Amazon advice needed

pinkgem

Warning: This is quite long and a bit confusing/complicated!

I listed a Nintendo Wii on Amazon Marketplace yesterday, I said that if payment was received by 4.30pm I would post it the same day by guaranteed Saturday Special Delivery.

At 3pm yesterday afternoon I had an email from a Mrs S.W. saying they had bought it and asking me to confirm that I would post it for Saturday delivery as they wanted it as an xmas present for their son.

I had not received a confirmation email, and when I checked my Amazon seller account there was no record of her purchase. I got her to email me the order no, I then searched for it in my seller account by order no and found it, the status was pending. I emailed the buyer back to tell her this.

She then started panicking, thinking I was attempting to rip her off. She phoned her bank who confirmed that the funds had been taken. So I phoned Amazon using the call back facility to find out what was going on, they confirmed to me that the status was still pending and the lady told me 2 or 3 times not to send the Wii until I received either a confirmation email or until I had the funds in my Amazon seller account. I emailed the buyer to tell her this, and told her to phone Amazon herself to verify my story.

Well the buyer phoned Amazon and they told her I had her money! So she freaked out, told me she had a bad feeling about it anyway and now she thought I was untrustworthy, she said she was going to phone Amazon and her bank to cancel the transaction. (Although she did not actually do this)

I managed to email her screen shots showing the current time and that the status was pending, so she phoned Amazon again, this time they told her I did not have her money and that they had an internal error with updating their systems to my account.

After that she believed me and as it was coming up to 5pm she told me she wanted to cancel the transaction as the item was no good to her after Xmas. I said the only other thing she could do was send me the money by Paypal very quickly or arrange to collect it from me and pay cash. She replied
saying that she lived in Scotland (over 6 hours from me) so it was a bit far.

Anyway it ended with me telling her I would refund the money if I ever got it and then I relisted the Wii.

At 23:15 last night I received this email from Amazon

"Greetings from Amazon.co.uk,

Congratulations on your decision to sell electronics on Amazon.co.uk. To ensure that all parties have the best experience on Amazon.co.uk, we will be conducting a review of your Amazon Payments account.

During our evaluation, your funds will be reserved in your Amazon Payments account. This process can take up to 30 days, but this period can often be significantly shorter. If our evaluation reveals violations of the Participation Agreement, further restrictions may be imposed.

Although we will delay the transfer of funds to your account, we will continue accepting orders on your behalf for items you list for sale on Amazon.co.uk. Once your funds have been released, they should arrive within 6-10 working days.

As part of this review we may be actively contacting your buyers to find out how their experience is proceeding. We will be requesting tracking information and their comments on their buying experience. This information will be used with any feedback received on your account to help build your history with Amazon.co.uk. We encourage you to send a friendly reminder for your buyers to leave feedback on your account after they have received their item(s). They can do so by visiting their account.

If you have dispatched your orders via a traceable shipping method you may be able to expedite the release of your funds by providing us with the tracking information for those orders. You may provide this information to us via
email, in plain text, or via fax. You may fax the tracking information to us at 020 8636 9326. Please be sure to include the order number that corresponds to the tracking number provided.

Please note that the "Transfer funds to bank account now" link will be visible in your Amazon.co.uk seller account. However, if you click this link, transferring funds will not be successful.

Please contact us at merchant-review@amazon.co.uk with any questions. Again, thank you for selling on Amazon.co.uk.

Best regards,

Merchant and Item Quality
Amazon.co.uk"

At 23:16 I received a confirmation email telling me that I had sold the Wii to a Mr M.T.

At 23:17 I received another confirmation email telling me that I had sold the Wii to a Mrs K.O

I immediately refunded Mrs K.O (as she had purchased it after Mr M.T) with an apology and explaining that there had been an error of some sort as I only had 1 available.

I then transferred the remaining funds to my bank account, but after re-reading the email from Amazon it said that the option to transfer funds is available but it will not work.

At 3pm this afternoon I finally received a confimation email for the original sale to Mrs S.W. I immediately refunded her and forwarded a copy of the email to her, she has apologised for her accusations against me and has said she will never make another purchase from Amazon.co.uk

I am left with 2 problems:

Why are Amazon investigating me for violation of their participation agreement? As far as I am aware I have done nothing wrong. I had not received a confirmation email or payment for the sale to Mrs S.W. and Amazon themselves told me that the status was pending and told me 2 or 3 times NOT to send the Wii until I received confirmation. So it is not like I have sold something and not sent it. Although I believe Mrs S.W may have complained to Amazon and said I had received her money but told her I hadn't, or told them I was refusing to send an item she had purchased. The silly thing is, as per Amazons terms and conditions, I had up until 28th December to send the Wii anyway had she wanted to go ahead with the purchase after it was too late to guarantee Saturday delivery.

