Amazon is well known for it’s customer service, or rather, rules that define customer service. Which means, Amazon doesn’t care, it will give the customer whatever it wants. When it comes to refunds, no problem here’s your money.
Have an issue? No problem, consider it fixed. It’s not like we’re paying for it, we’ll just charge our Merchants.
This has worked well for Amazon’s reputation, but what most people don’t take into consideration is that almost half of Amazon’s sales come from third party merchants. This creates a controlling and dominating relationship between merchant and Amazon. Third party merchants, some or most of them fulfilling their own orders must also abide by Amazon’s customer service requirements.
It puts merchants in a do or die situation with almost no Amazon support for merchants and no help to be found. Amazon will throw away merchants like trash without hesitation.
Endless horror stories of Amazon refusing to limit or remove wrongful customer feedback continually threatens merchants account status with no help from Amazon. The used goods industry suffers the most from this as customers fail to read product descriptions and oftentimes expect used gear to be in the same condition as new gear.
Take for example, a used book with pictures and a description that a customer orders. Upon receipt the customer promptly complains the book is not in the condition described, annotating that it has a rip on the cover. Immediately leaving feedback and requesting a refund which will be granted regardless of whether it’s right or not.
Upon further investigation, the merchant attempts to prove to Amazon that there is not only a description that says “ripped cover” but also a picture of the rip on the item listing that was viewable before the customer purchased the item.
Amazon does not care and refuses to remove feedback.
What did the customer say? Surely something like below:
“Very disappointed, be careful when purchasing from this merchant, the item was not as described and was in terrible condition.”
Sounds like a fair deal right? Obviously when other customers see that it will probably affect their decision to buy from that merchant. But nothing can be done, as a merchant, we can only cross our fingers and hope it doesn’t happen to us.
When a merchant makes a sale, they get an email in their inbox with the subject: Sold, Ship Now. While it is exciting to sell something, the message is not a request, it’s an order.
Amazon tracks everything. You have limited time to ship your order, there’s a delivery deadline to meet, and if you do manage to get your package out on time and the delivery service is late, Amazon will gladly give your customer a refund even though it was at no fault of your own.
Even without Amazon intervening in the transactions, it is in the best interest to do anything to make your customer happy. A negative review or feedback left on your account can be detrimental and can lead to your account being suspended or limited on Amazon.
Late deliveries, cancelled orders, responses to open tickets, and more are also part of your account metrics. Under-perform on any metric and your life will get much harder to sell on Amazon. This puts the power in the customers hands (which admittedly has led to some abuse) and has the merchants bending over backwards, forwards, and every other way at once to please the customer.
It’s gotten to the point where if a customer wants a refund, you just send them the money, tell them to keep the product, and write it off as a business loss while hoping to avoid some negative feedback.
Amazon takes a nice hefty cut, and the merchants take all of the losses but Amazon is such a powerhouse marketplace, that they are basically a monopoly that merchants have to deal with in order to sell products.
Sure you could switch to another marketplace like eBay, start your own storefront, or do something else, but if your product isn’t unique you will likely go out of business from reduced sales and exposure. They literally own every product search on google as first result which makes it harder to go at it on your own.
Sold, Ship Now is a way of life, it is the essence of sales in 2020.
If you’re not on Amazon then you’re likely competing with them and Sold, Ship Now has likely caused you to change your business model already.
Sold, Ship Now is you picking your kids up late from school because you had to get to the post office. Sold, Ship Now is you not going on vacation because you can’t miss a delivery. Sold, Ship Now is forcing merchants everywhere to be accountable for their actions and lack of action. It’s forcing merchants to ship faster and provide better customer service.
Sold, Ship Now means no more waiting 2-4 weeks for a package to arrive. It means not having to sit on customer service for hours on hold. It means having no fear of returning your product easily and swiftly.
And if you’re one of the few people left that Amazon isn’t competing with where you can still get away with sub-par customer service and product support.
Be warned, Amazon is coming for you!
It’s only a matter of time before no one is safe. Eventually, Amazon will be dropping in brand new cars, appliances, and probably even houses via drone same day delivery.
You cannot beat them so you might as well join them. Embrace Sold, Ship Now before it’s too late and they simply run you over and leave your business for dead.
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