Friday

FBA charges VCF fees (variable closing fees)... one of the biggest complaints we hear

The FBA policy that we receive the most complaints about is the VCF (variable closing fee).

This fee is $1.35 per order. Usually it's deducted from your s/h reimbursement (3.99-1.35 = $2.64 s/h reimbursement). When this was initiated, we were told this is to cover the A-Z program (an insurance-type program which covers sellers in case of damage/loss in transit).

However, FBA sellers receive no s/h reimbursement, and receive no A-Z protection. In fact, in case of returns, FBA charges an ADDITIONAL 5% restocking fee (if they even bother to recover & restock the damaged/returned item).

This raises many questions: Doesn't Amazon/FBA use UPS to ship all their orders? And, aren't all packages automatically insured up to $100? So, what happens to this money?

(a) Why are FBA sellers still charged the VCF for the A-Z insurance program, when the packages should already be insured?
(b) Why are FBA sellers penalized (not reimbursed) when damage or loss occurs in transit to the customer?
(c) What happens to the UPS insurance money? Does FBA "double-dip" and keep both the insurance money and the seller's money?

PS - For a complete list of FBA fees, visit:
Fba fee comparison sample

and,

FBA Passive Fees (often not explained up front)

2 comments:

Ed Buffey said...

You raise some valid questions. Is there a way to complain to Amazon about this?

fba profit calculator said...

I'm just doing fine with using FBA for my Amazon Business. But thanks for the heads up. I might encounter this matter. Thank you for sharing this.