A-Z claim suspension is very common and can usually lead to your account being suspended by Amazon (examples of causes can be high cancellation rate suspension or high pre cancellation rate suspension), but they are also willing to possibly reinstate your account provided that you submit a Plan of Action (POA) to Amazon’s performance team, on which they’ll give their verdict after reviewing your POA. A POA focuses on the problem that caused the account suspension and states what actions you’re taking to fix the problem.
A-Z claims and refund requests cause the level of defects in orders to be above the 1% maximum requirement for Amazon; ultimately leading to the suspension of my account. If your ODR is above 1%, your account will be suspended immediately. Your
Amazon A-Z Claim Explained
Amazon enables customers to have ninety days from the date of delivery of the product to launch an A-Z claim if they’re not satisfied with what they’ve gotten. It offers the customers a semblance of security buying on their marketplace and consists of either a partial or a full refund to the customer in the event of:
- If the product does not arrive on time (3 + days late), or doesn’t arrive at all.
- If the product is defected, damaged, not what they ordered or missing essential parts.
- If the product has been returned by the customer but the seller hasn’t refunded the amount yet.
- If the customer wants to send the product back but there is no address for return or if the seller refuses to provide these important details, in order to avoid the possibility of giving a refund.
A-Z Claims directly impact your Order Defect Rate and this leads to it negatively impacting your share in the Buy Box.
Once a customer requests a claim, you will get a notification from Amazon right away. Amazon insists on establishing complete customer satisfaction and it is always better to respond right away. Appealing this claim can also be possible within 30 days. If your appeal is successful, the amount is re-credited to your account and the impact on your ODR is removed.
Preventing A-Z claims
We recommend the following to help prevent and reduce A-Z claims:
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Improving the packaging and improving shipment processes
Tracking your shipment is essential, thus purchasing it is always a good idea. This enables customers to track their order with ease, without having to reach out to you for updates. If tracking is not provided to the customers, this may impact your valid tracking rate – and this can negatively impact your Buy Box Share.
Packaging properly is essential to good customer experience. Fragile items need to be packed carefully in order to prevent breakage. Your packaging is also your first impression. Make your product stand out by enhancing customer experiences through amazing packaging!
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Specifying accurate product descriptions
This step is extremely crucial. Make sure that you do not over exaggerate your product descriptions. While this may lead to several customers buying your product initially, all these will end up being a nightmare since the customers do not get what they’ve asked for. Listing an item as ‘new’ when it’s actually not is a very common example of mistakes made by sellers.
Writing well elaborated and written descriptions for your products always facilitates the conversion process. Tell your brand story in order to help the customers resonate with your offering and include an irresistible ‘call to action’ in order to motivate customers to make a purchase!
It is essential to have good quality images of the product; this will also help with your SEO in search results. Offering multiple angle zoom in features would only help the customers in easily viewing what they’re looking to buy. Making customers wait for orders that are out of stock is definitely not well received with the amazon team. Make sure that you deal with these cancellations as quickly as possible, in order to prevent further customer dissatisfaction.
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Decreasing your response rate delay
Quickly and effectively communicating delays to your customers can help avoid potential cancellations. Customers are often very impatient, a bad communication experience can lead to a bad review or a cancellation. This highly impacts your ODR and thus can open you up to an A- Z claim.