Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[Bold-Arrow]

So I found this useful article on the amazon forums regarding the new health metric 

All new sellers start with a score of 200.

Because they have no sales and no violations.
200 is the baseline
Points are …

deducted from your AHR score each time we find a new policy violation, and;
added back when you successfully address that violation.
Point values for each violation are based on severity level and typically range from 2 to 8, though critical violations automatically bring your AHR score to zero.
(I guess we’ll only know what violation is what value when sellers post them)
Also, if you violate the same policy multiple times, in some cases negative point values double per repeat violation.
To ensure your AHR is evaluated in context of the size of your business, you also gain 4 points for every 200 successful orders you fulfilled over the last 180 days.

Bottom line: we all start at 200 and work our way up!

532 could = No violations; 16,600+ successful orders within the 180 days

311 (odd for no issues) could = (seemingly a violation for 1 point); 5600+ successful orders within the 180 days

244 could = No violations; 2200+ successful orders within the 180 days

[cobrakai]

4 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

So I found this useful article on the amazon forums regarding the new health metric 

All new sellers start with a score of 200.

Because they have no sales and no violations.
200 is the baseline
Points are …

deducted from your AHR score each time we find a new policy violation, and;
added back when you successfully address that violation.
Point values for each violation are based on severity level and typically range from 2 to 8, though critical violations automatically bring your AHR score to zero.
(I guess we’ll only know what violation is what value when sellers post them)
Also, if you violate the same policy multiple times, in some cases negative point values double per repeat violation.
To ensure your AHR is evaluated in context of the size of your business, you also gain 4 points for every 200 successful orders you fulfilled over the last 180 days.

Bottom line: we all start at 200 and work our way up!

532 could = No violations; 16,600+ successful orders within the 180 days

311 (odd for no issues) could = (seemingly a violation for 1 point); 5600+ successful orders within the 180 days

244 could = No violations; 2200+ successful orders within the 180 days

My score accurately reflects that.  I took my 90 day order count, divided by 200, then multiplied by 4.  If I add that number to 200, that is my exact score.  Also, I had a "fair pricing violation" overnight and it did not change my score at all from last night when it went live. Either it is delayed, or some of those pricing violations won't affect your score at all.

[exciter1]

2 minutes ago, cobrakai said:

My score accurately reflects that.  I took my 90 day order count, divided by 200, then multiplied by 4.  If I add that number to 200, that is my exact score.  Also, I had a "fair pricing violation" overnight and it did not change my score at all from last night when it went live. Either it is delayed, or some of those pricing violations won't affect your score at all.

I never noticed a change in account health with pricing violations before.

[Bold-Arrow]

2 minutes ago, cobrakai said:

My score accurately reflects that.  I took my 90 day order count, divided by 200, then multiplied by 4.  If I add that number to 200, that is my exact score.  Also, I had a "fair pricing violation" overnight and it did not change my score at all from last night when it went live. Either it is delayed, or some of those pricing violations won't affect your score at all.

those dont affect your score AFAIK, 

[Darth_Raichu]

7 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

So I found this useful article on the amazon forums regarding the new health metric 

All new sellers start with a score of 200.

Because they have no sales and no violations.
200 is the baseline
Points are …

deducted from your AHR score each time we find a new policy violation, and;
added back when you successfully address that violation.
Point values for each violation are based on severity level and typically range from 2 to 8, though critical violations automatically bring your AHR score to zero.
(I guess we’ll only know what violation is what value when sellers post them)
Also, if you violate the same policy multiple times, in some cases negative point values double per repeat violation.
To ensure your AHR is evaluated in context of the size of your business, you also gain 4 points for every 200 successful orders you fulfilled over the last 180 days.

Bottom line: we all start at 200 and work our way up!

532 could = No violations; 16,600+ successful orders within the 180 days

311 (odd for no issues) could = (seemingly a violation for 1 point); 5600+ successful orders within the 180 days

244 could = No violations; 2200+ successful orders within the 180 days

 

27 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

Nice of them to not consider account history with the new Account Health system.

In other words, Amazon only care about how big your business is, NOT how long you have been selling on their platform.  The only way to add points is to sell more.

This is consistent with the other performance metrics on that page, TBH.

[smittypop2]

I still don't have a score. 

