Recently, Amazon started e-mailing their third party sellers when they have unanswered buyer-seller messages in their Seller Accounts that passed the recommended 24 hour response deadline and are over 48 hours without a response.
The e-mail from Amazon states that once a message passes 70 hours without a response, they will send an automated message to the affected customer. It doesn’t clarify whether messages marked as ”No response needed” are also included.
Here you can view a screenshot of the message from Amazon regarding the matter:
As you can see, the wording states that: ”Responding to Buyer messages within 48 hours helps to prevent A-to-z claims and protect your account health.” And: ”For messages without a response after 70 hours, we will send an automated reply to the customer.”
While Amazon isn’t specifying the proposed content of the automated messages, as anyone selling on Amazon will anticipate, it will be an invitation to submit an A-Z claim, rather than a request to allow more time or contact the seller again.
Based on personal experience, most sellers will find that ping-ponging messages with angry demanding customers is what typically leads to A-Z claims. Not answering will often mean that the customer will accept any previously offered resolution, such as a return of the merchandise or allowing more time for any delayed parcel to arrive.
In my recent article, I already informed you about Amazon automatically generating and granting A-Z claims out of unanswered customer messages. Below, you can see a screenshot of a note displayed on A-Z claim explaining that it was submitted because a customer message did not receive a response:
Usually, whenever something like this happens, it indicates that a policy change is upcoming.
It is possible, that in the near future, unanswered customer messages that are over 24 hours old will be leading to defects or automatically issued full refunds.
My recommendation is for you to login to the Amazon Seller Central every day and if you have messages that you are not going to answer or otherwise do not require a response, mark them as ”No response needed”, as opposed to keeping them unanswered and attracting potential negative consequences against your Seller Account.
If you need help with appealing A-Z claims, feel free to check out my detailed guide found below:
I hope you found this article helpful. Many Amazon sellers recently started trading stocks and crypto currencies, hoping to diversify their income, which is a very good idea with all the uncertainty which comes with the platform. For this reason, we launched a new Facebook group, Crypto Arbitrage Income (Bitcoin, Crypto, Altcoins, Blockchain, Trading) – feel free to join us and forget about the troubles of selling on Amazon for a moment!
Regarding Amazon Seller Performance, you can always participate in our Amazon Seller Performance – Friendly Advice – Worldwide group, where you will be very welcome.
If you are an Amazon Seller who needs help with any Amazon-related issues such as suspensions, listing blocks or is looking for professional assistance, please don’t hesitate to subscribe to my new OnlyFans page at: www.onlyfans.com/kikaangelic
In case you are an Amazon Seller who needs help with Seller Identity Verification on Amazon, please feel free to watch my most detailed video on the subject, addressing all common questions:
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.