I have now sold the Wii to somebody else but Amazon have put my funds on hold, so now I am wary of sending the Wii to them as I have no access to the money for it and I don't know what Amazon are going to do with it!

I have already replied to the Amazon email explaining what happened and asking them if I can have my money back. I also said I can provide either proof of posting and/or tracking details for all items sold via Amazon Marketplace in the last 3 months.

What else can i do and what is likely to happen?

Can I safely send the Wii without worrying about what will happen to the money for it?

Help!

funkyfunkymonkey

Hi Pinkgem

I'll try and answer your questions as best as I can.

When you first list expensive electronic goods on Amazon they put your account on hold for 30 days to stop you transferring money out. The money from the buyers is still going into your Amazon account but you cannot transfer it to your bank account. This is to stop the scammers listing loads of expensive items, cleaning out their Amazon account and not sending the goods. You are not being 'investigated' as such, they are just keeping their eye on you. It's good for the marketplace as it offers reassurance that the sellers offering such items will either send them or Amazon will send you the money back.

What happened with your transactions going 'pending' sounds like a real nightmare. It may have had nothing to do with your account status. It may have been Amazon having one of their 'pending glitches' - they seem to go through this from time to time especially at busy periods - not that today was a busy selling day for me on Amazon.

If an item is showing as 'pending' never send it. The money is not in your Amazon account.

Never rely on 'confirmation' emails, always check your sellers account. There have been instances of fake confirmation emails.

The 30 day transfer of funds delay also applies to brand new sellers, you click on the button and assume it has worked - but it hasn't, it's another safety feature to ensure that buyers are receiving their goods.

I'll post this as an interim response and check that I've answered all the queries.

FFM

funkyfunkymonkey

The phone number I use to contact Amazon is:
FREE PHONE 0800 279 6620
Other numbers from the Amazon discussion board are:
FREE FAX 0800 279 6630

Fax 020 8636 9401
020 8636 9200
020 8636 9451

FFM

pinkgem

funkyfunkymonkey wrote:

Hi Pinkgem

I'll try and answer your questions as best as I can.

When you first list expensive electronic goods on Amazon they put your account on hold for 30 days to stop you transferring money out. The money from the buyers is still going into your Amazon account but you cannot transfer it to your bank account. This is to stop the scammers listing loads of expensive items, cleaning out their Amazon account and not sending the goods. You are not being 'investigated' as such, they are just keeping their eye on you. It's good for the marketplace as it offers reassurance that the sellers offering such items will either send them or Amazon will send you the money back.

I have been selling on Amazon for over 6 years, mostly CD's, DVD's, Books and games but also including the odd expensive electronic item, I also successfully sold 2 Wiis at the beginning of December so I don't think the email relates to me suddenly listing electronic items. They have never held my funds before even when I first started listing electronic items.

The email says they are investigating a violation of their participation agreement and I believe it was sent after Mrs S.W made a complaint about me.

funkyfunkymonkey wrote:

What happened with your transactions going 'pending' sounds like a real nightmare. It may have had nothing to do with your account status. It may have been Amazon having one of their 'pending glitches' - they seem to go through this from time to time especially at busy periods - not that today was a busy selling day for me on Amazon.

My account status was fine when I sold the Wii to Mrs S.W yesterday, the status of the order was pending, then last night I received the email from Amazon, and at 3pm today the order was finally confirmed but 24 hours too late.

funkyfunkymonkey wrote:

If an item is showing as 'pending' never send it. The money is not in your Amazon account.

Never rely on 'confirmation' emails, always check your sellers account. There have been instances of fake confirmation emails.

The 30 day transfer of funds delay also applies to brand new sellers, you click on the button and assume it has worked - but it hasn't, it's another safety feature to ensure that buyers are receiving their goods.

I'll post this as an interim response and check that I've answered all the queries.

FFM

funkyfunkymonkey

Can I safely send the Wii without worrying about what will happen to the money for it?

If the money was showing in my Amazon Sellers Account I would feel reasonably confident in sending it.

Based on your OP I would immediately fax and email the Order Number and Royal Mail Tracking Number to them and possibly even phone them - just to make sure they know I have sent it. They put a record on your account whenever you phone in, so they would be able to reassure any buyer that you have been in contact.

