Amazon have extended their A-to-z Guarantee and will now pay customers for claims under $1,000, better-protecting buyers and sellers in the rare case that a defective product causes property damage or personal injury.
Amazon originally launched the A-to-z Guarantee more than 20 years ago to provide customers with a hassle-free return process for products sold and fulfilled by third-party sellers. This helped customers more confidently shop from sellers, raising the bar on customer experience and driving sellers’ growth. Amazon have now extended this service and if a defective product sold through Amazon.com causes property damage or personal injury—regardless of who sells it, Amazon will directly pay customers for claims under $1,000 – at no extra cost to sellers.
Amazon are also launching Amazon Insurance Accelerator to help sellers buy insurance at competitive rates from trusted providers, through these new innovations amazon aim to create a more trustworthy shopping and selling experience for customers and sellers in our store.
Saving buyers and sellers time and money
Now when making a claim due to property damage or personal injury, customers can contact Amazon customer services who will then notify the seller and help them address the claim.
If a seller does not respond to a claim, Amazon will step in to directly address the immediate customer concern, bear the cost themselves, and separately pursue the seller. If a seller rejects a claim they believe is valid, Amazon may also step in to address the customer concern; in these cases, sellers will continue to have the opportunity to defend their product against the claim. This streamlined process will save time, money, and effort for both customers and sellers.
Amazon will resolve and pay for valid property damage and personal injury claims against sellers under $1,000 as a concession to customers. Claims under $1,000 account for more than 80% of cases in our store, and Amazon will bear these costs and not seek reimbursement from sellers who abide by our policies and hold valid insurance. Sellers will be kept informed at every step so they can continue to ensure their products are safe.
One Response
The key phrase is “Amazon will bear these costs and not seek reimbursement from sellers who abide by our policies and hold valid insurance.”.
So the next hoop will be that we’ll all have to provide Amazon copies of our insurance certificates and renewal documents.
This will give them all the data they need to create their own offering. Initially it’ll look good, although no doubt if the option to extend to the whole business is taken up, we’ll have to submit to the A-Z process for all channels in the same way as with Amazon Payments.
But how long before they move the goalposts ? Just like with Amazon Shipping, you’ll only get protection if you use their insurance, and they’ll be judge jury and executioner on giving buyers $1000 any time they feel like it at seller’s expense.
Before we know it, Amazon will have an effective monopoly on e-commerce and retail business insurance.