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,
I have now been contacted by someone else at Amazon who has opened another case to look into this. This is my reply to them:
"Thanks for your message. It's good to hear that someone else is going to have another go at resolving this. Obviously if the issue can be resolved that would be good, but as I've already been through this several times I don't want to get my hopes up or make any plans regarding that. From my side there's no way for me to know what the chances of this being resolved are, as the only thing I have to go on is that nobody has been able to solve it yet even though several people have tried over an extended period of time. But maybe (and hopefully) you have a much better insight into this, so I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible under the circumstances.
But whether it can be resolved or not, please can you draw a line under what has happened so far and prioritise us being recompensed for this. We have received reimbursements for some of the period (which, at the time I was told was provided as a "goodwill gesture" and that these previous storage fees charged were "valid"....!! - we all of course now know that neither Amazon, or us following Amazon's advice, can find any way to stop these storage charges, so they certainly can't be called valid). But there are now storage and long term storage charges charged since then, and there were storage and long term storage charges charged previous to that. I've been told Amazon no longer has the data on the charges for the previous period but I'm sure this could be estimated in some way even if it's not totally accurate. I've also personally spent somewhere in the region of 2 full working days trying to get this case resolved by both doing what various people at Amazon have asked and providing feedback on the situation in an effort to reach a resolution. As you know, so far this has been an almost entirely wasted effort. I hope you agree that it would be a good gesture on the part of Amazon, and show that even if there are serious issues like this, sellers are still looked after in some way and don't have to take the hit for issues not caused by them. Anyway, I'd be grateful if you could please look into that and let me know."
Besides what I have said in the case log above, in order to sell though the EFN system we have also needed to get VAT registered in an EU country (in our case Spain), pay an accountancy company to do that, and pay the accountancy company quarterly fees for the VAT filings. If this issue does not get resolved and we cannot continue to sell through EFN we will also need to pay the accountants to deregister the VAT. There is also all the time and planning that was involved in setting this up, and the fact that we have now had to change our sales and marketing plans for selling into the EU due to this (then, if it does get resolved, change them back again). We only started selling through the EFN system in the first place because Amazon contacted us and encouraged us to sell in more marketplaces. This is not to mention that even if this is successfully resolved it is in the most part high value items in sellable condition that will be destroyed, so even that is not ideal, but a least there won't be charges added on every month that we cannot control or stop.
Really all we want to do is sell into the EU through Amazon using the EFN system. We have followed and abided by everything we have been told by Amazon, yet this is the situation we find ourselves in. So, now I'm requesting a resolution for recompense for what has happened so far, that most people would consider fair under the circumstances, regardless of whether or not the issue can finally be resolved so that the EFN system can be used. As previously, anything you can do to assist in this regard would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Spencer_Amazon
Thank you @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
Please keep me posted, I will also continue to monitor it.
Regards, Spencer
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Hi Spencer,
I've received a seemingly very sincere response from the person now looking it to this, which says:
"Thank you for your remarkable patience while we strive to resolve the concern at the earliest. At this time we continue working with our internal team to reach a resolution on your case. We value your business and your satisfaction is our top priority. We will keep you informed of any progress or changes as we move forward."
If they can get us proper recompense for what's happened, and resolve the ongoing charging problem too, that would be excellent. I'll keep you posted here as hopefully things now progress towards these resolutions.
Spencer_Amazon
Hello @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
I have checked the case and I know the person who is working on your case very well. He is excellent.
I will keep working with him in the background and hopefully this will be solved soon.
Regards, Spencer
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Ok, good. Thanks Spencer, it's sounding very promising now.
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Hi Spencer,
Well, it looks like our hopes are dashed yet again. Another 2 weeks have gone by and nothing has happened. You may know the person I am now in contact with for this case, and he may well be excellent, but it's not him that is actually working on it.
He says it is an "internal team" that are doing that. For all I know this could be the same internal team that have tried to fix this multiple times over the past now nearly 5 months but have been unable to do so.
The situation is now actually getting worse, not better. While the EFN system is not working properly we need at least to be properly recompensed for this. This is something that can be done as it has been already done in part, just needs to be brought up to date.
