It’s been quite awhile since we’ve had one like this so I’m not sure if they’ve changed policy since then.
Buyer requests return (which is auto authorized). Buyer mailed item back this last Saturday and opened claim on Monday (while return was still in transit). I replied to the claim and said the buyer was not eligible to open claim because Amazon’s clear policy states a buyer isn’t eligible to open a claim unless it’s been 7 days since the return has been received back by the seller with no refund. I ask for the claim to be withdrawn and that we will refund per Amazon policy once the return arrives back (meaning within 2 days of the return arriving back).
I naturally assumed that Amazon would look at the claim by the time the return arrived back and the 2 day window ran out. Of course, the return arrived Tuesday and it’s 2 days here in a few hours.
What should I do here?
If I refund now, I’ll lose the claim. However, if I don’t refund within 2 days, technically won’t I lose the claim for not refunding per policy?
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We see this a lot on our orders both in transit and same date it was received at our main warehouse. If others do something different I’d be glad to hear their response.
What we do is refund normally minus any applicable restocking fees or label costs for that order because if we don’t, we will not be able to reclaim those. You lose SAFE-T claim eligibility as soon as that claim is filed. They’ll tell you it’s the A to Z claim team’s responsibility to refund you anything due. We’ve only managed that once with multiple support cases.
Once the claim is auto-decided, we appeal pointing out that it was an in transit return and a refund was applied within the required timeframe per Amazon policy and it should not impact our metrics.
This seems to have a 50% success rate. It really depends on the representative. But if you need to charge anything at all, do it now.
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Yep, we are on the same page as you. I did refund it after I posted just to “preserve my rights” (it’s my law degree training, LOL) under Amazon policy of doing so within 2 days. Of course, as expected, the claim immediately closed against us but I then appealed with the same basis as you have done (which is what we’ve done in the past and normally it works ASSUMING they decide the claim before the return is received back). I guess we will see what they do in this instance…as you said, it’s 50/50. Worst case, I feel I can get a mod’s attention to look at this and get the ODR hit reversed since we did everything by the book.
They really should have some sort of auto decision setup when a return is in transit where it automatically withdrawals these or just doesn’t let the buyer file.
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You are stuck in the Amazon grey area (which means you get screwed).
Even if the claim is dismissed you action in refunding them reverts the claim to count against your ODR anyway.
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Not always…I’m pretty sure one or two of these have been de-scored in the past with similar situations. It’s just been several years since we’ve had one while in transit.
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A successful appeal will result in this email, or one that looks like the original decision but with the order defect rate decision changed. We just had one of these recently and they reversed the ODR today.
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Yep just got the same email with the defect removed. Kudos to Amazon for following policy on this stuff now.
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Congrats, However color me shocked 
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