We’ve had about 20 of the item in the last month alone…Amazon reusing old return tracking numbers for orders that were never originally returned by the buyer…but then still debiting the old seller for the refund.
Insane this is still an issue 2 years later…
To be fair, this recycling issue has been going on even longer than that.
I recall some OSFE threads about it back in the 2012-2018 ‘Age Of Jive,’ & there were slew of them, during the wind-down form the COVID-19 Crisis scare-inspired “Goods Prioritization Initiative,” created in Q2 & Q3 of 2021; another wave came in Q3 of 2023, and as you’ve astutely noted, such reports continue down to this very day.
Given Amazon’s Customer-centric Corporate Philosophy, and its long-demonstrated devotion to the use of automated mechanisms that typically succumb more to Hanlon’s Razor than to Occam’s, I long considered one or another aspect of those two paradigms being the prime movers in play for explaining this phenomenon.
I’ve been constrained to reconsider that long-held supposition, and now look with less disfavor than I once did upon what certain seasoned & savvy forum veterans predicted would likely entail, back in the Seller Soapbox Days, because it seems fairly obvious that the most-likely explanation is Occam’s take on this matter:
Every single minute of every single day that another business entity’s rightful funds remain in any given Amazon-owned financial account DOES lend opportunity to earn interest, if Amazon wills it so.
“Always follow the money” became a hoary old adage afore yours truly was born, and from where I sit, it ain’t likely soon to pass into the fabled dustbin of history.
Of course they don’t want to refund the outbound shipping or return label fees on any of these in Safe T claims even though they are admitting they are guilty by approving the claims in the first place.
How much you want to bet they are double dipping and charging both sellers for the return labels, too…..both the seller of the old tracking number and the newly recycled one.
I’m not yet convinced that Amazon’s automated mechanisms aren’t not only doing that, but aren’t eventually (or automatically, on the first triggering event, be it faulty or not) awarding refunds to Buyer Accounts unrightfully.
I’ve seen too much chaos erupt from Amazon’s ever-convoluted processes & ever-siloed procedures to ever be surprised when the wheels fall off the tracks, dammit.