There is also an Amazon Sellers Thread on MSE, don't know if you've seen it? - they are pretty quick in responding to queries and are a very helpful bunch.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=282708

FFM

funkyfunkymonkey

pinkgem wrote:

I have been selling on Amazon for over 6 years, mostly CD's, DVD's, Books and games but also including the odd expensive electronic item, I also successfully sold 2 Wiis at the beginning of December so I don't think the email relates to me suddenly listing electronic items. They have never held my funds before even when I first started listing electronic items.

The email says they are investigating a violation of their participation agreement and I believe it was sent after Mrs S.W made a complaint about me.

Oh, I didn't realise, sorry. That's a real pain. I suppose you'll have to 'sit it out', although it might be worth a phone call when they are next answering to discuss? Or you could try emailing sentinel@amazon.co.uk

FFM

pinkgem

funkyfunkymonkey wrote:

Can I safely send the Wii without worrying about what will happen to the money for it?

If the money was showing in my Amazon Sellers Account I would feel reasonably confident in sending it.

The money is showing and I thought I had transferred it until I re-read the Amazon email saying they would put the funds on hold.

funkyfunkymonkey wrote:

Based on your OP I would immediately fax and email the Order Number and Royal Mail Tracking Number to them and possibly even phone them - just to make sure they know I have sent it. They put a record on your account whenever you phone in, so they would be able to reassure any buyer that you have been in contact.

I have not yet sent the Wii to Mr M.T, he only bought it last night and I don't post on Saturday, I also want to check that I will receive the money for it, I believe I have until 28th December (2 working days) to despatch it due to the Xmas holidays.

funkyfunkymonkey wrote:

There is also an Amazon Sellers Thread on MSE, don't know if you've seen it? - they are pretty quick in responding to queries and are a very helpful bunch.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=282708

FFM

Thanks for that I might ask them to look at this thread rather than posting it again.

pinkgem

funkyfunkymonkey wrote:

Oh, I didn't realise, sorry. That's a real pain. I suppose you'll have to 'sit it out', although it might be worth a phone call when they are next answering to discuss? Or you could try emailing sentinel@amazon.co.uk

FFM

I sent an email to sentinel@amazon.co.uk, and cc'd it to merchant-review@amazon.co.uk and payments-mail@amazon.co.uk

I asked what I had done wrong, explained the situation with the pending order yesterday and asked to be allowed to withdraw my money so I can send the Wii I eventually managed to sell. I am not sure when I am likely to get a response though due to the Xmas holidays.

Hintza

Why do you need to withdraw your money before sending the item?

You really should post it at the earliest opportunity.

soolin

Hintza wrote:

Why do you need to withdraw your money before sending the item?

You really should post it at the earliest opportunity.

That's kind of what I was thinking, I've never withdrawn my money on Amazon, I've always waited until my 2 weekly payment cycle as otherwise I could not adhere to the 2 working day rule.

However I've never sold anything mega expensive, the most expensive thing so far was only a £60 book but I assumed that once i had the money in my Amazon account that was it. Maybe it works differently for larger items?

Soo

pinkgem

Hintza wrote:

Why do you need to withdraw your money before sending the item?

You really should post it at the earliest opportunity.

I normally wait until Amazon transfer the funds every 2 weeks and I didn't say I needed to withdraw the money before sending the item, but since it was a rather large amount of over £300 I would rather it was on its way to my bank account rather than stuck in my sellers account until they transfer it, especially at this time of year when money is tighter than usual.

Anyway, after attempting to transfer the funds to my bank account I re-read the email from Amazon that said they were putting my funds on hold, I found that quite worrying since the amount is over £300, yet they are expecting me to send the item for which the funds relate to without allowing me to have access to the funds.

For your information I always send my Amazon and ebay items either the same or next working day. The Wii was purchased at gone 11pm on Friday evening, I don't post on Saturdays since my local post office is not open and Saturday is not a working day anyway, Monday is xmas day, Tuesday is boxing day so I will post it the 1st working day after the purchase on Wednesday 27th although I have 2 working days from the sale - up until Thursday 28th to post it.

I just want to make sure that I am going to get my money as they have put it on hold and I don't know if or when I am going to get it and I also don't know what I am supposed to have done wrong. I am wary about sending a £300+ item when I am not currently allowed access to the funds for it.

I would appreciate it if you could try and answer some of my questions in the OP rather than asking me questions. As I said I have been selling on Amazon auctions and marketplace for over 6 years and sold around 1000 items so I know how the system works and I know what you are supposed to do, but I have never had anything go wrong with it before - eg the expensive order pending for 24 hours and supposedly violating their participation agreement aswell as having my funds put on hold.