Update Nov 2015: Rayah Aladdin reached out to me saying her sister Abby deceptively used her Amazon account. Rayah says she had nothing to do with this and seems credible.
Outsourced Customer Service Lets Unscrupulous Buyers Prey on Amazon’s Marketplace Sellers
Updated June 16, 2014: Amazon is threatening me again about having posted the buyer’s contact information which I did to warn others: “Failure to remove the information may result in immediate suspension or removal of your selling privileges.” When they do a better job at protecting and communicating with sellers, I’ll take this down.
Updated June 4, 2014: Kind of out of the blue (but probably related to collateral attention from this article), three months later – Amazon did the right thing and fixed this completely. I received this in email a short time ago:
Hello from Amazon.com.
My name is Brian L. and I am the Team Lead for the A-to-z Guarantee Claims Department. I reviewed the resolution to your claim associated with order number 112-xxxx-xxx and determined to reverse our initial decision regarding the resolution to this dispute. Based on your contacts and appeals for this dispute, we have issued a credit back to your account on June 4, 2014 in the amount of $159.20.
Please understand we are unable to reverse a refund a seller has issued through their account. For future returns, please ensure the correct item is received before issuing a refund to resolve the dispute. We hope you can accept our apologies for any inconvenience this transaction may have caused you, but you can consider this claim closed in your favor.
Thank you for selling on Amazon.com.
Hilariously, when I replied to stop them from double crediting me, I received “Thank you for writing to us about the notice you recently received. Please note that this is an automated response to your message.”
Updated June 4, 2014: This piece is getting more attention inside Amazon finally. In the end, I challenged Amazon’s charge to my card with CapitalOne – and they fixed it right away. Neither did Amazon contest this. CapitalOne did what Amazon dysfunctionally would not. What’s in your wallet?
My Introduction to Amazon Marketplace Fraud
Thanks to outsourced and semi-automated customer service, inconsistent application of clear rules and ignorance of a variety of ambiguous, conflicting rules, Amazon’s made it easy for buyers to defraud sellers in its highly successful marketplace.
As I learned this past week, buyers just need to 1) request a return and then 2) file an A-Z Claim alleging that the item was different than described. Amazon’s marketplace customer service team then facilitates any fraud through its incompetence.
In February, I sold a second generation Apple TV unit, valued at $199 to a buyer named Rayah “Abby” Aladdin. A week later, Aladdin requested a return saying, “Better price available, i brought this off someone on craigslist for way cheaper but you had already shipped it.” Then, Aladdin filed a false A-Z Claim Guarantee claiming that the item I shipped was different than described. In the end, Aladdin returned to me a used third generation Apple TV unit, valued at $65. Apparently, this practice is common; it’s called product laundering. From the seller forums, it seems that buyers often return empty packages or defective items in place of working ones.
By alleging I had sent the wrong item, Aladdin triggered Amazon to send me repeated emails warning me to accept the return and issue a refund or they would withdraw the funds from my account e.g. “Please let us know what the return/refund status is as soon as possible so that we may resolve this claim. Please note that failure to respond to this email within three business days may result in a debit to your Amazon.com account.”
Aladdin Returned a Different Model Apple TV
Some sellers on the forums warned me to go pick up the package or be left empty handed. Amazon apparently often debits seller accounts even if they never receive their product back. So, I did. And, after verifying that the returned Apple TV worked, I issued a refund. However, I didn’t notice until a few hours later that Aladdin had returned to me a used, third generation unit, valued for much less. The model numbers on the Apple TV unit are engraved black on black in tiny 4 point font and I didn’t immediately notice that Aladdin had switched the outer packaging slip.
Even though it’s not actually documented, Amazon customer service insists that sellers accept any return for any reason within 30 days. For example, the actual returns guide says, “Amazon.com, and many sellers on Amazon.com, offer returns for most items within 30 days of receipt of shipment.” and “While most sellers offer a returns policy equivalent to Amazon.com’s, some seller returns policies may vary. Some sellers, such as wineries, won’t accept returns. However, they may provide refunds. You can view each seller’s return policy in the Online Returns Center.” But you can’t actually view them and neither can sellers document their return policy from within the Marketplace system, nor did I find a way to do this even after signing up for Amazon Payments.
I would like to inform you that we have a feature where sellers can cancel a refund within two hours of the issue. However, I deeply regret to inform you that once the two hours has expired we cannot revoke the refund.
Many sellers say that the Marketplace seller participation agreement spells out the thirty day return requirement, but it doesn’t. Here’s what it actually says, “You will promptly provide refunds and adjustments that you are obligated to provide under the applicable Amazon return policies and as required by law, and in no case later than thirty (30) days after the obligation arises.” But as shown above, those policies are not specific nor clearly described.
In practice, I found that Amazon customer service ignored all evidence that the buyer had lied. Amazon’s A-Z Claims guide says that claims may be denied if “The item received was the same as described by the seller” or if “The claim was filed due to buyer remorse rather than an actual issue with the item“. I pointed out how the buyer’s first reason for return was price and that they specified a different reason for their A-Z claim. Aladdin said I’d sent a materially different item but in one email wrote they “never opened the box”. Finally, I pointed Amazon to the invoice with which I purchased my Apple TV showing my model # and the box UPC symbol Aladdin returned with a less valuable model. As Amazon continued sending emails threatening to withdraw the funds from my account, the content of my emails was repeatedly ignored and cases I opened were repeatedly closed.
Sellers in the forums have said that Amazon’s outsourced customer service team may not have English language capability. While I cannot say for certain, my semi-automated emails were signed Ayush Bir Tuladhar, Omair Shahid and Ashwin Alexander, amongst others.
At Amazon’s insistence, I issued the refund to Aladdin at 2:32 pm on Mar 13 and reported that the buyer returned the wrong model to me just hours later at 10:09 pm. And, this is where Amazon’s customer support responses began to read like Who’s On First … even as Amazon acknowledged the fraud, they said it was too late for them to reverse the refund … but it wasn’t too late for them to charge my credit card, which they did 48 hours later.
Mar 14 11:26 AM:
I’m truly sorry to hear of the situation regarding your recent transaction. I understand that the buyer for the order: 112-9787785-6306646 returned a different item than what you shipped and you only noticed after issuing a refund to the buyer.
I would like to inform you that we have a feature where sellers can cancel a refund within two hours of the issue. However, I deeply regret to inform you that once the two hours has expired we cannot revoke the refund.
Mar 14, 2014 12:15 PM
I would like to inform you that we are transferring you to a specialized team which handles concerns regarding A-Z claim.
