We received a return of a book where the scumbag who bought it lied about his return reason (inaccurate website description). He first claimed the book was in “acceptable” condition instead of “good,” the condition we listed it in, accurately, with a thorough description. We listed it as good only because it has a little it of underlining in the first few pages and some light exterior creases (fully disclosed in our description). Other sellers probably would have listed it as “very good,” but we grade conservatively.
After we got his auto-authorized return request (and rightfully suspecting return fraud), we sent him a message advising him of Amazon’s current condition guidelines for grading books. He then claimed there was a page falling out, which we knew to be a lie. I bought, inspected, listed and packaged this book myself. We offered him a partial refund and said he could keep the book if he accepted it. He did not, and returned the book, packaged in a flimsy, non-padded vinyl mailer.
The returned book has NO loose pages.
Unusually, Amazon did not refund at first scan. So now we have 4 calendar days in which to issue a refund. We want the return shipping cost back, however, Amazon’s guidelines say that only Amazon-issued refunds are eligible for SAFE-T Claims, but they also say that refunds issued after 4 days by Amazon also make the order ineligible for SAFE-T Claims. This seems incongruous. Here is the seller help page where I am seeing this:
When I go to issue a refund, I am allowed only to issue a full refund OR refund half the amount the customer paid plus more under “additional refunds,” as if it’s a concession. We want to refund the full amount minus the return shipping charge, which we feel was wrongly charged to us. But in order to do this, I would have to fill in half the order amount, then put in the remainder under “additional refunds.” That is bizarre, but I can’t see any other way to do it. For example (not the actual order cost): Total order is $30. I want to refund $24. Partial refund allows me to fill in only $15, then I would have to add $9 under “additional refunds,” as if it’s a concession.
We know that if we issue a partial refund he may file an A-Z Claim. But this guy is a real turd, very rude and already alluded to negative feedback (which our account could handle). He appears to be a reseller who decided he couldn’t make any money on the book so lied about his return reason. We feel that we could defend the claim. We also wonder if the reason there was no RFS is that this guy is a serial returner whose account has been flagged for pulling this shinola before.
But another avenue would be to refund him in full and then file a SAFE-T Claim, but it looks like we are screwed on that level whatever we do – issue the full refund ourselves or let Amazon do it after 4 days.
Any advice? Am I missing something in the rules?