EFN Problem

Hi Spencer,

Another 3 weeks has passed since you or I posted here. Nothing has moved forward in this time. It's over 7 months now. I have also recently received a very disheartening message from your contact. His message and my reply below.

I hope I'm wrong but I'm now beginning to think that Amazon is using a slash and burn strategy with sellers, rather than trying to work with them properly. In my message copied below, in addition to requesting clarity about the situation and their plan for moving forward, I have asked again for proper reimbursement and recompense for this situation, which I was previously told was already being looked into but has not been received.

Possibly from the reply to that message we will know whether Amazon is genuine about wanting to help sellers through the problems that Amazon itself has created and has repeatedly said it would fix. We'll see. The situation is urgent for us now. We need this putting right financially very soon.

We cannot continue like this, Amazon have put us in a desperate situation. We've communicated regularly in good faith to help get this resolved. 7 month is totally ridiculous. It has to stop and we need proper help now.

Copy of Message From Your Contact in Amazon:

Greetings from Amazon,

Thank you for your patience while we investigated your EFN inventory situation. I want to provide you with a comprehensive update and important information about your account settings.

Current Situation:

We've identified that your account has FBA Export enabled, which allows you to sell to customers across the EU. When international customers return products, these items are received at their local Amazon fulfillment centers, which explains why your inventory is currently stored in various EU locations.

Important Points to Consider:

Account Settings:

Your FBA Export settings allow for international sales and returns

This means returns can be processed at any EU fulfillment center

You currently don't have disposal options enabled for fulfillable inventory

Available Solutions:

We recommend working with a freight forwarder to manage your international returns

You can find approved freight forwarders here: https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/tsba/searchpage/International%20Returns?ref_=sc_spn_hp_irlst&sellFrom=ES&sellIn=DE&sourcePage=HomePage

This will help you maintain better control over your returned inventory

Going Forward: To prevent similar situations, you may want to:

Review your FBA Export settings

Set up relationships with freight forwarders

Consider enabling disposal options for future cases

Establish a clear returns management strategy for international sales

We understand this situation's impact on your business and want to help you implement the most effective solution for your operations. While we continue to explore options for your current inventory, we recommend reviewing the solutions mentioned above to prevent similar situations in the future.

If you would like to proceed with any of these options or need assistance in setting up a freight forwarder relationship, please let us know.

Thank you for selling with Amazon.

My Reply to Your Contact in Amazon:

Thanks for your message. But since reading it, if anything I am now even more concerned than I was before. It seems this is getting really confused now and I think we need to get clarity on the situation. It's also becoming much more urgent from my side as we are now having cash flow problems.

Firstly, this has been going on for over 7 months now and the aim has always been to have inventory in unauthorised EU warehouses moved to Spain FCs.

In your message you say:

"Current Situation:

We've identified that your account has FBA Export enabled, which allows you to sell to customers across the EU. When international customers return products, these items are received at their local Amazon fulfillment centers, which explains why your inventory is currently stored in various EU locations.

Important Points to Consider:

Account Settings:

Your FBA Export settings allow for international sales and returns

This means returns can be processed at any EU fulfillment center

You currently don't have disposal options enabled for fulfillable inventory"

I'm not sure why you have sent this message, because the "Current Situation" and "Important Points to Consider" cannot be something that has just been identified with our account now.

On the contrary the problems we have been having can only exist within the context of our account having FBA Export enabled which allows for international sales and returns.

Because FBA Export is enabled, international customers' returned products to fulfillment centers anywhere within the EU. Everyone involved, both on our side and on Amazon's side, has always been aware of this from the very beginning.

This is the problem you guys have been working on for the past 7 months - how to get them back from these EU FCs to FCs in Spain!

There shouldn't be any confusion or any need to clarify this. We have 7 months of messages back and forth confirming and reconfirming this. This is the core of what this case is, and always has been, about.

In your message previous to the one you just sent you said:

"Here's the current status:

Successfully transferred: ASIN B01M22R5XV (1 unit) and ASIN B01LWZPYED (5 units)

Pending transfer: 17 units across various ASINs, still stuck in unauthorized FCs"

For the past 7 months someone on your side (most recently, you) has repeatedly said this (ie, Successfully transferred, and Pending transfer), so this is very definitely what you have been trying to achieve. It goes without saying that everyone dealing with this case already knew that the inventory was in non-authorised EU fulfillment centers because international customers' returned products have been sent there. If that hadn't been know you wouldn't have been aware that it was necessary to try to get them sent to Spain FCs.