Please know that when we transfer your case to the investigation team, this case will be closedbut a new case is created to the concerned team. Therefore, I kindly request you not to worry as you will be contacted by the appropriate department and they will address your concern, even if this case will be closed.
Mar 14, 2:25 PM:
We can certainly understand your concerns about this claim being closed. However, as stated in our previous message, unfortunately, we have no way of reversing a Marketplace Payments by Amazon reimbursement that you have made to your buyer. Once a reimbursement is complete, the transaction is essentially considered to be canceled.
We understand that you may not agree with the decision in this case, but we will not be able to assist you further. There will be no further response to your e-mail messages regarding this transaction.
Mar 14 3:09 PM:
I would like to inform you that our investigation team does not work according to case numbers. However, please be rest assured that they will contact you with regard to your concern. In case they do not contact you, you may contact the concerned team directly using the below emails: …
Mar 15 12:12 AM:
I understand that you want to know the status of the investigation regarding the buyer associated with order ID 112-9787785-6306646. Please be advised that we at Seller Support do not have any insight into the status of the investigation. Please be advised that you will have to write to the concerned team at seller-guarantee@amazon.com to know more about this issue.
I can certainly understand your concern in this regard. However, as advised earlier, if the Investigations Team does not contact you, you will have to write to the email address provided above to follow up on the issue. I hope that this has cleared up any confusion that you might have with this issue.
Please note: This e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail.
Mar 16, 2:18 AM:
We can certainly understand your concerns about this claim being closed. However, as stated in our previous message, unfortunately, we have no way of reversing a Marketplace Payments by Amazon reimbursement that you have made to your buyer. Once a reimbursement is complete, the transaction is essentially considered to be canceled.
Mar 16, 6:27 am:
We have charged your credit card (Visa) for the balance due on your account: -$146.45
Even if I had noticed within two hours that the buyer had returned a different model, Amazon’s customer service team wouldn’t have responded in time to allow me to revoke the refund. They would often take 10 to 12 hours just to respond by closing my case without responding to the content of my emails.
In practice, Amazon enforces a 30 day return policy on all marketplace sellers. In other words, sellers unwittingly offer Amazon buyers a 30 day price guarantee on all transactions – something its website says it does only for televisions on its own site.
In practice, Amazon’s customer service runs roughshod over sellers empowering unscrupulous fraudsters to easily prey on them.
While we can all understand the importance of protecting buyers, this seller quoted at Consumerist reminds Amazon that its Marketplace sellers are its customers too.
I’ve been a longtime Amazon Marketplace seller with a 4.5 of 5.0 rating, but I’m not sure I’ll continue using the service. I think the applicable motto with the Amazon Marketplace is not “Buyer Beware” but “Seller Beware.”
Amusingly, Amazon sent me a warning today that I’m not allowed to post the buyer’s information publicly. But apparently, they have no problem with fraud.
If you enjoyed my essay, please consider joining Patreon as one of my supporters to support future essays. Or, share this essay with your friends on social media. Thank you.
This is a tough balance, because the no-questions-asked return policy Amazon facilitates is partly the reason there are so many customers. For every scammer there may be 1000 good customers, BUT certain categories likely have a worse ratio – electronics, specifically smart phones are an example. As an Amazon seller, I personally would certainly rather have 1000 honest customers and 1 scammer, versus just 100 honest customers and no scammer. Its a volume business for Amazon as well.
While true, this is sort of irrelevant. There is no reason that Amazon couldn’t have almost entirely the same system without penalizing sellers so much. For example, since you posted this, they recently lowered the amount of time sellers have from 7 days to 3 days. The biggest problem here is that those 3 days are not “Business days”. I have actually gotten an A-Z claim on Friday evening before a holiday weekend. Since we are not open 24/7 like silly old Amazon is, I came in Tuesday morning to find that Amazon had both let us know about the A-Z claim Friday evening AND automatically debited us Tuesday morning. Without any chance to respond. Wow.
I’ve also had customers file claims of “didn’t receive item” when tracking didn’t even show it was delivered, and then they won because we couldn’t prove delivery, despite the fact that it wasn’t even supposed to be delivered when they originally filed the claim and we couldn’t get the customer to retract their claim.
I understand taking the customer’s side when they just say they didn’t receive something. Carriers make mistakes. But if it hasn’t even delivered yet, clearly they are engaging in fraud. Or at least just being dicks/stupid. Maybe they even clicked the wrong order. I’ve had numerous customers that accidentally requested a return or cancellation on the wrong order.
It doesn’t even really matter if this is water under the bridge to a large company. It still hurts smaller businesses, and it’s just pointless stupidity and a waste of time. It could all be EASILY made much better. It would even save Amazon time.
Step 1, require a customer contact the seller first before allowing an A-Z claim. At least on non Amazon fulfilled orders. Allow 24 BUSINESS hours before the A-Z claim can be filed.
Step 2, require that tracking actually show delivered before customer can file an A-Z claim, or that the expected delivery time be expired. No claims before it has expired just because it is supposed to deliver the following day and then it expires and you lose.
Step 3, allow 3 BUSINESS days for the claim to be responded to. No claims being granted early either unless you respond to it. This includes the “same day” claims I have seen Amazon doing. There is no reason to not give a seller 3 days to contact the carrier or do their due diligence.
There could probably be a few other things, but these 3 things could all be automated and would only help sellers, without really negatively impacting the good, honest buyers.
Well all I can say is buyers are getting taken a well. I stopped payment on a pallet of bottled water which when you tracked the ups shipment it says weighed 1.1 lb. How does a pallet of water bottled for which I was charged $504 weight 1.1 lbs? Amazon customer service is the worst and its not like you can speak to a specialist. I have purchased thousands of dollars from amazon over the years and never a problem and now this is how they treat me.
If they did not have me tethered to them because of the thousands in ebooks I have purchased I would never do business with them again.
I don’t understand what this woman’s problem is??? It is worth noting that all the issues I’ve had have been from women… They tend to be vicious when they return, and for me, 100% of my “buy it and if i don’t like it return it A-to-Z people.” It sounds to me that you “stopped payment, no?” Maybe the weight was a typo? Either way, that’s not your problem.
That’s what this entire thread has been about! If, when you get the package, and it is NOT what you ordered, THEN you place an “A-to-Z Claim.” We’re simply pointing out that more often than not, it’s used in VERY dubious ways. There wouldn’t be anything to say to Amazon had you contacted anyone? If you “Stopped Payment” on a shipment before you received it then what could Amazon do about it? More importantly, what would you ask Amazon to do about it? Would you ask them to punish the Seller? In that case that would be horrific because you never received the package, thus, you don’t know if it was simply a typo or maybe the seller had a special deal with UPS where he put 1.1 lbs. no matter the weight for whatever reason.
