For about six years now, Amazon has asked Marketplace buyers to rate their sellers in an e-mail sent 30 days after the purchase date, unless the buyer has already left feedback.
But effective today, Amazon is sending the feedback reminders 15 days after the transaction, instead of 30 days.
Here’s the announcement from on high:
Feedback Reminder E-mail Changes
Posted: Sep 20, 2006 1:58 PMDear Sellers,
Amazon.com recognizes that Amazon Marketplace sellers benefit from timely and complete feedback generated by customers. As such, we are working to increase the response rate to our feedback reminder e-mail message by sending the message closer to the time that orders are delivered. Effective immediately, we are sending feedback reminder e-mails 15 days after orders are placed.
If you have feedback or suggestions regarding this change, please feel free to send an e-mail message to feedback-feedback@amazon.com.
Thank you for selling with Amazon.com!
Am I the only person who smells a fiasco brewing here? I bet not.
If Amazon’s Marketplace team had taken a few minutes to survey sellers about this brain fart, they’d have known it’s a non-starter. They’ve had some wacky ideas this year, but this one takes the cake!
This is going to produce a huge spike in undeserved negative feedback for sellers. I will never understand this compulsion to fix things that aren’t broken and invent unnecessary headaches.
A few times every week, I get returned packages from Marketplace customers who’ve bought something and inadvertently had it shipped to their previous address — or to the address of a friend or family member. They didn’t read their screen during checkout, and they didn’t read the purchase confirmation e-mail from Amazon. So they don’t realize their package is missing until I e-mail them to let them know the Postal Service has returned it to me, postage due of course, marked “Not Deliverable As Addressed.” And most of them have the attitude that the whole thing is my fault. But we’ll leave that aside for the moment.
Here’s the problem as it relates to this policy change by Amazon: I usually get the returned packages about three weeks after the date of purchase. If the customer had received the feedback reminder e-mail from Amazon before then, half of them would already be zapping me with negative feedback, based on the assumption that I never mailed their book. Stupid? Perhaps. But we’re not making things any better by inviting these folks to get mad a week ahead of time.
Any other views on this? Feel free to chime in below.
UPDATE: After receiving many complaints from sellers, Amazon partially rescinded this change. Now feedback reminder e-mails will be sent 15 calendar days after transactions. Details are here.
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13 Comments
This is nuts! On Amazon’s own Marketplace Shipping Time & Rates page they list the transit time as “4 to 14 business days after shipping (may take up to 21 business days)“. 21 business days + 2 days to ship equals approximately 30 calendar days. Someone at Amazon seems to have forgotten why they chose to send feedback emails after 30 days originally.
Everyone should email Amazon ASAP. If you know any other book dealers, tell them as well. If they get bombarded with emails objecting to this, then perhaps they will reconsider. If not we’re all SOL together.
Jim,
I had thought about asking people to e-mail Amazon, but I realy doubt they read comments from sellers.
For example, I recently e-mailed the feedback address regarding the closure of zShops. I spent a bit of time, calmly warning how this could drive Amazon sellers into using eBay and PayPal.
I got a canned response, saying they appreciated the e-mail but that I should not expect a reply. Right. Don’t call you, you’ll call me.
But perhaps you’re right on this one, maybe when their inbox gets jammed they’ll wake up.
So here’s the address: feedback-feedback@amazon.com.
This does indeed take the cake…I’ve had some of my Media Mail books take nearly 15 days when shipped to Hawaii or other out of the way locations. I certainly have no knowledge of why some items seem to sit at the main depots for up to a week, and then take another to finally arrive at their destination. I’m just a small time seller, but as my business is growing I’m starting to encounter problem customers, lost packages and undeserved low feedback. For someone who is working very hard to build their rating and stay competitive, this is a nightmare! I’ll be sending my letter to them right after I finish this post.
Hopefully if enough of us start speaking up then Amazon will listen…because my backup account on Ebay is starting to look quite attractive at the moment…
I recently had my first “item was missent” message through a DC#. Thankfully it has only been about 13 days. The customer ordered on a Saturday Morning after I already went to the PO, so it was’nt shipped until Monday. If this new feedback took effect earlier, I could just see another “1 star: no book.”
I’ve only been selling on AZ since the beginning of the year, but in that time, I’ve seen lots of changes, most doing very little (if anything) to make the site better for buyers, and almost all harmful to 3P sellers. This has got to be the worst yet. It doesn’t really improve service to buyers in any meaningful way – in fact, it will probably confuse many of them. It certainly doesn’t help sellers – and will make lots of sellers focus on getting unfair feedback removed rather than on improved service to customers. But mostly, it will hurt the Amazon Marketplace image when feedback ratings take a huge dip and buyers become even more wary of 3P sellers. One has to wonder if such a stupid decision is intentional on AZ’s part. Is this an attempt to weed out the 3P sellers so that only the mega-sellers and FBA folks (whose negative feedback is already magically disappearing…)are left?
Well, if this isn’t about the frosting on the cake as far as Amazon’s screwy ideas for this year!!
