Expiration Date Claims
Wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue with expiration dates.
We sell dog food and of course there are best-by dates on all of it. Over the past six months we have received 8 condition claims from buyers stating that the food they received was expired. This is not true as we do not sell anything even close to expiration date.
It has been almost impossible representing our side of these claims as Amazon is asking for information that doesn't exist. When we select the option of buyer misunderstanding the best-by date, we receive instructions to provide a screenshot of any conversation we've had with the buyer. This is a crazy request because all correspondence with any buyer is already in the Amazon system. Also, when we receive these types of claims we are not told which buyer made the claim and in almost all cases there wasn't any correspondence at all so we have nothing to provide Amazon in our defense.
We’ve provided images of the packaging showing dates but that’s not good enough. In fact, we are then asked to follow the old stand by of presenting how the problem happened and what we are going to do to prevent it from happening again blah blah blah.
Our account has not been shut down or anything like that. These claims represent a small fraction of a percent of our transactions. However, a few of the listings have been shut down so now we can’t sell those products anymore until we represent our case, which seems impossible.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Expiration Date Claims
Wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue with expiration dates.
We sell dog food and of course there are best-by dates on all of it. Over the past six months we have received 8 condition claims from buyers stating that the food they received was expired. This is not true as we do not sell anything even close to expiration date.
It has been almost impossible representing our side of these claims as Amazon is asking for information that doesn't exist. When we select the option of buyer misunderstanding the best-by date, we receive instructions to provide a screenshot of any conversation we've had with the buyer. This is a crazy request because all correspondence with any buyer is already in the Amazon system. Also, when we receive these types of claims we are not told which buyer made the claim and in almost all cases there wasn't any correspondence at all so we have nothing to provide Amazon in our defense.
We’ve provided images of the packaging showing dates but that’s not good enough. In fact, we are then asked to follow the old stand by of presenting how the problem happened and what we are going to do to prevent it from happening again blah blah blah.
Our account has not been shut down or anything like that. These claims represent a small fraction of a percent of our transactions. However, a few of the listings have been shut down so now we can’t sell those products anymore until we represent our case, which seems impossible.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
1 respuesta
LeviDylan_Amazon
Hello @Seller_b5kDRK2Ik8TDe,
Thank you for posting here on the Seller Forums.
I see that you have received expired complaints specifically for dog food that you sell and you have questions about how to get these resolved.
I would like to clarify that the "best-by" or sell-by date is considered the equivalent of an expiration date per our policy.
Are you shipping the dog food products via fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) or fulfilled by merchant (FBM)? The reason I ask this question is to understand if you ship the product FBM, as the expected shelf life for dog food is 180–540 days. In addition, the customer must receive the product with efficient enough time to use it before the shelf life expires.
If you ship it to FBA, all products must have a remaining shelf life that allows sufficient time for the product to be consumed in full, plus an additional 90 days. The FBA shelf life for your product is 180 days, so the item must have 270 days left before the expiration date in order for it to be in compliance.
Can you confirm if the "best by" date which is considered the expiration date, meets the above requirements depending on your shipping method? If not, this will not be a valid dispute and dispute attempts will likely be rejected.
Here are some helpful resources about expiration date requirements for you to review:
--Expiration dates on FBA products
--Expiration dates on seller-fulfilled products
Once you have reviewed the information and questions above, please don't hesitate to respond here for further guidance. The Forums community and I are here to support you.
Wishing you the best,
LeviDylan
