Why Amazon Should ALLOW Sellers to BLOCK bad buyers-If you agree, comment below
So I got to thinking about this topic, and decided to start a discussion. This should be VERY INTERESTING.
So WHY SHOULD Amazon allow sellers to BLOCK BAD BUYERS. Here are some reasons. Leave your comments below:
1. Amazon is always 2 steps behind when it comes to stopping customer theft/fraud, and they have to work REACTIVELY, after customers have already returned/stripped/stolen hundreds, or even thousands of dollars worth of goods. Sellers can work PROACTIVELY, and BLOCK THEM ASAP, the second they see a bad pattern forming (repeat returns, theft, or repeatedly lying about return reasons to have sellers pay the return cost, gifting sellers with false product defects as a result, etc). In other words, when we see a customer return 5 consecutive orders, due to price matching, or stripping parts off of products and returning them used, or swapping them out altogether with an entirely different product, and FBA ACCEPTS THE RETURN, and STILL REFUNDS THEIR MONEY, WE could block them as a buyer FROM OUR STORE, ALTOGETHER, ENDING THEIR STEALING SPREE.
2. Amazon loses NEARLY ALL it's revenue everytime a customer returns a product. They refund ALL of their fees, minus a processing fee. IN addition to sellers losing 100% of their sales revenue. SELLERS WANT to MAKE MONEY. If a customer is profitable to us, we won't block them, and they will be profitable to Amazon too. So we wont be blocking good customers, only ones who have a bad habit, of stealing, stripping parts, or price matching items at our and amazon's cost. If we block buyers, WE ARE PROTECTED from fraud/ theft. AND Amazon SAVES MILLIONS in return fees and lost commission.
3. SELLERS NET A LOSS EVERY TIME A CUSTOMER RETURNS A PRODUCT. IT BEHOOVES AMAZON TO HAVE IT'S SELLERS DO WELL, SINCE WE MAKE UP OVER HALF THE SALES ON HERE. IF WE DO BAD, AMAZON DOES BAD. IF WE WIN, AMAZON WINS TOO. IF WE STOP THEFT, AMAZON DOESN'T HAVE TO PAY THE BILL FOR THAT LOSS.
4. Amazon is too large to take on individual customer theft/fraud, and doesn't have the time to try to take on micro problems, but 3rd Party small sellers are the PERFECT size to deal with it quickly and efficiently. For Amazon, 1 case of customer theft is a needle in a haystack. For a Small Business Owner, it OFTEN COSTS US A DAY'S PAY. So yeah, WE notice it ASAP, long before Amazon does, and we can BLOCK THE thief from buying from us instantly, if Amazon will allow it. Basically whenever a customer steals a product, or part swaps, or repeatedly lies about return reasons, Amazon basically HAS A FIREWALL that sellers have to go through to report it.
5. BLOCKING BAD ACTOR BUYERS USING THEIR ACCOUNTS ILLEGALLY FOR DROPSHIPPING: I have had customers who illegally use their buying account to have sellers "dropship" the buyer's customer orders for them. How do I know this? Because said buyers have placed 30 or more orders, and changed their name and address 30 different times. One buyer even left their PACKING SLIP from THEIR WEBSITE they were selling on, IN THE RETURN BOX! I don't have a problem if a customer orders 50 times from us with no returns. But if they SUDDENLY have 20 returns, ITS A HUGE PROBLEM. Not only is it a violation of Amazon policy for buyers to use their account as a dropshipping account, but there is an ENTIRE FORUM dedicated to sellers dealing with repeat returns from those bad buyers. Guess what? We could have saved Amazon and us a TON of BUYER violation reports, and thousands of dollars of returns, and BLOCKED THAT BUYER FROM DAY 1. The SECOND SOMEONE RETURNS A PRODUCT, SAYING ITS "NOT WHAT WAS EXPECTED" AND THEN ORDERS 2 MORE THE SAME DAY, AND THEY "WANT MORE of the SAME product they JUST SAID THEY DIDN'T WANT", AND THEY CHANGE THE ADDRESS AND NAME, FOR THEIR 2ND, 3RD, AND 4TH ORDERS, IT'S A DROPSHIPPER. WE CAN SEE THIS VERY CLEARLY. AS STATED, IF THEY DON'T HAVE A HIGH RETURN RATE, ITS NOT A PROBLEM. BUT IF THEY, FOR EXAMPLE, START MISADVERTISING PRODUCTS ON THEIR OWN WEBSITE, AND THEY HAVE 20 RETURNS DUE TO HOW THEY ARE ADVERTISING IT, (ie Product is CORRECTLY listed as a 3.5" action figure on Amazon, and they state it's a 6 inch action figure on their website) AND THEY SEND THEIR BUYERS RETURNS ALL BACK TO US, WE CAN BLOCK THAT BUYER IMMEDIATELY IF AMAZON WILL GIVE US THE PRIVILEGE OF DOING SO. IF we report it to Amazon's "firewall", they do their analysis, and "consider" stopping the buyer, and monitor the buyer for weeks before anything is done to stop them. Often, the buyer is never blocked. Meanwhile that customer continues to steal/part swap/ dropship our livelihood away, pushing sellers to the brink of bankruptcy. And it pulls our time away from customer service/shipping profitable orders that WONT be returned by bad actor customers.
