Chargebacks - Are we now responsible for payment related fraud chargebacks?
We currently have 3 recent chargebacks on our account. All are payment-related, not delivery-related:
114-1365274-3132263 – No cardholder authorization
114-3830064-2899404 – Fraud – card not present
114-4349375-4997019 – Duplicate processing
Amazon has made us financially responsible for all three, even though Amazon processes all payments and controls payment authorization, fraud detection, and transaction handling. We were not notified in advance and no “Action Required” cases were opened, so there was no opportunity to respond or provide documentation.
Historically, sellers were not held responsible for payment-related fraud chargebacks. In fact, in a previous thread, @Veronica_Amazon stated:
-Sellers are responsible for service-related chargebacks (e.g., non-receipt of product).
-Amazon is responsible for payment-related fraud chargebacks (e.g., stolen cards, unauthorized transactions).
These current chargebacks directly contradict that guidance.
Questions:
1) Has Amazon’s policy changed regarding responsibility for payment-related fraud chargebacks?
2) If not, why are these being charged to sellers?
3) What is the correct process to have these chargebacks reviewed and reversed?
We are requesting a clear policy clarification and reversal of these chargebacks, as these transactions fall entirely under Amazon’s payment processing and fraud prevention responsibility.
@Glenn_Amazon@KJ_Amazon
Chargebacks - Are we now responsible for payment related fraud chargebacks?
We currently have 3 recent chargebacks on our account. All are payment-related, not delivery-related:
114-1365274-3132263 – No cardholder authorization
114-3830064-2899404 – Fraud – card not present
114-4349375-4997019 – Duplicate processing
Amazon has made us financially responsible for all three, even though Amazon processes all payments and controls payment authorization, fraud detection, and transaction handling. We were not notified in advance and no “Action Required” cases were opened, so there was no opportunity to respond or provide documentation.
Historically, sellers were not held responsible for payment-related fraud chargebacks. In fact, in a previous thread, @Veronica_Amazon stated:
-Sellers are responsible for service-related chargebacks (e.g., non-receipt of product).
-Amazon is responsible for payment-related fraud chargebacks (e.g., stolen cards, unauthorized transactions).
These current chargebacks directly contradict that guidance.
Questions:
1) Has Amazon’s policy changed regarding responsibility for payment-related fraud chargebacks?
2) If not, why are these being charged to sellers?
3) What is the correct process to have these chargebacks reviewed and reversed?
We are requesting a clear policy clarification and reversal of these chargebacks, as these transactions fall entirely under Amazon’s payment processing and fraud prevention responsibility.
@Glenn_Amazon@KJ_Amazon
22 replies
Seller_IlwjJKqpD81nL
I have raised this issue in one of my threads as well and I have not yet gotten a response.
How can a seller possibly be responsible for a fraudulent charge? We're not creating orders ourselves.
The entire chargeback system is clunky and ridiculous right now. Why aren't we automatically defended as part of our order protection when Amazon Buy Shipping is used?
(Not that order protection is always working right now anyway with Amazon deciding to not honor their own A-Z protection policy)
We buy shipping through Amazon... so all a chargeback claim ever does is ask us to manually send information that Amazon already has, cut & paste from the order details
And all our chargeback claims lately have been for fraudulent transactions - which we have no control over.
Seller_4HsL3GZbyDLea
Yep, this is insane. We do not process credit cards, so how can we be responsible.
In fact, it is criminal for Amazon to even involve us in chargeback claims. They are trying to find ways to pin every nuisance on us sellers rather than act ethically.
Imagine if you asked your friend John for a $1000 loan. John then asked Frank for a $1000 to give you the $1000. So Frank loans John the $1000. But then something goes wrong between between John and Frank. John never paid Frank. So what? Now Frank is coming to you looking for the $1000? It is ridiculous.
It is not us sellers' jobs to make sure Amazon get their money.
Just another way Amazon tries to screw over sellers.
Seller_qD0b68Wo456ec
Hello,
An established seller should never see a chargeback. This is why they take 15% from us.
the buyer is Amazons customer and not ours. We never see an address match, or have anyway to verify a sale.
