Amazon Chargebacks Eating Into Your Profits? How and What to do. PART 2

Continued from Part 1: Amazon Chargeback Issues 1 thru 4.

What are the issues?

#5 – Complex and ever-changing algorithms

We admit, you do need to have some serious math and Excel smarts to design spreadsheets to calculate Amazon Chargeback algorithms. Not to mention, the algorithms change frequently. Here is an example from a recent Amazon training. If you are left scratching your head, we don’t blame you:

Vendors end up building spreadsheets that look a bit like the below in order to double check Amazon’s calculations.

 Can we just gnash our teeth for you?  

#6 – Uploading proof documentation required at the item level 

Populating line item data can be very time consuming. But to successfully dispute Amazon chargebacks, it has to done line by line. And it is necessary to upload individual supporting documents for every disputed line item. The process of finding the proper supporting documents like FedEx Shipment information on every line item on an invoice is time consuming, but is the only way to get your money back from Amazon.

 A clever processor can take advantage of some consolidation available, particularly in the pricing area, by utilizing filters and combining common issues into one dispute. For example, on this screen, multiple items can be clicked and disputed at once. But any mistake, will cause the whole group of items to come back for re-processing. 

#7 – Amazon portal gets overloaded 

We have seen instances, over the years, where the Amazon Vendor Central portal gets a bit overloaded and slows down. Sometimes it throws errors at unusual times. Any Temp Staff has to be trained on this occurrence. And, the inevitable slow down costs money in increased Staff and Temp Worker time. 

#8 – Nobody to talk to 

Our Amazon Seller clients get frustrated because there is no real way to communicate with Amazon. Many of the larger established retailers have communication channels in addition to online in order to provide vendors advice, facilitate problem solving and even negotiating  (e.g. Target, Walmart, Costco, etc.). However, Amazon’s strategy is not conducive to one on one communication. This doesn’t surprise us. Amazon does not have human beings processing chargebacks at just pennies an item. These detailed chargebacks are being calculated by robotic automation. Even recommendations of how to improve your business with Amazon are made by robots.

What to do?

Manual Solutions

As a Seller’s Amazon volume grows (a fantastic problem), it is imperative to immediately implement a strategy to deal with the chargebacks that will also grow with this volume. In the beginning these simple steps will succeed in containing chargebacks:

1. Plan to hire seasonal temps
2. Organize chargebacks into categories by Issue Type and related documentation
3. Establish written chargeback processing SOPs
4. Utilize standardized spreadsheets to organize processing and research
5. Provide close supervision to answer questions and troubleshoot processing issues
6. Establish a chargeback threshold – minimum amount that is worthwhile for a team member to process.

But quickly, especially after the holidays, volumes can get out of hand with thousands of penny chargebacks adding up to thousands of dollars. 

Automated Solutions

At this point, the only way to dispute these chargebacks on-time and successfully, is to automate processing and use similar robotic technology that Amazon used to create the chargebacks in the first place. It is 100% possible to take your company’s SOP and automate the document matching and uploading, the algorithm calculations and data entry required to dispute Amazon chargebacks. Truly, this is the only possible way to win with Amazon chargeback disputes at any kind of volume. Request an Amazon Chargeback Audit from iNymbus and find out if your Amazon Chargebacks are at the volume and dollar amount where dispute and resolution automation will pay back.

We think you’ll be surprised at how quick and easily a solution can be implemented that essentially pays for itself in a matter of a month or two. 

Related Post

Amazon Chargeback Issues 1 thru 4 – Part One