That's right... a customer ordered one of our FBA books, and the FBA sent him the wrong book, from another seller's inventory.
That impacts not only the customer and us, it also impacts some other seller who is now mysteriously missing a book (and doesn't yet know it).
The customer left us a "1" feedback. I would too - it's not an unforgivable mistake, but it's bad service. And of course, he didn't understand that it wasn't our fault. We contacted FBA right away, and they said (get this!) that the customer needed to contact them, they would NOT contact the customer or pro-actively fix the problem!
We gave the customer Amazon's 1-800 number, but since it was only a $8 item, he had already given the book away to a neighbor, and basically said he didn't care about the money and wasn't going to hassle with it.
But we STILL have the negative feedback, and some other seller's inventory is now missing an item. Plus, I suspect we are still being charged a storage fee for the book (which should have been shipped out in the first place). Inevitably, that other seller will someday probably get a "1" when someone tries to order the item that our customer threw out.
To add insult to injury, FBA refuses to remove our "1" feedback, even though they promised they would remove any negative feedbacks as a result of their mistake. When we signed up for FBA, an aggressive salesperson told us that NEVER had a seller received a bad feedback for an FBA mistake, and if it ever happened, they would remove it. Now, even though we have that guarantee in writing, they tell us they don't have that power, and we must have been mistaken.
Monday
Amazon deposits unreliable with Seller Central/Marketplace 2.0
Sellers on Amazon have funds automatically disbursed every 2 weeks. Or, they can access their payments through their seller "marketplace" account, and sweep their funds to their bank account more often.
However, since we've "upgraded" to Seller Central/Marketplace 2.0 (a requirement to participate in FBA), our deposits have been irregular.
We typically sweep our account every evening. However, it's been 8 days since a deposit has arrived. We started asking about it, and apparently they are not making the deposit, but adding that amount to the next deposit. It gets debited from our account, as if we received the money, then the next day it shows up as a credit again (as a "miscellaneous adjustment"). By the way, get used to these "miscellaneous adjustments" if you are on FBA - they appear on our account daily, usually as debits, and we rarely know what they are:
(click to enlarge)
This revolving deposit has now been adding up over the past 8 days, but it won't disburse. We actually had to carry a credit card balance this month because we can't count on our Amazon deposits any more. I wonder if we can sue FBA for the interest charges?...
However, since we've "upgraded" to Seller Central/Marketplace 2.0 (a requirement to participate in FBA), our deposits have been irregular.
We typically sweep our account every evening. However, it's been 8 days since a deposit has arrived. We started asking about it, and apparently they are not making the deposit, but adding that amount to the next deposit. It gets debited from our account, as if we received the money, then the next day it shows up as a credit again (as a "miscellaneous adjustment"). By the way, get used to these "miscellaneous adjustments" if you are on FBA - they appear on our account daily, usually as debits, and we rarely know what they are:
(click to enlarge)This revolving deposit has now been adding up over the past 8 days, but it won't disburse. We actually had to carry a credit card balance this month because we can't count on our Amazon deposits any more. I wonder if we can sue FBA for the interest charges?...
Customers complain about FBA stickers
One of the requirements for FBA is to print up special bar codes for each item you send in. Didn't sound like a big deal to us at the time, however...
First, this requires a special label (not any Avery label will do - it's got to be the "peelable" kind, which cost more).
Second, this is more time-consuming & expensive than you might think.
Third, FBA requires that you cover ALL bar codes on the book. Some books have 3 or 4 bar codes (including on the inside cover), and apparently they don't want the staff at the FBA warehouse to accidentally zap the wrong bar code. So sellers are required to cover every bar code with either a blank label, &/or an FBA bar code.
Not only does this add to the cost of participating in the program (3-4 cents per label adds up, especially if the book takes 3-4 labels), but also, we've received 2 customer complaints so far:
Customers don't know why the labels are there - FBA doesn't explain it to them. I personally think it's a stupid thing to complain about, but, I also totally understand that the customer isn't expected to know the operations of the FBA warehouse. But it's Amazon's job to inform them of their policies, not ours. Apparently, when one customer called Amazon to find out what they are, Amazon told them to mention it in our seller feedback. HUH???
First, this requires a special label (not any Avery label will do - it's got to be the "peelable" kind, which cost more).
Second, this is more time-consuming & expensive than you might think.
Third, FBA requires that you cover ALL bar codes on the book. Some books have 3 or 4 bar codes (including on the inside cover), and apparently they don't want the staff at the FBA warehouse to accidentally zap the wrong bar code. So sellers are required to cover every bar code with either a blank label, &/or an FBA bar code.
Not only does this add to the cost of participating in the program (3-4 cents per label adds up, especially if the book takes 3-4 labels), but also, we've received 2 customer complaints so far:
Customers don't know why the labels are there - FBA doesn't explain it to them. I personally think it's a stupid thing to complain about, but, I also totally understand that the customer isn't expected to know the operations of the FBA warehouse. But it's Amazon's job to inform them of their policies, not ours. Apparently, when one customer called Amazon to find out what they are, Amazon told them to mention it in our seller feedback. HUH???
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