Selling through Amazon FBA

[Brickson]

Does anybody know why we can't sell any of the new SW figures? 75107 75108 75109 75110 75111 75112 are restricted. I assumed this is some new thing LEGO is doing, but it's strange they'd only do it for these, and only on Amazon.ca, not Amazon.com, and somehow this guy managed to get around it for 75111:

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/B00X6A8N1Y/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1449215503&sr=8-1&keywords=lego+75111&condition=new

[zak001]

35 minutes ago, Brickson said:

Does anybody know why we can't sell any of the new SW figures? 75107 75108 75109 75110 75111 75112 are restricted. I assumed this is some new thing LEGO is doing, but it's strange they'd only do it for these, and only on Amazon.ca, not Amazon.com, and somehow this guy managed to get around it for 75111:

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/B00X6A8N1Y/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1449215503&sr=8-1&keywords=lego+75111&condition=new

Those sets got caught up in the Disney-mandated gating of Episode VII products - LEGO doesn't actually have anything to do with it. You need to be pre-approved to sell new items from the Star Wars brand (i.e. be able to prove that you bought them from an approved distributor - submitting retail receipts probably isn't going to cut it). It hits .com as well as .ca, and is a major pain in the insert-scatological-part-of-the-anatomy. Anyone who "gets around it" is taking a huge risk of account suspension or termination. (They really mishandled the announcement of the gating - not all sellers got notification, so the first a lot of people heard of it was when they went to list a product. And the preapproval process seems to be somewhat arbitrary and risky and ill-defined.)

[Brickson]

10 hours ago, zak001 said:

Those sets got caught up in the Disney-mandated gating of Episode VII products - LEGO doesn't actually have anything to do with it. You need to be pre-approved to sell new items from the Star Wars brand (i.e. be able to prove that you bought them from an approved distributor - submitting retail receipts probably isn't going to cut it). It hits .com as well as .ca, and is a major pain in the insert-scatological-part-of-the-anatomy. Anyone who "gets around it" is taking a huge risk of account suspension or termination. (They really mishandled the announcement of the gating - not all sellers got notification, so the first a lot of people heard of it was when they went to list a product. And the preapproval process seems to be somewhat arbitrary and risky and ill-defined.)

My frustration with Disney cannot be expressed properly right now. Well, I guess I'll be dumping and avoiding any any new SW sets. 

[redcell]

Anyone who is selling Gallimimus Trap #30320 poly should keep a close eye on their feedback for the set.  I have been getting a huge number of returns and just got my first negative feedback for it.  People are buying them at the current price without realizing that they're just a small polybag.  I don't think that I've ever had any product with as high of a return rate on Amazon as GT.

[Bold-Arrow]

6 minutes ago, redcell said:

Anyone who is selling Gallimimus Trap #30320 poly should keep a close eye on their feedback for the set.  I have been getting a huge number of returns and just got my first negative feedback for it.  People are buying them at the current price without realizing that they're just a small polybag.  I don't think that I've ever had any product with as high of a return rate on Amazon as GT.

Same here ( minus the feedback ) ... In all honesty that is To be expected. That is one area where eBay is superior to Amazon ; collector's market.  

[asharerin]

6 minutes ago, redcell said:

Anyone who is selling Gallimimus Trap #30320 poly should keep a close eye on their feedback for the set.  I have been getting a huge number of returns and just got my first negative feedback for it.  People are buying them at the current price without realizing that they're just a small polybag.  I don't think that I've ever had any product with as high of a return rate on Amazon as GT.

The listing is awful for 30320. I would edit the listing to include alot more info in the top description area and also add more pics of the set built. If the bots reject the edits just contact seller support and they will fix this one right away.

[LegoEdison]

11 minutes ago, redcell said:

Anyone who is selling Gallimimus Trap #30320 poly should keep a close eye on their feedback for the set.  I have been getting a huge number of returns and just got my first negative feedback for it.  People are buying them at the current price without realizing that they're just a small polybag.  I don't think that I've ever had any product with as high of a return rate on Amazon as GT.

did the return came back as new or open? i have 1 return and wondering what if i received a open bag, can i refuse the refund?  

[Bold-Arrow]

5 minutes ago, LegoEdison said:

did the return came back as new or open? i have 1 return and wondering what if i received a open bag, can i refuse the refund?  

