POA - Plan of Action & Appeal for Expired Listing product
Has your product been removed for an expired listing complain due to import of EU products ? Use the below plan of action to get your listing reinstated !
Of course, adapting this plan of action to your specific case and providing seller support with photo evidence and invoices will maximise your chances of getting your listing back !
Root Cause Analysis:
- Date Format Misinterpretation: The primary root cause of the expired condition complaints is the discrepancy between date formatting standards used in different regions. Specifically, many of our products use the European date format (DD/MM/YYYY), which differs from the US format (MM/DD/YYYY). This has led to confusion among US-based Amazon customers, who, upon seeing dates such as "03/07/2023" (interpreted as July 3rd in Europe), mistakenly believed that the product expired on March 7th.
- Lack of Consistent Expiry Date Checks at Warehouse: While we already adhere to Amazon’s 90-day expiry date requirement, we discovered that our internal processes for monitoring and verifying date formatting on labels were not sufficiently robust. This allowed some products with incorrect or ambiguous date formats to be shipped to customers, further exacerbating the confusion.
- Communication Gap with Customers: While we responded to customer concerns on an ad-hoc basis, we lacked a standardized process for proactively informing customers about the difference in date formats. This reactive approach likely left some customers uncertain and dissatisfied, contributing to the complaints.
Steps Taken to Resolve the Issue:
- Full Refund and Customer Communication: We have already issued full refunds to all customers who raised concerns about the expired condition of their products. Additionally, we have reached out to them individually to clarify the misunderstanding regarding the date format and to reassure them that their products were within the valid expiration period.