amazon sellers ??

[7window]

Just sold something at amazon and buyer is in the same town, and city. Whats the best way to handle this transaction? How to finalize it. I could save on postage if I hand it to him in person. The problem is would the buyer claim later that he never received it?

 

[BlitzPuppet]

I'd just ship it. Shows proof that it was delivered and such.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I'd just ship it. Shows proof that it was delivered and such.

What he said

 

[Carson Dyle]

Just sold something at amazon and buyer is in the same town, and city. Whats the best way to handle this transaction? How to finalize it. I could save on postage if I hand it to him in person. The problem is would the buyer claim later that he never received it?

I would say that the chances of that happening are extremely slim. But if you're worried about it, ship it.

 

[surfsatwerk]

I would prefer if you met me at my office in the alley behind the 7-11.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

How much is shipping? How much is your time worth?

If the person is close by and it is worth delivering in person have them sign off that it was delivered. Take a picture of them holding the item along with the signed delivery form in their hand if you are really paranoid.

 

[Meghan54]

How much is shipping? How much is your time worth?

If the person is close by and it is worth delivering in person have them sign off that it was delivered. Take a picture of them holding the item along with the signed delivery form in their hand if you are really paranoid.

Do NOT do this.

Amazon is very, very, very rigid and anal about having shipping and tracking times/numbers, etc. Amazon uses how quickly you get it shipped, how quickly it arrives to the customer, in your seller metrics. A hand delivered item will not show up as shipped or delivered and you'll get a big negative for selling metric in that area.

In your Amazon Seller Central page, click on the Performance tab at the top of the page. Some of the metrics logged: Defect and Cancellation Rate, On-Time Delivery Rate (the customer cannot put in that the item was delivered on their end....only a shipping number via UPS/Fedex/USPS will do), Late Shipment Rate, etc.

Do NOT take advice from anyone who does not sell on Amazon. Amazon takes their metrics very seriously and will delist your seller's account for any perceived lack of taking their policies seriously.

Go ask in the seller's forums about this......or email seller services at Amazon. You'll get told explicitly to ship it with tracking.

Besides, you got an allowance for shipping costs.

 

[7window]

Even if the buyer goes to the same school as seller?

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Even if the buyer goes to the same school as seller?

It doesn't matter if you have a picture of the guy with his driver's license out holding the package and a big sign that says "hey Amazon I received my stuff!" it's still as if you never sent the item.

Amazon, eBay, etc. ONLY care about that it can be tracked online and shown as delivered. All the buyer has to do is say "I never received it" and since you can't provide tracking info, the buyer will always win, 100% of the time. And as noted for Amazon metrics, it'll show up as you never having shipped the item, a no-no for Amazon's seller agreement.

Is it a pain in the butt? Yes, but it's the rules.

 

[rudeguy]

Just sold something at amazon and buyer is in the same town, and city. Whats the best way to handle this transaction? How to finalize it. I could save on postage if I hand it to him in person. The problem is would the buyer claim later that he never received it?

handle it like he was across the country.

You want credit card receipts and shipping receipts.

 

[Meghan54]

Even if the buyer goes to the same school as seller?

Yep, unless you care not that you have a seller's account on Amazon.

And remember, the seller gets a shipping cost credit from Amazon and has to be spent on shipping.

No tracking number, no shipment made. And they'll ding you hard for it, so hard that it may be enough to suspend the account. Simple as that. Part of the TOS you agree to when you create a seller's account at Amazon.

But you have to have an Amazon seller's account to really understand that.

And no, one untracked shipment won't suspend an account. But then again, nothing will prevent the buyer from telling Amazon they never received the item, and Amazon will side with a buyer, much like Paypal does....especially if there's no shipment tracking. The sellers forums on Amazon are full of this sort of thing. You can produce all the paper you want, but without a tracking number, you're really at the mercy of the buyer not doing a chargeback or claiming no item was delivered.

Just not worth the risk involved.

 

[7window]

thank you folks.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Do NOT do this.

