Amazon reduces my commissions

because of goods returned but bought in 2005

[onlineleben]

Hi,
I just got a deduction of affiliate commisions today for a returned article from amazon.de
Nothing special, I thought, ut when I found out which product it was, I became curious.
The product which was returned was bought in 2005.
I thought that the time for returns to amazon and also to deduct the commission is quite short.

Is it still OK to get this deducted? I couldn't find anything regarding the period on the amazon associate site.

Any help ismuch appreciated.

[LifeinAsia]

If someone returns merchandise, that's the same as if the sale never happened. So why shouldn't they deduct your commission? That's standard practice.

Most places have time limits for returns, and 2005 seems excessive. But you'll probably never know what happened in the background.

It might have been an item that was returned for a replacement after a few months, then the replacement was deemed to be defective after a few months and a new replacement was sent, which also turned out to be defective, so the customer finally gave up and asked for a full refund.

[hunderdown]

Though I don't know the details, I do know that Amazon has pretty generous rules on returns, which you can actually use as a selling point--my brother buys computer equipment from them, for example, and not from some of the well-known online computer stores, because they don't have a limited return period and don't charge a restocking fee.

[onlineleben]

I also use amazons return policy as a selling point, but nearly 2 years is excessive.

An analysis I did last night revealed that the last item with that product code was sold in early 2005 and looking at the exact selling price it could also affect a sale from late 2004.

Anyway, thanks for your opinions. Will see what amazon says about this.

[hunderdown]

It does seem excessive, but if the item has been returned, that should mean that Amazon has refunded the money. If Amazon isn't making any money, why should you?

[markwelch]

I agree with the other folks -- if an item is returned and Amazon refunds the consumer, they are entitled to deduct your commission from the current period's earnings. It's annoying, and it does make it hard to forecast earnings if you don't get "complete data" until a year or more later, but it's just how retail works.

Unfortunately, some other merchants use "returns" or "cancellations" in a fraudulent manner to defraud affiliates, especially in the web hosting space. These merchants will falsely claim that an order was cancelled or refunded, and deduct the affiliate commission.

[onlineleben]

Ok, i just received an anwer from amazon today and they told something like there is a legal requirement to have a 2 year warranty.
First they try to replace the defective product which doesn't have an effect on the commission. If this doesn't help or the customer doesn't want to have a replacement, they have to refund which affects commsions.

Lesson learned:
My investment of about 5 EUR for ppc to gainthis sale is gone, but a customer hopefully is happy (too bad it was an affiliate sale and not my own product so I could make the customer happyand buy again).

Have a good weekend!

[Jane_Doe]

It is tough to have a commission reversed when you had to pay for the click to your site, but overall I actually find Amazon is one of the better merchants at not claiming a lot of returns.

I've dropped some merchants in the past because it seemed like half the sales, and consequently my commissions, were always getting reversed.