5. Allowing SELLERS to stop buyers, saves both Amazon, AND sellers, time, money and PAPERWORK. Allowing sellers to BLOCK bad buyers is INSTANT, and EFFICIENT. EBAY ALLOWS US TO DO IT. IT WORKS! 1 CROOKED CUSTOMER SWAPS A PRODUCT OUT, AND THEY ARE BLOCKED BY US FOR ETERNITY, AND CAN NEVER DO IT AGAIN. AND, WE CAN STILL REPORT THEM SO THEY CAN BE STOPPED FROM DOING IT TO OTHER SELLERS. IF other sellers want to continue to accept their repeat orders and subsequent returns, that's fine. What's important is that EACH INDIVIDUAL SELLER can have the right to make that decision, and they won't be subject that buyer's high return rate anymore. Would amazon rather spend millions of dollars on investigating, reimbursing, and monitoring customer fraud FOR 10X THE ORDERS, or let sellers cut it off from the first incident, ending millions of dollars in fraudulent returns and losses up front? They can put that savings into more seller support staff, and building out their technology and infrastructure?
6. Blocking buyers is ALREADY PROVEN TO WORK. On Ebay, we have 1 return per 300 orders. Amazon has 4x that rate. If a customer lies on Ebay, and says the product is defective, JUST TO MAKE US pay their return label, and it is RETURNED UNOPENED, MINT, THAT IS CUSTOMER FRAUD. THAT'S FINE. BECAUSE IT JUST HAPPENS ONCE. WE BLOCK THEM. NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN. EASY PEASY. - ON AMAZON, THERE IS NO WAY DO DO THAT CURRENTLY. WE ARE HEARTBROKEN WHEN WE SEE A CUSTOMER PLACE ORDER AFTER ORDER, AND KEEP THE PRODUCT FOR 45 DAYS,OR MORE AND THEN RETURN IT, CLAIMING IT AS DEFECTIVE. REALLY? IT TOOK YOU 45 DAYS TO FIGURE OUT AN ACTION FIGURE WAS DEFECTIVE? THEN WE GET THE RETURN, AND IT WAS NEVER OPENED, MUCH LESS DEFECTIVE. WE LOOK AT THE CUSTOMER'S BUYER HISTORY, AND SEE THEY HAVE DONE THE SAME THING FOR THEIR LAST 5 ORDERS. THAT MEANS WE JUST LOST $400 + PAID $100 IN RETURN FEES. AND HAVE 5 FALSE DEFECTS. THEY KEEP ON DOING IT. WE REPORT THEM. 5 TIMES. WHY NOT JUST STOP THIS NONSENSE, AND LET US BLOCK THEM? Don't need to list a reason. Just list it as "blocked at seller's discretion".
