Seller Central says “Amazon funded”, but I got an e-mail that says “Based on the investigation that we conducted with our third-party external claims adjuster, the monetary damages related to this claim total $392.” The e-mail also goes on about making sure my liability insurance is on file.
Motor was $127.73
Customer contacted us saying he wants a refund because the electric motor he got didn’t work. Never said anything about injury.
If this is a going to be a thing, my decision to leave Amazon just got easier.
I got a bunch of emails about an a-to-z personal injury claim. They all auto-close after a certain timeframe because the customer never followed up on them. My guess is buyer support opened the claim on behalf of a customer who didn’t ask to.
In your case it seems like they did follow up. Maybe they claimed your motor was defective and damaged the equipment it was put in. Given the dollar amounts involved this seems like a reasonable possibility. Since you have a COI on file, Amazon funded the claim since it was < $1000
It was a whole thing when this came out on the OSFE, that Amazon would protect Sellers up to $1k(?) if they had business insurance. Maybe @Dogtamer has a link?
I really appreciate your input so far, but I think you missed this part, which obviously has nothing to do with actual claims (as it can be part of the application process):
#### What information may be exchanged with my insurance provider?
Amazon may share information about your Amazon selling account with insurance providers, either during the insurance application process or with insurers you identify as providing insurance coverage for your products, so that those insurers may determine whether and under what conditions to insure or continue insuring your products. Examples of information we may share with insurers includes the types of products you sell, the volume of sales of such products, any safety complaints or other claims made against your products, and any concessions that Amazon offers to its customers for claims of injury or property damage relating to your products.
This sounds like Amazon will open a two-way channel with insurers to determine sellers with high claims. There is likely low correlation between claims history and product safety on the site: some product lines will be easier to exploit than others (see inevitable “how to win money from Amazon!!” YouTube videos), and some sellers may be subject to black-hat competitor attacks (many already are, but not yet by this avenue).
Amazon loves data and metrics … they just don’t really understand statistical significance. I expect this to end badly for some sellers, even if it’s not you or I (which in no way validates this kind of “data over-reach” in my book).
I think your fears are unfounded. If you don’t want Amazon reporting to your insurance company then buy coverage with a deductible higher than $1,000, Amazon allows up to a $10,000 deductible. As I understand it they won’t be recovering anything for claims under $1,000 so if your deductible is more …
Your deductible is irrelevant anyway. Amazon is covering the cost for all claims under $1000 as incentive for sellers to have an update to date COI on file. That means they’re not seeking reimbursement from you or your insurance company. If they wanted the seller to cover the cost they’d just kick the claim to the seller then it’s up to the seller if they want to eat the cost or file a claim w/ their insurer.
I’m not sure how claims over $1K are handled. I’ve gotten quite a few claims emails but none of them ever resulted in damages being awarded for any amount. I’m assuming Amazon would tell the seller that they’re responsible for X$ and it’s the seller’s problem to either pay it or get their insurer to pay for it.
Since the thread is gone I can’t have you read it for context but as I remember this didn’t have to do with coverage, but rather people were worried about Amazon notifying their carrier about a claim that was under $1,000.
I could actually see Amazon deciding that if you had say a $250 deductible they would try to recover the other $750 from your insurance carrier. Anything Amazon doesn’t have to pay out, they won’t. That would mean that the carrier would be notified of the claim of course.
They don’t have to offer sellers any coverage at all if they wanted it do it that way. It’d be far easier to deduct funds from the seller’s account and make it the seller’s problem than to file tons of small insurance claims. I think those worries are unfounded
