Does this apply to Seller Fulfilled Prime only or does it include the other shipping services like Media Mail, USPS Priority, etc.?
No idea, I would guess it will be calculated just like standard fees are.
It was in last weeks SFP announcement which was posted on this forum.
Does not apply to anything other than SFP.
Other issues for SFP include you must ship nationally, you cannot ship only to one UPS zone as many sellers did.
Indeed! See @Setalpz topic here:
And @Dogtamer helpfully provided links to the NSFE topic and the SC announcement:
For what itâs worth, I strongly suspect this is in anticipation of the UK CMA proposals being accepted. AMZN made some concessions regarding SFP shipping options. It appears theyâre trying to replace some revenue prior to effectiveness. Which presents another question, does AMZN negotiate and mark up all FBM shipping that occurs via SellerCentral?
And yesterdayâŚ
Amazon Scraps Planned Merchant Fee With Antitrust Suit Looming
I was wondering if Amazon would back away from that additional fee. I really didnât think so. I also thought that the cost of SFP would be prohibitive to a number of sellers. The whole nation-wide delivery in 2 days I think is unrealistic for most businesses. My own personal opinion is that regional SFP would be a much better fit and would probably attract more sellers.
It was, and it did. I have my own, often expressed views about why Amazon changed this SFP requirement and it has nothing to do with whatâs best for buyers.
Iâm also surprised that Amazon backed off from this fee, but not at all surprised that a legal threat was the singular reason.
This was such a great point. Like, what exactly are Amazonâs additional costs for SFP? Even banking on having to do some INR/late delivery refunds?
If the costs were real and not just nickel-and-diming Sellers, then Amazon would have been more transparent upfront and would not have backed away from this fee.
They knew they were wrong, and they knew it would be used against them.
Like, what exactly are Amazonâs additional costs for SFP?
I suspect they would argue itâs costs for staff that supports the program. There are (or at least, were) real, actual human beings that understand the program and help support it. If youâre going to open it up to a lot more sellers, you need more staff.
My guess is the two biggest costs would be:
- Reviewing suspended (from SFP) sellers and their appeals for reinstatement
- Looking for workarounds sellers use to bypass the rules and looking for way to make internal changes to thwart them (us).
SFP reps did tend to be a step or 2 up from Seller Support, back in the day. I have no idea what they are like now.
Itâs more like they just want to collect additional profit from SFP sellers like they do from FBA sellers.
TBH it would make some sense to apply an additional fee to FBM orders for things like any order defects, because those legitimately lead to additional costs to Amazon. Eg. If an A-Z Claim is opened, the seller gets charged a $25 A-Z fee, not unlike how credit card companies charge a chargeback fee if thereâs a dispute they have to arbitrate. But things like this should not apply to SFP since I believe Amazon has exclusive customer service/refund authority for those orders.
Your assumption being that the customer is being honest when claiming the item has a defect and that Amazon is proactive in protecting against a competitor trying to take another seller out.
Absolutely not. The A2Z program is an Amazon program set up to handle customers as Amazon see fit with the seller basically having to accept the program just to sell. If Amazon wants to open up avenues that allow customers to not have any responsibilities when it comes to spending their money, then Amazon needs to accept the risks associated with their program.
An A2Z claim and a charge back or returned check are not even in the same ball game.
I actually want to downvote this, itâs such a bad idea. 
Isnât an A2Z claim basically a situation where the customer is opening a dispute with the seller because the seller is refusing a refund? Thatâs basically exactly the same thing as a chargeback (for a dispute, not a fraud chargeback) â the merchant is refusing to issue a refund.
Iâm 100% FBA so I donât really deal with most customer service (Amazon will just refund them in most cases), but IMO if Iâm buying from Amazon.com I expect the same consistent policies regardless of who the seller is. Iâve opened 1 A2Z claim ever as a buyer, and I do think the seller should be penalized for it, because the result ended up being the same (I got a refund) but I had to jump through hoops for it and Amazon had to do additional work as well. If Iâm buying from Amazon.com, I expect the seller to be 100% responsible for everything (though I do think Amazon should do a better job with ABUSIVE buyers). As a seller, I accepted this fact and accept that a certain % of sales will lead to a refund, and for this reason I refuse to sell items that have razor thin profit margins.
As far as Iâm concerned, if you return something to FBA and FBA wouldnât charge you a restocking fee, then an FBM seller should have no ability to charge a restocking fee either, as that leads to a poor buyer experience if the policy isnât consistent. If Iâm buying something from Amazon.com I see it as buying from Amazon, not â3P Seller LLC.â (And this is exactly the framework and logic that is being applied in various court cases where thereâs claims being made that Amazon canât escape liability by saying âtechnically weâre not the seller of recordâ). I would expect an FBM seller to match or hopefully exceed Amazonâs low level of customer service.
Oi, thatâs too much misinformation about FBM, SFP, and A2Zs for anyone to correct on a lovely Saturday afternoon.
The short answer is that
- your single experience on the Buyer end of one A-to-z âthat timeâ should in no way be considered representative,
- probably Amazon (versus the Seller) paid your refund as they commit to doing for FBM Sellers in many cases, and
- you appear to have zero knowledge about Amazonâs Buy Shipping program for FBMs that requires AtoZ for INR.
Itâs ok, @GGX; you have a lot to offer, but FBM just ainât your game, so maybe take a seat right here.
