Amazon Seller Support

Handling Post-Order Problems

The majority of holiday sales on Amazon.com go well, but occasionally you may encounter a problem.  Let’s look at some of the most common things that could go wrong with an order and the ways to handle them.

I:  The buyer has made a mistake with an order and wants to fix it.

Below are the most common things buyers may ask you to do to fix an order and how you can respond:

Cancel the order

• If you have not yet shipped the order, you can cancel it.  Buyers only have a 30-minute window to cancel their own orders, but you can cancel them up until the time you ship them.
• If you have already shipped the order, you can't cancel it, but you can ask the buyer to return it for a refund. It's best to wait until you have the item in hand again before you return funds to the buyer.

Upgrade the shipping

• If you have not yet shipped the order, it is up to you to decide whether to upgrade the shipping at the buyer’s request.  Sellers aren't obligated to provide a service that a buyer hasn't paid for or to accept promises of future reimbursement from buyers (sellers can't invoice buyers for extra costs, including postage).
• If you have already shipped the order, provide the buyer with information about the shipping method you used, give them a realistic timeframe for delivery, and ask them to be patient. Here's the information Amazon provides to buyers about delivery expectations: Marketplace Shipping Times.

Ship the order to a different address

• If you have not yet shipped the order, and the buyer says they cannot receive the order at the address they provided originally, you should cancel the order. The buyer can then return to Amazon.com to place a new order using the correct address.  Amazon policy requires sellers to ship only to the address provided in their Seller Account.
• If you have already shipped the order and the buyer states that they won't receive the package at the address they provided, you can’t cancel the order but it may still be possible for the buyer to get the package re-routed if they know the recipients. Packages should be routed back to you and you can then refund the buyer.

II:  The buyer hasn't received the item they ordered.

As you might expect, buyers are often anxious to receive their holiday orders and will contact you by e-mail to check on the shipment status.

• In many cases, the shipment isn't late but may not have arrived as early as the buyer hoped. It's possible that the package didn't arrive at the earliest estimated date.  In the case of "slow" packages, you will often need to explain the delivery time frames.
• If the outside delivery date has passed, the best solution is to refund the buyer. Compensating buyers for lost shipments is simply a cost of doing business.
• In the case of a "lost" item arriving in an empty box, you should contact the shipper to report the issue and ask about the options available to you. For a "late" item that may be lost, you may want to engage your carrier for assistance in locating the package and moving it along.
• For an item that never arrives and is truly lost, you may be still able to recover your costs if you purchased insurance originally. You will need to determine your own level of acceptable loss when deciding to insure packages.

III: The buyer has received the order but wants to return it.

Here are the basics on handling returns:

• As per your selling agreement, your return and refund policies must be at least as favorable as the current Amazon refund policies. You have to accept returns within the guidelines spelled out in the policy, even if the item was exactly as described and the buyer simply no longer wants it.
• Returns of new items are different from returns of damaged/defective/materially different items.
• Buyer returns should be postmarked within 30 days of the original shipment sent by the seller.
• Returns should be posted to the address included on the outside of each package. It's a good idea to also include your return address inside the package and to confirm it with the buyer before a return is shipped.
• In cases where there is nothing wrong with an item, buyers should cover the cost of return shipping.
• In cases where an item is damaged or defective, or when it is materially different than the item described on the product detail page, sellers should cover the costs of return shipping. You can do this by issuing a concession to the buyer in advance of the return.
• Sellers can charge restocking fees (up to 20%) for returned items that are not damaged, defective or materially different. These fees are meant to cover the extra handling costs to take the item back into inventory and relist it for sale.

We hope this information has been helpful.  If you have further questions about how to deal with order issues, please see our online seller Help pages.

Offer Expedited Shipping for Great Customer Service

Speedy shipping is especially important to buyers during the holiday season. Offering expedited shipping on your orders shows you care about customer satisfaction.

Sellers can offer priority expedited delivery to domestic addresses for all products sold on Amazon.com. Depending on the products you are selling and features that have been enabled for your account, you may also offer additional shipping options to buyers.

New expedited shipping options for Books, Music, Video and DVD products (BMVD Products) allow sellers to provide higher levels of shipping services for those customers who want premium expedited delivery. Sellers who offer 2-day and next-day domestic shipping or expedited international shipping can increase order volume, as it provides buyers with a couple of extra days to place an order with you before Dec 25.

Here are delivery expectations for BMVD orders. All of the available options are provided for comparison.

Domestic Standard
The buyer should receive their order within 4-14 business days from the shipment date (up to 21 days in some cases).