[redcell]

It's nice that they are finally bringing a greater level of transparency to account health.  In general, it seems that they have come to recognize the abject fear that many sellers have about the possibility of losing their account for some obscure reason with little to no recourse.

3 minutes ago, smittypop2 said:

I still don't have a score. 

It should be coming.  I first noticed a change in the Seller Central interface yesterday and got my first score this AM.

[Mark Twain]

It’s great how Amazon keeps track of their incoming FBA shipments. This is just nonsense.

Three skus miscounted from the last shipment.

Expected 7
Received 11

Expected 5
Received 11

Expected 8
Received 4


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[landphieran]

2 hours ago, Mark Twain said:

Three skus miscounted from the last shipment.

No u.

That's what Amazon rep's tell my anyway. I mostly gave up fighting them as I was always found "at fault" regardless of the information I provided.

[bbr]

What's the proper way to handle a FBM return where the buyer returns a knockoff set? They didn't even try to hide the fact it's a knockoff. WTF dude, you knew you weren't returning it to Amazon.

Do I refund and file a SAFE-T claim? Or is there a way to deny the refund on my end? The return was auto authorized but not refunded on first scan. There is a box to contact the buyer but I don't see a way to deny the refund.

[Bold-Arrow]

3 minutes ago, bbr said:

What's the proper way to handle a FBM return where the buyer returns a knockoff set? They didn't even try to hide the fact it's a knockoff. WTF dude, you knew you weren't returning it to Amazon.

Do I refund and file a SAFE-T claim? Or is there a way to deny the refund on my end? The return was auto authorized but not refunded on first scan. There is a box to contact the buyer but I don't see a way to deny the refund.

What’s the reason for return?

[bbr]

48 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

What’s the reason for return?

"Didn't approve purchase"

[Bold-Arrow]

20 minutes ago, bbr said:

"Didn't approve purchase"

You can’t do a safe-t since amazon didn’t refund the buyer - yet. You have three options:

1.you refund 50% ( max allowed  ) and you should easily win any az claim but you lose on the other 50% 

2.you refund 1 penny or any nominal amount to stop the automatic refund and see if the customer open an az claim or worse a charge back which would be rolling the dice , but this is the only way to keep 100% of the sale  

3.you wait till Amazon automatically refund the buyer ( usually after a week of receiving the item ) then you can open a safe-t but you are putting yourself at the mercy of those folks to give you whatever % back which is rarely over 50% these days . Keep in mind the buyer can open a AZ claim after 48 hours of seller receiving item.

Ofc you risk negative feedback and an account health metric hits if you lose az claims. 

I’d base my decision on the following:

-$ of the order . (If it is low I’ll take option A since it is the safest )

- health of my account ( can you stand absorbing both a negative and a az claim/charge back loss?)

-principle of things but business continuity comes first 

In all cases I highly recommend reporting the buyer to amazon under the report abuse tab. 

edit to add : since buyer didn’t claim the wrong item was sent the chances are  highly in your  favor against any az if you deduct up to 50% 

good luck 

[bbr]

3 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

You can’t do a safe-t since amazon didn’t refund the buyer - yet. You have three options:

1.you refund 50% ( max allowed  ) and you should easily win any az claim but you lose on the other 50% 

2.you refund 1 penny or any nominal amount to stop the automatic refund and see if the customer open an az claim or worse a charge back which would be rolling the dice , but this is the only way to keep 100% of the sale  

3.you wait till Amazon automatically refund the buyer ( usually after a week of receiving the item ) then you can open a safe-t but you are putting yourself at the mercy of those folks to give you whatever % back which is rarely over 50% these days 

Ofc you risk negative feedback and an account health metric hits if you lose az claims. 

I’d base my decision on the following:

-$ of the order . (If it is low I’ll take option A since it is the safest )

- health of my account ( can you stand absorbing both a negative and a az claim/charge back loss?)

-principle of things but business continuity comes first 

In all cases I highly recommend reporting the buyer to amazon under the report abuse tab. 

edit to add : since buyer didn’t claim the wrong item was sent the chances are in your highly favor against any az if you deduct up to 50% 

good luck 

My account is perfect at the moment so I should be able to absorb the hits if they come. Item was $240. I'd rather not refund 50% because the buyer still wins in that scenario and they'll just do it again to someone else. Am I out of line sending the following message and waiting for a response?

