I remember your leaving us last year. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you this time around. I know how frustrating it can be to deal with a lot of customers who have no ethics whatsoever. I am glad that you are working on building your own website. Good luck and may the force be with you.

Have you given thoughts about using other sites like slickdeals to drive more traffic to your website?

Obviously it comes with a cost but to some it may be worth it

Sometimes when i see deals featured ( on slickdeals or similar sites ) i never heard of some of these companies/businesses but when i saw an item i liked and browsed to their website i actually came across other items i liked and decided to buy from some of these vendors more frequently

I know amazon themselves use them and even 3rd party vendors on amazon like to drive their traffic directly to their amazon storefront too

I remember your last year’s thread about leaving Amazon and I was hoping you will update how are you doing now.

Regarding INR, I don’t know if you heard of the policy, but Amazon will now cover all A-Z claims where the shipping was purchased using Buy Shipping Services and also remove any negative feedback regarding issues related to delivery.

It’s true that lots of people are taking advantage of Amazon’s generous customer-centric policies and trying their luck to get refunds at every opportunity. But unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about this, only let Amazon cover the refund.

I am selling the same category of items as you - toys / movie merchandise without having any issues.

IMO, when people buy from a independent online site(small business) they are buying with integrity as they know any type of scam they pull will have a direct impact on the small business seller and 99/100 people just want what they pay for.

when people buy from Amazon its the same as buying from WAL*MART. how many times day in and day out do people pull scams returning used/broken items in a brand new box or use an item for a month(try before you buy) and return it saying its broken when its not they just want money back. these types of customers have been “conditioned” to behave this way over 20+ years as they know the retail giants will eat the cost or get reimbursed in the form of RTV credits from the manufacturer.

most customers do not know or realize that half the items sold on Amazon are from small business or individual sellers only making small profits on few items that they sell. maybe if they knew that a lot of the integrity issues would stop but i doubt it

Some toy sellers, like myself, are still here. So, too, are my long-term trading partners. In 2016, we broke into the top 10% of Amazon sellers. Since then, it’s been all down hill.

Yes, Amazon has turned somewhat honest people into liars and thieves, and the problem advances from bad to worse every day. They’ve also turned into more of a “junk” dealer, rather than the “premier” selling platform they once were. My problem? People come here to buy my products.

Amazon, themselves, have also made it harder for us, because they no longer run out of inventory they compete with us on. They always seem to have 3 left of the most popular products. Upon closer analysis, they’re selling our FBA products, and returning them (probably from another seller) just before they become eligible for reimbursement. So, sales are no longer great.

I, too, have resurrected my website. I got a fantastic Toys Template, that is perfect for us. It’s really cute and simplistic. Just what we were looking for. We just don’t have time to develop it right now. We’re bogged down with getting our seasonal inventory to FBA. Besides that, I spend 3/4 of every day working on Amazon “inflicted” injuries.

It’s nice to hear from you. We wish you all the best.

Funky

I sell on eCRATER as well as here. I get about 1/4 - 1/3 of my yearly sales through eCRATER. Yet the requests for refunds, for whatever reason on Amazon far outweighs those on eCRATER percentagewise. And then if they do write with the stupid excuse that they didn’t know that what they were buying was a sewing pattern, that is not my fault. I try to have sewing pattern in both the title and the description, plus the range of sizes and the types of fabric that you can use to make the item. So why would someone buy a pattern for sizes 8-18 with 5-10 different fabrics that would work to make the garment, a photo of the back and front of the envelope plus the technical drawing on the instructions, even begin to think that what they are getting is a real garment? I have seen this in many reviews on patterns (not just my own) that the buyer was upset to get something with bits of paper instead of the 4-10 items that you can make with the pattern. After several of these sorts of refund requests in the Christmas return timeframe, I started making even yet another reference to what they are buying is a pattern. Now they buy an expensive pattern from me (I had the BB but wasn’t the cheaspest seller) and then was mad that the envelope showed a much lower price than what they paid. I got two of those in ONE DAY a couple of weeks ago! Kind of like someone buying an extremely rare PB book originally priced at 15 cents and the buyer wants to know why you are cheating them when it was only worth 15 cents – 70-80 years ago!

