9 Reimbursement for Amazon Sellers
Tomer [00:00:00] OK, welcome, everyone! Today, we are with Avihu from Refunds Pro, make sure that you watch the entire interview for great tips that could leave to help you not leave thousands of dollars that could be recovered by reimbursements by Amazon.
We will focus on things that are not covered by the other videos that you might find on YouTube or Facebook lives. Avihu is a true expert and I’m sure we’ll all learn from it. I’m using services on my account as well.
Avihu, welcome again, if you can share a little more about yourself, who you are. What is your background with Amazon?
Avihu [00:00:45] I yes, so I learned engineering, I’m an engineer, I worked in high tech for many years, I’m in the industry for years and now I’m doing this by myself. It’s my own company, and what I’m doing is I learn Amazon’s policy for reimbursement.
It’s not easy. Amazon is doing very hard life for Amazon sellers to find the categories and then doing the analysis and then also open the case, the right team, and do the follow ups and win the cases.
They do very hard time for the sellers. Some categories are easier as some of them are harder.
I’m covering all the categories. So we’ll start with two categories that I thought might be interesting, and I can also explain how Amazon is making life so hard for the sellers and why I think it will be better to partner with someone that has that has tools that will solve some that will find the cases that will open the cases for them.
OK, so the first category…
Tomer [00:02:00] Before we jump into the categories, if I may add something here, first of all, thank you for sharing a little about your background and who you are, so to people, they don’t really understand.
You can technically get reimbursements by Amazon doing it yourself. You can dig into the report. You can learn even in my channel here, you have videos that they show how to get reimbursement sometimes for returns.
This is something that you definitely need to do it yourself. Yet if you live in the States, get the returns back to you and make sure that you inspect them, because many times there are missing parts.
If there are missing parts, you actually supposed to get all your money back, they will find recently.
It’s becoming very hard fighting with Amazon agents over this, but bottom line policy, they’re responsible for that. They can take your whole money and send you something that is missing parts or it’s not your item.
But at the other end, you could have other people do for you the job of getting those reimbursements. Yes, they take fees, but in this video will cover why what kind of cases?
People like Avihu companies, the services that they offer could help you save a ton of money, and with the expertise that he created, it’s something that you cannot create yourself because it will take you a ton of time. You want to focus on your business.
So, yeah, you give him 20 or 30 percent. It’s 20, right. 20 percent, I’m sorry, 20 percent out of whatever is recovered, which is, I think, fair enough, because otherwise you will not get that these recover.
And 20 percent, it’s for his skills and they build tools that could really dig into and created this expertize.
So now if you would share with us a couple of scenarios where it’s impossible for a seller comparing a service provider to really find out and figure out by themselves. So you will come to I’m very excited to hear those as well.
Avihu [00:04:01] Sure. Yeah. So there are categories that’s quite easy to find and sometimes even if it’s easy to win.
But some of the categories, if you don’t have a machine that doing the math, that do the work for you, it’s almost impossible to do it by yourself, which means, let’s take example, replacements.
OK, so if you have replacements, also give you replacements to your buyers, it’s impossible to go one by one and check if there is a return for this replacement you can do. It’s going to take all your time.
So I, I created tools that will do it automatically and very fast. So as a seller, just paying fees for something that you’re not going to do in your life, that would be a waste of time. It’s worth it for specific categories
Tomer [00:04:50] Talking more about the replacement, like what actually happened. So if Amazon said, let’s say someone order your products, right? And then because Amazon has said it’s defective, send me a replacement.
They send them a replacement, but technically you never return it back. That’s what you’re talking about.
Avihu [00:05:09] Correct. For every replacement or refund by policy, the buyer must return the items, either the replacement or the original, and then for refunds on the original check them one by one, so I give views, it’s a waste the time, but I’m doing this in seconds with my tools.
Everything is automatic, I’m not doing this one by one by myself. So I was always making life very hard to find. There’s reimbursement sometimes being hiding things in the policy.
Sometimes they change the policy without telling you anything. Recently, about the month ago, they changed the policy. So you’ve got a replacement. You have 60 days to return the unit instead of thirty days, so…
Tomer [00:05:56] They needed to go with you. And they telling you this, the agents know, no, the policy change and they’re trying to fight with you in the,
Avihu [00:06:05] Correct. So they changed it recently and you need to be on top of things.