If the TRACKING # said it was “En route,” then there wasn’t an issue with the shipment, thus the postage was paid in full. If not, then the balance would have been forwarded over to the recipient, in which you’d simply refuse the shipment and get your money back. The seller would, I’m certain, give you a refund, and if not, THE IDEAL USE OF THE ATOZ if you ask me.
I think this is a great example of the problem, for some reason buyers have this idea that they are special? The sellers ARE exchanging a product of equal or greater value for their currency, it’s not as though the buyer is giving them money bc they have cool photos. I could go on and on, the sense of entitlement among Amazon buyers is second to none. I attribute the fact that Amazon is NOT in the business of “retail.” Instead, Amazon is in the business of “Customer Acquisition/Retention,” therefore, they are concerned with the value of a potential customer throughout a lifetime, and will compromise their sellers to ensure their buyer relationships are strong. Even if it means “screwing over their sellers,” bc lets face it, in most cases, if they lose a seller, they have 20 others selling the exact same product for the exact same price. The beauty of being Amazon.
It was a case of fraud. Someone tried to scam me, and I was not happy. Amazon in the end took care of it.
You don’t actually know that until you receive it. Carriers tend to only spot check weights. Otherwise they put the weight on that they are told be the seller, which as indicated, could be a typo. You should have waited until it arrived. If it was wrong, take pictures if you need. As the other responder indicated, buyers are extremely protected by the A-Z claim. There are multiple other things you could have done that would all been more correct and fair to the seller without putting yourself in any risk.
If nothing else, you can always reject the pallet. Sign it short, or sign it as “not the correct item”. If it is a pallet then it would require signing for. If it was not a pallet, then it probably wouldn’t require a signature, in which case you would still win. And of course if it was rejected, then it would not have “proof of delivery” and if they didn’t refund you, you would ALSO win.
Now, maybe you received it and it ended up being some dinky little package. Maybe that even made you feel vindicated. Still might not have been fraud though. They could have just accidentally sent the wrong item. Maybe they would have taken care of you once they were made aware of the problem. The point is the same though. You did not try or give them any opportunity to fix it. There is no reason to jump on it like that. Tracking metrics are notoriously inaccurate. You don’t wind up with less protection if you wait. All you do is remove the element of “certainty”
See, what could also have happened is that the totally honest seller received a chargeback, and then immediately had to request a return on their shipment. Pallet shipping is not cheap either, being probably in the 100-150$ range. A shipper that has to request a return to sender would end up eating the shipping both ways. If you never received the shipment, I can almost guarantee that is what happened. Sorry. They would not have called back something that was just junk or an empty box.
The point is the same. There was no reason to chargeback based on just the tracking information. If you are truly concerned when you see something in the tracking, message the seller. Heck, maybe they accidentally sent you the wrong tracking number. I know our company has done that. The point is, you do not know. If it turned out to be an actual scam, then you got lucky, because you sure as heck didn’t know that based off just the tracking number.
I know it was fraud because I was charged something I did not order, and they took my money. The address that it was shipped to was not my address, there was a mistake in the so called pallets of water and the weight, etc.
“I was charged something I did not order”
Your original comment does not indicate this. You specifically stated that you stopped payment on a pallet of something, with no indication that it was not something you ordered.
Furthermore, Amazon does not allow orders to be placed without your account. If an order got placed with your Amazon account, either your account got hacked or someone had access to it in your family.
But it sounds like your story is changing. Again, your original post indicated that you stopped payment because you saw the weight indicating on the shipment for something that should have been a palette and should have weighed much more. That makes it sound like you knew what it was supposed to be because it was ordered. I get it about the weight. I have been doing this for years. The company I work for does weight verification for everything that goes out and a palette weighs at least 20 pounds, usually 25-30, and more if you have items on it. But again, you are not correct that the weight by itself is a good indication. There are a number of reasons why that could happen. Another problem I see is that you are saying it wasn’t shipping to your address. Amazon will not allow any shipments to go to an address other than what is approved by them. If a company does not ship to the address that came through from Amazon, then you can win an A-Z claim easy. Super easy. As in, Amazon will grant the claim 100% of the time.
But did you contact the seller? It doesn’t sound like it. Did you try to resolve the problem? Maybe ask for an explanation? Again, I’ve been doing this for years. That’s literally all I do most days is work with Amazon customers of ours.
Personally, something sounds off in your story. Either you aren’t giving all the facts now, or didn’t before, or both. And based on what you have already said, it sounds like you didn’t contact the seller first to resolve it. You went right to stopping payment at the first moment something seemed questionable. And you know what? Maybe it was fraud. My point remains the same. You are supposed to, per Amazon policy, contact the seller first to give them a chance to respond.
The good news is that if you did a charge-back, Amazon probably ate it and you didn’t impact the seller. Amazon doesn’t usually charge the seller when a customer stops payment, especially when the customer didn’t contact the seller first and try to resolve it.
99% of the time Amazon is a buyers market. You can say all you want that seller fraud happens, but it almost never does and you as a buyer on Amazon are heavily, heavily protected. It is almost impossible to actually defraud a buyer. Companies can try, but they will fail, and so most companies don’t try. If something happens, it is almost always just what is called “a mistake”, and not intentional. Regardless, Amazon rules in favor of the buyer almost every single time, and it is so, so much easier for buyers to engage in successful fraud, it’s almost funny.
I have just been hit with the A to Z claim fraud and since I am not a regular seller on Amazon and am just a private person, not a big business person, I had no idea what the problem was.
I clearly described the very used condition of the book and marked it “used-very good.” Apparently, I should have said “used-good,” but I have been selling for ten years and never had any problems of complaints. I am honest and just describe the book very clearly and plainly in normal language. I really didn’t know that Amazon has rules on the the difference in the two phrases, and I thought it really was in very good condition.
The buyer initiated communication by first threatening me with the claim if I did not give him at least 30% off the price. I thought he was joking, no way! He was very aggressive and threatening and I had no idea what he was talking about. If you bought the book as ‘already used and filled in,’ then that’s what you get.