I would be embarassed to admit to the world that I didn’t know what I was buying since I didn’t read anything but the cost of the item. So they don’t or can’t read and they get mad at the seller.

I continue to sell because we need the money, but I am hoping to get the ship turned into a different direction in the next couple years. In the 16 years I have sold online, eCRATER is the only venue that I don’t think I am getting ulcers from selling. I would like to see more sales from there, but I don’t like the idea of having all my eggs in one basket.

Unfair returns and critical reviews are happened to me every day; I feel so frustrated on Amazon because no matter how hard I am handling the customer services, some buyers just left the critical reviews in order to get my attention and request for a refund after a month use, all he did is to dig out a minor thing of the product, get any chances to get refund.

I got a lot of critical reviews, including:

1. Empty box, which was fullfilled by Amazon; Amazon states nothing violate the policy
2. Buyer reviewed my product LOOKS LIKE used, smashed metal gift box which was fullfilled by Amazon as well
3. The critical reviews stated SHOE while I am selling socks
4. A necklace connected with threads and O-Ring, a little bit hard to open; the critical review stated FALL OFF/APART by just wearing it
5. Items are not received, which are fullfilled by Amazon
6. Critical reviews stated the card reader is making the SD memory card from 16G to 16M, HOW? Unless they use the fake SD card
7. Buyer states there are defects on the pendant of necklace and send us messge and ask what we normally do, we asked them to provide images and he just left the critical review, never returned the product. The pendant is forged stainless steel and we made in house, a truck can not even damage the pendant, how simply did he get a defective one?
8. Buyers for critical reviews are saying HARDLY STICKY, NOT WORK FOR METAL & WOOD while others are saying TOO STRONG AND DESTROYED THE NEW INSTALLED WOOD WINDOW SILLS
9. Product works, no issue; the buyer has been used for a month and wanted to refund, he left the critical reviews and even though, we replaced another product in order to keep him happy, all he requested is refund and he knew our listing is one, we got only 1 review from him, but a critical.

My listings are new and we do not have enough reviews to flood the critical reviews, so my listings and sales are having heavy shock or even no sales after the critical review is on.

My returns are not fair, there situation is as below (All items are FBA):

1. EMPTY BOX
2. DAMAGES BY CARRIER
3. UNWANTED WHILE A SINGLE BUYER PURCHASED 15 OR EVEN MORE, FOR EACH RETURN, WE ARE STILL PAYING COMMISSION & SHIPPING TO AMAZON; EACH RETURN, I NEED TO SELL 2 TO MAKE THE FEES EVEN TO AMAZON.
4. CARRIER LOSS
5. DAMAGED BY BUYERS
6. USED BY BUYERS

I understand the return policy and I support it; but the problem is I need to pay Amazon commission and return fees even the issue is not mine. Reimbursement are done as the value Amazon evaulated, not as per the sales price…

I feel so lost on Amazon and frustrated by those unreasonable buyers, also the policy of critical reviews, Amazon allows the critical reviews even though the description does not meet the listing. Amazon is a platform for selling and buying, why does Amazon show the score of REVIEW? Buyers know this very well and they how badly it could be for new listings, there is no chances to have good sales if I do not have enough positive reviews to flood the unfair critical reviews.

I have sent emails to INVESTIGATE & JEFF, maybe it will not help at all; but I am new on Amazon and I work almost 16 hours a day. I did not see a chance I can be successful on Amazon and I am under attack right away by critical reviews if any of my listing is rising on sales…

Amazon is good for new Star wars stuff but Its 50/50 if any of the new stuff will make a profit. a lot of us are still licking our wounds with force awakens clearance.

1 year away from Amazon? If you came back in May and September then thats not a full year. If Amazon is so bad for you or any other sellers that complain on these forums instead of doing something to fix their own problems. Then stop paying the $39.99 per month fee and sell elsewhere. Seems pretty simple to me.