You can't refuse the refund . U can charge a restocking fee up to 50% if the item is not in the same shape ( someone can correct me here ) . 

[LegoEdison]

4 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

You can't refuse the refund . U can charge a restocking fee up to 50% if the item is not in the same shape ( someone can correct me here ) . 

the restocking fee have to be listed on your listing or it is a general rules? 

[redcell]

8 minutes ago, LegoEdison said:

did the return came back as new or open? i have 1 return and wondering what if i received a open bag, can i refuse the refund?  

I sold all of mine FBA so I haven't gotten any of them back yet.  I only have three so far that came back and are now unfulfillable, and I haven't received any back, but I'm assuming that any that I get back will be opened or the package will have been broken open.  

[Bold-Arrow]

6 minutes ago, LegoEdison said:

the restocking fee have to be listed on your listing or it is a general rules? 

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help-page.html/ref=ag_201725780_cont_scsearch?ie=UTF8&itemID=201725780&language=en_US

That's policy . I would advise to let the customer know if you go that route . 

5 minutes ago, redcell said:

I sold all of mine FBA so I haven't gotten any of them back yet.  I only have three so far that came back and are now unfulfillable, and I haven't received any back, but I'm assuming that any that I get back will be opened or the package will have been broken open.  

As long as the Dino isn't missing you can eBay it and still come ahead . 

[Achilles]

As someone mentioned, this is an annoying pitfall of Amazon - You get many more "regular Joe" customers that don't understand the price of something may be due to its rarity/collectability. Everything is presented as a new product that could be found in stores, and you can't really do a good job of modifying the listing to indicate that it's rare. 

All you can really do is accept the return. Obviously in cases like this most won't be opened anyway, and you'll eventually get buyers who know what they are getting.

It happens with Non-LEGO items as well.

[redcell]

5 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

 

As long as the Dino isn't missing you can eBay it and still come ahead . 

I'm so far ahead on those sets as it is that I'm not concerned at all about the unfulfillable units that I get back.

[redcell]

9 minutes ago, LegoEdison said:

the restocking fee have to be listed on your listing or it is a general rules? 

Although Amazon will allow you to set a restocking fee, in practice, it is something that is pretty dangerous to use since saavy customers can simply file an A-to-Z claim to avoid the restocking fee and those will really screw up your metrics in a hurry.  The better practice in my experience is just accept the return, swallow any loss that you take on it, and move on.  In the long run, maintaining good metrics is far more important than the loss that you might take on a single item.

[Dbroncoboy]

22 minutes ago, redcell said:

Although Amazon will allow you to set a restocking fee, in practice, it is something that is pretty dangerous to use since saavy customers can simply file an A-to-Z claim to avoid the restocking fee and those will really screw up your metrics in a hurry.  The better practice in my experience is just accept the return, swallow any loss that you take on it, and move on.  In the long run, maintaining good metrics is far more important than the loss that you might take on a single item.

Could not agree more. Additionally it is typically not worth your time to chase those dollars. Sometimes it's tough to swallow your pride when a customer is unreasonable but it's the better decision. People who can do this are the ones who stick around.

[redcell]

35 minutes ago, Dbroncoboy said:

Could not agree more. Additionally it is typically not worth your time to chase those dollars. Sometimes it's tough to swallow your pride when a customer is unreasonable but it's the better decision. People who can do this are the ones who stick around.

The other thing to consider is that people pay a premium to buy on Amazon because of their generous return policies.  I know that I avoid retailers who have more restrictive policies or do things like make the buyer pay for the return shipping.  The easier a retailer makes it for me to return an item when I need to, the more likely I am to buy from that retailer.

[pete411]

I just got my first Gingerbread House return request from a Amazon buyer through FBM. Her reason was that it was a free promo item and the item was overpriced. Anyways, I was happy to take the item back so I authorized a return for her. Do I need to do anything else at this point? In the past, I've returned an item from a FBM seller before and it generated a mailing label that wasn't prepaid and thought that was bad customer service. Is this what she's going to happen for her as well? Is there any way to generate a prepaid label for her? I'd like to do anything I can to protect my rating on Amazon. I've sold over a hundred items and got a whopping 12 feedback.