7. BLOCKING BUYERS DISCOURAGES STEALING, REPEATED THEFT, AND DISHONEST RETURNS. If a buyer KNOWS they can be blocked from buying, or stealing a product, or lying about return reasons, it WILL make them think TWICE about doing it again. Imagine a customer who has returned their last 10 orders, all from different sellers, after using the products for 30 days, and then claiming them as defective so they can use them "for free" for 30 days. Or they keep price matching products and repeatedly return them when they go on sale! Suddenly they log on and all of those sellers have blocked them from EVER Buying from them again. They might just think twice about what they will do next. AS THEY SHOULD! CONVERSELY, IF YOU GIVE A BUYER A PASS WHEN THEY LIE ABOUT A RETURN REASON, OR SWAP A PRODUCT, OR STRAIGHT UP STEAL A PRODUCT, WILL THEY DO IT AGAIN? OF COURSE THEY WILL. AT AMAZON'S, AND OUR EXPENSE, EVERY SINGLE TIME. THAT'S WHY THERE ARE LAWS FOLKS. THAT'S WHY WE NEVER GIVE THEM A PASS. WE REPORT THEM THE SECOND WE FIND THEFT, BECAUSE THEY ARE STEALING MONEY RIGHT FROM OUR POCKETS. AND FOOD OFF OUR FAMILY TABLE!
8. Blocking bad buyers will cut A-Z claims, SAFETY Claims, AMAZON REIMBURSEMENT REQUESTS, and Chargeback Claims by AT LEAST 75%. They cant keep doing all that, if they can't buy the product anymore!
9. Products will be cheaper for the honest buyers! Because we don't have to absorb the cost of THEFT or or the cost of false defect returns! 1 $10.00 return shipping label wipes out ALL of our profit for most of our products, meaning we break even AT BEST, when we try to resell it. Thats if they are returned NEW, unopened. If they return it USED, we have to resell it as a USED PRODUCT for HALF PRICE, AND NET A HUGE LOSS. That means we won't even BREAK EVEN, let alone make a profit. Guess what happens then? The product price is raised to absorb the theft. Meaning all of you GOOD, HONEST customers are literally paying an extra $1-2 for each product out of your own pockets for theft. No theft means more profit for us, and lower prices for you.
Thoughts on this folks?
Why Amazon Should ALLOW Sellers to BLOCK bad buyers-If you agree, comment below
So I got to thinking about this topic, and decided to start a discussion. This should be VERY INTERESTING.
So WHY SHOULD Amazon allow sellers to BLOCK BAD BUYERS. Here are some reasons. Leave your comments below:
1. Amazon is always 2 steps behind when it comes to stopping customer theft/fraud, and they have to work REACTIVELY, after customers have already returned/stripped/stolen hundreds, or even thousands of dollars worth of goods. Sellers can work PROACTIVELY, and BLOCK THEM ASAP, the second they see a bad pattern forming (repeat returns, theft, or repeatedly lying about return reasons to have sellers pay the return cost, gifting sellers with false product defects as a result, etc). In other words, when we see a customer return 5 consecutive orders, due to price matching, or stripping parts off of products and returning them used, or swapping them out altogether with an entirely different product, and FBA ACCEPTS THE RETURN, and STILL REFUNDS THEIR MONEY, WE could block them as a buyer FROM OUR STORE, ALTOGETHER, ENDING THEIR STEALING SPREE.
2. Amazon loses NEARLY ALL it's revenue everytime a customer returns a product. They refund ALL of their fees, minus a processing fee. IN addition to sellers losing 100% of their sales revenue. SELLERS WANT to MAKE MONEY. If a customer is profitable to us, we won't block them, and they will be profitable to Amazon too. So we wont be blocking good customers, only ones who have a bad habit, of stealing, stripping parts, or price matching items at our and amazon's cost. If we block buyers, WE ARE PROTECTED from fraud/ theft. AND Amazon SAVES MILLIONS in return fees and lost commission.
3. SELLERS NET A LOSS EVERY TIME A CUSTOMER RETURNS A PRODUCT. IT BEHOOVES AMAZON TO HAVE IT'S SELLERS DO WELL, SINCE WE MAKE UP OVER HALF THE SALES ON HERE. IF WE DO BAD, AMAZON DOES BAD. IF WE WIN, AMAZON WINS TOO. IF WE STOP THEFT, AMAZON DOESN'T HAVE TO PAY THE BILL FOR THAT LOSS.
