QUESTION: I'm pretty angry. Six months after shipping an order, Amazon refunded my buyer, who claimed she didn't place the order. She never contacted me or returned the book, and Amazon took my money! No A-to-Z Guarantee claim was filed, and nobody asked for my side of the story. What can I do?

ANSWER: You should do what I've done in similar cases: become a very squeaky wheel. If you squeak loudly and long enough, Amazon may provide the grease.

I've sold to about 110,000 buyers on Amazon and 18 of those orders have resulted in A-to-Z claims. In every case, Amazon denied the claim -- or returned my funds -- after I provided the delivery confirmation number.

But recently, like you, I noticed a suspicious refund made outside the A-to-Z Guarantee. The buyer e-mailed me several days after the order, asking that it be cancelled. Since the book was already in the mail, I asked her to refuse delivery, and I'd refund when it was returned. I never heard from her again, and the $9 book was never returned. But nine months later, in October 2005, Amazon deducted the money from my account with no explanation.

To add insult to injury, when I e-mailed Amazon demanding an explanation, they replied (incorrectly) that I'd failed to reply to their chargeback inquiry. Evidently the customer had gotten a refund from her credit-card company, claiming the transaction was "unauthorized."

After asking (in three e-mails) for an explanation from an Amazon supervisor, I finally received an anonymous e-mail from their billing department, apologizing for their error, and my funds were restored. I was irritated -- to put it mildly -- at how much time this $9 dispute consumed. But I didn't want a precedent established where

Amazon would be refunding willy-nilly on orders I'd fulfilled.

This is a vivid illustration of why Amazon should assign account representatives to Pro-Merchant sellers, something I've recommended since 2001. Disputes like this can't be resolved using canned e-mail responses -- sometimes human intervention is required. I'm sure Amazon believes they're saving a bit on support costs, but this type of shoddy business practice generates ill will among Amazon's best customers: its Pro-Merchant sellers.

So if I were you, I'd send Amazon a friendly e-mail by clicking on the yellow button on the right, asking that the funds be restored to your account. If that fails, I'd phone Amazon's seller-support folks at 877-251-0696. I can't promise you'll have a satisfactory outcome, but I'd encourage you to protest vigorously anytime you think you've received unfair treatment. Good luck!

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