[zskid00]

Have you guys had to reconcile a shipment before and what were the results?  I have a shipment that was split into two boxes but was delivered on the same day (12/4).  It currently shows they received what appears to be the contents of one of the boxes but the other one is still outstanding.  Today I was able to submit a request to have them research the missing items.  Does this process usually take a while and what are the chances Amazon has lost my inventory?

[exciter1]

8 minutes ago, zskid00 said:

Have you guys had to reconcile a shipment before and what were the results?  I have a shipment that was split into two boxes but was delivered on the same day (12/4).  It currently shows they received what appears to be the contents of one of the boxes but the other one is still outstanding.  Today I was able to submit a request to have them research the missing items.  Does this process usually take a while and what are the chances Amazon has lost my inventory?

I just had this happen this weekend as well.  I just think they're really backed up.  The other box that I sent in to this location in South Carolina was finally 100% received today, after sitting there for several days after the first box was already checked in.  They will probably just ask you to give it another week.  My shipment to PA was immediately checked in 100%, but this site was slower.

[zskid00]

Thanks exciter1!  I know they're probably so busy getting everything checked in.  It's a decent amount of sets so I want to make sure I stay on top of it.  I'll give it a few more days before I follow up.

[redcell]

1 hour ago, zskid00 said:

Have you guys had to reconcile a shipment before and what were the results?  I have a shipment that was split into two boxes but was delivered on the same day (12/4).  It currently shows they received what appears to be the contents of one of the boxes but the other one is still outstanding.  Today I was able to submit a request to have them research the missing items.  Does this process usually take a while and what are the chances Amazon has lost my inventory?

I have to reconcile all the time.  Amazon routinely loses sets, miscounts sets, messes up what I sent in, receives one set into inventory when I sent an entirely different set in, etc.  Chances are high that Amazon has lost your inventory, particularly at this time of year.  They seem to have been materially worse this year.  I had one shipment where 47 units were lost.  Amazon generally turns those reconciliation requests around pretty quickly and will reimburse you for whatever has been lost, but that reimbursement will be based on historical sale prices and you won't be able to capture the additional upside of the price appreciation that happens around the holidays.

[zskid00]

Well I submitted a reconciliation request this morning and got a call and e-mail pretty quickly.  They said they can't locate the inventory (20 sets in the package) and they will be reimbursing me over $600 for the lost items within 5 business days.  If they find the package within 48 hours it will be added to my inventory then the reimbursement will be cancelled.  I calculated the FBA prices I had the sets listed for and the corresponding fees and the reimbursement is only off by 2%.  I would assume Amazon has insurance for this type of loss because I'm sure it adds up for them.

[Kenxxx]

Yeah... I'm beginning to think that FBA is just "not for me".  They just lost another set of mine - a 10245 Santa's Workshop of all things... just as the price is getting ready to rise.  The thing is... I'm lucky I even noticed it.  I shipped them there in September... and just today I happened to notice the number was 1 lower than I remembered.  Did they sell one without me noticing? Had to search the SKU for 3 months of sales... nope... no sales. So I put in a claim this morning, and they just got back to me saying I would be "reimbursed" ... didn't say how much... so $69.95 I'm guessing? What about sales tax I paid?  What about what it cost me to pack and ship it to them?

If I sold hundreds of items per month, I might be able to swallow a lost set (and the "return-on-a-whim" customers) now and then... but for the 10 or 20 sets-a-month I sell, I think ebay is better for me.  Sure, I'll still use FBA now and then, but I'm going to try to avoid it when I can.

[exciter1]

1 hour ago, zskid00 said:

Well I submitted a reconciliation request this morning and got a call and e-mail pretty quickly.  They said they can't locate the inventory (20 sets in the package) and they will be reimbursing me over $600 for the lost items within 5 business days.  If they find the package within 48 hours it will be added to my inventory then the reimbursement will be cancelled.  I calculated the FBA prices I had the sets listed for and the corresponding fees and the reimbursement is only off by 2%.  I would assume Amazon has insurance for this type of loss because I'm sure it adds up for them.

Sorry to hear, that's crazy.  I have quite a few shipments on their way, so I'm crossing my fingers.

[zskid00]

The weird part is the package was linked with another one and both were delivered by UPS the same morning (1 of 2 and 2 of 2).  One made it and one didn't I guess.  They already processed the reimbursement and the money is in my account so Amazon was really quick to resolve this.  I have to give them a lot of credit for that.

Edited December 8, 2015 by zskid00