Have you ever received this dreaded message from Amazon Payments?
We are writing to let you know that the credit card issuer has contacted us on behalf of the purchaser of the below transaction. We would ask that you provide us with proof of delivery to provide to the credit card issuer…
I’ve received a few of these over the years, but they seem to be more frequent than ever, judging from the seller message boards. So far, Amazon has never debited the amount in question from my account. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen, since Amazon has recently started docking sellers for A to Z claims, even when USPS delivery confirmation shows receipt.
No doubt Amazon is getting lots of inquiries from sellers on this, so they’ve just published a list of Frequently Asked Questions to explain how chargebacks work for sellers:
What is a chargeback?A chargeback occurs when a cardholder contacts their bank to dispute the charge for an order placed on Amazon.com. Chargebacks are also known as “charge disputes” and they can be filed for a variety of reasons, ranging from non-receipt of the item ordered to unauthorized use of the credit card.
Read the rest of the Chargeback FAQ here. Not surprisingly, it recommends that you use a “trackable” shipping method and ship only to the shipping address you receive with the order.
Related posts:
![[Google]]( http://www.weberbooks.com/selling/wp-content/plugins/easy-adsenser/google-light.gif)
11 Comments
I haven’t been selling as much on Amazon so I haven’t noticed this but it certainly would not surprise me. Once they made a decision to have a warehouse and suggested sellers use that as a place to store and sell books, I felt concerned. I alway use a trackable shipping method.
I know sellers vary on opinions about sending to shipping addresses that don’t match the one on file with Amazon, especially if the item is a gift.
I also have read a fair number of comments from sellers who won’t use tracking, don’t care to incur the cost for what used to be a small number of chargebacks. Maybe their opinions will change if the chargebacks become more frequent?
It won’t matter. Amazon caters to the buyer and wants the repeat business. There will always be new sellers so it’s in amazon’s best interest to listen to the buyer instead of the seller. That’s why there has been a rash of A to Z’s in the last year and more seller’s complaining about amazon siding with the buyer even though the seller provides a DC. You think AZ cares about the seller you “Be out yo mind”
Eric
I have had more A-Z claims recently. I even provided Amazon with the delivery confirmation number on 1 order and they still refunded the buyer and debited my account. I am growing very tired of Amazons practices. I only sell around $12,000.00 a month on Amazon, but I can still take my business elsewhere.
Amazon never sides with the seller on the A-Z.
They don’t even bother to read your explanation. When you select Media Mail or First Class Mail on top as mailing method, they read no further. They automatically reimburse the buyer.
The whole “state your case” on the A-Z is just one big hoax. It doesn’t matter in the least what you have to say.
It would be more honest to simply state: “All orders shipped Media Mail will be charged back to seller account if buyer feels like it. It is utterly irrelevant whether buyer is honest or lying through his teeth.”.
This post is timely for me. I just received a chargeback notice where the buyer, blueelk95 of St. Cloud, MN (who dropships on Amazon as bluevelvetelk) filed a charge back for a book sent by me from Minneapolis and arrived with confirmation three days later.
I received the notice from Amazon and after checking the buyer’s feedback realized this St. Cloud business is apparently, in my opinion, running a scam since they KNOW Amazon willingly refunds orders without much investigation.
Below are the buyer’s latest feedbacks – which, to me, shows a pattern. I don’t understand why Amazon allows these dishonest people to buy and sell on their website as their practices, most likely, are illegal and cause problems for honest sellers.
Peter
Minneapolis
1 out of 5: “RUN, DONT WALK FROM THIS PERSON – initiated a credit card chargeback for our item – never contacted us, of course we have delivery confirmation. Why is Amazon allowing this guy to continue on their website?”"
Date: 1/25/2008 Rated by Seller: walterstextbooks
1 out of 5: “RUN, DONT WALK FROM THIS PERSON – initiated a credit card chargeback for our item – never contacted us, of course we have delivery confirmation. Why is Amazon allowing this guy to continue on their website?”
Date: 1/25/2008 Rated by Seller: half-pricebooks
1 out of 5: “Buys your textbook and then lies to Amazon that it was not recieved or in poor condition. Then Amazon issues this scam artist a full refund and he keeps the text. Then the scammer sells the text to these poor buyers!!! Don’t be a sucker!! Stay Away!!!!”
Date: 1/21/2008 Rated by Seller: firstclassbooks
1 out of 5: “NIGHTMARE!!! DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS AMAZONIAN!!! SCAM SCAM SCAM BUYS BOOKS IN ACCEPTABLE CONDITION AND SCAMS TO GET THEM FOR FREE. WILL LIE TO AMAZON ABOUT YOUR ORDER!!! STAY AWAY!!!”
