Trying to make myself and the buyer whole due to USPS incompetence

Selling on Amazon
1

Sup people.

So, my seller account is entering its 18th year this week - old enough to vote if it was a person, just an amusing aside…ANYWAYS, in that 18 years we just had a first occur, or its about to at least.

Customer ordered a rather pricey D&D book - I buy shipping form Amazon, I pack it up, I ship it, it gets delivered…empty. The buyer, who has been very patient and helpful in all of this since alerting me of the situation. initially thought it was a porch pirate based on the way the package was left opened when he got it. Turns out it was not the case. My friends at my local post office did a deep dive at the tracking number. Turns out that a sorting facility in Kansas City either lost the book or an employee stole it (if you saw how surgically the bottom of the mailer was opened you would leave that as a possibility).

So, for the first time in my Amazon selling career, I have to tell a buyer to file an A-Z claim. This is why I’m writing tonight. I know at least a few of you have experience in this where the buyer is made whole and you did not lose your funds or get a metric hit, but I also know this whole protected claim stuff has changed internally on Amazon a lot. I could reach out to Seller Support for assistance, but I could also swan dive into a manure pile and I would probably get the same results, if not better. Frankly, I trust you guys more.

Just so I have all my I’s dotted and my T’s crossed, what are the best steps to instruct to my patient buyer so he files a claim and I stay protected? He’s already said he will follow any instructions I give him, so I think if we follow proper protocol, we both will have things work out amicably, or at least I hope so.

Oh, and, uh, happy new year and all that stuff… or something,

2

Since the customer has already contacted you, you would instruct the customer to wait 48 hours per Amazon Policy and then file an A to Z claim for Item Not Received (and that it is important that it is filed as Item Not Received). None of the other information is needed in filing the A to Z … just Item Not Received.

If Amazon does the A to Z by charging your account, then you appeal and provide proof that the item was shipping on time, had a scan on or before the last ship by date, that the label was purchased via Amazon Shipping and therefore is covered under Amazon Policy for A to Z protection where Amazon funds the refund and not you.

3

Ok update time. The customer is filling the claim today per our discussion and we’re going to be using the above advice, but we both had a follow-up on this - when he’s filling the claim under item not received, is there any specific comments he should add or just “I never received the product”? We have documentation of USPS messing everything up but I doubt him saying “the seller is not at fault” would turn the needle at all, would it?

4

Bots be easily confused. As per Marbles post, the less said (typed) the better, in my opinion. Good luck, and congrats on never having had to do this before! It must be some kind of record.

5

Ok, I’ll just tell him to use “the book never arrived” and hope that doesn’t cause a bot conniption. Appreciate the help folks

6

Sigh…

I gave him the steps you provided here and that were verified by support, and instead of the claims he files a return for the empty envelope…

…twice.

7

I just think they make it really damn hard to file a claim now on Amazon if you are a buyer…especially if the buyer is trying to navigate this on their own from their account. Good if you are a seller, bad if you are a buyer. Buyer would have been better off calling and having a rep open one.

Since you have confirmation from your post office regarding the book being stolen or lost in USPS possession…what about refunding buyer and filing a USPS claim. Should be an easy win if your post office tells them what they found out.

8

It was shipped via bound printed matter, which exempted them from any wrongdoing since there was no insurance attached.

On other more important news though, I guess the customer found how to do this because I woke up to an email from Amazon saying he did file an A-Z claim today, and that I lost, had the funds deducted from my balance, a hit on my metrics and my account immediately suspended for asking the customer to file the claim in the first place.

Kidding. I was not impacted and Amazon funded it.

I’m not sure what I’m more shocked by - the fact that the system actually worked as it was supposed to or that I had a genuinely good customer who listened to me through the whole thing and gave me the chance to set things right for both of us.

9

I have to admit that I would not have been confident in the system working as it was supposed to to ship a pricey book via BPM without insurance.