How to deal with Amazon returns?

What can be the most frustrating thing for a seller on Amazon? Yes, it’s the return request. Amazon keeps the customers at its centre and has high standards for a seller to sell his products on Amazon. To maintain these standards is a task for all the sellers on Amazon. And that’s not the end. Even while considering the return requests, the sellers have a strict limit for responding to the request. Along with the complaints, the seller has to worry about the negative review that the customer might give. Apart from this, the seller is also bulged up with the following questions.

• How to protect the account?
• What if the seller metric is affected??
• What if the returned item is damaged by the customer?

So, how to deal with this situation? How to handle the disappointed customer as well Amazon? What steps can you take while dealing with Amazon returns? Scroll to continue reading.

1. Keep an eye on your email

If at all the order has been shipped by Prime, then Amazon will immediately refund the customer even before the seller receives the returned item. Amazon will send you a mail regarding this. If you do not receive the returned item within 45 days, Amazon is even obliged to pay you for the same. So keep these mails organised because sometimes you will have to nudge Amazon if you haven’t received your product. So set some reminders for the reimbursement. 

2. Contact the buyer

You do not have to necessarily contact the customer only if they have given a negative review. You can resolve the issues with customers with or without a negative review. You can immediately start working upon the steps to deal with the disappointment of the customers – be it an apology mail or just checking upon if the customer has received the reimbursement. 

You can even find out the reason for the returns through your seller central account as well. How? Simply go to Reports, Customer concessions and go to Returns. With this you can find the reason for the return. 

3. Inspect the returned items 

As soon as an item reaches the Amazon warehouse, it is checked and categorized under fulfillable or unfulfillable. If it has been damaged by the customer and has been marked as “Customer Damaged” or if the item has been returned as “Defective” it comes under the unfulfillable category. Other than that the item can be considered as fulfillable and can be added back to your inventory. 

Always opt for a personal inspection as well. A small tear in the box may even lead to the customer returning the item to you. You can keep a track of the items that are sent back to the inventory by the Amazon staff. This can be helpful if you are accused of selling a used item. You can have a proof that the item was deemed as sellable by Amazon. Otherwise, you will have a negative mark against your account. 

4. Shipping Charges

 There are various reasons for returning an item. Some of the reasons are:

• Accidentally ordered
• The item is no longer required
• Wrong item being sent
• Unauthorized purchase

The cost of the shipping returns depends on the reason for the return. If an item is defective the cost of shipping lies with you. Hence, some take advantage of this and mark all the products as defective, so that the customer himself does not have to bear the cost. Therefore, it becomes necessary to always check your product once it has returned. If the customer has made a false claim, you can open up a ticket in the Seller Central account to solve your issue and get the reimbursement. 

If Amazon verifies your claim, you can get your reimbursed amount from the customer. And this will save you from paying the shipping cost. The best practice you can have is to always personally check the items. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:

By following these steps, you can make sure that the entire process of returns is stress free. These steps will definitely prevent your account from getting suspended. Try it right away!