When one individual buys an item from another individual through the Amazon marketplace, who is the vendor and who is the customer? From Amazon’s point of view, the buyer is the only one putting an item in their cart on Amazon.com and hitting “Check out.” Kyle complains that this means Amazon sellers, who might be individuals and loyal Amazon customers too, are shut out and automatically in the wrong when there’s a dispute.

I am a seller on Amazon, and I recently had an incident where one of my buyers received his item late due to the USPS Columbus Day holiday. He filed an A to Z guarantee claim against me, which Amazon granted without even contacting me first to resolve the issue. Now, the buyer has been refunded, and I am out of both the money and the item I already shipped to him.

Upon contacting Amazon, I was told that they will always side with the buyer in cases like this, and basically, I am out of luck. I understand Amazonhas a reputation for providing great customer service, as they have done with me for many years. Apparently, they don’t regard the seller as a customer. I used to spend and sell quite a bit on Amazon, am a Prime member, and even have a corporate credit card account with them. Now, I refuse to do any business with them at all. They lost a loyal customer over a measly $60.

There’s siding with the buyer, and then there’s granting a full refund because something is a few days late. Unless it was something that the customer needed on a specific day–say, a wedding accessory that arrived after the wedding–why does that mean a full refund?

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