So also in this that area, I’m covering all the reimbursement types and I’m checking if there are changes.
For example, there was a change a few months ago for people that sells TVs. So the policy changed in the favor of the sellers, which is quite surprising.
And they said that if someone bought a TV, he must ask for a refund, he must return the TV in the box in the original shape, which means he’s not allowed to open it then if it was open and eligible for reimbursement, that’s great for TV sellers.
And if you if you’re not tracking the policy on the daily or weekly basis, you won’t find these things because they won’t send you an email until you change things.
You need to be on top of these things., and that’s a big cost for most of the sellers. For example, there is another example, if your buyer returned the unit after 30 days, you are eligible for 20 percent restocking fee.
So that’s part of the policy. Yeah. And how can you know this as a seller?
Tomer [00:07:24] I didn’t know that, to be honest.
Avihu [00:07:26] Yeah, yeah. And I was on sometimes we’ll give you that these 20 percent, but sometimes they won’t. So I got to taking the files and checking for more than 30 days, less than 30 days that open the cases. That’s quite hard.
Tomer [00:07:43] And even myself with a team which I dedicated those tasks, I find it like the arrow on that task. It’s like very low. So they will because my VA or myself, we will not build those tools.
It needs to be manually done or we really minimal automation using using excels. It takes us really hours to find those reimbursement. But at the end of the day, the time invested to what we actually recovered. It doesn’t make sense for us.
For you it does, because you created automation’s around it.
Now, one question that is not clear to me. So every refund, I’m sorry, replacement that was returned after 30 days, they must give you 20 percent restocking free from the selling price or from the actual form. From what price?
Avihu [00:08:31] From the product price
Tomer [00:08:33] From the. OK, that’s the thing. And from your experience, are there a lot of orders that are being returned 30 days after 30 days or it’s just few there or, you know, here in the accounts that you manage,
Avihu [00:08:45] It’s here, but It’s not a lot, but it’s still money in the few dollars here and there as a seller. Why not? Amazon is making a lot of money.
You don’t have to worry about them. I’m worried about the sellers. I want the sellers to make as much as they can to maximize their reimbursements.
Tomer [00:09:04] For sure, and let me ask you this question. I told you this earlier, but I worked with one of the companies and services that do the same thing as yours.
And the reason why I left them is because I felt that they are focusing on the reimbursements that are easy for them and, you know, just open a case showing the data and they get all these, I’m, as a seller, getting this reimbursement for sure it’s a good thing.
But they feel they leave money on the table, but not checking the hard things. And I know that you do and work on all the cases, which is something that I think will differentiate you and give you a lot of business because, you know.
Knowing that these services and companies doing that really remove all the trust that they have in them, knowing are there checking my account, are there on top of things or they’re just doing it where it’s easy for them, you know, but I want to hear from you, like how you approach this so our viewers can learn more about it.
And again, I’m not affiliated with Avihu, really. It’s honest opinion. I told them, let’s introduce you to the channel so people can really use your services and you’re more than welcome.
I will put a link to his service reform broke down below so you can check it out. But I’m not getting anything. This is based on me using him on my accounts.
Avihu [00:10:24] Yeah, thank you.
So, yeah, the big difference is most of the companies and I work on a lot of accounts that have me and my competitor or in-house team at the same time. And the results were very clear. Why? Because most of the most of the other companies. They tend to just do the easy stuff, why?
Because it makes more money, right, if they can do it one over a hundred bucks or 20 bucks, they will give up on the 20 bucks. They have an accountant and they will just keep going.
But I’m, I think the big difference here is that I’m hungry and I’m not leaving any dollar on the table when I created my program, I designed it. So every single dollar that’s on the table, I’ll identify it and I will claim for it.
So. Right. Some of the claims are worth more money for me, but I’m going to claim for every dollar. And I think that’s a big difference between me and my competitors.
And also as a seller for you, these dollars adds up and it’s it’s a lot of money.
So it’s important for you and it’s important for me. And I’m not leaving any dollars on any dollar on the table. And I think that’s a big difference.
Tomer [00:11:44] Yes. Yes, that’s that’s good. And I hope that this will not change in the future
Avihu [00:11:50] It won’t. My program is already designed and everything is covered in that program. So the money’s there. Sometimes for the smaller categories, there is there’s nothing to cover because I don’t give her the reimbursement already or there are no mistakes there.