Amazon covers sellers for fraud, and product delivery issues are covered by A-Z guarantee.
Amazon says ship to their buyer/customer, we as sellers ship.We dont check if address is an empty lot or an abandoned building. We print a packing slip, we use Amazon buy shipping and away it goes.
The Amazon chargeback system needs to be revamped.
Good Luck
Seller_IlwjJKqpD81nL
@Xander_Amazon
Here is another post on chargeback issues.
Seller_zGoDlPZLneGhF
I raised concerns regarding chargebacks weeks ago in my post here.
Amazon holding sellers accountable for chargebacks when we the sellers don't collect or accept payment directly is completely absurd. Something needs to be done.
The FTC and many State AG's are on Amazon like a fly on you know what, this is going to result in billions in penalties. Since the recent $2.5 billion hammer that the FTC dropped on Amazon for their sketchy actions on the consumer side, Amazon has decided to start siphoning more from sellers to cover that hit. On top of that they are seemingly sticking sellers for the chargebacks, A-Z's that fall under the "claims protected" criteria, and auto-denying Safe-T claims.
The treatment of sellers here is truly becoming scary.
Seller_W1tFzATWCqDHQ
Just got another charge back claim today. They are happening more and more. Why does Amazon need the info requested? We bought postage through Amazon, they already have all the info. What more do they need from me?
Seller_LYYnVjweGTmby
We have received several chargebacks over the years, most of which are of the "Fraud - Card Not Present" or "No Cardholder Authorization" type. Amazon has defended very one of them successfully with no financial impact to our account. Knock wood!
Each time we received a chargeback, wwe were notified by Amazon email that a chargeback had been recorded, and they requested that we defend our claim. It shows up with the following title "cb-seller-notification...." and contains the following:
Hello,
We would like to inform you that the card issuer has contacted us on behalf of the buyer. Currently, there is a chargeback dispute involving the following transaction:
Order date:
Order number:
Items purchased:
Shipping address:
In response to this email, provide the following information:
-- Confirmation that the order was shipped.
-- Date the order was shipped.
-- The name of the carrier used.
-- Link of the shipper.
-- Delivery confirmation or tracking number along with signed proof of delivery, if available.
-- Return and refund policy, as well as the cancellation policy.
-- The return shipping address that your customer should use in order to return the merchandise in exchange for credit.
Do not ship the merchandise for this order, if you have not already done so
There are a bunch of other instructions, but this is the gist of the important ones.
IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU RESPOND TO THEIR EMAIL, AS THEY WILL HAVE NO RECOURSE BUT TO RESOLVE IN THE BUYER'S FAVOR!
I have responded with the following:
This order was shipped using Amazon Buy Shipping, per Amazon policy. Per Amazon policy, sellers do not handle payments, and the buyer is claiming credit card fraud, an occurrence that happened during the Order Pending process, which is out of the Seller's control. Package was sent on ........... per Amazon policy and delivered on ........ well within OTDR Policy. Buyer is not disputing delivery, nor any deviation between what was listed and what was delivered. Seller is willing to abide by Amazon's refund policy if seller returns the item within the return window, per Amazon policy.
This has worked for me successfully, although it takes seveeral weeks for the chargeback to be resolved in our favor. I think the key is to be on the lookout for the "cb-seller-notification...." email and respond to it, even if you don't believe you should have to. Hope this helps!
Seller_LyYw7fQRKc5G7
Have you opened an SS case?
If so, post it here and do lots of @Amazon moderators under it.
Seller_Ha6JyVvDK6Ybs
This should ALL be on AMAZON as they allowed transaction and punish sellers for not shipping it out so if Amazon is now pushing this on sellers is a sign Amazon is pushing for more fraud as Amazon does profit on transactions and these fraudsters make Amazon lots of transactional fees. We believe this is total waste of our time dealing with chargebacks because to dispute you must copy and paste all same info Amazon already has! One thing we do is we always message customers and are like "Hey we see you filed a chargeback claim for fraud for this delivered order is this correct? then send them tracking info just to make sure maybe they see we know what they are doing even if Amazon promotes and rewards fraud and theft!
