Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[junkrigger]

4 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Seller wins. Folks should have more faith in the system . Buyer got a ding I'm sure 

Yes this time, but other members have mentioned the times they have lost. With that in mind I am pretty sure this came down to those paint cans from Garden Grove Home Depot, right near the buyer, and perhaps all the original shipping labels on the shipping box from Target to me etc.  It was the only real evidence in a my word v.s. theirs case.  Of course my order defect rate is now through the roof and my account is at risk of being suspended.

Edited December 2, 2016 by junkrigger

[jerryherb]

10 minutes ago, junkrigger said:

Yes this time, but other members have mentioned the times they have lost. With that in mind I am pretty sure this came down to those paint cans from Garden Grove Home Depot, right near the buyer, and perhaps all the original shipping labels on the shipping box from Target to me etc.  It was the only real evidence in a my word v.s. theirs case.  Of course my order defect rate is now through the roof and my account is at risk of being suspended.

dont worry about defect rate. open another case with amazon to clear it up. it will take a few escalations, but follow through with it. L1 offshore support are useless...

Edited December 2, 2016 by jerryherb

[junkrigger]

Thanks again to all for the support and advice. Hopefully I can write an article detailing the experience to aid new sellers should they find themselves in a similar situation.  Without the good advice this would have been over my head and not possible to prevail. 

[Bold-Arrow]

so this Toy Planet dude/dudette is reeking havoc across the board on retired lego. undercutting with massive quantities. good for them, bad for me .....off to the complaint thread.

[Sharkeye]

I'm pretty sure Toy Planet used to be Amazing Plush. They have endless supplies of EVERYTHING... I have wondered for a very long time how they obtain so much product.

[Sfcommando14]

16 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

so this Toy Planet dude/dudette is reeking havoc across the board on retired lego. undercutting with massive quantities. good for them, bad for me .....off to the complaint thread.

Brick Dudes do the same with part-outs and some of the smaller items I deal in.  I always assumed it was someone on here

[exciter1]

The damn Kamalas of Amazon!

[pete411]

I sent several Raptor Escapes to Amazon FBA and just now noticed that the units have been added to one of the secondary listings with next to zero click traffic so that my units are just sitting there. Is there a way to have Amazon move them over to the main listing? Gotta love how complicated the inventory management system is for their sellers.

[Bold-Arrow]

8 minutes ago, pete411 said:

I sent several Raptor Escapes to Amazon FBA and just now noticed that the units have been added to one of the secondary listings with next to zero click traffic so that my units are just sitting there. Is there a way to have Amazon move them over to the main listing? Gotta love how complicated the inventory management system is for their sellers.

It is time consuming . Just open a case . 

[newbie77]

57 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

so this Toy Planet dude/dudette is reeking havoc across the board on retired lego. undercutting with massive quantities. good for them, bad for me .....off to the complaint thread.

I always thought BA was amazing plush aka toy planet  but I was wrong

[Bold-Arrow]

Just now, newbie77 said:

I always thought BA was amazing plush aka toy planet  but I was wrong

LOL.......

[newbie77]

3 hours ago, junkrigger said:

The claim has been granted and the buyer was issued a refund. But the silver lining is that Amazon said there is no reason to believe that I am responsible for this claim. They have issued a refund but will not debit my account for the refund. Please consider this transaction closed.

I am convinced that this came down to the paint cans from the Home Depot in the buyers neighborhood, and perhaps my long history as an Amazon buyer of Lego. I would like to write a blog article about this (unless everyone is sick of hearing about it) detailing what happened and what we all can learn from this. While it appears to have worked out for me, it clearly could have gone the other way, and has for other members here. There is a huge lesson here, and I wold like to share it with all so that they can avoid the stress and possible big loss I was facing. I will only be selling expensive items on Amazon FBA from now on, if at all. In my 16 plus years selling on eBay I have not once had such an experience.

Congratulations. I am stoked after all. Did u call and talked with them or they just closed the case for you? I am even surprised that a-z folks read the response

Edited December 3, 2016 by newbie77

[teamhappyfrog]

When fulfilling by merchant is it a acceptable practice to ship a item in a used box or should I use brand new boxes?

[zskid00]

I'm not sure what's considered acceptable but I reuse boxes for FBM orders about 50% of the time and have never received a complaint. I do recycle boxes that I don't think will make it through another delivery though.

[exciter1]

I'm not sure what's considered acceptable but I reuse boxes for FBM orders about 50% of the time and have never received a complaint. I do recycle boxes that I don't think will make it through another delivery though.

I do too, I just make sure they don't have a big red Target on the side. If Kaplan can use their own boxes, I think we're fine.

[g3man]

I would like to ask the community for some advise: in my flood of orders on Black Friday, I forgot to remove an original price sticker on an item. The customer has received the set and has asked for a refund of the difference.

I know I made a mistake and will offer to refund some, but should it be for the full amount? Or can I refund less? Can I explain that it has retired and no longer available at market rates.

Thanks in advance for the advise. I need to be more diligent next time.

