Amazon Issued Refund Without Return for Self-Ship Order – Seller Left Uncompensated (₹26,000 Loss)
Hello fellow sellers,
I want to bring to your attention an unusual and frustrating incident that happened to me as a self-ship seller on Amazon.
A customer placed an order for multiple quantities of my product. Later, the customer contacted Amazon customer care and got a full refund without arranging a return or even informing me. As per Amazon’s policy for self-ship orders, the customer must return the product first, and only then should a refund be issued by the seller.
In this case, Amazon’s Customer Service (CS) team issued the refund without taking me into the loop, completely bypassing the standard process. This seems like a new kind of fraud being enabled due to process lapses.
Steps I Took to Resolve This:
Contacted Seller Support:
Initially, the lower-level executives didn’t understand my concern since such cases are rare.
I escalated the issue to a senior executive who assured me that the seller would be proactively reimbursed after 50 days as per Amazon’s policy. I have this whole conversation on Recording. where he Confirmed that i will definitely get reimbursed after 50 days.
The senior executive also shared the relevant policy reference: Amazon Policy Reference: https://sellercentral.amazon.in/help/hub/reference/G201723330
After 55 days passed with no reimbursement, I contacted seller support again.
Escalated Further:
Despite my attempts, the senior executives now seem to dodge my calls.
Connected with senior executive but he couldn't help (was giving non valid resolutions, wasted 60 mins here). so he promised to arrange a callback from a higher leadership team, got no call back from them either.
from last 15 days, i am trying to get resolutions from amazon support team, but they are trying to dodge this ticket. all of them give same invalid automated responses like safe-t claim or insurance. which is not applicable in my case.
Outcome So Far:
I have lost ₹26,000 due to this incident where I was not at fault. Amazon has not taken responsibility for this lapse, and I feel stuck. since we are also a customer of amazon, can we file a consumer court against amazon or file cyber crime case against the customer?
My Concerns:
Why did Amazon CS issue a refund without arranging a return for a self-ship order?
Why is seller support not addressing the issue or providing reimbursement as promised?
How can sellers protect themselves from such cases in the future?
To prevent further losses, I have now stopped allowing customers to order more than one quantity at a time, but this is not a sustainable solution.
I hope this post raises awareness among fellow sellers and pushes Amazon to fix these process lapses. If you’ve faced a similar situation or have suggestions, please share them below.
Looking forward to your input.
Amazon Issued Refund Without Return for Self-Ship Order – Seller Left Uncompensated (₹26,000 Loss)
Hello fellow sellers,
I want to bring to your attention an unusual and frustrating incident that happened to me as a self-ship seller on Amazon.
A customer placed an order for multiple quantities of my product. Later, the customer contacted Amazon customer care and got a full refund without arranging a return or even informing me. As per Amazon’s policy for self-ship orders, the customer must return the product first, and only then should a refund be issued by the seller.
In this case, Amazon’s Customer Service (CS) team issued the refund without taking me into the loop, completely bypassing the standard process. This seems like a new kind of fraud being enabled due to process lapses.
Steps I Took to Resolve This:
Contacted Seller Support:
Initially, the lower-level executives didn’t understand my concern since such cases are rare.
I escalated the issue to a senior executive who assured me that the seller would be proactively reimbursed after 50 days as per Amazon’s policy. I have this whole conversation on Recording. where he Confirmed that i will definitely get reimbursed after 50 days.
The senior executive also shared the relevant policy reference: Amazon Policy Reference: https://sellercentral.amazon.in/help/hub/reference/G201723330
After 55 days passed with no reimbursement, I contacted seller support again.
Escalated Further:
Despite my attempts, the senior executives now seem to dodge my calls.
Connected with senior executive but he couldn't help (was giving non valid resolutions, wasted 60 mins here). so he promised to arrange a callback from a higher leadership team, got no call back from them either.
from last 15 days, i am trying to get resolutions from amazon support team, but they are trying to dodge this ticket. all of them give same invalid automated responses like safe-t claim or insurance. which is not applicable in my case.