I said no, and he insisted. I said, if you don’t want the book send it back. No, I choose to keep it. Ok, then that’s that. No refund. Turns out, he is a professional textbook seller on Amazon and he had relisted my book for almost three times the paid price. He filed the claim and within hours, Amazon paid out. When I told them that he was selling my book for almost three times the price he paid, they didn’t seem to care. Apparently, reselling books is against Amazon policy but – no one is willing to do anything about this. Even with screen shots of my book on his page, they didn’t do anything. So this awful, predatory and abusive and insulting buyer is able to get my book, the price paid and his new 175% profit. And I have a terrible seller rating now, because of the claim. It doesn’t seem fair that honest people get exploited and Amazon favors the thieves. It makes me really upset still – very, very unfair. I just don’t understand how it is allowed and tolerated.
Who is the book seller, or at least, what town or city? Sounds like one to avoid. The predatory rise to the top. Or will soon, with Amazon.
This Rayah “Abby” Aladdin is a shady character.
Same here, I’ve been selling for years and now suddenly three different people claim they never received my books? Either media mail with USPS has stopped working, or the number of scammers are increasing fast. I predict the latter, and this will, in the future, hinder and lose many Amazon sellers. It already has for me; they shut me down because three cheap paperback books supposedly never arrived. Even with delivery insurance, there is no way to prove otherwise. Watch how fast this problem increases. Since my business is now shut down without warning by Amazon, and they still owe me funds, I’m selling my inventory and getting out of the business. Amazon is lavish and forgiving to the buyers, and very hard on the sellers. Sellers beware, you can be shut out of business by Amazon at the drop of a hat, and the reason is scammers.
I got a failure to deliver notice from the USPS yesterday. After going through emails, I realized that it was an iPhone that I had sold last week on Amazon (same name and address). I haven’t picked it up at the Post Office, so don’t know if there is anything fishy with the return. In the back of my mind, I was suspicious. The funny thing is that I still have not received any request for return from the buyer. In fact last night, I sent message to the buyer asking if they had returned the iphone. I have not gotten any response from that message either. Seems fishy for sure.
Crazy! similar story here! You’ll enjoy this: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=239302&start=0&tstart=0&sortBy=date
Scammers got us too this past season. We have a dedicated in-house on-line sales dept that has been selling for years on Amazon and then this wave hit. It all but shut us down on Amazon all due to buyer scams. We’re done with Amazon and shifting 100% resources over to ebay where we can actually control our business. Thanks for the great years Amazon but you suck now! See ya!
I’ve sold on eBay for years before switching to Amazon. PayPal and eBay are no different when it comes to the “the customer is always right” policy. Eventually, you will run to similar problems as many already have. No platform is perfect. You just gotta know how to play their game and protect yourself as best as you can.
In the article, had the seller completely checked the product before he issued the refund, all this wouldn’t of happened. He can even go one step farther and ship the item with the serial number on the label. When he gets a return, double check the serial number inside the OS.
Of course, there’s no 100% full proof way but this would make it a lot harder for the average Joe to pull an average scam.
The problem with the whole “Not as Described” return option is that they don’t have way of vetting these claims. If they are going to offer this policy, Amazon could easily as the buyer to provide proof? They don’t, and it’s strange. You know have to “Prove a Negative…” You can’t win. It’s exactly like the whole, “Do xxx beat xxxx wife…” question, I omitted the y*%$’s from the sentence because it’s that problematic, even if I said it in a message there’d be a huge a problem, see? You can’t base a policy that adversely punishes sellers for no reason. ESPECIALLY if I don’t have the product to prove my case. And as the author pointed out, they can simply use another item and say, “Yeah, this is what they sent me?” Hence the SELLER RATINGS, which get screwed up bc of people like this, but if they have seller ratings, then it should be a buyer beware, if the buyer buys from people with high seller ratings then there shouldn’t be a problem, but this, this, this is an AWFUL policy. The only reason they do it because it gets them more customers, which is there business, NOT commerce, it’s customer acquisition and retention, so they have their information, that’s it. And with the A-to-Z claims, they know they’ll retain those customers, forget the sellers, they’ll sell with them NO MATTER WHAT if they’re making money, and if not, well amazon doesn’t need them anyways. It’s an ethical thing, and Amazon loses hands down in that department.
These has ALWAYS been the fault with buying/selling online. As said before, there are no 100% full proof way to do this. As in your example, the buyer can easily say “this is what the seller sent me instead,” but a seller can easily pull that “scam” as well. The main thing is, when the UPS guy delivers the package, you open the package IN FRONT of them BEFORE you sign for it. Granted, they probably won’t wait long enough for you to throughly check the contents but at lease you can quickly check the serial number, or if they sent you a brick. Refuse the package if you are not satisfied.
The way to properly play their game is to check that off as a loss and write it off. As a fact of any business, you will always have some “bad customers.” Fortunately, there are many more good customers then scammers.
Unfortunately, for those once-a-while sellers, a scam can be devastating. If you really can’t afford to lose one or two sales to fraud, then sell them on Craig’s list with cash. It may take a little longer with the hassle of meeting strangers but you avoid fraud, and eBay/PayPal/Amazon fees, which can net you more then if you sell it online. Just make sure you follow all the safety precautions with selling F2F.
In my personal experience, I’ve had many claims filed against me that I won. Amazon still refunded them BUT did not deduct my account because I did everything by the book.
As true as most of this is, a good deal of this could be mitigated by decent Amazon seller support. Amazon also has the ability to see seller history, which should be taken into account, and also should use some amount of discretion and actual investigation.
The reality is that they don’t. I work at a large company, one that is still struggling in this economy. This is only made worse by Amazon’s abysmal support. We have won some claims, but also lost quite a few for no good reason. I have had customers win claims for items that have not even arrived yet. I have had them win claims for items that were signed for and we provided the POD. I have had them win claims because Amazon sent the A-Z notification late Friday evening after people were no longer working and it was granted on Monday when it was a holiday and nobody was working. It’s ridiculous and there is no logic to a lot of the rules they have in place. They moved from 7 days to respond to 3 days recently, just enough time to enable the aforementioned holiday weekend impossible situation. Why not 3 business days? What sense does that make? What buyer would be harmed by making these rules more logical?
Amazon wins because they get more total customers, but in the long run, it enables buyer fraud. It is TOTALLY possible to stop most seller fraud without enabling so much buyer fraud, but Amazon loves it because it increases their total customer base and buyers still feel compelled to buy direct from Amazon because they don’t “trust” separate sellers. Amazon is effectively the bully on the playground. The cyber commerce mob.
I too noticed a rise in Amazon frauds. It’s a paradise for buyers who love to scam marketplace sellers. I sold a mint condition cell phone, shipped with signature confirmation. The buyer immediately opens a A-Z claim saying it’s not as described. Created a return label for him and when i got the phone back, it was a completely different one. It was only a shell. I contacted Amazon who did absolutely nothing. Filed a BBB and basically went nowhere. The buyer is always right. Amazon has created an environment that allows and promotes fraud.
