Selling Your Stuff on Amazon Part 12 - Advice for newbies in first two posts

soolin

cyberbob wrote: »

So not fluent then?:rotfl:

Oh you jest..I took a year's course in learning Russian when I was a teenager at school and still can only count to 10 and point to things like desks and windows. That is the entire limit of my language abilities.

My brain isn't wired that way. (that is a good excuse by the way!)

cyberbob

:DI work on the speak loudly and point method. I'm sure if I shout loud enough someone will understand me:D

supermonkey

tirlittan wrote: »

Hi supermonkey,

I'm sorry I can't help at all, but didn't want your post to go totally understand. If you'd tell us bit more of the details in this case, maybe some of the experts will be able to help you. HTH.

soolin wrote: »

I can only go by what I have read on the seller boards and say that I think it is almost impossible to get reinstated when banned permanently. If you can still log in at all you could try asking on the boards over there to see if anyone can help?

Thanks guys - Yep can still log in, but dont like the idea of using Amazons boards about this.

As for details its complicated, but I'll try to simplify. I received a few negatives and then an A to Z claim. Shortly after they did a temporary hold to take a look and that led to a permanent suspension.

The A to Z was an electtronics item someone ordered, opened and then wanted to return. I basically stated there would be a re-stocking fee as per Amazons recommendation. I responded immediately to all questions asked during the claim, but Amazon were so slow in sorting things that the buyer then left negative. Amazon then stated they had ruled in buyers favour, but credited me the re-stocking fee. The buyer promised to remove the negative feedback once they got their refund, but never did.

At the same time, I had a invertory problem and sold an item which I didn't have. Within 20 mins the buyer was refunded with an apologetic note, but the buyer managed to just buy another one and so this led to another refund. I offered an alternative product which they bought, but despite delivering within Amazons requirements, the buyer was unhappy with the delivery time and was able to leave 3 duplicate negative feedbacks.

Normally, if I receive a negative, I contact the buyer to see if I can do something - eg partial refund or return for refund etc. Since my account was suspended, I didn't see the point in offering people money back! I asked Amazon if I resolved buyers problems & my feedback improved would that be enough to restore my account, but they just didn't want to answer.

I didn't sell many items, normally 4 or 5 a month, so all this happening at the same time made my feedback score look terrible. The feedback system is so unfair. Neutral and negative feedback reduces a sellers score rather disproportionally due to the percentage based system used. For example, a seller receiving one 3 out of 5 and one 5 out of 5 is left with a 50% feedback score. Small sellers are disadvantaged by the system. When you receive a couple of negative or neatral feedback comments, it drastically lowers the score compared to sellers who sell hundreds of items each month. Most customers do not feed back even if we contact them to request this. Unhappy buyers are quick to feedback. Buyers often leave 3 out 5 thinking this means "good" or "average" when in fact it has a significant impact on feedback scores.

Amazon are now point blank refusing to respond to me.

soolin

Ok, I think you may well be completely stuck here unfortunately. We got lots of posts on other threads about ebay closing and suspending accounts yet in reality Amazon are much easier to fall foul of.

The limits for seller non performance on Amazon are very very low, the anecdotal evidence on the seller boards suggest it might be as low as 2-5% so possibly as low as one problem in every 50 books sold. Obviously the big sellers can ride this out over a 30 day period, but a small seller will find it imposisble. The fact that you had negs plus an A-Z claim (and we are only allowed a tiny amount of them percentage wise) plus two refunded payments all count against you as seller non performance.

My only thought, and I'm sorry I can't be much help here, is to ask whether you are corresponding with CS or with sentinel as they are separate. If you aretalking to CS then switch your enquiries to Sentinel (I think that's what they are called, I suddenly have this moment of doubt..so please correct me ...anyone!), although realistially I think you are stuck.

Give it 2 months though and try again, that worked for someone on the seller boards recently. Incidentally, on the seller boards you use a posting name, log in as normal and choose a name for the boards and it doesn't link back to your account.

supermonkey

Thanks Soolin, some very helpful ideas. I will have a look on the Amazon boards then. Do you happen to have a link to the particular thread you mentioned? No worries if not, just thought it would save me hunting for it!

I now have a huge cc list including seller performance (I think this used to be sentinel?), customer services, technical account management and jeff at amazon. Not that it helped!

soolin

The boards move quite quickly (and they were all down today when I last checked) but you can always start your own thread. Just remember that before you post get yourself a user name for the boards

soolin

Just worked out why the Amazon seller boards are down today..they are fiddling again. Just had an email to say that new changes regarding buyer and seller communications will be implemented soon. Goodness, if this takes the usual form of the Amazon improvements we are all doomed.

All discussion boards still down.

cyberbob

soolin wrote: »

Goodness, if this takes the usual form of the Amazon improvements we are all doomed.

Time to put tin foil on my head again then!:D

tsharp

I just a playtrade sales confirmation email, from a book sold on 17/08/09! The seller has been waiting weeks for this, as I had no idea it had sold!

What shall I do, post it and collect the money, or email buyer and ask if he still wants it and apologise for the delay?

soolin

tsharp wrote: »

I just a playtrade sales confirmation email, from a book sold on 17/08/09! The seller has been waiting weeks for this, as I had no idea it had sold!

What shall I do, post it and collect the money, or email buyer and ask if he still wants it and apologise for the delay?

That was the reason I had to give up selling on Playtrade. Unless I checked every day for the one or two sales a year I made I had no idea what had sold. In my case the first I knew was Play getting stroppy with me, the actual 'sold ' email arrived within 10 minutes of the stroppy email and after apparently being lost in the system for 3 weeks.