"You mistakenly returned an item that you did not purchase from us. If you'd like to return the correct item that you purchased from us, we'll be happy to issue a refund. If you'd like to keep the item you purchased from us, no further action is needed. We will automatically close the return request with no refund on October 3, 2022."

I know there is no reason to argue with them about anything, but I'm not accusing them of anything in the above message. If I don't hear from them, I'll just refund .01 on October 3rd. 

 

[Bold-Arrow]

21 minutes ago, bbr said:

My account is perfect at the moment so I should be able to absorb the hits if they come. Item was $240. I'd rather not refund 50% because the buyer still wins in that scenario and they'll just do it again to someone else. Am I out of line sending the following message and waiting for a response?

"You mistakenly returned an item that you did not purchase from us. If you'd like to return the correct item that you purchased from us, we'll be happy to issue a refund. If you'd like to keep the item you purchased from us, no further action is needed. We will automatically close the return request with no refund on October 3, 2022."

I know there is no reason to argue with them about anything, but I'm not accusing them of anything in the above message. If I don't hear from them, I'll just refund .01 on October 3rd. 

 

That’s all fine , but if they open a AZ after 48 hours you are guaranteed to lose the claim. Low chance they will respond to you but it doesn’t hurt 

[bbr]

20 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

That’s all fine , but if they open a AZ after 48 hours you are guaranteed to lose the claim. Low chance they will respond to you but it doesn’t hurt 

So give them until 10/1 instead of 10/3? That would put me refunding them .01 within the 48 hours.

[cladner]

1 hour ago, bbr said:

My account is perfect at the moment so I should be able to absorb the hits if they come. Item was $240. I'd rather not refund 50% because the buyer still wins in that scenario and they'll just do it again to someone else. Am I out of line sending the following message and waiting for a response?

"You mistakenly returned an item that you did not purchase from us. If you'd like to return the correct item that you purchased from us, we'll be happy to issue a refund. If you'd like to keep the item you purchased from us, no further action is needed. We will automatically close the return request with no refund on October 3, 2022."

I know there is no reason to argue with them about anything, but I'm not accusing them of anything in the above message. If I don't hear from them, I'll just refund .01 on October 3rd. 

 

I would not message them a thing.  This is slightly passive aggressive.  You already know the person does not have a moral backbone since they are scamming you.  Talking to them isn't going to change their mind or make them fess up to being a jerk.  Give up on that approach.  Now that you're dealing with a scamming scumbag u need to change the approach to maximize their damage and try to get something back. 

 

#1 reporting the buyer to amazon under the report abuse tab like bold said.   get that started .  

#2 accept that ur not getting all your money back - ok,  so lets get the most back..  option 1   as bold outlined.  if u want to get the most back quick, go with 1.  if u want protracted chance of getting it all but probably less than 50% go with 3.  don't forget that if you get 50% back the scammer is taking a hit too and they won't like that and will not scam u again in the future.  it still sucks but that is the price of selling on amazon as they say.   ur dealing with a pretty dumb scammer since they chose did not approve purchase as the reason instead of correct item not sent which you would have had a harder time defending against.

#3 open a case about the order and outline specifically that the buyer is sending back a counterfeit item after you sent them a genuine item and that you are now out of pocket $xxx and that you cannot continue to sell on amazon if they will allow this buyer type of counterfeit substitution scam without recourse.  include photo of set u sent and the counterfeit/alternative set that you received.  this is mainly a feel good stand up for yourself but eventually buyer may get enough dings to draw attention and lose account and maybe just maybe you get some refund.

 

[bbr]

23 minutes ago, cladner said:

I would not message them a thing.  This is slightly passive aggressive.  You already know the person does not have a moral backbone since they are scamming you.  Talking to them isn't going to change their mind or make them fess up to being a jerk.  Give up on that approach.  Now that you're dealing with a scamming scumbag u need to change the approach to maximize their damage and try to get something back. 

 

#1 reporting the buyer to amazon under the report abuse tab like bold said.   get that started .  