But the program is already designed to find every single dollar.
Tomer [00:12:11] Amazing. What other types of reimbursements you can share with us that people may not be aware of.
Avihu [00:12:20] OK, so let’s go to another category that just make you very hard line, let’s say that you sold a unit to your buyer, and the buyer returned a different unit. So you have nothing to do with that unit. It’s a waste of time to remove it back to your warehouse
Tomer [00:12:37] They do have a case right now going with it. It’s a nightmare. It’s more than three weeks like for ten dollars. But it’s something like it’s a principle for me.
I will not let them go, you know, and they send me a different item. It’s not my item. And they usually they reimburse, but this time they’re very stubborn.
Avihu [00:12:54] Yeah., so…
Tomer [00:12:54] Because, you know and I’m sorry to interrupt, because it’s the actual the same item just from a different brand.
Avihu [00:13:02] Right. Right. It happens a lot.
Tomer [00:13:05] I like but look, it’s a similar item, but I showed them, look, this is not my own. This is my packaging. This is their packaging. Look at it.
Avihu [00:13:12] Correct. It happens a lot. And I, I can make the life easier to the seller because before you make the removal order, I can get through the reimbursements, which means I go to the reports, to this, to the sales report.
I can see what was left in that wasn’t meant to see what was different that returned. And before you do the removal order back to the warehouse, I’m making all that headache. I can get the reimbursement on this back.
So I don’t want to make your life very hard and be separated. So if you want to take off your sales history, you have to do it month by month. Yes. So it’s got to take you a lot of time to get all these reports. Then you need to to make them one big report. It’s a headache.
It’s a hassle as because I have a program that takes me minutes. But as a seller doing this manually, take all these 18 reports for the last 18 months, it’s not something that you’ve got to do by yourself. It’s too much.
Tomer [00:14:14] I agree. I agree with you. A hundred percent. By the way, do you offer a service for sellers that are outside the US where they can do removal orders for returns and make sure instead of disposing them and get reimbursements for those where like I do here myself?
Avihu [00:14:30] Sure. Sure. It can be in Europe or the US. Doesn’t matter. The program.
Tomer [00:14:36] No, that you’ve bring the returns to, you know.
Avihu [00:14:39] So it depends. If you got the reimbursement on the spot when it was returned to the warehouse, there is no reason to make a removal order. It’s a waste of time and money for you.
I want to say, oK, again, if the unit that they return is totally different unit, if you sold iPhone and you got a T-shirt, you have nothing to do with that T-shirt.
So I’ll get the reimbursement for you for the iPhone and then there will dispose of the of the T-shirt because you have nothing to do with this if you want it.
I think you can create that removal. But to think twice or three
Tomer [00:15:14] For that case, I’m talking about scenarios where I sell items and they are not sellable because they are missing some parts, usually missing parts, because the customer kept something.
You know, like for example, I sell consumables, so I sell like seven pack consumable and they they keep three and they send back four.
So with that, it’s on the sealable and seller is outside the US usually will dispose it, but they don’t really know why it’s not sellable. They don’t give it the reason until you get it back.
You inspected yourself and see, OK, it’s missing three pieces here. So what I do is I open case with Amazon and then I’m look, this should be no problem.
Even if it’s used, even though the policy says the item cannot be used, it needs to be in the original form and unopened. No one is doing it. So I’m not going to fight with this. But still, if it’s missing something.
I tell them, look, I have no problem to keep this item, return the three missing pieces or give me my money back. So usually they reimburse you. But that’s what I meant if you offer a service like that.
Avihu [00:16:20] So for these cases, they need a lot of information from the client, because I’m not in the warehouse yesterday specifically, I went to a client to his warehouse and he showed me a few cases exactly because he sold a GoPro thing and someone bought 18 units and took only specific screw out of the units and return them, because fba orders.
So there’s nothing you can do in terms of getting full reimbursements, help them to open the case, to get at least as accessory reimbursements, it’s twenty five dollars.
That’s the max you can do here. But yes, I’m offering this service, but I need more information from the warehouse because I’m not there.
Tomer [00:17:04] That’s so annoying hearing those things, you know, I here about someone that trying to really, like, screw someone. And what they did, they ordered like hundred units. They removed the top, like, you know, and return it. So this is untenable anyway. You have some bad people out there.