Domestic Expedited
The buyer should receive their order within 2-6 business days after shipment.

Two Day Domestic
The buyer should receive the order within 48 hours after shipment.

One Day Domestic
The buyer should receive the order within 24 hours after shipment.

Standard International
The buyer should receive their order within 3-6 weeks, though it may take up to 8-12 weeks depending on customs delays

Expedited International
The buyer should receive their order within 3-7 business days, though it may take longer depending on customs delays.

Sellers are expected to ship all BMVD orders within two business days of the date the order notification is made available by Amazon.

When you sell a BMVD Product on Amazon.com, Amazon automatically charges the buyer a per-item fee for shipping and passes that amount on to you. The shipping rate depends on the product you are selling and the shipping service selected by the buyer. To learn more about BMVD shipping rates, enter "Ship BMVD" into the search box on our seller Help pages.

You can select any of the new shipping options on an item-by-item basis when listing or editing single BMVD items. If you are using inventory files, you can enter values for the new shipping options in the "expedited-shipping" field for each SKU in your file. The Book Loader, Music Loader, and Inventory Loader all support the new expedited shipping options. (See the Data Definitions tab of the latest version of the file for instructions on coding the "expedited-shipping" field.)

Happy holiday selling!

P.S. Seller Holiday Tip: You can use the condition note to alert buyers of your cut-off dates and ensure buyers that orders placed before your cut-off  dates will get delivered by Christmas.

Be a star this holiday season - give great customer service

Sellers who give great customer service can see results in good feedback and repeat sales to buyers.

Here are some buyer-pleasing selling habits that can have buyers back for more:

• Make a point of responding to customer inquiries within 24 hours.
• It goes without saying that contact between you and a buyer must be courteous. Customers remember sellers who treat them well.
• To add a personal touch, include "thank you" notes on packing slips.

Watch our video to learn more about providing great customer service.

Dealing with negative feedback

When you sell at Amazon.com, you should work with buyers to resolve any differences. Communication is usually the key--simply explaining a delay or reassuring a buyer puts most issues to rest. But sometimes an order results in the seller receiving negative feedback from the buyer.

If you receive a feedback comment that you are not happy with, we encourage you to contact your buyer, and work with them to resolve any order issues. Your buyer could then remove the feedback if they feel it would be appropriate.

If the buyer has indicated that they're willing to remove the feedback, here are simple instructions to give them. They are also available on our buyer Help page, Leaving Feedback.

1. Go to http://www.amazon.com/your-account
2. Under "Personalization," in the "Community" column, click "Seller Feedback Submitted By You."
3. A list of all of the feedback left by you will display. Click the "Remove" link next to the feedback would like to remove.

(If there is no "Remove" option next to a comment, this means the 60-day removal period has expired.)

Amazon will remove feedback only in the following cases:

• The feedback includes obscene language.
• The feedback includes personally identifiable information.
• The entire feedback comment is a product review.
• The entire feedback comment is regarding fulfillment or customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon.

When you receive negative feedback, put it in perspective. A 0-2% negative feedback rate is great! If your negative feedback rate is greater than 5%, you may want to review your business practices. Remember that you can do a lot to avoid receiving negative feedback by providing great customer service!

2009 Seller Conference

July 10-13, Seattle Airport Marriott

The Sellers' Conference for Online Entrepreneurs 20009 (SCOE) is the independent Conference for entrepreneurs who utilize Amazon.com as a sales channel.  No matter what type of inventory you list or how long you've been selling online, SCOE has something to offer you to help you improve and grow your business.

This year, we'll be focusing on how to think creatively to thrive and succeed in challenging economic times.  If you are a media seller, we'll help you navigate the often tricky path to broadening your product offerings, showing you the way to  "think outside the books."  If you already offer non-media, we'll be inviting inventory-type specific specialists from Amazon to the Conference so that you can get some of your questions answered in person.  

Although the normal Conference attendee fee is $325 per person, if you click on http://scoe.biz/REFERRAL.html between now and June 15th, you can attend for the reduced fee of $250 per attendee.  We know that you will find great value in this conference, and will want to return again in upcoming years. 

Looking forward to seeing you at the conference! 

Rhonda, Conference Organizer
sellersconference@comcast.net

Just Launched: Customer Service Video

Our recently posted video explains how to offer the excellent customer service that will help you achieve a better feedback rating and sales. Our very own Amazon Seller Support staff answers these tough questions:

• What practices lead to good feedback?
• How to get positive feedback with canceled or returned orders?
• What to do if a customer is angry?
• What if the buyer posts negative feedback?

Happy viewing!

