Amazon FBA made temporary changes to some of its policies, giving sellers more time to process returns and issue refunds. The change is presumably a response to the COVID pandemic as sellers institute quarantine and disinfecting practices on items returned from customers.
The change applies to Amazon prepaid return label returns (Prime and non-Prime). For the month of May, sellers have 14 calendar days for returns; it will revert back to the required 2-calendar days return processing time on June 1, 2020.
Amazon explained:
“During the extension period, the seller reimbursement filing window will be temporarily increased to 90 calendar days. You can submit SAFE-T claims for refunds issued in the prior 90 days during this period. The filing window for SAFE-T claims will revert to 60 days after May 31, 2020.
“You may also file a SAFE-T claim for refunds that you issued during the extension period. These claims will be processed in the same manner as standard SAFE-T claims in which Amazon Customer Service issues a refund to a customer.”
Amazon’s standard SAFE-T claim process will resume policy starting on May 31, 2020.
One seller said they hoped Amazon would educate sellers, fearing an increase in A-to-Z Claims – see the announcement and seller comments on Seller Central on Amazon.com.
