Fulfillment by Amazon part 3

I am completely frustrated with the FBA program.

It seems that everyone loves Amazon Prime - the ability to purchase what you want, get it quickly, and return it just as fast.  Of all the items I submitted to Amazon for fulfillment almost all of them were returned. Just got an email today about a refund issued for a buyer for an item they purchased using Amazon prime of course and it was FBA.  They of course get all the money back, Amazon just deducts it from your account, no warning.  Look further into it, you only have half your fees back which is crazy. So this person got to try out my item at my expense.  At this point I am unsure if an Amazon Prime member pays for return shipping but Im guessing they dont.

Majority of buyers dont return things unless they really have too since who wants to spend the money on a return? If they get free returns as a member everything is risk free.  But who loses out? The seller.

I dont have many items within the FBA program since I was just testing the waters but I am sure I have lost more then I have made.  At one point I was seriously considering sending everything to Amazon, let them do all the work right?  Just sit back and make money.  Its an expense to send all the items to them, another expense monthly, more fees per item sold and if the buyer returns  the item in not exactly the same condition Amazon marks it damaged and will toss it unless you request a return. Which you have to pay for.

Is it worth the risk? Maybe if your spending a lot on overhead. Me, Im just one person doing it all and its not worth it to me.

I really dont want to ask for the rest of the items to be returned. I think I will let them sit there until they are sold and not fulfill them again. Its a tough choice but the expenses related to FBA are just not worth it to an individual.

Fulfillment by Amazon personal review.

I considered fulfillment  for a while, I mean how great is it to have Amazon ship your items for you!  Your products are then opened up to Amazon Prime members and you just sit back and relax and make money right?

To my disappointment its not turning out like I expected.

We sent in some of our bags that were big sellers. We kept getting notifications about the item suggested for fulfillment.   We were selling it on Amazon for just over $13, we ran calculations and it suggested that it was not a good idea but I wanted to try it out thinking we could move inventory quickly.   We are not a huge operation and we use the USPS so  our overhead is not that much, for now anyway.

We shipped 3 at first and left the price at just over $13. Within a day of them getting it, they sold all 3 of them. Then I checked the calculations, after all the fees Amazon was charging we were even, you cant run a business 'making even'. There is the cost of the item, inbound fright, outbound fright and all the fees Amazon charges.  So I increased the price by just under $3 and shipped out 3 more.  Those 3 sold quickly again so I shipped a dozen this time and within a few days of Amazon receiving it they sold 4 again. I looked again at what I was getting in and surprised to find that the fees increased and I was making even less then before! What the heck happened?

After calling them today I found out the items I sent are considered OVERSIZE by .3"... what the heck! I personally fold the bags and well they should not be OVERSIZE! Amazon is now charging me a fee for oversize so instead of fees just under $5 now fees are over $9!

Can I increase the prices of these items to $20? Should I request them to be returned?  They would charge me 60 cents per item to return them.  Im increasing the price to just under $18 lets see what happens. If they dont sell quickly I will just return lower price to sell them out and go back to selling them myself.

Ive also sent some toys I have sitting here which have not sold either. Its been a month so Im not too worried about it just yet.