Buyer Confusion for Return Reason "Item defective or doesn’t work"
We have buyers frequently incorrectly selecting the return reason "Item defective or doesn’t work". We sell home décor items. So many buyers interpret the "doesn't work" reason as it doesn't work with their décor or it doesn't work for their particular application. The conflating of these two return reasons causes unnecessary work for us as we then have to file a SAFE-T Claim (which we always win because we can prove that there is nothing wrong with the product and the buyer simply chose the wrong return reason). 99% of our items are stationary with no moving parts or batteries thus an item "not working" is not applicable compared to electronics as an example.
In the most recent return the buyers comments in the return were "They are too short for my windows. Not as expected." Meanwhile the images and all of the sizes are listed clearly with lots of detail. Ultimately it comes down to the buyer not measuring their windows properly.
The Amazon bots read the return reason as "defective" thus we received a policy violation for perfectly functioning items. This is the 2nd time in 2 weeks (one each on different products).
Can a mod kindly forward this to the appropriate Amazon team for consideration? If an item is defective it's defective regardless of its ability to "work".
As soon as I finished typing this we received a new return notification with the following text. No doubt we'll be receiving yet another policy violation for this.
"Return reason: Item defective or doesn’t work
Customer comments: Just the wrong size. Need longer length"
Buyer Confusion for Return Reason "Item defective or doesn’t work"
We have buyers frequently incorrectly selecting the return reason "Item defective or doesn’t work". We sell home décor items. So many buyers interpret the "doesn't work" reason as it doesn't work with their décor or it doesn't work for their particular application. The conflating of these two return reasons causes unnecessary work for us as we then have to file a SAFE-T Claim (which we always win because we can prove that there is nothing wrong with the product and the buyer simply chose the wrong return reason). 99% of our items are stationary with no moving parts or batteries thus an item "not working" is not applicable compared to electronics as an example.
In the most recent return the buyers comments in the return were "They are too short for my windows. Not as expected." Meanwhile the images and all of the sizes are listed clearly with lots of detail. Ultimately it comes down to the buyer not measuring their windows properly.
The Amazon bots read the return reason as "defective" thus we received a policy violation for perfectly functioning items. This is the 2nd time in 2 weeks (one each on different products).
Can a mod kindly forward this to the appropriate Amazon team for consideration? If an item is defective it's defective regardless of its ability to "work".
As soon as I finished typing this we received a new return notification with the following text. No doubt we'll be receiving yet another policy violation for this.
"Return reason: Item defective or doesn’t work
Customer comments: Just the wrong size. Need longer length"
32 Antworten
Seller_DdmPiA1p1S2Wu
Yep, a large percentage of my returns are the "Defective or doesn't work" choice. 100% of the time it means it didn't work with what they had in mind because of their failure in planning, nothing to do with the product. I file SAFE-T claims on 100% of them to recoup the shipping charges. I also get, "Inaccurate website description" a lot which 100% of the time means the buyer didn't bother to read the website description. It's quite irritating.
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
Return reason: Item defective or doesn’t work
Customer comments: Just the wrong size. Need longer length"
They select that because if they picked other reasons, they'd have to pay to return.
Seller_WAZNnMBpd99sI
just send them a message to let them know that shipping and restock fees will be withheld- (almost always packaging has been opened, and/or item used).
Suggest that they re-Request to Return this Order with the real reason, No Longer Needed or Ordered by Mistake.
Then hit them with a 30-50% restock fee to compensate for lying and attempting to defraud you.
Seller_tAfXR7sVBEoZS
Good luck. It will take a lot of time to fight it. Sellers of junk just lower their price or run a huge sale to get more sales so their returns for defective products get hidden, but this type of thing is just ignored by Amazon. If you get it removed, please post how you did it.
Seller_8LCWm21cBt6lf
We had the same problem. We received a return request with the reason being "Item defective or doesn’t work" and when we read the reason for the return we were confused. Just like you, the item did not have any moving parts and was certainly not defective in anyway and then it dawned on me that the buyer was saying the item did not "match or coordinate" with her outfit. Some people take words literally and others take words figuratively. You can never predict how they interpret a statement. Perhaps they should change the wording to Item defective or does not operate. Just a suggestion.
Seller_tfJYchbIZsTUy
I get this a LOT as well on my earrings. I also get the “damaged” one a lot. When I get them back they are perfectly fine! How do we file a safe T claim? When I try I get the message that it doesn’t qualify for a claim 🤷🏻♀️
Seller_tAfXR7sVBEoZS
I have the same issue but the customer ordered 2 items. Amazon listed 2 defective products, not just one because it was 1 order of two products. Support claimed they don't have enough information to research the issue. The standard first "defense" rather than actual attempt to help.
Seller_3QIhzNaiqbTwC
We sell home improvement products and get the same thing daily. Customers order the wrong thing, or find out they really aren't qualified to install it or the item doesn't fix their problem. Then they use the "defective or doesn't work" return reason. Yes we can file a saf-t-claim and we do- but it is an unnecessary time consuming hassle. Plus, if you ever look at "voice of the customer", each of these returns can cause the listings involved to go from good/excellent ratings to poor or very poor .
That is why the "voice of the customer" is a totally useless feature and we just try and ignore it because there is usually noting we can do to fix it.
Seller_Lqu8SKj3Hjpqk
We receive an extraordinary number of these as well. Just had one earlier today... "Wrong item was sent" was selected along with the comment "I ordered the wrong size". The time wasted with Safe-t claims is ridiculous.
Seller_IlPjCZLKNTFOz
You'd really think that after all these years Amazon would have figured this out and sort of put a buffer to their returns metrics.
