How do you deal with violent customers like this? Impersonating Amazon & Threatening Business
At first, the customer pretended to be Amazon to get a returnless refund from us.
We knew they were pretending, so we told them to contact Amazon directly as their order was a FBA order.
Now that they aren't getting their way, they are threatening us as below.
Isn't that criminal activity?
What is the suggested action here??
How do you deal with violent customers like this? Impersonating Amazon & Threatening Business
At first, the customer pretended to be Amazon to get a returnless refund from us.
We knew they were pretending, so we told them to contact Amazon directly as their order was a FBA order.
Now that they aren't getting their way, they are threatening us as below.
Isn't that criminal activity?
What is the suggested action here??
14 replies
Seller_rI7BZIczK8iAC
Report it.
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G200444420?
and add the screenshot you posted here.
Seller_uegrw9t4BikOA
You will want to report the message right there in the messages page with the "Report" button. I would however reword your response if you have to deal with this type of issue again. I don't know if there are previous messages but from what you have posted your response is very confrontational, "Your message has been reported to Amazon. Please do not continue to message us. Contact Amazon directly.".
So a better response would be, "Since this is an FBA or Fulfillment By Amazon order, all customer service is handled by Amazon so we are not able to assist with this order. Please contact Amazon for any issues regarding your order. Have a wonderful day!".
Never engage with an abusive customer. If you are using FBA (which I would highly recommend against because of the outrageous fees on top of the already excessive selling fees) then every customer service inquiry should be directed to Amazon and that's that. You're paying Amazon to be your rep. so have them deal with it.
This fraudster understands the system and probably has sold on the platform in the past so I would guarantee this is more of a bluff game like attorneys always do to scare you to cave and give them everything they have demanded. I would imagine that this buyer has done this multiple times in their account by just contacting Amazon customer service to get a refund immediately but now that has probably dried up as an option because of the frequency so they are now trying to pressure sellers. Also never cave and give into these types of demands even if you are FBM as this will only send a signal to these fraudsters to continue their scam.
Best of luck and dealing with these types of buyers.
Seller_njySVbEK99yKp
I'm so sorry this happened to you. Yuck. It says "pre-order question" and all of my scam messages have been under that title because they haven't actually purchased anything, but they pretend they have. Do they even have an order you could refund? They probably spend their evenings pasting this message to sellers to see if anyone will send them money.
Seller_hBE1qZpAB3GIB
I asked a related question here a few months ago. Good news: A mod eventually replied. Bad news: He ignored my questions/points and instead merely scolded me for chiding unhelpfully irrelevant responses.
Amazon should make it crystal clear when an Amazon employee has sent the message. There are many simple ways to do this, so the conclusion is that Amazon has simply chosen not to do so and to thereby hang sellers out to dry.
But yes: Report the message as abusive AND separately report the buyer as violating Amazon policy. I have seen scant but not-nonexistent evidence that this sometimes has some effect.
Seller_eB8P5LxQbetuJ
Unfortunately Amazon has created monsters in this world, they give everyone their money back even if the product has been used the entire time they had it. We had a customer threaten us for over 4 months because they did not follow our return policy-sent it back 6 months after purchase,used-then demanded we refund him. Constant emails that he has an attorney and called all the local news stations. Of course nothing ever happened and he eventually gave up. Most people all are all talk, when you are in the right, you have nothing to worry about.
Seller_1l9g47cPon74H
We literally got the EXACT SAME message and follow up threat. I laugh when I see these now.
