by What is the return policy that needs to be offered on Amazon?
No matter if you are a third party seller on Amazon, you will still have to maintain the same policy that Amazon offers themselves to the customers who will shop with them directly. Usually, this will include a provision for the customers to request a return within a period of 30 days and they can send back the item within a period of 45 days after receiving the items.
Who will cover the expenses of the return?
There are different causes for returning an item. If the item that was delivered was damaged, defective or materially different, the seller has to take care of all the shipping costs. However, if the customer is returning an item without any physical problem with it then you will have to return the amount equal to the cost of the item plus the original shipping cost. You will not have to take care of the following costs:
- Cost of gift wrapping
- The cost incurred on the shipping while returning the item.
For clothes and shoes, the policy is a little different. The buyers do not have to pay for the return postage. This encourages the customer to buy clothes and shoes without having a trial beforehand.
Copyable items like audio or video CDs cannot be returned.
The process to return the goods is as follows:
- Amazon will send a mail to you which will notify you of the return request that is filed.
- This will contain details of the order and also the reason for the return.
- You can work on this under the Manage Returns section of your account.
- You can choose what action you want to take as per the information provided to you.
You can take either of the four following actions:
- Authorise: This will mean that you are authorizing the return. Amazon will send a non-prepaid Return Merchandise Label to the customer.
- Close: If you think that the return doesn’t fit into the return policy or if you have any other reason, you can choose to close the request. This will close the request from the seller’s side. The customer is still in a place to make a A-to-z Guarantee claim.
- Issue refund: You can issue the refund after the item has reached you. However if the item is damaged or for any other reason, you do not want it back, you can issue the refund immediately.
- Contact buyer: you can find out more about the issue of the buyer and try to resolve it by using the feature that allows you to mail the buyer.
How does A-to-z Guarantee claims work?
This gives the customer an assurance that they can always return the items they have ordered if they face any problem with it. Before this claim can be made, the buyer is supposed to contact the seller and try to resolve the issue.