 Watch the video:

Encouraging Feedback in the Selling on Amazon Program

A great question came up as to how to encourage feedback. For those members of the Selling on Amazon program, there is an excellent topic on this in Seller Central help titled Improving Your Feedback Rating. In addition to the excellent information about reducing negative feedback, with the usual causes and solutions, the help topic includes the following section on Soliciting Feedback:

There are a number of places where you can solicit positive feedback from customers:

• The packing slip
• The order invoice
• The Contact Buyer form in Manage Orders (Subject: "Feedback Request")

However you decide to encourage feedback, be sure to mention both your merchant feedback rating and product reviews. For example, you might want to include a message such as this one on your customer communications:

"Thank you for purchasing our products on Amazon.com. We strive to offer you the best value and service possible. Please take a moment to rate us as a seller on the Amazon.com website. You also can write a product review for other customers. Here's how..."

Buyer feedback instructions

To rate you as a merchant, customers can do the following:

1.    Go to Amazon.com.
2.    At the top of the page, click Your Account.
3.    At Orders, click Leave seller feedback in the More Order Actions section.

Reviewing a product

To rate and review a product, a customer can do the following:

1.    Open the product detail page.
2.    Under Customer Reviews, click Create your own review.

Amazon.com performance management systems do take buyer feedback into account. More good information is found at the help topic titled View My Customer Feedback, with information about ratings and using the feedback manager. Additionally, there is a video tutorial titled Understanding Customer Metrics that incorporates feedback and other performance measures.

Note: Be aware of Amazon's policies regarding buyer contacts. Do not coerce buyers to leave feedback in any way, and never divert a buyer to your own website. To be sure you are clear on these, a full explanation can be found at Policies.

Cathi C.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

If I could think of one word that could strike fear into almost any dedicated seller, it would be…..Feedback.  Specifically, negative feedback.  Oh, the power of those little stars.  

 

If you’ve managed to avoid any bad ratings thus far and still have 100% positive feedback, consider yourself one of the very rare.  And if you have a very high rating, but not the elusive 100%, there’s still a good chance that you’re doing everything right.

Hard work, promptness, and all around good customer service (thank you, Captain Obvious) can get you a very high feedback rating, but sooner or later, everyone gets That Buyer.  If you’ve been selling for any length of time, you know what I’m talking about.  That Buyer is going to leave you a bad rating no matter what you do.  There’s any number of reasons for this to happen:

Misunderstanding – rating the seller on something unrelated to order fulfillment, and entirely out of their control (“The post office left my package out in the rain.”)

Substitution for contact – instead of e-mailing the seller, using the feedback link to complain about a problem

Unrealistic expectations – the package didn’t arrive the day after it was ordered
The list goes on.  Regardless of the reason, at this point, you, the seller, need to decide how to handle it.  Pop Quiz!  Do you:

    a)    Contact Amazon Services and demand that it be removed, since it was clearly not your fault

    b)    Leave a comment in response to their rating about how ridiculous and unfair it is

    c)    Contact the buyer to try to work it out

Ok, that was a pretty easy one.  Contacting the buyer should always be your first action.  

In case you don’t get an immediate response, you might also want to respond to the feedback in your account, but keep your audience in mind.  Although it can be directed to the buyer, there’s a much better chance that future potential buyers will be reading it, not the buyer who left the response.  After leaving a rating, he has no real reason to return to your feedback page.  Anger-driven replies will only make potential buyers think you’re unreasonable and difficult to work with.  I like to see comments like “We’re sorry to hear about the problem with your order.  We have a 100% satisfaction policy.  Please contact us and we will be happy to arrange a return with you.”  This tells me (the potential buyer) that, should something go wrong with my order, the seller is responsive and really wants to make me happy.

When contacting the buyer directly, it should also be pleasant and professional.  Is the buyer intentionally trying to sabotage your reputation?  Probably not.  And once they realize that you’re a reasonable person just like them, they are usually more than happy to remove their negative rating.  It often helps to include a direct link to the feedback removal page in the e-mail:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/feedback/view-all-feedback.html/

When you contact the buyer, the solution and content are entirely up to you, but there are a few ground rules.  Removing the feedback should always be at the buyer’s option, after you resolve their issue.  Offering to help them if they remove their feedback would be considered feedback manipulation.

OK: I’m sorry to hear that your IPod was broken when you received it.  I have issued you a full refund, and hope this is to your satisfaction.  I would appreciate if you would consider removing the negative rating left on my account on Amazon.

Not OK:  If you remove your negative feedback, I’ll refund your money.

