selling your stuff on Amazon - part 7 - advice for newbies in the first post

pinkpie

Thanks for all your help AT and Soo.

It does seems unfair to have the bear the costs of their mistake. Luckily it was cheap to post too but I think I wiould have just kept the book and put it down to experience if one of my kids had done that!

funkyfunkymonkey

Link to page is here http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=3149431

Text is as follows, I have put in red the relevant part about full refunds:

Refunds

Although Amazon.co.uk processes payment from your buyers, we are unable to initiate refunds on your behalf. We have, however, made tools available for you should a situation arise that necessitates a refund. To send a refund:

Click the "Your Account" link located at the top right-hand corner of most pages on our site.
Click the Your Seller Account link located in the Marketplace, Auctions & zShops box on the right-hand side.
Click the "Manage Your Amazon Payments Account" link.
Click the "Search your Payments transactions" link.
Sign in using your e-mail address and password.
Set the parameters for your search by entering the transaction number or date range (15 days is the default search).
Click the "Search" button to display your transactions.
In the resulting list, click the transaction ID that requires attention. At the bottom of the transaction details page click the "Create a refund" link.
Include a short memo explaining the reason in the "Memo to Buyer" message box, so the buyer is aware of the reason for the refund.

You have up to 180 days after the order was placed in which to generate a refund.

We will send an e-mail containing this information to the buyer as soon as the refund is processed successfully. Once the refund has been completed, we debit your account for the full amount paid by the buyer including the postage charge. We also credit you the associated seller fees plus associated VAT (if applicable), which includes the per-item completion fee (for sellers that are not Pro-merchant subscribers), the closing fee and the administration fee on buyer postage charges.

The amount provided by default in the refund field is the correct amount when providing a full refund. This is the amount that the buyer originally paid for the transaction. Remember that Amazon.co.uk Marketplace purchases should only be refunded in full. Full refunds should be given for returns, cancellations and out-of-stock items. Partial refunds should only be performed as a goodwill gesture or for compensation/dispute resolution issues (for example, the item arrived slightly damaged or there were minor discrepancies in the product description) and are made at the discretion of the seller. Where a partial refund is made, we will debit your account for the amount refunded and credit you with the related ratable portion of the closing fee plus associated VAT (if applicable).

You can also generate refunds using the Manage Your Orders feature. See Refunding Orders.

FFM

Yorkielass

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

soo, I'm totally lost and confused on this refund business - I really don't know how it's supposed to work - I've got one of Amazombies posts here so see what you make of it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yorkielass
Help! I knew it was too good to be true. I listed 40 items on amazon the weekend before last and 10 sold in the first week.
The buyer of one has sent me several emails since she gotting which alternate between her buying the book by mistake!!! and not being as she expected (however all her points were in the description, e.g. name written in front). I've emailed to say if she returns it to me at her expense I will refund her etc (I see from AT's very helpful 1st post that I have to do that as she asked within 7 days). However I've never done a refund before so I'm a little confused. I can see how to do a refund but when I do one what happens? How much of the original money does the seller get back and how much of the original money do I get back? I.e. am I going to be out of pocket due to someone changing their mind and 'buying by mistake' as their first message said'? Thanks in advance

Amazombie's answer was -

Welcome to the joys of selling on Amazon! When you issue a full refund the buyer will receive back what they paid ie the cost of the book plus postage of £ 2.75. You will get back what you received from Amazon ie. The cost of the book plus postage less amazons fees. You will be out of pocket by the amount it cost you to send the book.

I know its unfair but that is the way it works and both Amazon guidelines and the Distance Selling Regulations are there to protect the buyer not the seller in any online transaction.

Ooh I'd forgotten all about this - I was lucky didn't have to refund in the end as the girl emailed and said as she'd read most the book she would keep it, don't think she really knew what she was doing as every email had a different story but at least I didn't miss out.

It's the worst thing about Amazon I think and as you say Soolin, if it's a book that cost a lot to post you'd be really out of pocket.

katchambers

I'm going to my very first book trade fair this sunday and am very excited :j
Sad I know but I have been looking everywhere for wholesalers etc and this one is the promotional & remainders trade fair so the books should be super cheap. My stock levels are low so hopefully I will find some companies with really cheap books.

I'm also excited about the London Book Fair in April:

http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/page.cfm/Link=1/t=m/goSection=1

I'm going for the whole weekend, they have some excellent seminars about book selling. Is anyone else going to that one?

Kat x

pinkpie

Now I'm even more confused - emailed Amazon to clarify before I posted on here about refunds, and they replied to say it was up to me to resolve it and I could refund customer the sales price less the postage I already paid!

funkyfunkymonkey

pinkpie wrote:

Now I'm even more confused - emailed Amazon to clarify before I posted on here about refunds, and they replied to say it was up to me to resolve it and I could refund customer the sales price less the postage I already paid!

Hi PP

I have been told the exact same thing in the past when I phoned them about a customer who had ordered the same thing from 2 sellers and wanted to send my one back.

I asked the person I spoke to, to make sure there was a note on my file so that any neg feedback could be removed.

In the end the customer decided to keep both copies and give one as a gift.

FFM

mishkanorman

katchambers wrote:

I'm going to my very first book trade fair this sunday and am very excited :j
Sad I know but I have been looking everywhere for wholesalers etc and this one is the promotional & remainders trade fair so the books should be super cheap. My stock levels are low so hopefully I will find some companies with really cheap books.

I'm also excited about the London Book Fair in April:

http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/page.cfm/Link=1/t=m/goSection=1

I'm going for the whole weekend, they have some excellent seminars about book selling. Is anyone else going to that one?

Kat x

You are soooo lucky, wish I lived in London, sunny norfolk is great for charity shops but nowt much else (for books anyway)

Are there any wholesale suppliers that you can order from on-line ??

Ive decided to take the leap and make this a 'business'

mishka

soolin

I think I might have just picked up a bit of a gem..fingers crossed.

I'd prefer not to say what the book is but it is an arts type book that Amazon sell for in excess of £50 and the other two sellers are asking much more for their own copies (why?) so I've gone in at £37.50 to see what happens.

I picked the book up for 50p.

I get all excited when this happens, but usually of course the book just joins the others in the storage shed and gets slowly reduced until it sells, but I've got a tingle from this one!

Soo

Amazombie

soolin wrote:

I'd prefer not to say what the book is but it is an arts type book that Amazon sell for in excess of £50 and the other two sellers are asking much more for their own copies (why?) so I've gone in at £37.50 to see what happens.Soo

Hello Soo,

Is the Amazon price based upon their 4 - 6 week delivery offer? If so it actually means they cant supply a copy at all which is why the other two sellers have gone much higher.

I am regularly contacted by frustrated buyers who have waited up to 10 weeks for Amazon to supply a copy of a book only to be eventually informed by Amazon that they cant get a copy! Really is time they stopped giving customers false hopes

soolin

Amazombie, yes that is what the page shows...thank you for explaining that. I was really frustrated trying to work out why the other sellers had gone higher than Amazon and didn't want to miss something!

I should have also said that the other two sellers are not the US megalisters that often have distorted prices, they appear to be ordinary sellers.

Soo