Avihu [00:17:24] Yeah. And also in terms of bad people from one of my clients, I found abusive buyer, which means it’s kind of users that got the policy right and left. And they they buy units, get the refunds and never return and they know how to do it.
You can speak with an agent that will do it specific to specific, just as a buyer. And he bought for the same month for the same address, tons of units, I think one hundred and ninety units never return. Any of them get full refund. It was a big hustle to get it back from Amazon, but
Tomer [00:18:04] it didn’t return them back. Why? It’s a big asshole. You just showed them. They never returned it back.
Avihu [00:18:09] Correct. But Amazon, by policy. They can make a case by case specific just to the buyers. They can do it. They have the power to do it. And it started like I read the reports and I got tons of money there and estimates of how come it wasn’t such a big seller.
I mean, I figure out that the address for almost all of them is from the same address. So I guess we got the money back eventually, but it wasn’t easy. Yeah. So abussive buyers we have all the time, it can be your competitors or just some guy that just won units for free. It happens a lot. Yeah. And I’m there to help.
Tomer [00:18:50] Excellent, is there any other cases or things that are rare or people may not really hear about them before?
Avihu [00:18:58] Sure, sometimes Amazon is hiding things from you, for example, sometimes for fba orders, the buyer bought one unit, but Amazon sent him two units. In the report to see that they sold only one. And what happens is the following.
The buyer will return one of the units because he doesn’t need it, and then Amazon will give them a full refund because some of the things that he bought or one got one and returned it. But you just got a refund and got the free units. So it’s hard to find it in the reports.
Tomer [00:19:32] How many actually they took from the inventory
Avihu [00:19:36] to two units. You need what
Tomer [00:19:39] it’s showing that they took three units, was that what people order or they don’t show you the connection.
Avihu [00:19:45] They show only one unit that was out, actually two units were out. You paid only one FBA fee. You can pack fees and it’s hard to find it. You need to really be on top of your inventory.
Tomer [00:20:00] That will really check, OK, how many units sold, how many inventory we added that for. And we had a case like that right myself in Europe. So I’m aware of this.
Avihu [00:20:12] Yeah. Also there’s another category that Amazon recently I think about a year and a half, they changed the specific report that can help you find reimbursement for it easily and they changed it.
So it will be a big headache. This report called Inventory Event Details, which means every return that you have to the Amazon warehouse, FBA return, you want to know one hundred percent that was back to to your inventory to the shelf.
So until a year and a half ago in that report, they’ll show you by audit, which means you have order that was returned.
The control order was back to the inventory. And now the year and a half ago, we took out the order. The so it’s very hard to know if the unit that was returned to the warehouse is really back to inventory. It’s very hard to find it.
And my program doing this always that you can cross information, find it, but it’s not easy. It’s not easy to find it. And I’m doing this on purpose.
Tomer [00:21:21] That’s annoying. That’s why you need someone like you or any other service that actually have the tools to figure figure those things out. Really, it’s like if you have to do it yourself, it’s like, yeah, I think impossible.
Avihu [00:21:33] Yeah, that’s too much. You can do it manually. It’s too much time. Yeah. Yeah. OK, we have also big category with a lot of subcategories which called WFB fees. I can give you an example.
Let’s say that you have units that cost twenty two dollars. You got twenty two dollars from the buyer then. OK, one dollars for FBA fees have now you have twenty one dollars in your pocket. OK, now the buyer is asking for a refund because it’s not happy with the product. That’s OK.
So Amazon tells you what, ok, you need to give back to paying back the money so they will take it from your account. Another dollar will give the buyer he’s twenty two dollars. Yes. No, the buyer never returned the unit.
So you expecting to get these twenty two dollars back. These twenty two dollars are from your account. You take already the fees. The extra dollars is for the return for that day for the return unit. But you never return. So we expect to get twenty two dollars.
But Amazon will take you that dollar for the FDA fee further return and you’ll get only twenty one dollars. Why. Because they can and that’s super annoying. It’s fight these cases, it’s hard to fight them. It’s not easy.
They’ll make you a hard time. Tell you, give her the reimbursement. But explain them. Yes, give me the reimbursement. But you take you took FBA fees twice without any reason. There is no return here.
So same thing with carrier damage. There are many subcategories that I’m covering these cases, most of the competitors and ninety nine percent of them are not doing.