Amazon is very, very, very rigid and anal about having shipping and tracking times/numbers, etc. Amazon uses how quickly you get it shipped, how quickly it arrives to the customer, in your seller metrics. A hand delivered item will not show up as shipped or delivered and you'll get a big negative for selling metric in that area.

In your Amazon Seller Central page, click on the Performance tab at the top of the page. Some of the metrics logged: Defect and Cancellation Rate, On-Time Delivery Rate (the customer cannot put in that the item was delivered on their end....only a shipping number via UPS/Fedex/USPS will do), Late Shipment Rate, etc.

Do NOT take advice from anyone who does not sell on Amazon. Amazon takes their metrics very seriously and will delist your seller's account for any perceived lack of taking their policies seriously.

Go ask in the seller's forums about this......or email seller services at Amazon. You'll get told explicitly to ship it with tracking.

Besides, you got an allowance for shipping costs.

Meh. I've only done a quarter of a million or so in business with Amazon over the years so...

Tracking metrics really don't mean squat to anyone but the seller and even lousy tracking metrics aren't likely to get your account suspended. The only metrics buyers see is your feedback percentage. If you're anal about the shipping/tracking metrics then designate "other" as the carrier and enter a dummy tracking number.

I'm not advocating hand delivery. In fact, I think it's a horrible idea and likely not worth the cost(s) involved. I was just giving advice how to go about it IF the OP decides that's the route they want to take.

 

[alkemyst]

Never sell and get paid for something online that you handle in person.

/thread

 

[blinblue]

Do NOT do this.

Amazon is very, very, very rigid and anal about having shipping and tracking times/numbers, etc. Amazon uses how quickly you get it shipped, how quickly it arrives to the customer, in your seller metrics. A hand delivered item will not show up as shipped or delivered and you'll get a big negative for selling metric in that area.

In your Amazon Seller Central page, click on the Performance tab at the top of the page. Some of the metrics logged: Defect and Cancellation Rate, On-Time Delivery Rate (the customer cannot put in that the item was delivered on their end....only a shipping number via UPS/Fedex/USPS will do), Late Shipment Rate, etc.

Do NOT take advice from anyone who does not sell on Amazon. Amazon takes their metrics very seriously and will delist your seller's account for any perceived lack of taking their policies seriously.

Go ask in the seller's forums about this......or email seller services at Amazon. You'll get told explicitly to ship it with tracking.

Besides, you got an allowance for shipping costs.

Tracking is not required for shipping with Amazon. It is however highly recommended and it is part of their seller metrics. You could if you wanted to mark the item as shipped and hand deliver it and Amazon would have no issue with that.

Heck you can even buy Media Mail with no delivery confirmation straight from Amazon.com when selling a media item (though for the 20 cents extra you'd be a little crazy not to get delivery confirmation)

The only metric that would hit is the "Packages with tracking info" which has a target of >98% (the "Delivered on Time" metric is only for packages with tracking info that gets updated, so if you ship without tracking it is not included in that particular metric).

And in regards to if a customer complains that they never received it, it wouldn't make a difference if there was tracking or not. Amazon does not consider tracking info the same as proof that an item was delivered. Only signature confirmation will do that. So a buyer can just say they never received an item, and even if UPS/Fedex/USPS say it is delivered, unless they have a signature, it never happened. (thankfully most people are honest most of the time)


All that to say, unless there is a massive savings (like if you are shipping a 50LB box), just pop it in the mail and do it the non-creepy way, rates will probably be dirt cheap within the same town.


Edit: Here's a recent thread on Amazon's sellers forum about this issue. Amazon's official response in that thread is

Although it may seem to be easier or more convenient to simply deliver an item personally in a situation such as this, we would still encourage you to ship your item rather than delivering personally, as your buyer did pay shipping costs in this order. Additionally, for the security of both parties in a transaction, we ask you to ship your items rather than personally deliver them.

While we do not ask sellers to write to us every time they ship an item, on occasion we may ask sellers for proof of shipment. You will want to have shipment information available if this should occur at some point.

 

[alkemyst]

Delivery Confirmation <> tracking.