I just found your article because I’m going through a similar situation now. I sold a product, entered the UPC & Amazon’s automated product description of the item matching the UPC showed the wrong color. Since I was unable to alter the title I used the comments section to clearly identify (in capital letters) it’s correct color. The Amazon product description identified the product correctly otherwise. The buyer then contacted me to return it because the product wasn’t “the right size”, although the sizing info was correct in the description. When I listed the item I listed returns for defective items only. I denied the return because I know my seller profile showed my return policy & it’s difficult for me to accept returns because she didn’t read the description. She then filed a A-Z claim on me saying it was the wrong color (something she had no concern with in her previous messages to me which suggests that she did see the statements about the color in the comments section (before purchase) as well as on the sale conformation (before shipping) and the shipping conformation as well.
I responded to the A-Z and restated my response and this morning I get an email telling me to send the buyer my return info. this was despite the fact that there was no determination made, I responded confused saying I wasn’t willing to take a return on it. Finally I get another message telling me they refunded the buyer!!! I’m so aggravated.
I had a very similar experience with amazon as well. It borders on intent to commit fraud. The buyer purchased a tablet from me, and then submitted an A to Z claim with the reason code “completely different product shipped” but in the discription stated that his friend he ordered it for left a day earlier then he expected so he didn’t need it anymore. Despite my appeal amazon sided with the buyer. Presumably because they did not read any of the email chain, or even the description of the claim from the buyer. As a result they allowed buyer to receive full refund and keep the tablet. Amazon will not release a phone number to call the buyer. Our only recourse at this point it to pursue a legal case against the buyer for intending to defraud me.
Looks like Mail Fraud to me, maybe the sellers need to gather together and inform the post office. Maybe a charge of “Accessory after the fact”might get Amazon’s attention.
I really hope you’re joking…
Amazon buyers are looting sellers as Baltimore City…Why don’t we reunite and do same to amazon as well!
From March to today date I have dealt with lot scammers.
I am basic cell phones and smartphones…and the buyers are abusing with A to Z opportunity kinda a black Friday.
Well now perhaps it’s payback time! If this jerk lives at the same address, advertise a yard sale at 5am at his address on Craigslist. Or advertise in the personals “man needed for fun”. When they respond, give his address!! Is this nice? Of course not, but getting ripped off isn’t nice either. Be sure to set up a separate email account!
ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO ME! Ahhhggg, I just about lost my mind. The buyer had purchased a product from me, and in the TITLE I had the color, “Fuchsia with Hot Pink Border.” Well, the buyer requested a return stating it was “Not as Described…” Claiming it was “More purple than pink…” I told the buyer I would issue a FULL refund as soon as I received the item, and on top of that, that I would pay the return postage if in fact it was not as described. Moreover, i pasted the “Webster-Merriam” dictionary definition of “Fuchsia – a BRIGHT PURPLISH-PINK COLOR…” That was when the buyer immediately filed an A-to-Z claim, with, just as you said, completely DIFFERENT reasons it was not as described??? Amazon never sent the WARNING email, the one telling me I had 3 days to make my case, but it wasn’t delivered, and the Customer Service person FINALLY admitted that, but apparently I was too late in my reply once I finally found the case, just after it closed. They told me the SAME EXACT thing, “Sorry, nothing we can do, it’s final.” But again, they hadn’t yet debited it out of my account yet, they could have looked at my “Instructions to buyer,” and saw plain as day that the buyer REFUSED to follow those instructions? I also pointed them to the CASE I OPENED WHEN SHE INITIALLY FILED THE RETURN, I called amazon to go over the issue, and they agreed, as i did EXACTLY what they told me to??? I was waiting for the item… I NEVER RECEIVED MY PRODUCT BACK! To me, it feels like Amazon literally stole from me… It’s a violating feeling to know the buyer just has to say, “not as described” and then as you point out, “File an A-to-Z claim,” and poof! FREE PRODUCT! Everybody wins, except those responsible for making Amazon the real money, the sellers. I sell a patented product they can’t get anywhere else, and as such, if i don’t sell them, Amazon loses ALL THE MONEY I MAKE FOR THEM! I’m the equivalent of 100’s of buyers? Yet they don’t care about that… I’m done selling with them, BY THE WAY – The SELLERS NAME IS:
“Lia Hernandez” SELLER BEWARE! VERY MUCH BEWARE. She is a thief. If you can’t afford $29.99 don’t shop online. Period.
PLEASE HELP, ANYONE! CALL ME @ 850-460-5933 IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION OR ADVISE THAT WILL HELP ME WITH THIS ISSUE ONLY.
I am a seller on amazon and have maintained by hard work and patience, 100% seller rating and top account health. I am going to try to keep this simple as possible because I am so tired of explaining this to customer service and through many, many emails and messages on claims and cases.
1) Buyer purchased an item as a gift and I was provided the information (name, address) to the person who the gift was for.
2) Package was shipped out same day no problems.
3) A couple weeks passed and I see a message in my inbox from the buyer saying that she wants a refund for the item immediately because it never arrived.
4) I responded to the buyer that I was investigating the issue immediately and would respond soon.
5) I tracked the package, it was delivered early at the residence that the buyer provided.
6) I then told the buyer what I found and that I was not going to provide a refund to her because the package was delivered and if she wants the refund then she will have to have the item returned.
7) Due to how suspicious the who thing felt, I immediately opened a case just to advise seller support of the problem encase anything else happened. Seller rep. responded and said they blocked the buyer from leaving feedback and that the issue was taken care of.
8) I wake up and log on the next day and my seller health is FAIR and rating 70.92. I then saw that the buyer opened an a-z claim accusing that the item was never delivered to her friend, she had said many things about calling her friend and how her friend checked everywhere and talked to neighbors, then concluded that the item was not there. The claim was accepted and the buyer refunded the money before I even know it was opened.
7) I appealed the case and began my own investigation. To make it short, I looked up the address on google maps, located the home and called a church that was located just in front of the home. The church had a member go to the home and deliver a note stating “Please call (seller) at (my number) as there has been theft, someone has been stealing packages off your porch.