The final option of contacting Amazon Services should be very rarely used.  There are only a few, very specific instances when we are able to remove feedback:

    1)    Personally identifiable information about the seller that is not publicly available on the site (“I called Bob Anderson at 555-2039”)

    2)    Profanity – This is a pretty narrow definition.  If it’s a word that can’t be said on prime time network TV, we can remove it.  Otherwise, it stays.

    3)    Product Review – Again, there are very strict guidelines on what is and is not a product review.   “The strap on the camera case is too short” is pretty clearly referencing only the product.  “It fell apart as soon as I opened the package” could indicate a poor quality product, but it could also mean that the seller didn’t package it well enough, or inspect it for obvious defects before shipping it. And if it mentions both the product and the service, no dice.  It's your review.

And that’s it.  No matter how unfair the feedback seems, or how much the Amazon Services support person sympathizes with you, or even if you ask to talk to a supervisor, we can’t remove it.  Your best option is to work with the buyer and leave a response on your own feedback.  If the buyer later removes their feedback, your response will be removed as well.

And if all this fails and the feedback is going to stay, I have one final piece of advice to offer: let it go.  Every seller runs into this at some point or another.  If you have good business practices and truly want to take care of your buyers, it will show through in the majority of your feedback.  Consider it a learning experience and move on to the next sale. 

Yes, those little stars are important.  But they’re not the only important thing.  Don’t let them ruin your day.

~Kelley

Customer Service by Captain Obvious

As we get ever nearer the holiday season, you may be starting to see an increase in sales, and many will be from new customers. If yours is their first internet purchase, you have the unique opportunity to create a lifelong customer by making their first online shopping experience a positive one. How can you do this? Good packaging and prompt shipping are important, but what they’ll really remember is the way they were treated.

While customer service for internet shoppers is, in principle, much the same as for face-to-face customer service, there are a few important differences. First, customers can’t see your face, and if you’re corresponding by e-mail, they can’t hear your voice either. Before you start calling me Captain Obvious, understand why this is important. On a conscious level, your customers understand that they’re dealing with other humans at the other end of their order, but psychologically, it’s very easy for them (and you!) to start thinking of the other party as a robot without feelings or a conscience. Your challenge is to show them a real person is handling their oh-so-important order, and to always treat them the way you’d want your family treated at the little hardware store down the block. The best way to show this is through your customer service practices. Having worked in some form of customer support for the last 8 years, I’ve picked up a few tried and true methods for making customers feel valued when they can’t look me in the eye.

Show Empathy

Your customer spent their hard-earned money to buy your product, and it didn’t go the way they expected. Maybe something went wrong in shipping. Maybe there was an error on your end. Or maybe they just have unrealistic expectations. Regardless of the reason, they’re unhappy and contacting you to fix it, and this is your opportunity to make it a positive experience. But this is the point where it may get difficult. Your customer is probably upset, and may be rude. Instead of reacting in kind, think of this person as someone you know – your grandmother, nephew, or next-door neighbor. They’re contacting a faceless company who has their money, and they didn’t get what they thought they were getting. Understand why they are frustrated, and your compassion will show in your response.

The Customer is Always Right?

Ok, we all know that’s not true in the real world. Sometimes what the customer expects isn’t realistic. But give them the benefit of the doubt. Chances are they honestly believe they’ve been wronged. Show them that you’re interested in finding a way to make it right. Sometimes it takes creative solutions; not every customer will be happy with the same fix. If they needed their raft for a trip to the lakes and are leaving tomorrow, shipping them another is a great show of goodwill, but may not be the best solution for their situation. Make sure they are happy with your proposed resolution before proceeding.

As tempting as it may be to prove to the buyer why they are wrong and you are right, it’s not worth losing a customer to make a point. It’s better to take a slight loss and gain a repeat customer.

Respond to Every Contact Promptly

Check your e-mail at least once per day, and respond as soon as possible to any customer inquiries or complaints, even if it’s only to let them know you’re looking into it and will get back to them. Let them know that their concern is important to you. If a customer isn’t able to get a resolution from you, they’re more likely to dispute the charge with their credit card company or file an A-to-z Guarantee claim, which will have a negative impact on your seller account.

Attitude Matters!

The way you are perceived by a customer depends greatly on your attitude. It’s easy for a buyer to justify anger at a seller if the seller’s responses reflect anger back. By being helpful, calm, and professional, regardless of the customer’s tone, you will help them understand that problems happen, but you will try your best to make it right. When a smile and a handshake aren’t an option, remembering these key things will show the customer that the service they get from you is even better than the mall!

~ Kelley R.