.
I will keep you posted.
Regards, Spencer
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Thanks Spencer. Yes, please do keep me updated here, as all cases have now been closed. These posts here are the only way left to move this forward and hopefully eventually solve the problem.