8) I received a call almost 10 minutes after talking to the church and to my great relief I was talking to the woman who the package was sent to! This woman was a sweet older woman, mid 60’s and confused. I did not want to blow it out of proportion, I just wanted to make sure that the buyer wasn’t lieing so I gently and nicely proceeded by asking her if she had a book called “the name of the item I shipped” She immediately said yes I actually received this from someone and it was delivered a week ago. I love the book etc. I am actually on page 20.” I then was almost in tears because I knew I had been right all along, that the claim was a fraud and I now had proof and (I TOOK EVERY ITEM I SOLD ON AMAZON DOWN SINCE THIS HAPPENED). I was now going to get this claim appealed and the thief will be caught and I can list and sell all weekend (this was a Friday).
9) Now, Mary (not real name) but the recipient of the package was on the phone with me and I asked if she had the invoice paper that would have been in the package with the book she received. This is another point of happiness.. She told me, actually I have been using it has my bookmark. I asked her to read me information off the bookmark and she named the order, the name of my account, and the fake name used to purchase the book “ann wright”.
10) At this point I asked if she knew who sent the package and if she had told them about receiving it. She said that she had no clue at first who ann wright was, however she did call her cousin ‘Diana, or diane’ who loves the author and confirmed that she had been the person that sent the gift, and that happened days before the fraudulent claim that it had not been delivered.
11) Now I explained to this woman what was going on, that she had to fault and I need her help to restore my account and also that she could accept the book as a gift from me (the buyer was refunded without my permission so she didn’t buy it, also Amazon stole the money to give it to her.)
12) I had the buyer agree to stay on the phone while I called seller support and make a statement and provide her information for further investigation if needed all to help get the claim off my record and restore my account to its 100 rating. She did so and the rep. put the information into the case and later that afternoon, I received a message from a-z claims saying that they are standing behind the decision to the claim. I then responded, called and opened up more cases in the effort to get by this lazy employee trying to cover her own butt. I told them I don’t care about the book, I can get over the theft of my money by amazon but I would not accept this answer while I don’t get an explanation at all about why this claim stands, my performance killed when the whole claim was ‘item not delivered’ and the recipient already told them that she received the order and told the friend that bought it.
13)I also was told that I would get no further responses, but the case is still in appeal because I just reopened it for the third time, a case was also opened to reach out to someone and have them turn this claim into someone in authority over a-z and not the actual employee that did this to me, I recommended the company fire about 3 people and pay me for 3 days of work, since I have been dealing with this fraudulent claim and still poor health since Thursday night and at this point 4 days…
14) I will not give up, but I need a different approach, I cant reach an actual competent employee obviously, if I had, this would have been eradicated last week. I have called a lawyer based on the fact that they have stolen from me, this person is on standby as I hope to see that someone will get this fixed Monday. I am prepared to get the police involved ‘internet fraud’. Also prepared to call back the recipient and talk to her again, maybe somehow get in contact with the actual buyer.. This is really worn me out. I need someone to help me here, I deserve my performance to represent the truth, and right now it represents the employees that have dealt with the claim and even that rating is too high for them.. If anyone has any advice or recommendations on this issue and getting my seller rating restored due to the claim being completely false. Please call! Thank you!!
I purchased something I needed as soon as possible from an amazon listing. Nowhere when I purchased it did it tell me it was coming from China until after I bought it. I left a question about this item asking other people who now I think were only phony reviewers if it really took an entire month to receive this. The person who sold it to me answered LYING THAT HE HAD BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT ME NUMEROUS TIMES AND PHONE ME WHICH HE HAD NOTTT!! Now, I looked up the tracking number and IT IS PHONY AS WELL!!
PLEASE tell me who I can contact at Amazon to let them know what a scammer this man is! I have found nothing and it won’t let me contact them through their A to Z program and now I have to find the money to buy a second item which is going to take forever to arrive. 🙁
Sincerely,
Stolen From
I got burned by Lookout Wholesale, LLC from Chattanooga, TN. If you see this buyer, then “lookout.” I found on Better Business Bureau and elsewhere that this buyer will make claims that the received book is water damaged or a different version than ordered. They will then file an A-to-Z and you’ll be out your book and your money.
Thank you for your info. now i feel really unsure about how amazon fight against fraud. Amazon seems to protect the buyer better than seller like all other platforms do. but we really need a fair treatment as seller.
I am also a victim of mail order fraud and Amazon refuses to do anything about it. Both Amazon & the seller approved return of an item i purchased that was far from described. I returned the item to the seller. The seller said I would receive a full refund within 3 business days. The results are the seller has the merchandise and my money and Amazon refuses to issue the refund that i am entitled to. And this person is STILL SELLING ON AMAZON! I have sent Amazon Proof of return shipping, proof that the seller has the item, proof that Amazon approved the return and full refund and have gotten nowhere with Amazon. Amazon keeps blowing me off with their A to Z Guarantee Policy. I’ve lost $150 no thanks to Amazon’s blatantly refusing to issue the refund I am entitled to and ignoring this fraudulent seller. i have filed complaints against Amazon & this fraudulent with the BBB, the USPS Gov. Mail Order Unit and every legal fraud unit. And I still have nothing. A friend who is a seller on Amazon told me to contact Jeff at Amazon and was shocked when I told him that Jeff not only had another Customer Service Rep at Amazon respond to my email, but Jeff has also blown me off. I’m a senior who can’t afford to lose money and losing $150 really hurts in more ways than one!
I totally agree! I sell consumer electronics and am being ripped off by fraudulent buyers routinely and Amazon so far sanctioned and even encouraged every illegal activity by the buyer. Talking or pleading with Amazon won’t help, there is no one to protect the right of the seller. Just now a customer in France claims he did not receive his €800 iPhone despite delivery confirmation and me being able to see he activated the device on the said date.
He never contacted but me immediately opened an A-Z claim and despite me sending it with a service that requires signature the French post did not take one and Amazon is siding with the customer despite delivery confirmation by both Royal Mail and La Poste (I’m shipping from the UK). And there are countless more examples like the switching over a return for a different product and so on. I am loosing thousands a year to fraudulent Amazon buyers and I need some legal protection or advice.
i think lots of problems and fraud can be avoided if sellers documented what they were mailing out by taking pics and recording serial #’s. also recording weight of package or product- __takes only a few seconds and only a couple megabytes to store on pc.
as a buyer on amazon- i make sure to document my purchases by photographing what i received and keeping pics on my pc in case i have to return item_ also useful to add to product reviews..
b4 reading this i never even considered that amazon and marketplace vendors could be the victims of fraud- i had only ever thought it was buyers/customers that would be victims of fraud by unscrupulous sellers.
i’ve received products other than what was pictured/described- the vendor advertising 1 thing and sending another- even when providing amazon photographic proof– they would not allow me to warn prospective buyers in my product review_ they say there is a separate area to leave vendor feedback.
b4 posting this comment- i read thru all the other posts below- it seems all the sellers did the right things- had proof and still were denied justice from amazon_ i would think the only option left to you is to begin a class action law suit- ban together and use your combined power and release info to the media__ i imagine amazon would be more receptive when their unfair practices are made very public by bad press and class action law suit.