Outcome So Far:
I have lost ₹26,000 due to this incident where I was not at fault. Amazon has not taken responsibility for this lapse, and I feel stuck. since we are also a customer of amazon, can we file a consumer court against amazon or file cyber crime case against the customer?
My Concerns:
Why did Amazon CS issue a refund without arranging a return for a self-ship order?
Why is seller support not addressing the issue or providing reimbursement as promised?
How can sellers protect themselves from such cases in the future?
To prevent further losses, I have now stopped allowing customers to order more than one quantity at a time, but this is not a sustainable solution.
I hope this post raises awareness among fellow sellers and pushes Amazon to fix these process lapses. If you’ve faced a similar situation or have suggestions, please share them below.
Looking forward to your input.
23 replies
Seller_PhrqI7EUOOnsE
Imagine having a recorded conversation with a SENIOR Amazon support executive where he assures you that you will be refunded automatically. Based on that conversation, you wait 50 days, only to then be ghosted by the same Amazon support team.
Adam_Amazon_
Hello @Seller_PhrqI7EUOOnsE,
Can you share the case Id please?
Adam
Seller_0nmf0whtCub1y
I think its time to quite Amaozn
I have been selling on Amazon from 8 years and left it all together
I just cannot handle the frustration and harassment from Amazon
Support is of no use at all.
Must have lost over a lakh of rupees in claims not settled.
Weird things happening these days. Product returned but not marked as returned so I cannot file safe-t claim. Then it gets marked as delivered but after 15 days so the safe-t team can deny the claim.
Product returned but amount not refunded to customer. Now I cannot file the claim again and the amount will be refunded after 15 days of return so I cannot file the claim.
Return received after 4.5 months outside return window and amount refunded to customer. Reimbursement not as per policy.
They ask us not to ship a COD order if it is suspicious, they sent you an email saying do not ship the order and it will get cancelled and you will get reimbursement within 15 days. Now it is going to be month for many orders and there is no reimbursement, After raising cases they say order is not eligible for reimbursement and after sharing proofs they ask to wait again for 15 days and close the case.
Fake orders being placed and wrong items being returned by customers and Amazon doing nothing about it.
I advise any seller or any new seller reading this to quit Amazon as soon as possible. Better to work on your own website or sale through whatsapp or instagram.
You will only wast your time money and mental peace here.
All the best
Seller_K0B9E4aomPtLg
I just started selling in amazon and reading this made me apprehensive. Already huge rate of return, user returning package by saying late delivery even though it is being delivered as per schedule.
I thought shifting to self ship may help in my case by restricting pin codes, but after knowing your case it look like self ship
Seller_PhrqI7EUOOnsE
Thank you so much! Is there any way to track the status of this escalation?
If needed, I can also share additional details or a recording of my previous call with the senior support executive—the first time I spoke with a senior representative about this case. In that call, I was advised to wait 50 days for an automatic reimbursement.
My product and store have consistently received excellent ratings, and I’ve never encountered an issue like this before in my 4–5 years of selling on Amazon. I should have at least received my products back. Following this incident, I updated the purchase limit to one unit per customer for the entire category of this product.
Seller_PhrqI7EUOOnsE
@Adam_Amazon_
Do I really need to make a post on social media about this case for you to take it seriously? First, an Amazon customer committed fraud against us. Then, your support team issued a refund without even taking the product back.
When we asked about it, they told us to wait, saying we would get our product back as it wasn't updated in the system. After 15-20 days, I asked again, and a senior executive told me to wait 50 days, assuring me that my account would be automatically credited as the item was lost. After 50 days, they told me to wait another 10 days to 'understand the case.' Then, they suddenly claimed that the customer refund was funded by the seller.
i literally have call recordings where i was told to wait for product first, then to wait for refund.
I posted the same issue on the seller support forum. Even the forum admins/managers told me to wait. Now, over two months have passed, and no one is even responding.
Is this how Amazon handles seller disputes? keep making them wait, until the seller gives up eventually?