In addition to the above, we now all know that for each of the multiple times your system has notified your side of this, not one single item has ever actually arrived in a Spain FC in the entire 7 months. Please now realise that these notifications you are receiving are completely meaningless and should be ignored. The only thing that counts here is if the units actually arrive in Spain, and none ever have. Zero, ever, in the past more than 7 months now.

Your recent message is further confusing when you say:

"Available Solutions:

We recommend working with a freight forwarder to manage your international returns

You can find approved freight forwarders here: https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/tsba/searchpage/International%20Returns?ref_=sc_spn_hp_irlst&sellFrom=ES&sellIn=DE&sourcePage=HomePage

This will help you maintain better control over your returned inventory"

I'm not sure if this is Amazon wanting to tell me that they've now given up trying to get our inventory in non-authorised EU fulfillment centers sent to Spain FCs without actually saying it, or if this is an alternative suggestion for removing inventory. After 7 months of repeatedly being told that this would be achieved I really hope it's the latter. But please answer by being explicit regarding the meaning of this.

But regardless of the answer to that, the fact is that for the products that are in EU unauthorised warehouses many many attempts have now been made to return these, the first attempt now being over 7 months ago. You guys have consistently told us that you doing this will be the solution to the problem. Yet as of today, none of these have been received. So whatever you may now think may be the way forward from here, this is very definitely the situation now.

This has been going on way long enough. Regardless of how we are to proceed from here, please, please, please, now declare these lost and provide a full reimbursement for these products. It is now seriously affecting the cash flow of our business. As I've pointed our previously we've had products that should have been sold and then restocked multiple times over since this issue began, which is possibly over 3 years ago now. The 10, 15 or 20 minutes required each time to correspond about this issue, both here and on the forum, has added up to hours, and then days, of my time over the past now over 7 months. The not knowing how to proceed with business strategy due to the EFN not being fit for purpose, has added further losses and uncertainty.

We need to be treated fairly with this now please, we simply cannot wait any longer. Please, please, please, absolutely prioritise these reimbursements and a fair recompense for the losses we have incurred due to this situation as previously discussed. Whatever the meaning of your recent message, we really need this actioning immediately/within the next few days please. I trust you understand.

Also, as you're aware, more recently a different but related, and potentially even more serious, issue has occurred in that inventory sent into Spain FBA simply disappeared, and we cannot see these anywhere within Seller Central.

This is inventory that has never been purchased by a customer, it was simply sent FBA into Spain FCs and checked in as arrived but then just disappeared. At least some of stock that was sent in (now many weeks ago) and is still missing would have been sold by now, and the remainder be available for customers to purchase, further draining our cash flow and profitability.

About this problem, on 28th November you said:

"Successfully Initiated Transfers:

We're pleased to inform you that transfers have been initiated for 21 units across 10 different ASINs back to Spain FCs. However, please note that these units remain in the transshipment process, which may take an additional 15 days due to the current peak season. We appreciate your patience during this time.

The affected stock is as follows: (list of affected stock was included)"

As of today, none of these have been received in a Spain FC. And we have no visibility whatsoever of these items anywhere in Amazon.

These are all high value products that we sent into Amazon FBA in good faith and have simply vanished. It's nearly 2 months since you initiated the transfer, and I'm sure you must agree that is certainly more than enough time for them to arrive if they were going to. Taking into consideration that no other inventory has ever successfully arrived I think it's fair to now conclude these will not arrive either. Please, please, now declare these lost and provide a full reimbursement for these products too.

I cannot emphasis enough how urgent this now is and I sincerely request that the reimbursement and recompense are processed very soon. Words are no longer enough, we are reaching the overdraft limit in our bank account, we absolutely must urgently provide cash liquidity. Regardless of how you think we should proceed with this issue from here, please realise that Amazon have put us in an impossible situation and we cannot continue like this. We've lost sales, we've lost products, charges have been added to our account, and we've been left in limbo for over 7 months not knowing how to proceed with our business in regards to selling into the EU on Amazon, which was, and provided we can get this properly resolved, still is, an important aspect of our business strategy.

This is not our fault, Amazon have been aware of the problem for a very long time and it's just gone on and on. We need our cash flow restoring now.

You previously told me that you are committed to restoring our confidence in your services. Please, please, do that now by actioning what has been requested here. Thank you.