Amazon Seller Support

Bulk order refunds (video)

If you are currently handling your order confirmations in bulk through feeds, but have wanted to also learn how to process refunds or cancellations in bulk, take a look at this video for some help. (time: 4:41)

Refunding orders: full or partial refunds

When you want to issue a refund for an order there are several options: full refund, partial refund, and refund concessions.

Which one you choose depends on why you are refunding and how much you want to refund.

To start any kind of refund, the order must have already had the shipment confirmed. If it is not confirmed and you will not ship the item, you can cancel the order and the buyer will not be charged, therefore no refund will be necessary. If the order was confirmed you can proceed with these steps:

1.    Log in to your seller account
2.    Go to your orders section and bring up the details of the specific order you want to refund
3.    Click the "Refund order" button on the Order Details page

To proceed with a Full refund, once you have followed the first three steps above, you would use the default page that comes up when you click "Refund order."

4.    Choose the reason for the refund
You will see several options in the drop-down, choose the most appropriate one.
5.    Write a note to the buyer in the "Memo to buyer" field
While this is optional, a personally written note provides a good customer experience
6.    Click the "Submit Full Refund" button

By following those steps you will have refunded the item and shipping amount.

To proceed with a Partial refund, once you have followed the first three steps above, follow these steps:

4.    Click the Partial Refund tab, which is under the order ID
5.    If the item is listed by name only, click the check box for the item being refunded on the right hand side; if the item details are displayed, proceed to the next step
6.    Select the "Reason for refund" from the drop-down
7.    Enter the "Amount to refund" for the Product or the Shipping or both
8.    Write a note to the buyer in the "Memo to buyer" field
While this is optional, a personally written note provides a good customer experience
9.    Click the "Submit Partial Refund" button

You do not need to enter any information in the two concession fields for either type of refund if you do not want to. A concession is an amount you can refund aside from or in addition to refunding basic order costs. More information about concessions can be found in the Help section in your seller account by searching on the word "concession."

~Aleece

Getting Paid - How It Works

A top concern for every seller is getting paid. To get paid for your Amazon sales, you need to be sure you've set up your seller account correctly and then remember to confirm your shipments.

The Basics

After you first register to sell on Amazon, the funds from your sales will accumulate in your Marketplace Payments account for 14 days. This holding period is a very important security requirement.

At the end of this time, we settle your account – that is, we subtract amounts you owe, such as for selling and subscription fees and customer refunds.  The remaining funds are then sent off to you via an Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer to your checking account. This is your first disbursement. After this, disbursements from your Marketplace Payments account will occur automatically every 14 days.

Disbursements usually appear in your checking account within 3-5 business days. Note that for a disbursement to take place, you must have a positive balance in your Marketplace Payments account. Amazon fees and customer refunds, if any, can affect your balance.

Important Details

Enter the information for a valid U.S. bank checking account into your selling account

Amazon transfers funds from your transactions directly to the bank account you specify in your seller account. If you enter your checking account information too late (less than 24 hours before your first scheduled disbursement) it can delay  disbursement of your funds for another 14 days. We suggest entering all requested checking account information when you first set up your selling account, or before you list your first item.

Confirm shipment of each order you have fulfilled

After you receive an order and mail the item to the buyer, you must confirm shipment in order to be paid. We charge the buyer after you confirm shipment (rather than when the buyer places the order), and then we credit your Marketplace Payments account. If you do not confirm shipment of an order within 30 days, we automatically cancel it and you will not be paid for the order. Learn more about confirming orders in our online "Charge When Ship" Help pages.

Payment Hold-ups

There are several reasons why you might not have been paid as you expected:

• You have not confirmed shipment of every order you have fulfilled.
• You have not yet entered your bank account information into your selling account.
• You recently began selling on Amazon.com and your first 14-day settlement period has not concluded.
• The bank account information you entered is incorrect. Contact your bank to confirm the checking account number and ACH (Automated Clearinghouse) routing number.
• You entered debit card information instead of checking account information. A checking account with an ACH routing number is required for seller disbursements.
• Your bank does not accept ACH transfers. Contact your bank to confirm that they accept ACH transfers. If they don't, provide a checking account from a bank that accepts ACH transfers.
• Your bank is outside the United States. A checking account in a US-based bank is required for seller disbursements.
• You entered information for a bank account that is now closed. Contact your bank to obtain the checking account number and ACH routing number for your new bank account.
• You do not have a positive account balance.

If you still have questions about disbursements, please contact Seller Support via our online Contact Us form and we'll be happy to assist you.

We hope our Holiday Selling Tips have been helpful.  Happy holidays from all of us at Amazon Seller Support!

Upcoming Webinars: An Easy Way to Manage Your Orders

Amazon is offering two webinars on how to manage your orders when using Charge When Ship. We will explain how it works, how to use it to help manage orders, and we'll provide answers to your questions during this live webinar.

Seats are limited, so please make sure you reserve your seat today. If you happen to miss Monday’s webinar, don’t worry we also have one scheduled on Wednesday for your convenience.

Monday, 6/22 - 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM PDT
Charge When Ship: An Easy Way to Manage Your Orders
Reserve your seat!

Wednesday, 6/24 - 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM PDT
Charge When Ship: An Easy Way to Manage Your Orders
Reserve your seat!

To learn more, please visit our FAQ or watch our video.

Charge When Ship – Top 10 FAQ

We’ve gotten a few questions about the Charge When Ship program so we've listed the 10 questions sellers are asking most often, along with the answers.You can also check out the entire FAQ list by visiting Charge When Ship FAQ.

