Using signature required delivery
It is becoming increasingly clear that the Amazon guarantee to cover INR’s if you use Amazon buy shipping services is worthless unless you use “signature required delivery.” I just lost my second Saf-t-claim recently for an INR prime order refund issued by Amazon customer service on SFP prime orders.
“Hello,
We are not able to approve your reimbursement request for 112-3007090-5905800.
To be eligible for reimbursement, we suggest you to ship through buy shipping services and use a signature required delivery method.”
My question for all of you is, do any of you actually use signature required on a volume basis ? If so, what are the results as far as your customer service scores/negative reviews ?
Putting aside the costs, it seems to me that the majority of the customers we ship to - especially on SFP orders- are going to be extremely upset when they don’t actually get their product in 2 days but instead get a notice from the post office or UPS that they have a package that must be signed for. I know I would be upset personally. My household like probably the majority of households has nobody at home during the day to receive packages.
We ship an average of about 100 packages a day, about 40% of those are SFP. Mostly home improvement category products. I can see a huge number of negative reviews coming if we switched all those SFP’s to signature required but maybe I am wrong ?
Would like to hear other’s experiences…
Seller_zzrWBZ1N0jY7C
Thanks for asking that question because i am looking for the same answer
seems like at the very least there should be a way to report buyers that we have refunded that claim they did not receive item but tracking shows it delivered . If so delivered then stolen how is it we have to ensure this ? I understand it happens but I do suspect that buyers probably play a game and of course we the seller loose and chunks at a time
If you try to file a claim with postal service that shows delivered you loose . I guess my good thing is i dont sell highly desired items I can imagine what some sellers must endure because first thing Amazon suggest is to refund .
At the least if a buyer makes to many not recived claims then they should not be able to have home delivery rather have to pickup at carrier
Seller_jglZowc8rO988
The have changed the policy and not announced it yet- they will not cover SFP INR without a signature anymore. I got this in writing from them.
Read my thread to see it for yourself:
Seller_Lsb3PzK5M2QYr
I have had more than 5 of my SAFE-T claims denied for the exact same reason. I find it despicable that Amazon rolled out this new policy that is terribly damaging to any SFP seller who is shipping orders under $100 in value.
What would happen if the IRS rolled out new tax laws without any notification AFTER you have submitted your return?
At the moment, Amazon has an SFP INR policy that directly conflicts with the standard INR policy which only requires Amazon Buy Shipping Services to be used to purchase the label plus valid tracking data. Moreover, your carrier insurance won’t cover you either because tracking shows delivery at the customer’s address.
And it’s extremely offensive that this is the new policy while Amazon charges a label fee that they call “insurance” for every label purchased though Buy Shipping Services.
So If I’m selling $30 items I can no longer offer those with Prime? Paying for signature confirmation is obscene for such a transaction. Meanwhile, anyone with experience with Signature Confirmation knows that ~20% of the packages you send with Signature Confirmation end up coming back due to failed delivery.
This is a terrible policy and beyond that, it was deployed in a very abusive manner. Shame!
Seller_0gNollw6fdfD9
From a seller’s perspective, this is a good way to make sure the buyer cannot falsely claim INR, because there are some experienced scammers who manage to keep the item AND get a refund.
From a buyer’s perspective, this is causing inconvenience because if I was not home when the carrier attempted to deliver, I would need to stop by the store and pick it up in person. Some people don’t like to do things out of their schedule. Also, if somehow I was not able to pick the item up during the time frame, the package would be sent back to the seller and I will have to wait for them to ship to me again. This can possibly lead to an unhappy customer and a negative feedback.
I don’t use signature required delivery; so far UPS has done a pretty good job when I file for lost package claims. My most recent case is a buyer claiming he never received the package, but UPS showed it was delivered, and they even confirmed with the UPS driver in that area. So far things seem to be on my side because Amazon seller support can see that I already did everything I could to assist the buyer. So my suggestion would be if you can use a more reliable carrier, you probably won’t need to use signature required delivery.