This suggests that you think the only âdefectiveâ orders are those made through FBM. Thatâs not even remotely true. Thereâs just as much chance that FBA sellers are sleazy or selling counterfeits, or expired food (as noted in another post here) or unauthorized products, or stolen merchandise, or used as new, or on and on and on.
Isnât an A2Z claim basically a situation where the customer is opening a dispute with the seller because the seller is refusing a refund?
An A2Z claim is for a situation where a seller âwonât make things rightâ for a buyer. Although FBA sellers seem to be trained to believe that âmake things rightâ equals âprovide a full refundâ, that isnât necessarily the case.
A2Z is simply the escalation process for when a buyer and seller canât agree on whoâs at fault for something going wrong. With FBA, thereâs no need for A2Z because the assumption with FBA is that the seller is always at fault (even when they arenât) and the correct resolution is always a refund (even when it isnât).
When the seller himself is handling the transaction, and canât agree with the buyer on what needs to be done to resolve a problem, the A2Z process is like an escalation where both sides make their case to Amazon and then Amazon decides.
but IMO if Iâm buying from Amazon.com I expect the same consistent policies regardless of who the seller is.
You can âexpectâ whatever you like⌠it doesnât mean thatâs how itâs going to be. For shoppers who feel this way, thereâs that little âshow FBA only offersâ checkbox (I assume itâs still there? I wonât use FBA as a seller and donât have Prime as a buyer, so Iâm not always up on these things).
I sell FBM. If you buy from me and then try and cheat me, Iâll stop you. If you buy from an FBA seller and try and cheat them, Amazon says - sure, go right ahead!
If thatâs an important factor to someone when shopping, then I donât want them as a customer anyway. FBM has much more power (although still not as much as we should) to do things right and not âthe Amazon wayâ.
If Iâm buying from Amazon.com, I expect the seller to be 100% responsible for everything
Again, you can expect whatever you want, butâŚ
This expectation could be restated as âI expect the seller to give me my purchase for free any time I askâ. This is precisely why some of us do FBM, and only FBM.
As a seller, I accepted this fact and accept that a certain % of sales will lead to a refund
As a seller and a human, I donât accept this at all. I expect people - both buyers and sellers - to operate with integrity and be responsible for their actions when they donât.
Of course, there are always going to be refunds, and some will be seller faulted (oh â â â â , I put the wrong item in that box) and some will be buyer faulted (oh crap, I meant to order the red sweater but ordered the blue sweater instead). If you fâed up, I expect you to bear the costs associated with your mistake. Just as I would if it were my mistake.
As far as Iâm concerned, if you return something to FBA and FBA wouldnât charge you a restocking fee, then an FBM seller should have no ability to charge a restocking fee either
Once again, your expectations⌠see the âclick to display only FBA offersâ checkbox. Different people have different attitudes when they shop, and if this is your expectation, then FBA is the right way to shop for you.
FBM sellers donât want buyers like this. If you order a brand new product and f-k it up, making it worthless to me once you return it, then you need to bear the costs of that, just as you would if you walked into a B&M store and broke something on the shelf.
âYou break it, you buy itâ can, and should, apply to online shopping as well.
If Iâm buying something from Amazon.com I see it as buying from Amazon, not â3P Seller LLC.â
Just because thatâs what you see, doesnât make it so.
as that leads to a poor buyer experience if the policy isnât consistent.
Not for all buyers. Some prefer the personal experience of dealing with a competent 3rd-party seller who knows how to provide actual customer service rather than just sending the buyer a refund and sending them on their way.
Customer service is one of my strengths and many buyers have thanked me for taking the time to explain how things work and why a certain fee is being applied, or why an issue is being resolved a certain way. Plenty of people have disdain for Amazonâs âthrow money at it and the problem is solvedâ approach to customer (non)service.
In my experience, most buyers whoâs orders have an issue want the issue to be resolved - NOT their money back. If they wanted their money instead of what they ordered, they wouldnât have ordered the thing in the first place.
I would expect an FBM seller to match or hopefully exceed Amazonâs low level of customer service.
Thatâs fair, but your idea of what âexceeding Amazonâs level of customer serviceâ means varies greatly from mine. You seem to think that better customer service means ask less questions, provide less barriers to refund, and I think it means - give personal attention to the problem and resolve it in the way the buyer needs.
That is only one of many reasons an A2Z claim is opened. Many times an A2Z is opened without the customer even emailing the seller. If you use Amazon Buy Shipping, then the seller has INR coverage provided by Amazon and the customer has to open an A2Z claim for Amazon to provide the seller with the coverage. A customer calls Amazon customer support with a question about the product and Amazon customer support opens an A2Z claim when the customer simply needs some instructional type help.
If you not playing in the same game, how can you suggest rules? We are 100% FBM so we do not tread in any FBA procedures or rules. We are not in that game so it is better for us to read and learn rather than make suggestions from a side line in a different game.
Unrealistic expectation ⌠doesnât even exist in brick and mortar world.
And yet there are several threads on how sellers have lost money and merchandise within the FBA process. And those seller fight hard to get their product and/or reimbursement for Amazonâs poor handling of returns and damage goods.
We exceed Amazonâs level of customer service and have done so for years. However on Amazon, the same customer service level is not available do to Amazonâs policies that limit our contact with the customer.
⌠couldnât have phrased it any better.