Top 10 Charge When Ship Questions:

1) What happens if a customer's payment is declined, either before or after the seller confirms an order?

2) How will we know if we have successfully migrated to Charge When Ship?

3) Should I confirm shipment of orders I received before I signed up for Charge When Ship?

4) Is tracking information required?

5) What happens if we don't ship within 2 days?

6) If the order is placed on Friday, or weekends, how does the "2 days to ship" rule work?

7) Are sellers going to be charged a fee for refunding rather than cancelling?

8) What happens if we ship the order at 1 pm and the customer requests to cancel the order at 1:15 pm? The customer gets the product and a refund?

9) How will this affect seller performance metrics?

10) Can buyers leave feedback on cancelled (will not ship) orders?

1) What happens if a customer's payment is declined, either before or after the seller confirms an order?

As long as you confirm that the order was properly shipped, you will be paid in accordance with the Marketplace Participation Agreement. We charge the buyer after you confirm shipment (rather than when the buyer places the order), and then we credit your Marketplace Payments account.
Of course, just as now, there may be circumstances where payment may later need to be refunded, for example when the buyer does not receive the order, or it is not as described.

2) How will we know if we have successfully migrated to Charge When Ship?

You will be able to tell that your account has been transitioned to Charge When Ship in several ways:

1. We'll send you an automated e-mail confirming it>
2. On the Manage Orders page you will see a Cancel button for new orders (in addition to the "Print packing slip" button).
3. At the top of the Manage Orders and Manage Payments pages there will initially be a large yellow box indicating the account now has Charge When Ship functionality. (However, note that since these boxes can be closed by clicking "Don't show this again," if one of your account users closes the box it will no longer appear for any of your account users.)

3) Should I confirm shipment of orders I received before I signed up for Charge When Ship?

Orders placed before you had Charge When Ship functionality will not have a Cancel button in Manage Orders, and they will not appear on the Unshipped Orders Report. Buyers have already been charged for those orders once they appear as "Payment complete" in your account. You will never have to confirm shipment for those orders. Check Manage Orders or the Unshipped Orders Report to see which orders require shipment confirmations.

For orders you received prior to enrolling in Charge When Ship, you should continue to send your own notifications if you have already been sending e-mail notifications to buyers when you ship orders.
For new orders you receive after your account is enabled for Charge When Ship, you must not send buyers shipment notifications. Instead, confirm these orders using the button in Manage Orders or using a feed. Amazon will notify buyers of shipments confirmed through Charge When Ship, because it is a better buyer experience to receive a single shipping notification.

Note that if you do happen to confirm shipment of an order you received before you had Charge When Ship functionality, we will display the shipping details in the buyer's Amazon account, but we won't send an e-mail notification to the buyer. Therefore, please continue to send those notifications for orders you received before you had Charge When Ship functionality.

4) Is tracking information required?

Tracking information is not required for feeds or Manage Orders, but, based on buyer feedback, we highly encourage providing tracking information. Buyers prefer to track their orders, but we realize that not all shipping methods support tracking.

5) What happens if we don't ship within 2 days?

If you don't confirm shipment of an order within 2 business days, we automatically send late shipment e-mail notifications to you and to the customer. If the order is still not confirmed as shipped after 25 days, we send you another notification, reminding you to confirm the shipment.

After 30 days, we cancel the order and send you and the customer notification of the cancellation. If you know you cannot fulfill an order on time, be sure to cancel it immediately so we can notify the customer. It is important to show this consideration to customers so they can decide whether to purchase the product elsewhere.

6) If the order is placed on Friday, or weekends, how does the "2 days to ship" rule work?

Promised ship dates are based on weekdays—Monday through Friday (except holidays). An order placed on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday will have a promised ship-date range of Monday – Tuesday, and should be shipped no later than Tuesday, the 2nd business day after the order was placed.

7) Are sellers going to be charged a fee for refunding rather than canceling?

Refund processing will remain the same as before: for a partial refund, we retain a portion of the fees we collected from you for the order; for a full refund, all fees are credited back to your seller account.

8) What happens if we ship the order at 1 pm and the customer requests to cancel the order at 1:15 pm? The customer gets the product and a refund?

Buyers are not able to cancel orders after we've made the orders available to you. With Charge When Ship, however, you can cancel orders on behalf of buyers instead of confirming shipment. If you agree to refund an order after you have shipped it, you can ask the buyer to return the product.

9) How will this affect seller performance metrics?

The existing seller performance metrics will still apply with Charge When Ship, and we'll also monitor late shipment and cancellation metrics.

10) Can buyers leave feedback on canceled (will not ship) orders?

Buyers can leave feedback on all canceled orders, whether or not the seller's account has Charge When Ship functionality.

Please check out the entire FAQ list for answers to additional questions.

Announcing Charge When Ship

We are pleased to announce Charge When Ship, an easy way to process orders and keep buyers informed about shipments. All sellers will be using Charge When Ship soon, so we encourage you to learn more and sign up right away.

Here are a few benefits to consider when signing up for Charge When Ship:

• Buyers contact sellers less often if they know when and how an order was shipped. They especially appreciate tracking information. We provide the shipping details to the buyer once you ship the order and confirm the shipment through Manage Orders or a feed.

• Informed buyers are happier buyers; happier buyers leave better feedback ratings. 

• If you are unable to ship an order, you can cancel it instead of confirming shipment; we won't charge the customer and you won't have to issue a refund.

• You can easily tell which orders you have not yet confirmed as shipped, and we'll also send you an e-mail reminder if an order remains unshipped past the promised ship date.

To learn more, please visit our FAQ or watch our video.