Because it’s harder and harder to find and follow ups, because Amazon agents, as you know, when you open cases in the past, it’s not easy to explain to them.
It’ll make you terrible time with explaining things. But yeah, I know how to open the case and also to explain to them so they’ll understand on the spot how things work and why they’re really owe me money.
So I have another category, which I think is a great example to show why Amazon pageants are so, so hard to explain and things that
Tomer [00:24:03] you and I have experienced, many people have experienced with dealing with self-centered support.
This is and if you face issues with your normal cases, then for reimbursements, I can guarantee that it’s ten times worse. So really annoying dealing with them. And I understand where they’re coming from. Of course, they have to reimburse the money from their account.
They give you back. They want to be more 100 percent sure. That that’s their reimbursement is correct and no one will really scam them, which you had cases were sellers scamming Amazon, you know, trying to get money or reimbursement for things they don’t deserve.
And I actually have a very popular video on my channel where I explain about those returns and how you can get your money back. And I mentioned there you make sure that you only request reimbursement for things that are true.
Don’t lie, don’t make up things. Don’t really try to, you know, get something that you don’t really, like, deserve to like. It will come back to you. What? You’re a religious guy Avihu. I’m not really religious, but I believe that there is someone that see everything.
Avihu [00:25:18] Right. Right. That’s correct. And we’re going to open the case. And sometimes I can see competitors that open cases that Amazon called them premature, which means they didn’t do that analysis or they did the analysis, but they didn’t explain it in clear to Amazon.
So Amazon will say, OK, so give me a list of ten orders. Have nothing to do with disorders. I don’t understand what’s the problem here? OK, so we have an order with with a replacement, whatever.
But you didn’t explain correctly to the to the Amazon agent. It might be a red flag on your account. Sometimes I saw cases, but they said opening too many cases open in premature cases is can get you can get your accounts suspended. So be very careful with opening this case.
And also for the follow up, I’m that you just trying to get money for without any reason. And it’s not clear enough. It’s a red flag that will close the case and it’s not good for our health. So we need to be very careful with what we’re doing.
Tomer [00:26:28] OK, OK, that’s a good point.
Avihu [00:26:32] Yeah, definitely. I have another example of a case, but it’s quite hard to explain to the agents. Sometimes you have the order that a buyer bought products and then the carrier took it from the warehouse to that house of the to the address of the buyer.
For some reason, there are many reasons the unit is undeliverable. It can be because of that. The address is not accurate and they have many, many reasons. And when going back to the warehouse, because it’s unbelievable, I must say that the unit is customer damaged.
And I’m asking, how is that possible? The customer never received, delivered, and it’s damaged that we need to make a removal order.
Come on, it’s impossible. So it’s amazing, it’s amazing because I’m trying to explain to the agents and they will give you such a headache because again, you need to know how to explain it to them.
They will say it’s because no damage. It’s not part of the policy. You’re not eligible for investments. Again, they will say the same thing and they need to be more accurate to give more proof, to give more of records, to show them what’s the problem here.
And that’s that’s not easy, seeing this as a reimbursement professional, but as a seller. Come on. That’s too much to just all been them open and doing the follow ups. It’s a it’s not easy. It’s not easy.
Tomer [00:28:14] You know, we recovered quite a few things. I’m sure we can talk about this forever and you have more cases that you can show. But I want to keep it short and, you know, easy to consume.
I feel that those long videos are harder and people they can’t really like listen to the entire thing. Those are things, again, that I’m not really suggesting that you do it yourself, but try to find someone to do it for you.
Again, you will get money that you didn’t even know that you should get back. So it’s kind of a bonus. And, you know, at the same time, you paid the other guy only when there are results.
So there is no really risk here for you. I tried it myself. I’m a guy that likes to do things in-house. Really, that’s something that I do for years rather than outsourcing it. But this is an area that they think that’s worth outsourcing, give you peace of mind and then more reimbursement.
Thank you again for being a guest here. I would love to have you again in the future for those that want to get in touch with you, how they can do it.
Avihu [00:29:19] So maybe we’ll post my website and my phone number. Give me a call. Let’s work together,
Tomer [00:29:27] OK. We’ll put them down below in the description again, I’m not affiliated with them. Whatever. If you based on what you see, think that it could work, try them out of you. Thank you again. I wish you a great day and we’ll be in touch.
Avihu [00:29:41] Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for today.
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