Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[cladner]

2 hours ago, gmpirate said:

Normally I totally agree with this.  Just heard horror stories of buyers filing claims of false/immitation products and Amazon putting holds on funds and shutting accounts down for investigations.

It is pretty abnormal for someone to message a seller like this.  It shows they are trying to get something out of you.  I would hit the no reply required message. Then i would hit button reporting the buyer as being intimidating and the other button to ask amazon to investigate this transaction and only respond to questions related to did the box go to this person's address and do they want to return it.  This is not a social media.  This is a store.  You buy something.  If you don't like it or the condition, you return it.  you don't start up a convo about the provenance.

[Bricklectic]

Just got this. Here's what confuses me. In the past, Missing inbound cases required invoices. Since I dont like to send invoices to amazon, I usually swallow the losses.

So I don't know how they can create these cases automatically if they will need documentation?

[landphieran]

How are people trying to fight these reimbursement claims? I have tried to get reimbursed for sets and the amounts are below my purchasing price. This is going to cost thousands of dollars If all t he damaged crap get's reimbursed at 10% value.

I've tried claiming order replacement cost. Collectibles, out of print, cost of storage and time. Literal wall of nothing.

[landphieran]

Man what a brutal policy change. There seems to be no easy way to get any of your money back. I went through and tried to adjust "sourcing cost" to MSRP and those were all rejected. Half of them I couldn't  even submit documentation. I'm not really sure how to approach this because they are going to steal so much money from people its actually just criminal. Every case I submit is auto replied to by a bot.

[redcell]

I think this is the point where you bend over and say "thank you sir, may I have another."

[tk79]

The beatings will continue until morale improves (or enough sellers give up).

[tk79]

43 minutes ago, landphieran said:

Man what a brutal policy change. There seems to be no easy way to get any of your money back. I went through and tried to adjust "sourcing cost" to MSRP and those were all rejected. Half of them I couldn't  even submit documentation. I'm not really sure how to approach this because they are going to steal so much money from people its actually just criminal. Every case I submit is auto replied to by a bot.

  

FWIW, here's one suggestion someone made:

 

 

Quote

 

Don’t just say “please reimburse me.” That’ll get you a canned response from a bot named Raj who probably didn’t even read the message.

Here’s how I do it when Amazon pulls this nonsense:

1. Include a screenshot of the return report showing:

- Reason: “accidentally ordered”

- Disposition: “customer damaged”

- Status: “liquidated”

2. Quote the FBA policy directly in your message. Something like:

“Per Amazon’s FBA Lost and Damaged Inventory Reimbursement Policy: If a unit is returned customer-damaged and liquidated, and the damage was not caused by the seller, it is eligible for reimbursement.”

3. Ask for a manual review, not just a resubmission.

4. If they deny it again, escalate to the Catalog team or Seller Performance. Stay polite, but firm.

This isn’t just about $10 here and there — these “oops” reimbursements can quietly cost you thousands if you don’t stay on top of them.

Keep fighting for your margin. No one else will.

 

 

[landphieran]

2 minutes ago, tk79 said:

  

FWIW, here's one suggestion someone made.

 

I did get a reimbursement but it was for 1/3rd the cost of the sale.

Sold Item for 289.95 - Amazon slapped a label on the exterior of the box and sent it in.

I created a case calling out Amazon's Policy.
Post-order lost or damaged events (customer return claims) If we elect to reimburse you for a customer return claim, the value of the reimbursement is based on the refund or replacement given to the customer on your FBA order. If Amazon refunded or replaced an item on your FBA order, we calculate the reimbursement value as the refund amount or the price of the replacement item on the original order minus applicable fees.

I got reimbursed 102$. The "Source Cost" that Amazon randomly determines. I appealed the source cost calculation and ended up in chat bot hell replying "Update source cost".

I spent some time looking at source cost values for various sets I'm selling. They are anywhere from 1/5th to 1/2 MSRP. Cody helmet is currently a source cost of 21$ as an example. I tried to update the source costs and nearly all of them were automatically rejected without any option to adjust cost. 

In essence, you have to jump through hoops to get a reimbursement and then when you do you will lose all appreciation of the set and will be reimbursed on average 1/2 the cost you paid for the item. This is going to going to affect lost units and all damaged units. Imagine they lose a pallet or a case of Lego's. If you can get them to accept you receipts for source cost you may be able to recoup most of the purchase cost, but you are losing all appreciation, time, storage costs, and shipping costs. I haven't had much luck getting the receipts accepted so the loses are far worse.