Fees! Nobody likes them, and yet, they still somehow manage to creep their way into our lives. But with a little help from RepricerExpress, you can learn how to say goodbye to a lot of Amazon’s chargeback fees.
Amazon Chargeback Fees Decoded
Think of Amazon sort of like a bank, except this bank loves to lightly financially penalise you for missteps. And these missteps take place when a buyer gets in touch with their bank because they’re disputing a charge for something they bought on Amazon.
You seemingly did nothing wrong, and yet Amazon still charges you a little fee for this. Their reasoning is you, the seller, didn’t follow all their vendor compliance rules, which is something Amazon takes very seriously. This is called a chargeback and comes in a variety of forms, so let’s take a look at some of them and what you can do to avoid their fees.
Sorting Out the Different Kinds of Chargebacks
You should protect yourself against one of these five types of chargebacks.
- 1. Advanced Ship Notice (ASN): If you — or your EDI trading partner — fail to send out an ASN exactly how Amazon says you should, you may get a chargeback.
- 2. Purchase Orders (PO): With each purchase, business customers get a PO that lets them track their purchase. But if you enter it in wrong, they can’t do this and, yep, possible chargeback.
- 3. Preparation (or lack of): If you’re not using FBA (but you really should be using FBA), then you’re in charge of sending out the package. And if you don’t bag or tape the carton closed properly, then the buyer can possibly issue a chargeback.
- 4. Receiving: Related to the above point, you have to make sure each package gets to its destination properly, with things like a present, scannable barcode, barcode on the products and carton labels with all the right information.
- 5. Transportation: You’ve got to set up routing requests when you transport packages, otherwise you can get a chargeback.
But if the worst happens and you do get a chargeback, then you can check on the status in your Seller Central account. Head over to the Performance tab and check under Chargeback Claims to see if/what chargebacks there are. In the screenshot below, you’ll see a green tick indication that we have no chargebacks that currently require action, yay!
What does a Chargeback Email Look Like?
Chargeback notification emails all have the same subject line, “(Order #) Your Immediate Response Required: Charge Dispute Inquiry”.
Here’s an example of what a chargeback notification email looks like,
Dear Merchant,
We are writing to let you know that the credit card issuer has contacted us on behalf of the buyer of the transaction listed below because the buyer received merchandise that was damaged or defective. Please request that credit be issued to the buyer or explain why credit is not due.
Order Date: ‘ORDER_CREATION_DATE’
Order Number: ‘ORDER_NUMBER’
Items Purchased: ‘ITEMS_DESCRIPTION’Shipping Address:
‘SHIPPING_ADDRESS’
The easiest and quickest way to respond to this chargeback is to use online Chargeback forms. By doing so, you will help resolve this issue faster for both you and your buyer.
Please do not reply to this e-mail if you use the online Chargeback forms.
——————————————————–
Here are instructions on how to represent your case:* Go to your Seller Central account by typing the following web address into your browser’s address bar: www.amazon.co.uk/sc-chargebacks
* Sign in when prompted.
* Click “Represent your case” for action-required Chargebacks and follow the instructions.
——————————————————–If you do not use the online forms, then you must reply to this e-mail requesting that credit be issued to the buyer or explaining why credit is not due.
Please note that if you do not respond to this inquiry within seven (7) days of this e-mail with sufficient information, we may debit your Amazon seller account up to the amount of the transaction.
We appreciate your cooperation in helping resolve this matter and look forward to receiving your response.
Thank you for choosing Amazon.
Amazon.co.uk Customer Service
http://www.amazon.co.uk
What You Can Do To Prevent These Yucky Chargebacks
Given the above five scenarios, there are actually more ways than that to avoid getting chargebacks (and their associated fees).
- 1. Carton Content Labels: You must put a carton content label on each package, which you can download and print from your Vendor Central account (Orders menu, Shipment tab). It needs ASIN info, or a GS1 label if they use EDI.
- 2. Windows: There are two types of windows when it comes to a package, PO Ship and Delivery. The former refers to Amazon paying by freight, while the latter is when you pay for shipping to an Amazon Fulfilment Centre.
- 3. Transit Times: You’ll have to figure out how long it takes for an item to get from you to an Amazon Fulfilment Centre (if you’re not using FBA), otherwise you can get a chargeback for it arriving either too early or too late.
- 4. Hand-Entered Data: Stop writing things out by hand and use already-created charts, like facility maps. This just really decreases the potential for human error.
- 5. Master Packs: Unless your buyer is getting something in bulk, learn how to break master packs. This is a useful practice because Amazon will ship each item individually anyway.
- 6. Warehouse: There are few REALLY big sellers on Amazon, so if you’re not one of them, don’t bother getting your own warehouse. Use a third-party warehouse, especially if you’re selling in more marketplaces than just Amazon.
- 7. EDI: At the opposite end of the spectrum, if you’re a small seller, you can probably get by just fine without EDIs. But as your POs increase, using EDIs is a far more efficient way of processing orders.
- 8. Pick Cycle: The more items picked in one cycle, the greater the possibility for errors. If you can, try doing smaller groups of picking requirements each day with smaller batches of pick orders.
- 9. Bagging/Taping: The Amazon Packing Certifications Guidelines will tell you exactly how an item should be bagged and/or taped (Vendor Central => Resource Centre => Legal Documents). There’s no reason for you not to do it right every time.
- 10. Cancel Date: Each product has its own cancel date within the shipping window where it has to still be available. If it’s not, it has to get canceled from the PO so whatever’s left can get shipped. If you find yourself running into problems, simply widen the window and give yourself some more wiggle room.
