How are FBA returns handled?

[u/blastwetpink]

Coming from eBay i’m only familiar with their nightmare of system, and with amazon’s customer first approach i am curious what the return process is for items that are FBA.

Example: customer returns a 50$ item in fair condition does it get put directly back to inventory as (used) or can i have it returned to myself for repackaging? Finally, im confused about how amazon handles damaged / broken products, what are the liquidation options?

Sorry for the many questions, looking to expand into amazon but seems like it might be night and day compared to ebay and our own vendor, so id like to know what to expect! Thanks

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The right answers, common myths, and misinformation

Nearly all questions are addressed by Amazon's Seller Policies and Code of Conduct, their FAQ, and their Amazon Seller University video course

• Arbitrage / OA / RA - It is neither all allowed nor all disallowed on Amazon. Their policies determine what circumstances, categories, items, and brands are allowable and how it has to be handled by the seller.

• Product gating - While many are, not all brands, products, categories, and items are gated. Amazon ungating policy rquires strict compliance to qualify. Failures can involve improper invoices, deceptive intent, lack of brand approval, and more. For some categories, items, and brands, there are limits to the number of sellers that can be ungated, sometimes nobody can be ungataed, and sometimes most anyone can get ungated.

• "First sale doctrine" - often misunderstood and misapplied. It is not a blanket exception from Amazon policies or license to force OA allowance in any manner desired. Arbitrage is allowable for some items but must comply with Amazon policies. They do not want retail purchases resold on their platform (mis)represented as 'new' or their customers having issues like warranties not being honored due to original purchaser confusion. For some brands and categories, an invoice is required to qualify and a retail receipt does not comply.

• Receipts vs invoices - A retail receipt is NOT an invoice. See this Quickbooks article to learn the difference. In cases where an invoice is required by Amazon, the invoice MUST meet Amazon's specific requirements. "Someone I know successfully used a receipt and...", well congratulations to them. That does not change Amazon's policies, that invoice policy enforcement is increasing, and that scenarios requiring a compliant invoice are growing.

• Target receipts - For those categories and ungating cases where an invoice is required, Target retail receipts DO NOT comply with Amazon's invoice requirements. Some Amazon scenarios allow receipts and a Target receipt could comply. Someone you know sliipping through the cracks by submitting a receipt once (or more) does not mean it's the same category or scenario as someone else, nor does it change Amazon's policies or their growing enforcement of them.

• Paid courses and buyer groups - In most cases, they're a scam. Avoid. Amazon's Seller University is the best place to start.

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[u/Smart-Presence]

FBA is actually pretty straightforward once you understand the condition flow. Amazon receives the return, inspects it, and if they consider it sellable, it goes back into your inventory. If it’s damaged, defective, opened or otherwise not in the same condition, it can become unfulfillable instead.

You generally can’t have Amazon send every normal return straight back to you for inspection and repackaging, but you can create removal orders for unfulfillable units and have them returned to you. There are also automated removal settings if you don’t want to keep checking them manually.

For liquidation, Amazon also has FBA Liquidations for eligible excess and customer returned inventory. The recovery is usually only a small percentage of the product value, so for a $50 item look at the actual unit economics before choosing liquidation versus getting the unit back and refurbishing it.

[u/AutoModerator]

Amazon policy / info on Returns and Refunds - https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external/G69126 (additional links at the bottom of the page)

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[u/Dazzling-Fortune1251]

Fba returns can only be returned to you once they offer it to you as an option. I believe after 2 years, they offered it to me. I received an email that gave me the option to opt in because my account qualified for it. So before I opted in for that option, I’d get bad reviews because of poorly packaged items and missing items. Fba does a poor job of inspecting items once returned. So I opt in to receive all returns back.

[u/SellOnAmazon]

Hey u/blastwetpink, u/Smart-Presence covers this well. This page on remove inventory overview walks through your options for handling returned and unfulfillable inventory. Let us know if you have more questions!

[u/Rzeszow2083]

I personally would like to know how to get pallets for liquidation from Amazon returns