I have two of these on my FBA Returns page:
No explanation besides “unwanted item”
Why do they do this? It is not food or clothing, there is no reason not to have the buyers return the items.
“Return not expected” is an internal-use Refund Reason code designed to be used with Order IDs of Offer-Listings which are enrolled in either the Returnless Resolution or the FBA Returnless Resolution Programs.
Because it is available amongst the choices from which Amazon’s out-sourced & off-shored Customer Support infrastructure personnel can select, and due to the fact that those people are trained & incentivized to make a complaining Buyer happy, it’s not particularly unusual for them to apply it incorrectly.
On the rare occasions when this happens to us, our SOP is to open a case & point out that the Offer-Listing in question is NOT enrolled in Returnless Resolutions, and request the standard reimbursement.
That almost invariably meets initial friction, but we’ve had a good deal of success in the end through sheer perseverance (& patience; required for professional business correspondence, that’s especially needed when the idgits on the other end make ya want to cuss up a blue streak…).
The volume of business required to make checking every return to follow up on Amazon’s sophomoric decisions impractical isn’t that high. It’s infuriating how much time is required from sellers to doublecheck Amazon’s every action because there is a real chance they screwed us.
Trying to follow up on FBA returns on it’s own is a PIA. Looking up LPN numbers to find the order number because the insanely small print on the return slips is nearly impossible to read, and sometimes there is no slip. I dread it and must admit I’ve let a lot of $ slip away due to procrastination. There’s a pile I’m going to get to when I have the time - which is never.
I dug into the pile today and found a return missing it’s power adapter. Aha - switcheroo I thought, it happens, easy claim to win. Lose the adapter or it quits working, order the same product again, keep the adapter and return the rest for refund. When I looked into it I found the buyer who returned immediately ordered another. Why would he do that? Because most likely the first one he ordered was missing the adapter from a prior switcheroo return that got put back into my FBA inventory. Who knows which order when.
Thank you for this. I am not enrolled in Returnless Resolutions and the two I found today were for the same ASIN. This item is virtually unbreakable and is as described and pictured on the detail page, usually purchased by a fan. Returns are rare.
I will open 2 cases. It’s so annoying how their largesse with my money and products also costs my time.
blue streak initiated
The bot response:
Please allow at least 60 days from the customer return refund request date for the items to be returned to your inventory or reimbursed if eligible based on the reimbursement policy.
They already know they won’t be returned because they granted returnless refunds 
but I have to wait 60 days for something that is not coming.
I think they are counting on me forgetting, which is a real possibility given how busy the next 60 days will be.
Nail, meet hammer.
A primary reason why we open cases for out-of-the-norm Refund Reasons like this (“Shipping Address Undeliverable” is a particular ‘favorite’) is because doing it tends to trains Amazon that you’re no pushover.
We never forget - but neither does Amazon.
I see a lot of these, I assumed the product returned and was put back in to inventory or were reimbursed if not. Keeping track of Amazon is a lot of work that should not be necessary.
Everything is 90 days and automated. Just like you think its a PIA to go through and check each LPN, Amazon thinks its a PIA to go through and pay each and every seller or even a bot to carve out exceptions every second of the day. The “Return not Expected” can be for various things unrelated to what was put in the reason, many times we have found it was damaged by carrier but a different reason to us was put when the customer reached out for a second one when out of stock. The reimbursement policy does not say if the return is not expected you do not get reimbursed.
You honestly thinks Amazon cares or even acknowledges your existence or anyone here for that matter? I bet if we added up all the sellers on SOS we would not reach $25-50M in sales annually. Not a blip on their radar. IMO its just a cookie cutter boiler plate system to avoid wasting money and time on the masses, while also a decent money sink to make a little interest off of with other peoples capital.
We have done well over 10,000 returns over the years and the only time we have found a significant discrepancy is when the R-■■■■ at Amazon does not put the LPN number on the item returned, or when they use their hazardous discretion to not return the item
s
It’s just Hanlon’s Razor for automated BS we all agreed to.