Delivery confirmation no longer a valid defense against Amazon A-Z claim?

Today Amazon granted an A-Z claim for an item which had delivery confirmation. In fact, the customer admitted (via email) that the item arrived *after* she filed the claim, but didn't know how to withdraw her A-Z.

Amazon subtracted the money from our account, and sent us this message:

"Thank you for your response. Unfortunately the tracking information you provided does not include signature confirmation of delivery. As a result, this is insufficient evidence of delivery to the intended recipient. Note that many carriers, including the USPS, use a delivery confirmation that does not confirm delivery to the recipient's address, but instead only confirm delivery to the zip code."

So now *signature confirmation* is necessary for every order, or less sellers are not covered by the A-Z guarantee? Makes no sense, because the A-Z program is insurance that ever seller buys into! (that's what the $1.35 variable closing fee allegedly pays for).

Fortunately, this does not affect FBA sellers. FBA sellers have NO A-Z coverage. They continue to be charged the $1.35 variable closing fee, but receive no benefits.

No A-Z Protection under FBA

Under Amazon's A-Z Guarantee program, buyers who have a problem with their order (lost in mail, damaged, not as described) can file an A-Z guarantee.

We were told this program is funded by the VCF (variable closing fee) of $1.35 per order, which comes out of the shipping/handling reimbursement.

Usually, in the case of damage or loss, if the seller can prove the item was shipped on time they are not liable for the claim, and the customer gets a refund direct from the A-Z fund.

However, with FBA, there is not A-Z protection... for the buyer or the seller! If the buyer has a problem, it is completely up to FBA staff - usually they just issue a refund, no questions asked.

But this refund is taken out of YOUR account, not the A-Z fund! We learned this the hard way. A customer ordered a $75 book, which arrived damaged. It was new when we shipped it into FBA, and FBA verified it was new when they checked it in. So the damage must have happened in the FBA warehouse, or during transit from the FBA warehouse to the customer.

Even though the damage was not our fault, they refunded the customer, did not ask them to return the book, and took the $75 out of our account. What's more, I'm pretty sure FBA uses UPS, and each shipment is automatically insured for $100. So...if this was damage during transit, why did they not file an insurance claim? If they did, why did they charge us the $75? Is it their policy to pocket the money?

Their response to this question is, "if the FBA program isn't working for you, feel free to close down your account at any time." Keep in mind, once you convert to Seller Central, you can never change back. So they're basically inviting you to close down your business if you don't care for their one-way policies.

And to make matters worse... FBA sellers still pay the VCF of $1.35 per order! What the heck? Where is this money going??? We're paying into a supposed insurance plan, why are we not insured like other sellers?