Replacement policy abuse by customers
We are new seller and have just two products yet - Children’s book sets in Marathi. (self published by us)
Amazon has 10 days replacement policy on books. But some customers abuse the policy by asking for replacement once and returning the second time. We have provided every detail with inside/outside pictures of our books still they give ridiculous reasons for replacement. Customers do not loose anything here. They even give a bad review! But small sellers like us have to bear the loss and double easy shipping charges + bad review too!
Can we allow customers to just return the product if they do not like it rather than going thorough long and costly process of replacement and return?
Replacement policy abuse by customers
We are new seller and have just two products yet - Children’s book sets in Marathi. (self published by us)
Amazon has 10 days replacement policy on books. But some customers abuse the policy by asking for replacement once and returning the second time. We have provided every detail with inside/outside pictures of our books still they give ridiculous reasons for replacement. Customers do not loose anything here. They even give a bad review! But small sellers like us have to bear the loss and double easy shipping charges + bad review too!
Can we allow customers to just return the product if they do not like it rather than going thorough long and costly process of replacement and return?
47 replies
Seller_TuJeyYQR4XdKK
dear salu ,
there are more surprises in online selling like this … be ready for it .
Seller_adHJt2yRJxm3G
Yes, Indian Market has this issue. Customers behave cheaply and even these online players don’t properly understand the functioning of this market. We are in the business of crockery and imagine we, too have to offer a 10-day replacement despite the product being vulnerable to such abuse. Imagine people ordering the product and requesting a return on the 10th day of delivery. With no common sense applied, the policy is made in such a way that people can very well order the product, use it for a few days, and return it. We are just left at the mercy of customers. We can very well understand your situation too. Once the person has read the book, he might not find it useful to keep it in the rack and they may rather utilize your store as a library instead of a shop. Amazon India Team should really consider such customer behavior and design the return policies in accordance. This is so sad and helpless.
Seller_7lRhSspq8QFxK
in some amazon category you can’t directly return product , first you have to replace it then second time you get option of return.even if customer doesn’t like it in first time they don’t get option to return so this is bad for seller but amazon won’t do anything for seller as they earn more money by getting 2 order instead 1.
Seller_1hC1fGXBuERpd
Amazon should provide return option too in books category. I too sell in books category and some customer dont like the book, as there is no option for return, customer opt for replacement and then he return the book.
In this way seller has to bear Rs.89 shipping charge + Rs.89 shipping charge + amazon fees. So for one order seller has a loss of around Rs. 200. The best that amazon can do is either provide return option or dont take shipping charges on replacement order(like earlier). or they can do that seller account will not affect if you cancel the replacement order.
And the worst part is that some customer write in return request that they dont want the product and order for replacement order (as there is no return order). And as you (seller) already know customer will return the replacement order too, and if you cancel this replacement order (As its loss of Rs.89) then amazon will charge you cancellation charge + it will affect your seller account too.
Because of this replacement in books category, i have to bear a loss of around Rs. 30000-40000 per month. Earlier when amazon dont charge for shipping in replacement then my loss was around Rs.10000-Rs15000. Day by Day my profits are decreasing by selling on amazon.
According to me, one of the worst thing on amazon for sellers is replacement option. As if the customer keep the replacement order then too its loss for you (because Rs. 89 forward shipping charge + Rs.89 replacement order charge + amazon cancellation charge of returned product) So over all loss of Rs.200. And as in books category the order value is most probably less that 300 (in most cases in children books) so there is less margin per book. (basically selling at loss)
Seller_vZAwMTA7FEFKm
It’s happning with us as well. customer is raising return or refund request after a 10days or 12 days and this customer support team is also accpeting the request going beyond the policy which is tottaly wrong. if this contininues happen then how can we survive and will do business on amazon?
Seller_XvHRpdLvfhNnc
problem will start when you get wrong product also and won’t be able to claim also.
amazon start OBD while delivering to customer. they dont have left any option for replacement and return the product if they have received the right product.
Seller_nImALvvuNULzA
I agree. I also sell my book here, and sometimes get return and replacement request saying wrong product,while i sell one single book and do easy ship so I’m the one packing my book for pick up. There’s no question of a wrong product being sent. One buyer returned my book[which is a book on music], saying not suitable for an old person and asked for a replacement. When I approached the seller support team to cancel the replacement order, they told me to contact the buyer through message. No reply from the buyer. I had to send the replacement, which came back again.
Amazon never supports the sellers, only the buyers!!!
Seller_n96fx9eGvr0gT
The only solution I can recommend is increase the price of the product to take into consideration such returns,
Seller_ps1L5uYnNBOZQ
sadly amazon doesnt protect seller interest. Everything is about customer and at the end we suffer.
I wish amazon realizes that they shud support the ones who help them earn their bread and butter!
Seller_CK1KcPjUt7BPM
Amazon is working hand in glove with these fraudsters, they are well aware that buyers are committing such frauds by misusing the returns policy in book category, but they are allowing these frauds to earn extra revenue from sellers. Most of the frauds we face is that many buyers replace our books with old books or replace genuine editions with pirated editions and return. Shame on Amazon.