I don’t know who makes all of these decisions for Amazon, however they must all have an IQ of no higher than 20!!!
I’m convinced that Amazon doesn’t read emails from sellers. Half the time I’ve never even gotten their form email back as a response.
So I call. Maybe if everyone called that would wake them up. I’ve had the customer service people assure me that my comments do get passed along.
Here’s the toll free number in case everyone doesn’t have it: 1-877-251-0696
I personally feel they’re trying to do away with their third party sellers, except for those in that program above Pro Merchant. Why, I haven’t a clue as it wouldn’t make any business sense to me. But then I haven’t seen much coming from Amazon that does make good business sense.
Yikes, thanks for the heads up, lets hope they change it back.
I’m asking everybody what they believe will be the best alternative to Amazon. At this time I only use Amazon but if things keep going south I will need to find an alternative just to keep food on the table.
Don’t know why I bother. I never write my congressman either. But then he can’t read.
No one reads the posts on the bottom of so long a string anyway.
I do like your phrase “brain fart.” You go, girl.
I seldom get a package mailed not only snail-mail, but media mail as well, before the magic 2 week period is up. Although I may not leave negative feedback, I am likely to not leave any feedback. Who wins in this stupid deal anyway?
Unbelievable! Inconceivable!
If Amazon would require their customers to pay for priority shipping, this would make good sense. As it stands…media mail regularly takes 2 weeks. I think they are trying to get their sellers to upgrade the shipping at their own cost(to avoid neg f/b), to improve customer satisfaction…all on the backs of third-party sellers.
I just had a shipping hassle myself with Amazon. I purchased a textbook for my son, paid for expedieted shipping, and the darn package was in OHIO (I live in CA) 5 days later. My son had to have the book, purchased it at the bookstore. The negative f/b for the seller won’t make a whit of difference, as the seller had something like 83,000 f/bs. Has to be a drop-shipper. I think 3 weeks would be a good compromise. 2 weeks for media mail is just unreasonable.
I am HEARTSICK SAD ANGRY FRUSTRATED. I am a small time seller, 5 years on Amazon. Intentionally stayed small time, for personal reasons. I just got zapped with a bunch of negative & neutral feedback, Amazon sent me an email I DO NOT understand, (would anyone be willing to translate for me, seriously, if I send it on, post it? I’ve asked for clarification from Amazon & gotten silence). This is what I’ve left in my “about seller” page. Probably not the brightest move, but at this point, I feel I have nothing to lose! (I also left feedback on my own account that says “PLEASE READ “ABOUT SELLER” BEFORE JUDGING ME ON RECENT FEEDBACK! THANK YOU!” I started my small bookstore over 5 years ago & NEVER had such a run of bad feedback as I’ve had recently. Right now a potential buyers sees my store carrying a 67% positive feedback rating; not the positive 96% LIFETIME rating I have. That’s a bad 1st impression. I take my book store seriously, bottom line. 5 yrs ago, Amazon had policies in place to protect both sellers AND buyers, as it should be. Now, it seems the company has been so caught up in commerce, they are forgetting the human element; that’s a shame. I am just ONE person trying to supplement family income. I use bubble mailers to ship; expedited shipments get priority mail envelopes, & priority mail ship. ALL items are inspected, packaged w/care, & shipped promptly. Order confirmations & followup emails are sent. Yes, honestly, I am HUMAN & mistakes DO occur. It happens, & it’s frustrating for ALL involved. Certainly NOT intentional. I TRY to resolve problems brought to my attention quickly & fairly. If a buyer emails to say they haven’t received an item, my PAST practice was to refund immediately, no ?s asked; MOST people are decent & honest. Now Amazon sellers are urged to avoid refunds whenever possible, and the company closely evaluates seller refund rates. High refund rates can result in suspension of Amazon seller accounts. And if I refund, Amazon keeps the 15% commision charged to sellers on all books, PLUS the extra shipping charged to buyers. If I don’t refund, I’ll usually get a neg. feedback, which also affects my performance summary, which Amazon also penalizes me for. Amazon doesn’t provide $$ for delivery confirmation; the $2.26 Amazon gives sellers for s/h AFTER charging a customer $3.49 for s/h, barely covers expenses! The ACTUAL shipping $ charged to buyers could provide delivery confirmation on shipments! (SHIPPING FEES ARE SET BY COMP., NOT SELLERS!) Policy changes on Amazon have left many of us sellers running for cover. Marketplace Shipping Time & Rates Page clearly state transit times, domestically & internationally, which some buyers do not seem to catch. This is made more confusing by the new policy the company has to send buyers feedback reminders well before item has had a chance to arrive! When I turn to Amazon for help, I get a canned response. I’m NOT a machine. I’m FRUSTRATED & HEARTSICK, & desperately trying to hold on.
Thanks,
M@highsobriety
I am a victim of amazon suspension too.Buyers buy stuff,then return them ,if item not recieved /lost use deragatory languages.Amazon does nothing to help its sellers.Although they are making money with our commissions.