[zskid00]

Tell them you will not reward their lazy buying habits. You put in the work to buy this at MSRP or better when it was still available and stored it and packed it for shipping. Your time is worth money to and they can go (bleep) themselves. Merry Christmas!

[Bold-Arrow]

19 minutes ago, g3man said:

I would like to ask the community for some advise: in my flood of orders on Black Friday, I forgot to remove an original price sticker on an item. The customer has received the set and has asked for a refund of the difference.

I know I made a mistake and will offer to refund some, but should it be for the full amount? Or can I refund less? Can I explain that it has retired and no longer available at market rates.

Thanks in advance for the advise. I need to be more diligent next time.

It depends on what type of buyer you have . Apologize for the oversight . Politely , explain that u still have to pay fees , incur shipping costs and pay yourselves .. see how that goes , if they are the angry just break even or loss a bit and move on . Many are reasonable and understand especially if what they paid is lower than what is available . If it is a big loss u can always ask for your  item back and refund in full ( unadvisable but an option ) 

[Sharkeye]

Lol.... You know how many time I have wanted to say this.. 

[redcell]

30 minutes ago, g3man said:

I would like to ask the community for some advise: in my flood of orders on Black Friday, I forgot to remove an original price sticker on an item. The customer has received the set and has asked for a refund of the difference.

I know I made a mistake and will offer to refund some, but should it be for the full amount? Or can I refund less? Can I explain that it has retired and no longer available at market rates.

Thanks in advance for the advise. I need to be more diligent next time.

If it were me, I would explain that I couldn't refund the difference between what I paid and what I listed the item for because then I wouldn't make any money, but I'd be happy to accept a return.  

[cladner]

39 minutes ago, g3man said:

I would like to ask the community for some advise: in my flood of orders on Black Friday, I forgot to remove an original price sticker on an item. The customer has received the set and has asked for a refund of the difference.

I know I made a mistake and will offer to refund some, but should it be for the full amount? Or can I refund less? Can I explain that it has retired and no longer available at market rates.

Thanks in advance for the advise. I need to be more diligent next time.

if the item is retired, then you just tell them that was the original MSRP and removing the original price tag sticker would damage the mint condition box and thus the value of this out of production collectible toy.  i don't think they have any case.  the transaction is completed.  the item is received as they expected.  the price is already agreed upon before you sent it.  if they try and come back now and say it was damaged you have this conversation to show that they are f.o.s.  paintcans to the scammers

Edited December 3, 2016 by cladner

[msdontplay01]

The claim has been granted and the buyer was issued a refund. But the silver lining is that Amazon said there is no reason to believe that I am responsible for this claim. They have issued a refund but will not debit my account for the refund. Please consider this transaction closed.
I am convinced that this came down to the paint cans from the Home Depot in the buyers neighborhood, and perhaps my long history as an Amazon buyer of Lego. I would like to write a blog article about this (unless everyone is sick of hearing about it) detailing what happened and what we all can learn from this. While it appears to have worked out for me, it clearly could have gone the other way, and has for other members here. There is a huge lesson here, and I wold like to share it with all so that they can avoid the stress and possible big loss I was facing. I will only be selling expensive items on Amazon FBA from now on, if at all. In my 16 plus years selling on eBay I have not once had such an experience.

Nice it worked out for you by Amazon eating the bill instead of debiting your account but it is really troublesome to know some scummy, deadbeat buyer got a Death Star AND a full refund, basically getting it for free by returning some paint cans.

To bad this wasn't on eBay so the community can block this scum.

[newbie77]

57 minutes ago, g3man said:

I would like to ask the community for some advise: in my flood of orders on Black Friday, I forgot to remove an original price sticker on an item. The customer has received the set and has asked for a refund of the difference.

I know I made a mistake and will offer to refund some, but should it be for the full amount? Or can I refund less? Can I explain that it has retired and no longer available at market rates.

Thanks in advance for the advise. I need to be more diligent next time.

Send the person return label and tell them to return the item. 

 

[g3man]

5 hours ago, Bold-Arrow said:

It depends on what type of buyer you have . Apologize for the oversight . Politely , explain that u still have to pay fees , incur shipping costs and pay yourselves .. see how that goes , if they are the angry just break even or loss a bit and move on . Many are reasonable and understand especially if what they paid is lower than what is available . If it is a big loss u can always ask for your  item back and refund in full ( unadvisable but an option ) 

Thank you all for your helpful advice. I have sent a note of apology to the buyer with an explanation as you suggested. I forgot to note that I *am* concerned about receiving negative feedback as I am not a big seller and have very little feedback on Amazon so far (though all of it has been 5-star... so far).

I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

 

Separately, this season seems to be much more active than last season and this past Thanksgiving thru Cyber Monday weekend was incredibly busy (we only do FBM -- though I am considering FBA after this weekend).

And regarding feedback, is it normal to only receive feedback on ~5% of your sales on Amazon?

[Loghamel]

7 hours ago, g3man said:

 

And regarding feedback, is it normal to only receive feedback on ~5% of your sales on Amazon?

Yes.  I would argue that is actually a bit higher than average based on most people's shared experiences.