@dmc I'm glad it worked out (wish it happened this way more often). FYI, you can appeal a rejected appeal, by just replying to their rejection email. Here is one similar to yours that worked for me:
Amazon wrote:
Hello, We have reviewed the buyer’s claim and the information you provided for order 110-XXXXXXX-492XXXX.
The maximum estimated delivery date or 30 days from the order date had passed and the buyer had not received the merchandise. You are responsible for this claim because you had not submitted the tracking number to us when the claim was filed.
We understand you may not agree with our decision, but the A-to-z Guarantee claim will remain unchanged.
In the future, please enter tracking information on the Confirm Shipments page or in your Shipping Confirmation File as soon as you dispatch an order. It is not sufficient to provide tracking information directly to the buyer. To learn more about this policy, search for “Confirm Shipments” in Seller Central Help.
You may contact the buyer to check if they received the merchandise after filing the claim. If so, please advise them to contact us at
[email protected] to confirm receipt of the merchandise and authorize a new charge. Please keep in mind that contact between parties must be respectful. We do not allow inappropriate or excessive contact between parties.
Sincerely --- Salma
Account Specialist
A-to-z Guarantee Program
I replied directly to that email:
There must be some mistake. Please review the facts below...
You wrote: "The maximum estimated delivery date or 30 days from the order date had passed and the buyer had not received the merchandise."
This is incorrect. The maximum order delivery date for this order is Feb 01, 2017. That date has yet to arrive.
You wrote: "You are responsible for this claim because you had not submitted the tracking number to us when the claim was filed."
This is incorrect. The item was shipped using Amazon Buy Shipping Services. Amazon had instant access to the tracking information the moment the label was purchased. I also offered this information in my original response to the claim.
You wrote: "In the future, please enter tracking information on the Confirm Shipments page or in your Shipping Confirmation File as soon as you dispatch an order."
Again, using Amazon's Buy Shipping Services, the tracking information was automatically entered in the Confirmation Shipments page.
I beg you to reconsider. Please review the facts of this case below. Amazon policy specifically states the opposite of this decision. That if I use Amazon Buy Shipping Services (with tracking) and a buyer files a claim for order not received "Amazon will cover the A-to-z claim and the claim won't be included into your Order Defect Rate." I have fully complied with all of the guidelines Amazon has provided.
... in this case, I won out. (though still took a hit to my seller metrics). In a virtually identical case at the same time, I lost. I replied to that email in much the same way and received this back:
Hello, We have reviewed the buyer’s claim and the information you provided for order 105-XXXXXXX-345XXXX.
Although we understand your position, we stand by our decision.
We cannot give you more information about this matter, and we may not reply to further emails about this claim.
Sincerely, --- Pavan K
Account Specialist
A-to-z Guarantee Program
Here they clearly wrote that any email reply will be ignored. In this case, one might still open a claim... but - being my third appeal - I just decided to let it go.