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In recent times, the daily life of cross-border sellers can be described as being in dire straits. On the front, there is Amazon's thunderous power to sweep the accounts, and on the back, there are huge changes in the industry that make everyone feel insecure, and it seems that they are on the alert for danger everywhere. After one wave of troubles has not yet subsided, another wave of troubles arises. After experiencing the baptism of the industry storm, logistics problems are coming one after another. Multiple warehouses in Japan were overwhelmed Recently, with the opening of the Tokyo Olympics approaching, due to the strict control measures taken by Japan, many Amazon warehouses in Japan have experienced warehouse overflows. ▲ The picture comes from the Internet According to Yibang Power, Amazon's warehouse reservation time has been changed from two weeks in advance to one week in advance, and the warehouse reservation rate has been affected; the speed of warehouse goods being put on the shelves has slowed down, among which KIX3 and TY01 are the most affected; the delivery time is expected to be extended to August. During this period, Japan's public holidays on July 22-23, the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games on August 8, and the adjusted holiday on August 9 will all affect the delivery time of goods to varying degrees. At the same time, sea freight costs are also a cause of concern for sellers and are showing an upward trend. According to the latest data released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, as of July 9, China's export container freight index was 2698.83, up 1.7% from 2653.32 on July 2. At the same time, major container shipping companies also announced the benchmark freight rate list for containers in early July, showing that container freight rates on many routes have increased. Behind this round of increase in container freight rates is the shortage of container space supply. Therefore, sellers who use sea transportation need to pay close attention to news in this regard. In addition to unexpected events such as warehouse explosions and rising freight costs, what makes sellers even more angry is that they have to suffer unfair treatment from Amazon. Refund without return, seller complains about customer's freeloading behavior Amazon’s return policy has been widely criticized by sellers. Not only is the return time quite long, but sellers often have to endure various unreasonable refunds and returns from buyers. Recently, a seller posted a message saying: Amazon has recently seen a large number of direct refunds, and returns are not possible. Even if the order is completed, does that mean that the customers can get it for free? This situation accounts for almost 90% of the time. ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan Afterwards, the seller posted a screenshot of his return record. It can be seen that since July, the number of refund orders of this seller has increased significantly, and most of the orders for which refunds were initiated cannot be returned. This means that the seller not only has to refund the buyer's payment, but also gives the product to the buyer for free, which is what the seller calls "freeloading." ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan Due to the large number of refunds in recent days, the seller began to wonder whether this was a conscious order refund behavior by the buyers, with the purpose of taking advantage of Amazon's return rules to get a batch of goods for free. Feedback from other sellers also fully confirmed that this was not a simple refund incident. Another seller said: I counted the number of orders that cannot be returned since June 30th, and there are already 245 orders today, which means that all the money and goods for these 245 orders are gone. I don't know how long this will last. I just want to say, you are amazing, Amazon! The seller tried to open a case to inquire about this issue, but the customer service replied: I don’t know if Amazon has recently updated the rules, and the official has not informed our seller support team. We have also received many inquiries from buyers. Because FBA's after-sales service is handled by the US customer service team, if they feel that the buyer does not need to return the goods, they will directly refund the buyer without asking them to return the goods. " It is learned that a large number of sellers are currently troubled by this problem, which has erupted since July. The reasons for refunds are mostly "I accidentally ordered the wrong product" or "I found a more favorable price somewhere else", etc. Regardless of the reason, the product cannot be returned, and the seller's payment will disappear out of thin air. ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan Looking back at the previous announcement released by Amazon, it can be seen that there were actually signs of this refund without return incident. Amazon said that for cheap items or oversized items that incur high shipping costs, sellers can save costs by refunding the original price of the item and letting customers keep or donate the product. This means that Amazon will determine whether the product is worth returning based on the value of the product; if it is not worth returning, Amazon will directly refund the buyer without returning the product, and the cost of the product will be borne by the seller. Amazon’s long return period has already made many sellers feel frustrated, and now the policy of only refunding but not returning products has made things even worse for sellers who already have thin profits. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group This policy also puts sellers in a humble position. They have to work hard to please buyers, but this does not gain any care and understanding from buyers. Instead, it condones some sellers' unrestrained freeloading behavior. What suggestions or opinions do you have about this kind of freeloading behavior? Feel free to leave a message in the comment area~
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