Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[exciter1]

13 minutes ago, jerryherb said:

So after thousands of shipments i finally ran into a blatant scammer on amazon. do we have a database of scammers for ebay/amazon and if not, why not start one? this is what happened (i will not mention any names for now, PM me if you want it).

Sold a Grand Emporium across the country (atlanta to portland). the first thing was an inquiry a few days into the shipment (where is my stuff). UPS tracking was very clear so i steered the buyer directly to UPS.com as it displays updates better than amazon. i did buy insurance/signature so no case of "i never got it" could be opened. the day of delivery no one home. package was then rerouted and delivered by the buyer. next day i get this with no further direct inquiries:

AZ claim: "Item not as described. Buyer Comments: The item I got is completely different than the item I ordered. This is not original item, the box is not genuine. I ask for a full refund."

i responded with a scanned receipt from the lego.com and insisted on the return of the item for refund. i also opened a separate case against the buyer to seek investigation into their scamming practices.

within hours of my separate fraud investigation case amazon transferred all emails under the the single AZ claim, closed it in favor of the buyer, but funded the refund of !!!$370!!! out their own pocket.

when i inquired why they would condone and encourage such behavior and how it will affect my metrics all i got was this:

"We have granted the claim for this order and issued a refund to the buyer. We have found no reason to believe that you are responsible for this claim. We have issued a refund to the buyer, but we will not debit your account for that refund."

Anyone else ran into this? this is not FBA, i process all my shipments.

 

A bunch of us, welcome to the club.  They'll ding your A-Z metrics too.

[jerryherb]

it does not appear that my metrics took a hit. there is nothing under my metrics indicating the case ever even existed. so is there a DB of known scammers?

[Bold-Arrow]

1 minute ago, exciter1 said:

A bunch of us, welcome to the club.  They'll ding your A-Z metrics too.

He must have been too busy shipping to notice  

[jerryherb]

2 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

He must have been too busy shipping to notice  

i prefer to pack my own boxes so they arrive mint and are actually MINE, when shipped to the buyer. i dont run big enough shop like some of you guys to require assistance.

Edited April 24, 2017 by jerryherb

[Bold-Arrow]

2 minutes ago, jerryherb said:

it does not appear that my metrics took a hit. there is nothing under my metrics indicating the case ever even existed. so is there a DB of known scammers?

It takes few day . It will come . Start selling polys and Smalls 

[jerryherb]

1 minute ago, Bold-Arrow said:

It takes few day . It will come . Start selling polys and Smalls 

ill follow-up in a few days, but have a good enough record that even if it does appear, its not going to affect me. i was just curious why amazon would settle for such a large amount instead of allowing me to handle it.

[Bold-Arrow]

My advice to you it is to keep your emotions away from it . It sucks big time and when it comes to Lego you can't prove authenticity ( retail receipts are not proof ). You need to protect your account . Don't sell any large sets for now ( you don't want to be hit with another inauthentic claim ) , and take care of your ODR ( sell more ) 

1 minute ago, jerryherb said:

ill follow-up in a few days, but have a good enough record that even if it does appear, its not going to affect me. i was just curious why amazon would settle for such a large amount instead of allowing me to handle it.

Because u can't prove that your Lego is authentic , and they are buyer friendly and the scammer wasn't gonna send it back . They probably said they tossed it out since it was fake. ( double dipping ) 

[Bold-Arrow]

Was shipping address different than buyer's address ? 

[jerryherb]

12 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

My advice to you it is to keep your emotions away from it . It sucks big time and when it comes to Lego you can't prove authenticity ( retail receipts are not proof ). You need to protect your account . Don't sell any large sets for now ( you don't want to be hit with another inauthentic claim ) , and take care of your ODR ( sell more ) 

Because u can't prove that your Lego is authentic , and they are buyer friendly and the scammer wasn't gonna send it back . They probably said they tossed it out since it was fake. ( double dipping ) 

Thanks for the advice. I have been selling on amazon for years, and usually can spot a scammer, but this one blind sided me. all i wanted was the item back and i  dont think amazon allows such high price items to be simply tossed. im not emotional at all, just followed the protocol, as in get your item back prior to full refund. 

8 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Was shipping address different than buyer's address ? 

no. i always ship to the address provided by amazon. if they re-routed it elsewhere after the first delivery attempt is yet to be determined as well as who signed for it. i gotta call UPS to find out whom it was actually delivered to. the address is legit and the name/address match the current property tax records on file. google maps dude also shows a clean suburban neighborhood, not a 'hood.

at least amazon funded it, so im not out $400

Edited April 24, 2017 by jerryherb

[Bold-Arrow]

5 minutes ago, jerryherb said:

Thanks for the advice. I have been selling on amazon for years, and usually can spot a scammer, but this one blind sided me. all i wanted was the item back and i  dont think amazon allows such high price items to be simply tossed. im not emotional at all, just followed the protocol, as in get your item back prior to full refund. 

no. i always ship to the address provided by amazon. if they re-routed it elsewhere is yet to be determined as well as who signed for it. i gotta call UPS to find out whom it was actually delivered to.

It has been the same case with over 20 claims for BPers now . Same scam, same end result . It is out of hand . Reporting those scammers isnthe best thing to do as they know exaclty what they are going.

regarding the address , most of those scammers are dropshippers and I have a strong suspicion than the end buyer isn't the one opening the AZ but your buyer who is double dipping and don't have a product on hand to return . 

[Brickbuilder.g]

Is this same nonsense as prevalent with fba orders?

