Issue Concessions
Concession Processing for Buyers
Concessions and Seller Performance
Sellers may occasionally want to compensate buyers for order issues as an alternative or in addition to refunding basic order costs. When a buyer receives a defective item, for example, the seller may cover the cost of return shipping in order to retrieve the item. If a buyer is disappointed in not receiving the color of item they expected but they are willing to keep the item, a seller may choose to make a monetary goodwill concession to the buyer.
Sellers must have sufficient funds in order to issue a concession. Both the full and partial refund options in Manage Orders allow sellers to make concessions to buyers. There are line items for two types of concessions:
- Return shipping
- Additional refunds
When a concession is issued, the full amount of the concession will be debited from the seller’s account.
On the Refund order screen, concession line items will show specific maximum amounts for the Return Shipping and Additional refunds fields.
To issue a concession from the Refund order screen, follow these steps:
- On the Refund Order page
- Required: Select the appropriate Reason for refund. This will automatically default to Customer Return.
- Optional: Add a Note to yourself. Sellers can create a Note to yourself when issuing concessions or refunds. This field allows you to track the actions you have taken on a return request. The memo accepts 255 characters and you may continue to edit information as needed.
- Enter the amount of the Return shipping or Additional refunds concession in the Amount to refund/charge box.
- Limits are displayed next to the Amount to refund/charge box.
Note: The Refund option for Return Shipping is available only for seller-faulted returns made using AlphaDiscounters Prepaid returns for seller-fulfilled orders. The Charge option is available only for buyer-faulted returns. To learn more, refer to Return Reason codes for Prepaid Returns.
- Click the Submit Refund button. Allow up to 15 minutes for the data to update.
Concessions are processed in a specific order. However, as concessions are not refunds of order costs, concessions are not adjusted for order-related AlphaDiscounters fees. Such adjustments are only made when original order amounts (such as product price and shipping) are refunded to the buyer. Accordingly, the full amount of the concession is debited from the seller account.
Concessions are displayed in the “Other” line-item on the Payments Summary page. The “Other” line-item in the Summary view also includes refunds of order costs not displayed separately in the summary, such as shipping. Therefore, a shipping refund and a return shipping concession for the same order will be aggregated on your summary.
In the Transaction Details display, the “Other” refund amount gives a breakdown of order refunds and concessions. In this view, a shipping refund will be displayed as “Shipping” while a return shipping concession will be displayed as an “Other” transaction. In addition, Return Shipping Concessions and Other Concessions are consolidated in a single “Other” line-item. If you issue a 10 euro Return Shipping Concession and a 20 euro Other Concession, you will see a 30 euro “Other” amount.
Concession amounts will be debited from the seller’s account and balanced against available funds. Negative account balances may be handled in any manner permitted under the terms of your selling agreement.
Concession Processing for Buyers
Concessions are issued to the payment instrument the buyer used for their order. This means that the buyer will see a credit on their statement if they used a credit card for the order. If the buyer used both a credit card and an AlphaDiscounters gift card or gift certificate for their order, the concession amount will be applied to the credit card. If both a concession amount and an order refund are issued, the buyer will see two entries on their statement.
Concessions and Seller Performance
Concessions do not contribute to the refund percentage in your seller performance metrics. If one or more products in an order are fully refunded, then the order is counted as a refunded order and is included in your Refund Rate.