4. Amazon is too large to take on individual customer theft/fraud, and doesn't have the time to try to take on micro problems, but 3rd Party small sellers are the PERFECT size to deal with it quickly and efficiently. For Amazon, 1 case of customer theft is a needle in a haystack. For a Small Business Owner, it OFTEN COSTS US A DAY'S PAY. So yeah, WE notice it ASAP, long before Amazon does, and we can BLOCK THE thief from buying from us instantly, if Amazon will allow it. Basically whenever a customer steals a product, or part swaps, or repeatedly lies about return reasons, Amazon basically HAS A FIREWALL that sellers have to go through to report it.
5. BLOCKING BAD ACTOR BUYERS USING THEIR ACCOUNTS ILLEGALLY FOR DROPSHIPPING: I have had customers who illegally use their buying account to have sellers "dropship" the buyer's customer orders for them. How do I know this? Because said buyers have placed 30 or more orders, and changed their name and address 30 different times. One buyer even left their PACKING SLIP from THEIR WEBSITE they were selling on, IN THE RETURN BOX! I don't have a problem if a customer orders 50 times from us with no returns. But if they SUDDENLY have 20 returns, ITS A HUGE PROBLEM. Not only is it a violation of Amazon policy for buyers to use their account as a dropshipping account, but there is an ENTIRE FORUM dedicated to sellers dealing with repeat returns from those bad buyers. Guess what? We could have saved Amazon and us a TON of BUYER violation reports, and thousands of dollars of returns, and BLOCKED THAT BUYER FROM DAY 1. The SECOND SOMEONE RETURNS A PRODUCT, SAYING ITS "NOT WHAT WAS EXPECTED" AND THEN ORDERS 2 MORE THE SAME DAY, AND THEY "WANT MORE of the SAME product they JUST SAID THEY DIDN'T WANT", AND THEY CHANGE THE ADDRESS AND NAME, FOR THEIR 2ND, 3RD, AND 4TH ORDERS, IT'S A DROPSHIPPER. WE CAN SEE THIS VERY CLEARLY. AS STATED, IF THEY DON'T HAVE A HIGH RETURN RATE, ITS NOT A PROBLEM. BUT IF THEY, FOR EXAMPLE, START MISADVERTISING PRODUCTS ON THEIR OWN WEBSITE, AND THEY HAVE 20 RETURNS DUE TO HOW THEY ARE ADVERTISING IT, (ie Product is CORRECTLY listed as a 3.5" action figure on Amazon, and they state it's a 6 inch action figure on their website) AND THEY SEND THEIR BUYERS RETURNS ALL BACK TO US, WE CAN BLOCK THAT BUYER IMMEDIATELY IF AMAZON WILL GIVE US THE PRIVILEGE OF DOING SO. IF we report it to Amazon's "firewall", they do their analysis, and "consider" stopping the buyer, and monitor the buyer for weeks before anything is done to stop them. Often, the buyer is never blocked. Meanwhile that customer continues to steal/part swap/ dropship our livelihood away, pushing sellers to the brink of bankruptcy. And it pulls our time away from customer service/shipping profitable orders that WONT be returned by bad actor customers.
5. Allowing SELLERS to stop buyers, saves both Amazon, AND sellers, time, money and PAPERWORK. Allowing sellers to BLOCK bad buyers is INSTANT, and EFFICIENT. EBAY ALLOWS US TO DO IT. IT WORKS! 1 CROOKED CUSTOMER SWAPS A PRODUCT OUT, AND THEY ARE BLOCKED BY US FOR ETERNITY, AND CAN NEVER DO IT AGAIN. AND, WE CAN STILL REPORT THEM SO THEY CAN BE STOPPED FROM DOING IT TO OTHER SELLERS. IF other sellers want to continue to accept their repeat orders and subsequent returns, that's fine. What's important is that EACH INDIVIDUAL SELLER can have the right to make that decision, and they won't be subject that buyer's high return rate anymore. Would amazon rather spend millions of dollars on investigating, reimbursing, and monitoring customer fraud FOR 10X THE ORDERS, or let sellers cut it off from the first incident, ending millions of dollars in fraudulent returns and losses up front? They can put that savings into more seller support staff, and building out their technology and infrastructure?