#2 accept that ur not getting all your money back - ok,  so lets get the most back..  option 1   as bold outlined.  if u want to get the most back quick, go with 1.  if u want protracted chance of getting it all but probably less than 50% go with 3.  don't forget that if you get 50% back the scammer is taking a hit too and they won't like that and will not scam u again in the future.  it still sucks but that is the price of selling on amazon as they say.   ur dealing with a pretty dumb scammer since they chose did not approve purchase as the reason instead of correct item not sent which you would have had a harder time defending against.

#3 open a case about the order and outline specifically that the buyer is sending back a counterfeit item after you sent them a genuine item and that you are now out of pocket $xxx and that you cannot continue to sell on amazon if they will allow this buyer type of counterfeit substitution scam without recourse.  include photo of set u sent and the counterfeit/alternative set that you received.  this is mainly a feel good stand up for yourself but eventually buyer may get enough dings to draw attention and lose account and maybe just maybe you get some refund.

 

I agree that the buyer is a scumbag. But I can't say that to them. What I can do is start a trail of info Amazon can follow. I don't know if sending a message and refunding .01 will work, but at least it's going to give me a chance. The buyer already has the product. Any amount of money they get back will be a bonus for them. If I had the product (like they built it and returned or they stole the minifigs) a 50% refund would probably hurt enough for them to stop doing that.

The downside of this gamble is that if they win an A-Z or chargeback, it will empower them to keep doing it because they think they will continue to be able get away with it (which would be the same if I went ahead and refunded 100%). So there is a risk there too.

When reporting abuse, which option do I choose? "Product received is different than the product on the detail page" seems to be closest. But I don't want a ding from the Amazon rep when they think I'm reporting the seller and not the buyer.

[Bold-Arrow]

The buyer will probably not respond  because they know at if they drag this out then they will win an  AZ claim , I’ll even bet this isn’t their first rodeo. Many sellers try to reason out with buyers only to lose both the money and the product. 
 

What @cladner said is your best option but I understand your pov 

you should have this option ( attached )  though I’m aware that for some reason not all account have it .

 

[bbr]

33 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

The buyer will probably not respond  because they know at if they drag this out then they will win an  AZ claim , I’ll even bet this isn’t their first rodeo. Many sellers try to reason out with buyers only to lose both the money and the product. 
 

What @cladner said is your best option but I understand your pov 

you should have this option ( attached )  though I’m aware that for some reason not all account have it .

 

I only have 6 options not the 8 in your picture. Don't have the one you pointed to and don't have the bottom one. I do have a pro account, so not sure why I don't have the other options.

[Darth_Raichu]

2 hours ago, Bold-Arrow said:

The buyer will probably not respond  because they know at if they drag this out then they will win an  AZ claim , I’ll even bet this isn’t their first rodeo. Many sellers try to reason out with buyers only to lose both the money and the product. 
 

What @cladner said is your best option but I understand your pov 

you should have this option ( attached )  though I’m aware that for some reason not all account have it .

 

 

I also only have 6 options on my Report Abuse page.  The Report Abuse video on Seller University (released on 7/26/2022) conveniently shows only 6 options.  I saw a Youtuber's video from May 2022 and he only had 7 options (without competitor hold my inventory option).  

It looked like some middle management types decided that the best way to reduce problems was to remove the means to report them....

Most likely they removed the options 1 by 1 based on the frequency of reports / violations.

[pharmjod]

I want the competitor is holding my inventory report button. I have one specific product that there is one other seller for and every time I've ever listed it he buys it and it stays pending for a couple of weeks then drops off. I want to either report him or sign him up for nambla.

[Jbad87]

20 minutes ago, pharmjod said:

sign him up for nambla.

The nuclear option is usually the best decision. Also, I hope somebody asks you to spell out the acronym.

[Darth_Raichu]

In case anyone missed this.  Interesting they picked 10/7 as start date.  Last year they started on 10/1

 

Similar to previous years, our standard returns window will be temporarily extended in anticipation of customers shopping early for the holidays. This policy includes orders that are shipped by you and orders that are shipped by Amazon.

Our 2022 Extended Holiday Returns policy requires that most items purchased between October 7, 2022, and December 31, 2022, are returnable through January 31, 2023.

[Dark Helmet]

I'm going to be sending in some more expensive BH this season and was just wondering how everyone packs their BH. Do you send them in their own shipping box and label that or raw dog it and hope for the best?