Dear all.
I have place order #402-1414994-2582701 of Lenovo K3 Note Music in the price of ₹9199. 00.
Delivery date was 9th April 2016.
But Amazon send me mail your package found damaged so we can’t deliver defective product to @ so we are refunding you your money.
I have opposed for refunding and asked for new same mobile in same price cause price increased on Site ₹9199.00 to ₹11599.00. But after knowing my concern the have hold my money and without informed to me they have initiated refund on my bank account on 19aprl.
I have asked why this, if there is no mistake of me.
So customer service executive suggest me to by a same new mobile from our site and they will refund difference amount to my bank account.
They have taken follow off for new mobile purchase regularly.
After mobile delivery the told for fill your bank detail in our site I have updated as guided by them.
After filling all detail I have mailed to customer service please now refund my money.
After this long period more then one month all customer service executive replying that you have got wrong information from their site, we are unable to refund.
My humble questions are:
1. What was my mistake?
2. Why Customer service executive make me fool?
3. What action taken on your delivery agency who damaged my order.?
4. What action you will take all these customer service executives who misguided me?
Please help.
Im so happy I came across this article when I had an issue with this. I am a casual seller on Amazon and had my first scammer hit me. When Amazon sent me the email telling me to refund the customer I figured there was some type of holding system in place that would allow me to verify when I had received the product back, and it would then release the money to the customer….nope. Having never dealt with a return on Amazon (which BTW is so much worse than through PayPal or eBay) it wasn’t very clear how it worked and their instructions are vague.
After days and days of being on the phone with support they finally transferred my case to their billing department but they only have email support. After that point it was impossible to talk to a person. Every response that I receive was a canned response and I could tell they didn’t even read my emails, I am under the impression their aren’t even any real people but bots that reply to the emails, but I have not way to verify that. I think this article is what finally saved me. I sent them a link to this article and I asked them if I needed to get legal representation involved to help me out and get someone on the phone to discuss what I could do to remedy the situation. A few hours later I got a response saying the customer had refunded my money since he was keeping the product. I have no proof if this article helped me out but I am so glad I found it, because I personally do not think I would have received a refund without it. I would have been out $250 and with no product, I am not a business to it would have been a major loss for me.
I will never sell anything on Amazon again and I highly suggest if you are not a business, DO NOT sell things on Amazon. They have zero support for sellers and if you cant risk losing hundreds of dollars it is not worth it. I will stick with eBay from now on for my occasional selling.
In my research of this issue it looks like there are hundreds if not thousands of sellers who have all gone through this. it baffles me that Amazon has done nothing to protect its sellers or prevent scammers. Does anyone know if a class action law suit has ever been brought up against Amazon for this or if something like that is even possible?
Great article – wish I could post a link to it on the amazon seller forums, but that would get me banned.
I am currently dealing with another seller placing fraudulent orders just so they can file Item Not as Described Complaints.
i am dealing with a similar situation. Any insight on how to deal with this?
Michae, how did you suit go? It has been claimed that Amazon will terminate sellers that sue buyers over fraud.
I just went through a similar situation with amazon, but I was the buyer. Amazon denied my a-z claim despite me copy/pasting the emails the seller and I had within the first 30 days when they said they would not issue a refund, which is the direct opposite of their a-z guarantee. And just as you, I got stuck with some overseas idiot who apparently couldn’t read the English language. I am just going through my credit card company now to get a refund because the level of stupidity is absurd.
My Husband and I, are experiencing buyer fraud on an a-z guarantee claim similar to what you wrote your article about. In short, we sold a $4000 collectors Lego set (taj mahal) to a buyer. 2 weeks after receiving the set they requested a refund stating that the wrong item was sent. We replied to the buyer requesting more info, as we had sent the right item. They never replied and just pursued an a-z guarantee claim. They forced us to authorize the refund which we did. 2 weeks later, the package arrived (from Florida, we are both in California) and it was not the collectors Lego set we had sent. It was some cheap, poor condition, Lego palace theatre set that was not even the same. We wrote a-z claims explaining the buyer fraud and how they are not entitled to a refund. Every time we would email them, we would get some copy and pasted reply from someone in India who had not even read our email. They instructed us that we could issue a partial refund if the item was not in original condition (completely missing the point) so we issued a $25 refund, since they sent back a different item. We have continued going back and forth with them for an additional 2 weeks with more incompetence from a-z guarantee and finally got Amazon to call us back yesterday, it was not a good time to talk so they said they would call us back shortly, they called back at 4 in the morning which of course our phones were off and we didn’t answer. Since we did not answer, they closed the claim and charged our credit card the $4,000 for the refund. We have since marked it as a fraudulent charge with our credit card and tried to contact them again with no response. It is clearly fraud, and we have numerous evidence to prove it including testimony from the shipping company employee who packed it and the fact that the package we sent them and the package they returned were several pounds different in weight. I am hoping Amazon resolves this, but not likely.
I sell new products on Amazon and identical, imperfect units on ebay. I recently had a customer buy an imperfect unit on ebay for less than half the price of a new one, then just a few days later she bought a full-priced, new unit on amazon. Fearing the worst (that she intended to send back the imperfect ebay unit inside the Amazon box), I videotaped my employee packing the brand new unit and we drove it to FedEx (all on tape). A week later, as expected, she requested a return. When we received the return, I again videotaped my employee opening the return and, lo and behold, it was the ebay cabinet (which we secretly mark to prevent situations like these). We called her out on it and she admitted it. Victory us.
I share this story so that other Amazon sellers might consider secretly marking their items and/or videotaping the packing of high cost items for evidence. If enough people do it and this laundering practice is thwarted, maybe it will go away.
I am not a seller on amazon and I found this thread because I was trying to find out how to track a refund because amazon emailed me that I was being refunded but it isn’t showing in my order details that I am being refunded. I hate that people do those kinds of things. I just recently bought an item on amazon and somehow i got a tracking number to someone else’s package which of course went to their address. Their package was 3lbs mine was 106lbs. I called amazon and tried to get help and amazon forced the seller to refund me rather than find my item and try to figure out where it was or what was going on. Now there is still a chance my item I ordered could get here. I feel horrible for the seller because it is not guaranteed the item will not get to me. It was a tracking number mix up is my understanding. Amazon is all sorts of screwed up. The sellers from what I see are not protected and buyers can rip people off. So now I will sit here watch for the possible package and when it gets here, luckily I have a direct email to the people I purchased the item from, I will be having them re pull the money out praying the refund went in my account since the refund takes forever. I wish people (buyers) would be more truthful but some people are not. Wish me luck Santa delivers the playground. Not all of us buyers are bad people.
