Riverbend Consulting

Having problems with Amazon? Let us solve them.

  • Home
  • Suspensions
    • Account Suspension
    • ASIN Suspension
  • Account Services
    • Account Health Check-Up
    • Seller Account Protection
    • Account Management
    • Reimbursements
    • Amazon Editorial Recommendations
    • Riverbend Studio
  • Our Blog
  • About
    • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Testimonials
    • Referral Program

(877) 289-1017 Contact Us

+44-161-8508-269

MENU

Used sold as new

Amazon’s dirtiest FBA secret: Used, nasty and broken returns

June 11, 2020 Leave a Comment

Third-party Amazon sellers should monitor returns carefully or risk buyer complaints

By: Lesley Hensell

Curling irons with someone else’s hair in them. Mouthwash with broken seals. Coffee makers with smelly old moldy coffee inside.

These are only a few of the disgusting surprises that FBA sellers have experienced. Why? Because Amazon’s FBA returns handling processes are – to put it kindly – lacking.

Amazon FBA returns
What happens when customers return items to FBA?

One reason buyers love Amazon is the friendly returns policy for FBA purchases. Amazon makes it easy for customers, who can take a look at their mail-order item and decide to send it on back.

Unfortunately, buyers don’t always return items in new condition. This might mean torn packaging, broken seals, or even used items. 

When an order is sent back to the FBA warehouse, Amazon personnel are supposed to inspect it carefully. They are charged with determining if the item is still in “new” condition. If so, it is placed into the seller’s fulfillable inventory. If not, it is placed in unfulfillable. A third possible scenario involves Amazon repackaging the item. This happens when the product is in new condition, but the packaging is not. Amazon reserves the right to repackage it and place it back into fulfillable inventory. (The setting that once allowed sellers to turn off repackaging has been taken away. Sorry, folks, you’re stuck with it.)

Amazon’s warehouse employees are graded on the number of transactions they conduct per hour. Human nature dictates that this leads to inaccuracy as employees try to meet or beat the required work level. Of course, quality naturally suffers, and items that should never be placed into fulfillable inventory are re-sold.

Another problem occurs when Amazon puts returns in fulfillable from categories that are supposed to be disposed of or not required to be mailed back to the warehouse. Supplements are a good example. These items should never be put back into fulfillable, but often are anyway.

What can 3P sellers do to protect themselves?

The most worrisome scenarios with bad returns involve products that a 3P seller stocks over the long term. Therefore, the higher volume you sell over time, the more potentially bad returns are sent back to the Amazon warehouse.

There are a few strategies that 3P sellers can employ to combat the problem:
  1. For private-label products, add a printed seal. Include language such as “if seal is broken, item is not new.” This seal is not for buyers. It’s for personnel on Amazon’s FBA returns processing teams. This way, they will be more likely to place an opened item into unfulfillable inventory.
  2. Sell down or sell through. For products you replenish, allow your stock to sell through. Alternatively, sell it down and then place a removal order for the remaining units. In the meantime, restock with a different SKU. This way, bad stock being resold multiple times will be removed from the FBA warehouse.

In conclusion, if you need help with your FBA strategies, don’t hesitate to contact Riverbend Consulting.  Let’s talk 877-289-1017 or visit our website.


Lesley HensellLesley is co-founder and co-owner of Riverbend Consulting, where she oversees the firm’s client services team. She leverages two decades as a small business consultant to advise clients on profitability and operational performance. Lesley has been an Amazon seller for almost a decade.

Filed Under: 3P, Amazon, ASIN, Customer Serivce, Quality Control, Returned Tagged With: 3P seller, Amazon, Amazon FBA, Amazon seller, Broken seals, Buyers, Complaints, Condition, Expired, Returns, Returns processing, Suspension, Used sold as new, Warehouse deal

Amazon suspends sellers for inauthentic, sells their “fake” goods to the public

May 22, 2020 Leave a Comment

Does Amazon really believe 3P sellers offered bad products, or is it trying to make a quick buck?

By: Lesley Hensell

Is Amazon liquidation safe? Unsuspecting members of the public are buying goods Amazon labeled as “inauthentic” or in violation of a brand’s intellectual property (IP). In similar fashion, third-party sellers who purchase liquidation lots from Amazon’s warehouses are buying stock fraught with authenticity and IP problems.