[exciter1]

15 minutes ago, jerryherb said:

Thanks for the advice. I have been selling on amazon for years, and usually can spot a scammer, but this one blind sided me. all i wanted was the item back and i  dont think amazon allows such high price items to be simply tossed. im not emotional at all, just followed the protocol, as in get your item back prior to full refund. 

no. i always ship to the address provided by amazon. if they re-routed it elsewhere after the first delivery attempt is yet to be determined as well as who signed for it. i gotta call UPS to find out whom it was actually delivered to. the address is legit and the name/address match the current property tax records on file. google maps dude also shows a clean suburban neighborhood, not a 'hood.

at least amazon funded it, so im not out $400

Yep, my buyer lived in a neighborhood with 750k+ houses in it.  I don't think it ended up getting delivered there.

[biking_tiger]

I don't FBM anymore for this very reason. It's not worth the risk to your account. 

[jerryherb]

4 minutes ago, biking_tiger said:

I don't FBM anymore for this very reason. It's not worth the risk to your account. 

is it worth having your FBA stock adulterated through scammers whom know they can open/repack with megablocks, and return your EOL sets?

Edited April 24, 2017 by jerryherb

[jerryherb]

23 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

It has been the same case with over 20 claims for BPers now . Same scam, same end result . It is out of hand . Reporting those scammers isnthe best thing to do as they know exaclty what they are going.

regarding the address , most of those scammers are dropshippers and I have a strong suspicion than the end buyer isn't the one opening the AZ but your buyer who is double dipping and don't have a product on hand to return . 

youre probably correct. the name of the account does not match the shipping address name. no more third party shipments for me.

[biking_tiger]

I don't sell anything big or collectible through Amazon anymore. Amazon is my avenue for high volume, low risk selling. Maybe I've been lucky or stupid, but it's worked for the last few years.

 

 

[jerryherb]

4 minutes ago, biking_tiger said:

I don't sell anything big or collectible through Amazon anymore. Amazon is my avenue for high volume, low risk selling. Maybe I've been lucky or stupid, but it's worked for the last few years.

 

 

no no. high volume low risk via FBA is the way to go. was thinking of getting all my poly's, figs and mixels + smaller sets out to them, but no large sets/EOLs.

Edited April 24, 2017 by jerryherb

[Phil B]

11 minutes ago, jerryherb said:

no no. high volume low risk via FBA is the way to go. was thinking of getting all my poly's, figs and mixels + smaller sets out to them, but no large sets/EOLs.

What I have seen when I looked at sending in stuff that sells for $10 or less is that the numbers did not work out for FBA. Perhaps others get a better deal than I do (on both sides of the equation) but a $4 Mixel selling for $10 left perhaps $0.50 in profit. Of course, if you're sitting on 1000s of them that might be worth your while, but me puny fish.

[exciter1]

8 minutes ago, Phil B said:

What I have seen when I looked at sending in stuff that sells for $10 or less is that the numbers did not work out for FBA. Perhaps others get a better deal than I do (on both sides of the equation) but a $4 Mixel selling for $10 left perhaps $0.50 in profit. Of course, if you're sitting on 1000s of them that might be worth your while, but me puny fish.

I sent in a bunch of tribe sets and it worked out pretty well, but I probably got them for $3 or less.  I only shipped individuals that were going for $12-$16.

[Kenxxx]

43 minutes ago, Brickbuilder.g said:

Is this same nonsense as prevalent with fba orders?

I asked this question a couple weeks ago, and got the general feeling that FBA was far safer for more expensive items.  If an FBA order gets a claim for "not delivered / never received", naturally, you're totally covered.  I haven't heard a report of item sold FBA where the buyer claimed "not as described / conterfeit merchandise".  ... yet.

[Bold-Arrow]

31 minutes ago, jerryherb said:

youre probably correct. the name of the account does not match the shipping address name. no more third party shipments for me.

There is a 50/50 chance that your listing will be shut down .. just a FYI 

[biking_tiger]

13 minutes ago, Phil B said:

What I have seen when I looked at sending in stuff that sells for $10 or less is that the numbers did not work out for FBA. Perhaps others get a better deal than I do (on both sides of the equation) but a $4 Mixel selling for $10 left perhaps $0.50 in profit. Of course, if you're sitting on 1000s of them that might be worth your while, but me puny fish.

I should clarify: to me, high volume, low risk is a City Great Vehicle, not the super small stuff. City, Juniors, all that grandparent gifty jazz sells like the proverbial hotcakes around Christmas. 

[jerryherb]

5 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

There is a 50/50 chance that your listing will be shut down .. just a FYI 

thanks, but i shipped to the address provided on the order by the buyer. the listing is a general ASIN, unless youre just talking about my entry on the listing. as of now its active and i sold at least three (in the past 365 days) of the same item without incident. i also sold more than 1k sets in the same period with only minor issues, not authenticity related, and 0 AZs.

Edited April 24, 2017 by jerryherb

[Bold-Arrow]

1 minute ago, jerryherb said:

thanks, but i shipped to the address provided on the order by the buyer. the listing is a general ASIN, unless youre just talking about my entry on the listing. as of now its active and i sold at least three (in the past 365 days) of the same item without incident.

Yes your offering . I'm just basing it on what other sellers here experienced with a similar situation . Once they got an inauthentic claim their offering for that item was shit down unless you can provide invoices in 50% of the cases .. 

[jerryherb]

4 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Yes your offering . I'm just basing it on what other sellers here experienced with a similar situation . Once they got an inauthentic claim their offering for that item was **** down unless you can provide invoices in 50% of the cases .. 

i got receipts for every single set, as i pay my taxes .

you mean invoices for 50% of my listings, or previously sold qty of that particular set? 

Edited April 24, 2017 by jerryherb