I have added this below to the case. Please continue to do what you can from your side.
Message added to case:
"Yet another 2 weeks has gone past, and now it's nearly 5 months that an internal team have been trying to fix this. Obviously I want to still hold out some hope that they can, but as it stands the EFN system is not fit for purpose.
I have just checked and still nothing has been removed from the non-Spain unauthorised warehouses. And actually another sellable product is now stranded in Germany in addition to those there already. So the monthly storage and long term storage charges that are automatically deducted from our account will be increasing.
Unfortunately I assumed this would be fixed by now and sent more stock the Amazon FCs in Spain. So this situation is now likely to get worse rather than better, with more stock ending up in unauthorised warehouses and neither us or anyone at Amazon able to do anything about it.
As I was not to know that this would not be fixed before sending in more stock, please can you absolutely prioritise all reimbursements to us up to this point. This is something that can be done as it has been done before, and at least will restore, for me and other sellers, some trust in using the Amazon system. I would hope that this can be done very soon. And if there is any other update about the EFN system being fixed please do let me know that too."
Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n
Hi again Spencer,
Well it looked like things were going well. We received a refund for some of the outstanding fees that we were charged for the storage and long term storage fees. We're still out of pocket with this but it was better than nothing and I was hopeful that it meant things were moving forward.
But now I have received another message from Seller Support saying almost exactly the same thing that has been said every other time (it looks like a copy and paste message), ie, that the products are now being sent to Spain FC and will arrive soon. As you know we've been told this multiple times and none of them have ever arrived there.
They have closed the case again too.
It is so incredibly frustrating to still be in this situation after all this time and effort.
So anyway all I can do is reopen the case. I have now done that and sent the message below. Please do whatever you can from your side. Thanks.
""Sorry but this is exactly what we were told nearly 5 months ago when this issue was first raised. That the products were now being sent back to Spain FCs.
This is the response from Seller Support from that time:
"Dear Silk Bedding Direct Team. This is Roger and it has been a pleasure assisting you today. We are truly grateful for the opportunity given to work hand to hand to solve the issue. So base on your email I understand you are contacting regarding EFN and storaged issue due to returns were you were not authorizing storage. Be informed that all details has been reviewed carefully and diligently and as a result of our exhaustive investigation we have found that our internal team has request the inventory to be moved to ES FCs. Changes will be visible in 14 days."
The products never arrived in Spain FCs and we were charged more storage and long-term storage fees on multiple occasions (some now refunded).
Since then things have just dragged on and on, and we have been told exactly the same thing another twice more (each time after a long investigation with lots of back and forth taking up a lot of everyone's time). None of this has worked. Each time we were told that the units would arrive in Spain FCs they never have.
So the message from you telling me again that the units are being moved to Spain FCs is the 4th time I've been told this over the now nearly 5 months that we have trying to get this resolved.
So, please, please, please, please, keep this case open until you can actually see that all the units have indeed arrived in Spain FCs. And if they don't arrive then keep the case open so you can continue to investigate until this issue it properly resolved.
As you may be aware this case is being discussed on the forums. The moderator there, Spencer, says he knows you and that you are excellent. Please, please, please prove him right, please see this through until the end, until you can definitely see it has been fully resolved.
I agree with you that there may not be a lot of units in the non authorised warehouses, but they are continuing to accumulate and they are high value. At our average order values this would be a round €5,000, which although nothing for Amazon is a lot for us to have indefinitely tied up and be charged for storage. Also, while this is still ongoing, it means we cannot proceed to expand into Europe under the EFN system as we had initially planned to do.
Also, this is important not just for us, but for any seller that wants to use the EFN system, and for Amazon to have an EFN system that works properly and can be used without these ongoing issues.""
Spencer_Amazon
Hello @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
I am sorry this is still going on. I will do what I can from my side.
Regards, Spencer
Spencer_Amazon
Hello @Seller_DJqWlEby6fi8n,
I just connected with my partner in the internal team and he has prioritized your case.
We will keep in touch.
Regards, Spencer
