Amazon insist on 3rd party seller 30 day returns
Amazon are to align 3rd party seller returns policies with their own generous 30 day return rights. Amazon sellers will be required to have return policies that are at least as favourable as Amazon’s own return policies from the 6th of August 2012. That means up to 30 days to return a product which, dependent on category, might only have to be returned in “Best Possible Condition“.
Strangely Amazon’s Marketplace return policy doesn’t currently require sellers to fulfil their legal obligations. It states “If you need to return an item due to a fault on the part of the seller, you can request that the seller also reimburse you for return postage costs, however please bear in mind that the seller is only obliged to refund you the total cost of the order in these circumstances.“. If the buyer simply wishes to return an item because they’ve changed their mind then they are liable for return postage costs, however if it’s due to a seller fault (such as a mis-ship or a faulty item) then the seller should also be picking up return postage costs.
I doubt too many Amazon seller will be happy with this announcement. However it’s worth bearing in mind that most buyers will request an early return if they’re unhappy with a product – the longer time period probably won’t make much difference. Some retailers such as Zappos have always operated a 365 day no questions asked returns policy and it hasn’t put them out of business. Offering a longer returns policy can give more customer peace of mind without necessarily increasing overall returns rates significantly, although there’s always that one customer that tries it on.
Amazon play at the cutting edge of ecommerce, they’re already offering next day delivery and recent rumours are that even that’s not enough and they’re aiming to delight customers with a same day service. They’ll treat returns in the same manner and aim to be the best in the business.
Seller might not want to offer 30 day returns and there’s certainly a cost. While it may not significantly increase the overall number of returns it will almost certainly result in some later returns. If there’s no hurry why send an item back the next day?
Regardless if you agree with Amazon or not there’s not a lot of choice for sellers. The Amazon way is either to offer the same great service as they do, or don’t play at their party. In order to cut out work for 3rd party sellers (and to make sure no one decides not to comply), Amazon will update the returns policy on Amazon accounts on the 6th August to ensure that everyone offers 30 day returns.
Full Text of the Amazon Email
Dear Seller,
To ensure a consistent experience for buyers, Amazon sellers are required to have return policies that are at least as favourable as Amazon’s own return policies. To help provide the best experience for buyers, we will be updating the return information in the Returns section of your Amazon.co.uk storefront page on 6 August 2012 to clarify that buyers may return products to you in accordance with Amazon’s return policies.
The updated return information will direct buyers to Amazon’s return policies and will continue to give buyers the ability to contact you for information about any more favourable policies that may apply. If your inventory includes Fulfilment by Amazon items, your Returns section will continue to reference the Amazon return policies.
See this Help page for more information about Amazon’s return policies:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=502480
If you have questions, please contact our Seller Support team by clicking the Contact Seller Support link at the bottom of any seller Help page.
Kind regards,
Amazon Services Europe
st georges dragon says
7:17 am on 20/07/2012
cant read this for dodging and ducking a low flying rolf harris
Mark says
11:47 am on 20/07/2012
No wonder libraries are closing, Amazon offers a free 30 day lone.
davelovesebay says
12:42 pm on 20/07/2012
Any opened amazon returns i just 0.99p auction on ebay.
Like the big boys !
Bogdan says
6:00 pm on 20/07/2012
Who wrote this article? “The Amazon way is either to offer the same great service as they do, or don’t play at their party.” What great service? Check their feedback on Google. Less than 95% positive. Most UK-based marketplace business sellers manage to maintain 97-99% positive feedback. No wonder Amazon don’t allow customers to leave them feedback. The myth of their great customer service would blown to pieces.
ebuyerfb says
6:01 am on July 21st, 2012
It says who the author is at the bottom of the article.
As much as I dislike Amazon, they do have great customer service (to the buyers at least) based on everything I’ve ever read or seen posted about them online. Personally, I think they take it way too far. A classic example is the case where the guy was in Africa and his parents bought him some books on Amazon. The parents received the books and shipped them to their son but got lost on the way. Amazon refunded them even though it was delivered as promised. My worry is that it was the detriment of a third party seller but the details aren’t clear.
Was your experience with them as a buyer different?
Jimbo says
11:49 am on July 21st, 2012
I think the Africa story may have been more about marketing than customer service.
Bogdan says
7:15 pm on July 21st, 2012
Just where do you read that online? The main sites where you can see feedback on Amazon that I know of (Amazon don’t allow you to leave feedback on their services, though they claim that the reason for having feedback for marketplace sellers is that it helps to improve customer service – is it not odd that they wouldn’t want to improve their own customer service) are Google and epinions. As I said, Amazon have less than 95% positive feedback on Google, and on epinions its at 3.5 out of 5. That’s very poor compared to most Amazon marketplace sellers. So for customer service you are actually better off buying from a highly rated marketplace seller.
If their customer service was really so good surely they’d be happy to have feedback left for themselves as well as for marketplace sellers. They’d want people to see that they were better than the marketplace sellers that they host. Where you can find feedback it isn’t so good. That would seem to indicate that the positive view of Amazon’s customer service is a carefully propogated myth.
Chris Dawson says
7:26 pm on July 21st, 2012
Alternatively as is generally the case with feedback for any company that doesn’t request feedback but customers choose to rate on a third party site with no encouragement, it’s weighted in favour of bad feedback.
It’s rare that a happy customer will go looking for a place to sing a companies praises. It’s much more common for a dis-satisfied customer to go looking for a place to whine and moan.
Bogdan says
7:37 pm on July 21st, 2012
So why don’t Amazon allow customers to leave them feedback when they claim that it improves customer service?