6. Blocking buyers is ALREADY PROVEN TO WORK. On Ebay, we have 1 return per 300 orders. Amazon has 4x that rate. If a customer lies on Ebay, and says the product is defective, JUST TO MAKE US pay their return label, and it is RETURNED UNOPENED, MINT, THAT IS CUSTOMER FRAUD. THAT'S FINE. BECAUSE IT JUST HAPPENS ONCE. WE BLOCK THEM. NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN. EASY PEASY. - ON AMAZON, THERE IS NO WAY DO DO THAT CURRENTLY. WE ARE HEARTBROKEN WHEN WE SEE A CUSTOMER PLACE ORDER AFTER ORDER, AND KEEP THE PRODUCT FOR 45 DAYS,OR MORE AND THEN RETURN IT, CLAIMING IT AS DEFECTIVE. REALLY? IT TOOK YOU 45 DAYS TO FIGURE OUT AN ACTION FIGURE WAS DEFECTIVE? THEN WE GET THE RETURN, AND IT WAS NEVER OPENED, MUCH LESS DEFECTIVE. WE LOOK AT THE CUSTOMER'S BUYER HISTORY, AND SEE THEY HAVE DONE THE SAME THING FOR THEIR LAST 5 ORDERS. THAT MEANS WE JUST LOST $400 + PAID $100 IN RETURN FEES. AND HAVE 5 FALSE DEFECTS. THEY KEEP ON DOING IT. WE REPORT THEM. 5 TIMES. WHY NOT JUST STOP THIS NONSENSE, AND LET US BLOCK THEM? Don't need to list a reason. Just list it as "blocked at seller's discretion".
7. BLOCKING BUYERS DISCOURAGES STEALING, REPEATED THEFT, AND DISHONEST RETURNS. If a buyer KNOWS they can be blocked from buying, or stealing a product, or lying about return reasons, it WILL make them think TWICE about doing it again. Imagine a customer who has returned their last 10 orders, all from different sellers, after using the products for 30 days, and then claiming them as defective so they can use them "for free" for 30 days. Or they keep price matching products and repeatedly return them when they go on sale! Suddenly they log on and all of those sellers have blocked them from EVER Buying from them again. They might just think twice about what they will do next. AS THEY SHOULD! CONVERSELY, IF YOU GIVE A BUYER A PASS WHEN THEY LIE ABOUT A RETURN REASON, OR SWAP A PRODUCT, OR STRAIGHT UP STEAL A PRODUCT, WILL THEY DO IT AGAIN? OF COURSE THEY WILL. AT AMAZON'S, AND OUR EXPENSE, EVERY SINGLE TIME. THAT'S WHY THERE ARE LAWS FOLKS. THAT'S WHY WE NEVER GIVE THEM A PASS. WE REPORT THEM THE SECOND WE FIND THEFT, BECAUSE THEY ARE STEALING MONEY RIGHT FROM OUR POCKETS. AND FOOD OFF OUR FAMILY TABLE!
8. Blocking bad buyers will cut A-Z claims, SAFETY Claims, AMAZON REIMBURSEMENT REQUESTS, and Chargeback Claims by AT LEAST 75%. They cant keep doing all that, if they can't buy the product anymore!
9. Products will be cheaper for the honest buyers! Because we don't have to absorb the cost of THEFT or or the cost of false defect returns! 1 $10.00 return shipping label wipes out ALL of our profit for most of our products, meaning we break even AT BEST, when we try to resell it. Thats if they are returned NEW, unopened. If they return it USED, we have to resell it as a USED PRODUCT for HALF PRICE, AND NET A HUGE LOSS. That means we won't even BREAK EVEN, let alone make a profit. Guess what happens then? The product price is raised to absorb the theft. Meaning all of you GOOD, HONEST customers are literally paying an extra $1-2 for each product out of your own pockets for theft. No theft means more profit for us, and lower prices for you.
Thoughts on this folks?
72 replies
Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp
Amazon wants to delight BUYERS no matter how good or bad they are.
That will never change and this has been brought up dozens of times over the years.
To be able to block buyers you need to go sell on eBay. I have about 50 people blocked there and MOST of them are blocked because they are time wasters that always have questions and no orders.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
No, Amazon is not losing any money. They simply are not making any on these cases.
If they block a customer from buying from you, their cut is 0. If the customer buys, and then returns (or other issue), even if Amazon refunds all commissions (they don't), they still make 0; no less than if they blocked the customer in the first place. OTOH, if the customer is "delighted", then Amazon gets to keep their cut.