Hey Jeff, great article. What amazon is doing is clearly wrong. I think Sellers aggreived in such cases should get to together and go for a class action suit. any thoughts?
…/5j1iz7/proposal_class_action_suit_against_amazon_because/
Sorry, Reddit censors me , so I can’t promote links to them anymore.
I am a victim of Amazon’s a-to-z guarantee scam. Beware of Amazon’s “A-to-z Guarantee” program. They claim 100% assured. But it is not true. Please read between the lines. Here is my experience: I bought this shaving bursh holder: http://amzn.in/3YG3lIX. It did not fit my brush. http://holla.freeshell.org/shaving-brush-holder.jpg. When I tried to return I found out that this product was categorized as ‘beauty product’ by Amazon and I cant return it. So I raised a claim under Amazon.com ‘s “A-to-z Guarantee” program and this is the reply i received:
Hello,
We have closed this claim because the A-to-z Guarantee does not cover the problem that you reported.
The seller does not have to accept a return because this type of item cannot be returned. Although we understand your position, our A-to-z Guarantee does not supplement or replace a seller’s return policy.
To learn more about coverage, visit the A-to-z Guarantee help page (www.amazon.in/help/atoz). To learn more about our return policies, search for “About Our Returns Policies” in Seller Central Help.
— Order Number: 406-7076137-5806710
— Claim Date: 25 December 2016
Sincerely,
—
Account Specialist
A-to-z Guarantee Program
No you weren’t. You didn’t make sure it would work before you ordered. You aren’t guaranteed that an A-Z claim will always go in your favor. It does not say that anywhere.
****I am reposting this on as many forums as I can find to educate people to call customer service and NOT the seller center!!****
****I am reposting this on as many forums as I can find to educate people to call customer service and NOT the seller center!!****
Wow, this is unbelievable. I just had a buyer (Orenee Powell – 330-289-4187) do this exact thing and am in shock that the simple sale of a brand new, never opened product could go so wrong! This is such an insane experience and to have Amazon ignore all of the written evidence (including filing an incomplete claim *before* the tracking showed delivery to their location) to issue a refund has blown my mind. This was a one-off sale for me so I can easily say that I’ll never sell anything on Amazon again. I feel for retailers who have no choice but to deal with this insanity. This seems like potential grounds for quite the class action lawsuit once the right attorneys become aware of it.
I had requested either an replacement copy, Amazon has the place under Contact Seller Replacement item wanted – damaged or defective item
This item is damaged or defective. Please send me a replacement. If you want the original item back, please authorize a return and provide return shipping instructions.
but the seller never respond back to this , within the email I did wrote that either an replacement was wanted or an full refund for the item since it came damaged, price was low on book item, but it was marked as very good condition, with description of
Condition: Used – Very Good – Book is in great condition. Shipping from
seller respond back with only
Re:inquiry from Amazon customer
I apologize. I didn’t realize the binding was coming apart. I have refunded the full amount,
below I explain more about it, again it was an used book at a low price from an 3rd party seller then the rest of the used prices are a bit higher for this item but again my question has to do with the fact that an full refund was given and I got an refund email message from Amazon that reads reason for refund as Customer returned item which was a lie since it was never returned , I just emailed the seller amazons damaged customer message about the book product, as far as I know I don’t have to return it since it came damaged and seller never requested the damaged book back which has major damage to the spine or binding of this book and would cost me more to return the item than what I paid for it.
I order an used book, and the item was marked as very good condition, the spine of the book was damaged, now when the seller did refund me but it shows up as an return, but I never returned the item, I asked the seller first for an replacement book, they didnt respond to the replacement book Amazon email at all, but they did reply back with the message saying they didnt no the item was in an damaged state being that the spine was broken and they gave me my Amazon gift card money back but from amazons message about the refund they marked it as an return, when I still have the book and the seller didnt provide me with any return request on Amazon, it would cost me more to send the book back then say keep the damaged item, plus the seller never asked for it back, can the refunds reading reason for refund Customer return cause me the buyer any problems in the long run using my Amazon account I was wondering if somehow that could cause me problems buying from the 3rd party Amazon sellers, if I keep getting damaged books when buying very good condition items, since clearly it was an lie the seller marked the item as customer returned when as I get back the money right away with the fact it was paid using Amazon gift cards I got from bing.com searches, I am an student who is buying books and I just happened to get an bad seller that sold me an damaged library book that was not in an very good condition and also happened to have an damaged spine where the book needs some fixing , it is readable but the
binding was coming apart inside this book? thats my question is it ok that the seller refund me but marked the item as if I had returned it which is not true at all, since its still in my home and an return was never requested by the seller and they didnt provide me with any type of package to return the item in either, so I guess I am to keep the item, or just buy an new copy of this book and get ride of the damaged book since not really sure if you can repair books when the binding starts coming apart myself, below is apart of the email on Amazon that shows show it displays an refund item when seller sold an damage item, again I didnt have to return it at all, since the seller just emails you that they are giving you an full refund, they didnt even tell me if they had an replacement copy to send me, right now this title costs more on Amazon to buy again, the other 3rd party seller are charging more for the used item then they seller happened to sell it to me for, I guess that may of been a sign that their was something wrong with this item but from the text in very good condition, it said the book was in good shape, also the condition information never told me it was an library copy of this book, I was trying to buy an non-library copy of this book, but for some reason it looks like the 3rd party sellers dont have to tell you if its either an library copy or ex-library copys only some 3rd party sellers tell you that your buying an library copy the rest of them dont ever tell you that their used books are library books, which is sad for the buyers since you never no what type of used book the seller going to send you for whatever price they list it as.
This below is the Amazon.com email text reading, this titled “Refund on order **MyBooksNumberHere**”
This refund is for the following item(s):
Item: An Book
Quantity: 1
ASIN: 0000000000
Reason for refund: Customer return
Heres the breakdown of your refund for this item:
Shipping Refund: $
Item Refund: $
Notes: I apologize for the damage. I didnt realize that the binding was coming apart. I have provided a full refund. Thanks
Well apply your refund to the following payment method(s):
Gift Card: $
This amount has been credited.
The amount credited to your Gift Card balance should be automatically applied to your next eligible order on our website.