We all know Amazon does not care to actually examine returns properly. Amazon will change nothing and learn nothing from this.
Stand out quote, and we all know it’s true:
“Amazon talks a big game about helping small businesses,” Paul Baron told Bloomberg. “But they really don’t.”
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Wow at this NSFE burn 
In one case, an Amazon support specialist named Danika acknowledged that the use of profanity in a review, for example, “seems particularly cut and dry as a violation,” promising to escalate the complaint. However, Danika appeared to abandon the thread after that, with the user commenting that the review remained up after the escalation.
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Which is why: FBA: Am I returning this correctly?
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There’s a reason why the TOS for the latest iteration of the Automated Returns Trials/Grading Opt Out Pilot Program/FBA Customer Returns Removal Pilot Program(s) specifies this (link, Seller Help Content) (emphasis mine):
That provision - which was not specifically delineated in now-vanished published policy pertaining to the earlier iterations - works well for some of us; our friend @ASV_Vites was an early adopter when invites for participation in the latest iteration of bypassing the Grading Team’s never-ending foibles were first extended, and I’ve yet to see him say that it’s been a problem.
But as I’ve posted more than once since the latest launch, that proviso alone, for us, is a deal breaker.
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This is why, if you can, you opt out of FBA allowing returns to be fulfillable. The onus is on the seller to make sure returns are inspected properly to determine if they are sellable. FBA gets a lot of attention for poor returns processing, but this goes for ANY 3PL service. A 3PL service’s employee is not qualified to determine if an item is resellable in new condition or not. It’s unlikely that they’d be able to determine even basic things like is the seal on the packaging original or not.
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Also:
The buyer who left the review, a teacher named Erin Elizabeth Herbert, told Bloomberg that the Barons had reached out directly to explain what happened, but she forgot to update the review and still has not as of this writing.
“I always meant to go back and revise my review to reflect that, and life got busy and I never did,” Herbert told Bloomberg.
Her review remains online, serving as a warning for parents to avoid buying from the family business.
What the hell is wrong with that lady? She has time to attend to Bloomberg but not to remove her review with a couple of clicks after this was brought to her attention by the sellers, and then again by Bloomberg?
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It is more then a couple clicks, Amazon actually makes it hard to leave or modify/remove feedback AND reviews, BUT I AGREE!
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It is a bit strange that she would have time to talk to the news and say “she meant to remove it but doesn’t have time.”
Obviously she has the right to choose not to remove it, but that would be weird to lie about the reason for not editing/removing the review.
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The review is still there as of 12:30 p.m. Pacific today. 
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It looks like Danika has left the building as she hasn’t posted in almost a year.
Is it just my take, or does there seem to be a serious case of the “turnovers” among mods? Always new names popping up.
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… who are you? … who who … who who … we just wanta know … who are you?
ummm ...
… and then we thought … when is the last time we watched CSI?
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The employee churn DOES seem to have ramped up in recent years:
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Sorry not sorry, I hate this article. One review did not tank their business.
Quickly searching this companies name on Amazon and they sell a swim diaper for $15, and right above their name is a list of items other customers have purchased showing competitors with a cheaper product. You can buy one from this company for $15 with 6,000 reviews, or 2 from a China competitor for $9.99, or 3 from a different competitor for $13.99, both of those competing listings have 15,000 and 8,000 reviews and people are more likely to just choose them because of price and a large amount of reviews.
Sure still probably Amazon’s “fault” that they are showing cheaper competitors ahead of your own listing…all the more reason your business should have been on a stand alone site and not Amazon. They outsourced to China, and someone else snatched up the design and made a quick buck.
It sucks that they are out of money, but it’s not because of one bad review vs 6,000 good reviews.
Its just some sort of soft feel good journalistic aritcle…that while hopefully it will get them some sales…they really need to either innovate and offer something new, or realize this product has run it’s course and close up shop. It’s sad, and hopefully they have some sort of person who can get them to swollow this hard pill that their business probably isn’t something they should invest all their money into.
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No of course not.
What was that all about?
Two things – poke a stick at Amazon. And the thrill of being able to use “dirty diaper” in header thus guaranteeing interest.
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This IS super gross, and the FBA returns inspection process needs to be called out, IMO.
Amazon didn’t tank their business, but Amazon should have removed the review. This bad customer experience was 100% Amazon’s fault, and the general public doesn’t know enough to know that the Seller had no contact with the product in question.
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This is the extreme case of why things should not be returned to FBA but rather to the seller. Take it out of circulation and the seller can choose to include it in a restock if it is indeed still new/stockable.
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I wouldn’t say extreme. I ordered a printer (color laser) a few months back, FBA new, Ships/Sold by Amazon.
It came with blue tape on the inside saying “Broken” and all the toner was stolen out of it. Amazon weighed the box, and weight matched so they didn’t bother to inspect it.
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Everything. Absolutely everything is wrong with that lady.
What a world we live in these days.
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I wouldn’t say extreme. I ordered a printer (color laser) a few months back, FBA new, Ships/Sold by Amazon.
It came with blue tape on the inside saying “Broken” and all the toner was stolen out of it. Amazon weighed the box, and weight matched so they didn’t bother to inspect it.
Yep. This is why I stopped shopping on Amazon unless there is no other option. Even “new” books, sold by Amazon itself, turned up dirty and very obviously already read. But it’s really something that your printer was specifically labeled as Broken, yet was still shipped out! 
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