So for Amazon, it's a "No Risk, All Reward" scenario.
Is it good for the sellers? No. Does Amazon care? No.
Seller_7oKQkd3ZYovCx
Policies in the marketplace are designed so buyers can scam and deceive sellers. They just don't care.
Seller_rYu8Cax1BhUkk
The day this horrible site does anything for independent sellers is the day you'll hear about a federal indictment.
Seller_Zismx4GAprKkX
what they need is all the online marketplaces to share their potential problem buyers with each other (however, I bet each marketplace has privacy policies against that). and then when they find out who these problem buyers are, all the marketplaces should put restrictions on them. such as denying LOD (lost after delivery) claims. limiting the # of claims they can file.
I doubt amazon would ever go for blocking buyers. if they were open to it even in the slightest bit, I think it would have already happened.
but you have the stupid scammers....who are easy to catch (all the marketplaces catch them). but it's the ones that just try and rip off a seller every once in a while. you know, try to fly under the radar. maybe they do it once on amazon and then the next time they want to rip off a seller, they choose another online marketplace. and they wait til their buying a more expensive item. these are the ones I think may be falling through the cracks on many of the online marketplaces.
was anyone around 15+ years ago when USPS starting offering FREE TRACKING? before than happened, it seemed like I was always getting buyers messaging me stating they didn't get the item. but once I had a tracking# for all the packages, all of the sudden I wasn't hearing from buyers much anymore about not receiving packages.
Seller_cgU5UI1eE8xUp
Here's another Idea: SHIPPER RATING
Let the customer choose from a dropdown of UPS, USPS, or Fedex and show the associated "buyers rating" of what everyone else thinks of these companies BEFORE being dissapointed by them, and blaming us?
Seller_pI6xzqdBWWvRE
I have a great idea for this. We should all be allowed to rank customers with a star system. If the customer is absolutely irate for issues that are beyond our control, which does happen A LOT. We should be able to give them 1 to 5 stars. Then you should be allowed to deny customers with one star by adding this feature to your shop. For example: This shop takes customers with 2 stars and higher. OR This shop takes all customers!
I know it sounds Black Mirror. But I really like the idea. haha
Seller_6gweQTfF1fC8h
yeah its ridiculous buyer says he never received product, files a a-z my odr rate gets refunded, im out money, amazon continues to let the buyer keep doing the same crap, amazon should have like a doordash policy, once a buyer files a certain amount of a-z claims or returns that buttos should be disabled. It's ridiculous that a buyer can file unlimited a-z claims and returns. When I sell on ebay why can I see the buyers feedback? But when I sell on amazon I know nothing about the buyer.
Seller_Pbhna9XBPGg3a
I said I'll give it a year with Amazon as a small business seller who's been a victim of this a few times and with Amazon's automatic refund/return policy.
I like the idea of selling on a trusted widely available platform such as this, but I can't ignore the loss in revenue and product and I have no control over the process.
Yes, there are restocking fees IF you qualify and you only get a percentage, but that doesn't solve the overall business.
I'll be ending my account soon, once businesses start leaving the platform the big wigs will change
Seller_NaEy7NOsIT9d8
Every important thing Amazon does regarding its sales model is subject to a projected cost/benefit analysis. They used to allow sellers to give feedback on buyers - it was an excellent way to alienate customers. At some point it became obvious that the costs of that little feature to Amazon greatly exceeded the benefit to Amazon.
Of course if the assumptions Amazon uses in their analysis process are faulty then the results might be wrong. But since the costs of this idea would mostly be borne by Amazon and the benefits would mostly be received by individual sellers I doubt very much that the no-go assessment for taking this action will change.
I will also mention that twenty years ago I purchased a textbook from an Amazon mega-seller. It was a 2 pound book with CD shipped in just a plastic bag. As could be expected, having no protection it was badly damaged in shipment. I returned it at my expense (no pre-paid label) and the seller claimed to have never received it so there was no refund. I left negative feedback about the poor packaging and about the refund refusal. The seller responded with negative feedback claiming I was a typical scamming student. Until they stopped allowing sellers to leave feedback I never remotely considered leaving another negative feedback no matter how poor a seller performed.