Bogdan says
9:28 pm on July 23rd, 2012
Same goes for seller feedback on Amazon. Only about 10% of customers leave feedback. It stands to reason that the same will apply. People will be, on a weighted basis, more likely to leave feedback when they are not happy.
Jimbo says
8:33 pm on July 21st, 2012
How many sales do you imagine Amazon have made and how many feedback comments are there?
Bogdan says
11:19 pm on July 21st, 2012
Simple answer. None. Amazon doesn’t allow you to leave feedback on their service. They don’t want you to know that they’re not as good as the myth.
Jimbo says
12:51 am on July 22nd, 2012
I meant on google.
How do you know that Amazon are “not as good as the myth”
Jimbo says
12:00 pm on 21/07/2012
I think given the size and scope of Amazon the level of customer service is pretty impressive. Just that you can actually get through and speak to someone within a few rings of the telephone puts it way ahead of most.
Bogdan says
9:26 pm on July 23rd, 2012
“How do you know that Amazon are “not as good as the myth.”
By comparing the feedback Amazon gets on Google with the feedback of UK business sellers on Amazon (overseas sellers tend to get more negative feedback for lengthy delivery times – even though they do say what their delivery times are). Most UK based business sellers on Amazon are at 97-99% positive. Amazon on Google are less than 95% positive.
Glenn says
9:32 am on 22/07/2012
Amazon is very big on providing their customers with the best buying experience they can.
Why? – Because they want to keep their customers. An odd refund here or there is not going to hurt them at all, especially if the product was sold by a 3rd party seller, because they still keep their fees.
I sell as a 3rd party seller on Amazon and I accept that customers will make returns. It is just part of the business model. Do I like it – NO I don’t, but I don’t like paying fees or tax, but that’s just a part of doing business.
The lifetime spend of a returning customer must be phenomenal. Why do you think they promote Prime? It’s because they have loyal customers who return time and again.
Having heard all the comments about the unfairness of feedback on eBay, which I totally agree with, why does any seller want to encourage the feedback monster? We should be looking to kill the monster not encouraging others to use it. Maybe Amazon would get poor feedback comments, but it’s their channel, so why do they need to expose themselves unnecessarily. I would love to abandon feedback on eBay completely.
I consider the eBay feedback system to be flawed and dishonest.
Now I know that we all have stories we could tell of feedback extortion and the lack of support from eBay and Amazon seller support. My personal experience is that eBay CS is run by idiots who haven’t got a clue and that every single enquiry with Amazon has resulted in an understandable reply. I haven’t always been happy with the Amazon replies but at least they know what they are taking about and more importantly they are consistent. Calling eBay CS is a lottery.
Tidying up return policies on eBay and Amazon might just stop (or slow down) some of the cowboys out there.
Bogdan says
9:48 pm on July 23rd, 2012
Agreed eBay feedback can be unfair. Sometimes impossible to get unreasonable feedback removed. Insufficient characters to respond to negative feedback. Etc. However, it is the same for all and working hard at keeping your customer’s happy pays dividends with the fee discount for top-rated sellers. I’ve only slipped out of top-rated seller status once for 3 months – tipped over the edge by a British Forces PO customer complaining about slow delivery to Cyprus. I contacted the Ministry of Defence who gave me the email address of the military post office in Cyprus. They told me that prior to Xmas the delivery could take 3-4 months. eBay forced the refund through after 2 months and wouldn’t even look at the email from the BFPO. Further communication with the BFPO revealed that the addressee was under investigation for postal fraud. Again eBay weren’t interested. It can be that bad, but its the same for all.
What I don’t like about Amazon is that its not a level playing field. I don’t see why Amazon’s ownership of their marketplace should be an excuse for dishonest business practices. They now have a UK market share of online business that is higher than that of any supermaket’s share of the bricks and mortar market. Because of Amazon’s inside view and total control of their marketplace they are able to manipulate it to their advantage (as with price parity where they try to force sellers to price with no regard to the cost of sales, and at the same time fix prices to their advantage). Marketplaces need regulating to protect both buyers and sellers, otherwise we will wind up with 90% of online sales controlled by a handful of companies.
Trevor Ginn says
8:04 pm on 23/07/2012
I had an interesting visit from trading standards a while back which was a bit of an eye opener in terms of the sales of good act. In short (and I kid you not)
1. Customer can inform you within 7 working days of delivery, starting the day after item is delivered, that they want to return the item.
2. They then have a ‘reasonable’ (totally unspecified) time to return the item
3. The seller is obliged to refund the full value of the order including postage.
4. The customer can return the item in any condition and the seller is still obliged to refund them. For example the seller can still return the item if it is a price of furniture which has been assembled.
5. In fact the seller has the refund the buyers within 30 days whether or not they have returned item item.
Officially, what the seller should do under conditions 4 and 5 is refund the buy and them sue them for breach of contract.
Anyway, the reason I mention this is because when I exclaimed, “Well Amazon’s T&Cs don’t follow these rules”, I was told that as Amazon is based in Luxembourg, none of these apply to them. I am not sure how the rules apply to third party sellers
Trevor – Hello Baby
Bogdan says
9:55 pm on July 23rd, 2012
Yes, its absurd. This refund without waiting for the goods to be returned is part of the distance selling regulations. The government says that the regs are designed to put ecommerce on a similar footing to shop buying. Never heard of a shop where you can get a refund if you promise to return the goods later. Nor are there shops that refund you the cost of getting to the shop – yet when someone returns (or not) an item bought online you are obliged to refund them the shipping cost as well.