Date: 1/21/2008 Rated by Seller: firstclassbooks
1 out of 5: “SELLER IS A SCAMMER!!!! BEWARE DO NOT BUY FROM OR SELL TO!!!!”
Date: 1/21/2008 Rated by Seller: firstclassbooks
I have had an order from blueelk95 of St. Cloud, MN (Amazon dropshipper bluevelvetelk). I spoke on the phone with Amazon who said, basically, there is nothing the seller can do other than cancel the order and risk negative feedback – or – ship the item with tracking via UPS or FedEx (and definitely not USPS even with Signature Confirmation!!).
The operator did, however, send the email link to file a complaint. In this case, the seller, it seems, is violating the Participation Agreement: 13-a, which states “The Site and Services may be used only for lawful purposes and in a lawful manner.”
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/reports/contact-us
What happens if I don’t pay the amount that Amazon debits my account for what I consider to be unfair chargeback? They can’t take money from my bank account, can they?
After all the complains of losses as a seller, the best way to get back is to exploit the A-Z system.
1) Buy something that is nice and expensive that you want, but not too expensive.
2) Charge it with your credit card.
3) Later file A-Z claim and get your money back and the item for free.
4) Repeat 1-3 until Amazon learns that “Sellers” are just as important as buyers.
blueelk95 of St. Cloud, MN is now operating as CHARLES WARD of St. Cloud, MN
Sorry to disappoint you Mike, but no we are not a scam. It is a common tendency of seller’s that they do not feel they need to include order slips. When we order 1000′s, possibly 10,000 books each year, many of them similar books, it makes it virtually impossible to match a book to a seller. On top of this, many sellers do not include a tracking number, whether it is fedex, ups, or usps, I don’t care (and yes media mail can get a tracking number). Without these two things, we end up just finding a random spot with that book and saying received from the address that is listed on the package. Until we find an order that has a slip to replace that, it stays there and goes into a special spot. Once we receive a majority of the orders, we go through the list looking for orders that are either missing or orders that are received from somebody and ask that person for a tracking #. If we do not have a tracking #, we do not push the issue any further, as we assume it is a mistake on our part. If we do have a tracking #, and it shows undelivered, then we contact the seller. The seller will often tell us to go screw off, which leads to the A-Z claim for obvious reasons. If we have a tracking # provided, and it clearly shows it is delivered, we do not go any further with the seller. If, however, after contacting the seller for a tracking # 3 times and the seller refuses to respond, we will often file an A-Z claim to get the seller to respond because it is clear the seller is trying to hide something for us. The seller will then often contact us saying they delivered the package or giving us a tracking #, sometimes showing delivered, sometimes not.
We do nothing with our business that is meant to be a scam. If every seller would include an order slip with their form, we would not have these issues come up at all. If you truly do not believe me, then perhaps I shall show you the 1000′s of orders we have had since I started working here 6 months ago. With these 1000′s of orders, probably somewhere around 7,500+, we have had approximately 100 orders that show up unreceived (just over 1.3%). About 25 of these orders showed up as canceled, so we are down to 1% of our orders apparently being a “scam”. About 50 of the 75 sellers then contact us either giving us clear evidence they sent the order or a tracking # that shows it was delivered. We are now down to ~.33% of our orders in the last 6 months being a “scam” as you call it. With these, we do often end up filing an A-Z claim because the seller will not help us. I’m going to say that 5-10 more then give us a tracking # and prove they delivered it. In the end, we get our money back on less than .25% of the books we order when it comes to not receiving the book.
Please don’t say that we are a scam, because we are not a scam. I know that this is a long message, but I truly do not want companies thinking that we are a scam, as we do our best to be an honorable company that can make the seller’s happy that they are conducting business in a fair way.
So, clearly none of you that posted will probably sell books to us, but for anybody who sees this, please please please include an order slip and even a tracking # if you can. It makes my job so much easier, and I absolutely hate dealing with issues such as this one. I try to do my best, and sometimes it really gets on my nerves when we are considered a “scam”.
I thank the sellers who have realized that we are not a scam and have continued to sell books to us.
J.W.
An employee of Charles Ward
P.S. I hope that every one of you realizes that we are an honest seller on Amazon and mean no harm to any of the other sellers, and hope that we can do business in the future.
We sign up with stopconsumerchargebacks and it has cut down on credit card charge backs.The best part it is free.