We sell a large product that typically costs about $50 to ship. We offer free shipping to the continental US. We decided to add Alaska at the default $9.99 shipping rate and experiment with one order before making adjustments, even if we took a hit on revenue.

It ended up costing $160 to ship. Lesson learned and we made adjustments. 29 days later and the buyer submitted a return request. They said it wasn't hot enough (it's a container that burns diesel) no electrical component. A prepaid label was generated for $9.99 and charged to our account. I am assuming we will be charged an additional $150+ once they ship it. This will have us breaking even. If we then refund them in full this order will have cost us over $300. I believe we can charge a 50% restocking fee if they return a used item that's full of ash/fuel. Is that correct? And is it correct that we cannot charge them the return shipping price? Any other thoughts that may help now or in the future?

I know this has been tossed around on the forums but I need to say my peace with the customer auto authorized return shipping costs. We offer free shipping for all purchases on Amazon which cost us up to $5 domestically. Our items weigh less than .05 oz and are packed in 5x3x1 bags. The cost of auto authorized returns used to be around $7 which was super high for our items size/weight but we dealt with it but now its doubled. This is not fair business practices- not that Amazon is ever fair- but seriously how do they expect us to afford this cost? WE want our customers to be able to return items if something is wrong but the FACT that sellers are now dealing with these insane extra costs is wrong. We cannot afford this. What are sellers supposed to do? And furthermore many customers return items that are not eligible for a refund but yet they return them anyway- so then we are dealing with this ridiculous overage return cost and the fact that the item returned is used/worn/disgusting. Forget getting any assistance with this issue too- no one knows anything.

Sellers are cornered- needing this platform to sell our items but yet getting robbed with the return shipping costs. Where do we go from here?

Why does Amazon charge product fees over shipping costs? I ship from Canada, and the shipping costs are high. These are expenses, not earnings