This shocking strategy reasonably upsets veteran Amazon 3P sellers. In essence, Amazon either suspends their products (ASINs) or even their selling accounts. Then, the company refuses to return inventory if it has been characterized as counterfeit, an intellectual property violation, or inauthentic.

Is amazon liquidation safe?

But what happens to the goods then?

To dispose or not dispose

In cases of counterfeit (or accused counterfeit) goods, Amazon destroys the goods. This is a legal requirement that is likely followed to the letter.

But then there are the rest of the goods. Imagine a third-party seller is listing perfume for sale. A buyer says that the perfume doesn’t “smell like she remembered this brand smelling” and complains that the item must be inauthentic. Amazon suspends the seller’s ASIN and asks for proof that the products are authentic – in the form of invoices.

The seller submits the invoices – real ones – to Amazon. For whatever reason, Amazon will no accept the invoices. They tell the seller no dice, you cannot sell that ASIN again, and we are going to dispose of it.

But then, Amazon does not dispose of the item. Rather, they put it up for sale on their Amazon Warehouse Deals account.

Shocking? Absolutely. After all, Amazon’s own in-house risk management team decided the goods could not be confirmed as authentic. Yet Amazon seizes them and sells them on its own 3P account. At what point does this become both theft from the seller and/or fraudulent behavior on the part of Amazon? It certainly shows cognitive dissonance and corporate schizophrenia.

Here’s a great example from one of our own clients. He was accused of an IP violation on his own trademarked, private-label item. The seller came to us for help, and we helped win the appeal. Unfortunately, by the time he hired Riverbend, Amazon had already seized $180,000 worth of his ASIN. What happened after the client won his appeal? Amazon claimed it had destroyed the inventory. And then, it popped up as an Amazon Warehouse Deal.

Liquidation spreads the problem far and wide

If Amazon Warehouse Deals doesn’t want the “fake” inventory, it most often goes into liquidation lots sold out of the Amazon warehouses. Amazon allows several companies – including its wholly owned subsidiary Woot! – to piece together lots of inventory. These goods have been “disposed of” by third-party sellers, or by Amazon at the direction of Seller Performance and Vendor Performance.

This allegedly law-breaking inventory that is inauthentic or an IP violation goes from the liquidation companies to all manner of purchasers. They then sell it on secondary and tertiary markets. 

And guess who makes up a significant percentage of purchasers of liquidation lots? You guessed it. Amazon third-party sellers. These unsuspecting sellers believe (or are told) that if the inventory was liquidated out of an Amazon warehouse, it must be safe for sale on Amazon again.

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth, and the cycle continues. Through it all, the only one getting rich is Amazon.

Have questions about your Amazon seller account, the Riverbend Consulting team is ready to help you.  Let’s talk 877-289-1017 or visit our website.


Lesley HensellLesley is co-founder and co-owner of Riverbend Consulting, where she oversees the firm’s client services team. She leverages two decades as a small business consultant to advise clients on profitability and operational performance. Lesley has been an Amazon seller for almost a decade.

Filed Under: 3P, Account Appeal, Account Health, Amazon, ASIN, Customer Serivce, Inauthentic, Intellectual Property, Liquidation, Quality Control, Warehouse, Warehouse Deals Tagged With: 3P seller, Amazon, Amazon seller, Condition, Counterfeit, Expired, Inauthentic, Liquidation, Suspended, Suspension, Used sold as new, Warehouse deal

Categories We Serve

Automotive Parts & Accessories

Appliances

Baby

Beauty & Personal Care

Books

Cell Phones & Accessories

Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry

Computer

Electronics

Garden & Outdoor

Health, Household & Baby Care

Home & Kitchen

Luggage and Travel Gear

Luxury Beauty

Office Products

Pet Supplies

Sports and Outdoors

Tools & Home Improvement

Toys & Games

Video Games

(877) 289-1017

+44-161-8508-269

New Jersey • Texas

© Riverbend Consulting 2021 | Privacy Policy | Site Map |

Digital Marketing by Paid Search Consulting

  • Home
  • Suspensions
    • Account Suspension
    • ASIN Suspension
    • Back
  • Account Services
    • Account Health Check-Up
    • Seller Account Protection
    • Account Management
    • Reimbursements
    • Amazon Editorial Recommendations
    • Riverbend Studio
    • Back
  • Our Blog
  • About
    • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Testimonials
    • Referral Program
    • Back