As we previously reported, Amazon informed sellers in May they may have to wait for some payments thanks to its new payment option that allows business sellers to pay by invoice. The new program went into effect for third-party sellers on August 8th.
Customers enrolled in Amazon Business may now purchase from any seller using an invoice instead of credit card or other immediate payment methods, and while sellers will have to wait longer for disbursements on those orders, Amazon is guaranteeing they will get paid eventually.
Amazon is also offering an option for faster disbursements, but it comes at a cost: 1.5% of the total invoiced amount.
Amazon Business buyers must jump through a few hoops before they can qualify to pay by invoice. In its letter to sellers, the company said, “The invoiced order payment process is in effect starting today, August 8, 2018, although it may take longer to receive your first invoiced order due to the limited number of Amazon Business buyers qualified for Pay by Invoice.”
Amazon will credit payment on invoiced orders to the available balance of seller account “as soon as the customer payment is processed and no later than the 7th day past the due date of the customer’s invoice.”
There was some pushback from sellers commenting on the initial May 2nd AuctionBytes Blog post, with many concerned about cashflow issues. But one seller said, “Whatever it takes to snag additional orders is A-OK with me” – and that’s likely Amazon’s thinking as well when it comes to its Business buyer program, especially since it’s the sellers who are fronting the goods.
Already dealing with the fun of this invoicing nonsense. Had a “business customer” return an order after shipping. Refunded it out of the money that I never got anyway.
But I noticed these payments are now in separate “buckets” in my payments account on Amazon. One payment balance for normal sales, and another one for these invoiced sales.
Because of the return refund, I was charged a $1.93 “return processing fee” from Amazon. So now I have a negative balance in my “invoiced payments” account and if I don’t get another sale soon, amazon is going to charge my credit card on file for this negative balance as a result of their fees which always causes chaos for one reason or another.