Besides offering many of its products to the buyers directly, Amazon also sells and ships items through third-party sellers. So, if you have a complaint or inquiry about a product, it’s best if you ask the seller directly.
There are multiple ways you can solve your problem. Here, we’re going to go over how to connect with a seller on Amazon in three ways.
1) Communicating Through Buyer/Seller Messages
If you had already contacted the seller before, you could revive the conversation through Amazon’s buyer/seller messaging option. Here are the steps to follow:
Navigate to “Your Account”
From Amazon’s home page, navigate to “Your Account” and find your messages. There are various ways to do this, depending on whether you are using the Amazon Prime app or your browser.
If you’re using the app, open the drop-down navigation menu on the top left side of the screen. You’ll see “your Account” option under “Your Lists” above “Shop by Department.”
From the browser, select the “Accounts & Lists” tab, which is on the top right side of the homepage, and you’ll find “Your Account” from the drop-down menu.
Find “Communication and content”
Scroll down to the “Communication and content” box, which contains several links to your communication and notification setting. From the Amazon Prime App, you should find it under the “Message Center” option.
Select “Messages from Amazon and sellers”
Clicking this option will open your inbox containing all prior communications with Amazon and third-party sellers. If you’re using the app, you will find “Your Messages” under the “Message Center.”
Click the “Buyer/Seller Messages” tab
You’ll find this tab at the top of your message center inbox. Clicking it will show messages between you and third-party sellers.
Select a message from the seller you want to communicate with
You can scroll down or filter messages from the specific time you communicated to the seller.
Click the reply button
Hitting the reply button will open a text box that will allow you to type your message. The limit to a single message is 4000 characters. You can also add attachments such as PDF files, images, and a Word document.
2) Using the Product Listing Page
If you need to communicate with a seller, you can do it through the following steps:
Find the seller’s product listing
Go to Amazon.com, find the product you want, and select the link to the product listing. You can also access the listing through the seller’s storefront, of they have one.
Go to the seller’s name indicated next to “Sold by” on the right side of the page
You’ll find the “Buy Now” and “Add to Cart” buttons on the product page. Under these buttons, you’ll see “sold by” and the link redirecting to the seller’s name. This link will redirect you to the contact page of the seller.
From the Amazon app, you’ll need to scroll down to find this link.
Select “Ask a Question”
After you open the seller’s page, locate the “Ask a Question” button, which is yellow. This button will allow you to send a message directly to the seller.
Select a topic for your question or comment
Follow the prompts in the drop-down menu to choose a subject for your inquiry. Choose the topic that is closest to your question. Some of the subjects you can select from include product details, product customizations, shipping, and returns & refund policies.
You may also see buttons asking you whether you want to communicate to the seller about a product they are selling or an item you have already ordered.
Enter your message in the text box
Once you have selected the topic, you’ll be redirected to a new page. Type your detailed message here. Ensure you include important details such as the order number of the product, the name of the product as well as the details of your inquiry.
If you’re using the Amazon Prime App, the text box is on the same page as the drop-down menu containing the subject.
Send your message
Once you have typed your message, click “send e-mail under the text box. Amazon will send the message to the seller and a copy to you. Give the seller about 48 hours to reply to you.
If you don’t hear from them or are unwilling to help you, you can solve the problem using Amazon’s A to Z guarantee option.
Amazon doesn’t reveal your e-mail address to the sender to protect your privacy. Instead, the seller will receive an e-mail from an Amazon.com e-mail address.
3) Using The Order Page
You can use the “Your Orders” page to communicate to a third-party seller if you have placed an order and are experiencing a problem with it.
Here is a guide on how to connect through the order page.
From the top of Amazon’s website, click the “Returns and Orders” tab or go to “Your Orders” from your account page.
From the Amazon Prime app, you can do this by selecting the drop-down menu on the top left side of your screen. You’ll see the Home button; choose the “Your Orders” option under it.
Then, find the item you have an inquiry on from the list of orders.
Choose “Get help with order” or “Problem with the order.”
Click one of the buttons that read “Problem with order” or “Get help with the order.” These buttons will appear if the third-party seller hasn’t successfully delivered your order. After choosing these options, follow the prompts to report your problem.
If your order was already delivered, but you’d like to exchange, return or request for a refund, choose the “Return or replace products” button. Amazon will help you contact the seller if it’s the seller who handles the transactions. If you’re not able to resolve the problem, Amazon’s customer support system will help you.
You will only see the “Get help with order” button if the seller handles their shipping, instead of doing it through Amazon.
Select the “leave seller feedback” button to leave the seller a star rating or any comment about your shopping experience.
If you’re dissatisfied with your order, you can leave a review and get your message across that way on this page.
Contact Them Through The Product Listing Page
If you’ve bought, or are about to buy, a product from Seller X, go to the product listing page for the item you’ve bought or are buying. If you’ve bought it, it should show up in the “Your Orders” area of your account.
If not, go to Amazon.com as normal, search for the product you were looking for, and navigate to the page where your potential seller lists their item.
Alternatively, if your seller has an Amazon Storefront, you can simply go there, browse till you find the product listing page, and go in that way.
Amazon usefully lists the “Sold by” information and provides a clickable link to the name of the seller. It’s usually under the “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons on the product listing page.
Click on the linked name of your seller. It should take you to their information and contact page.
On the Information and Contact page for your seller, you should see an “Ask A Question” button.
Pressing that button will open up a standard dialogue box. You’ll be prompted via a dropdown menu to choose a subject for your message.
Subjects include the likes of Product Details, Shipping, and Returns and Refunds. Choose the one that’s closest to your needs.
It’s possible that you’ll see toggle buttons, to allow you to differentiate between simply asking about products the seller is selling and products you’ve already purchased from them.
Once you’ve narrowed your query down this way, you’ll be taken to the next page in the process. There, you should find a blank text box.
Type your query into that box. be as brief and succinct as possible, while including as much relevant information as you can – the product you’re asking about, your order number if you have one, etc.
NB – if you’re doing all this on the Amazon app, the text box will appear on the same page as the drop-down menu. Scroll down once you’ve dropped-down.
It’s rare that this actually becomes an issue, but you’re limited to 4,000 characters for your message in the text box.
Usefully, the text box also offers you the option to add attachments.
So if, for instance, an item has arrived smashed beyond all recognition, this is your chance to attach the what-the-heck picture you took of it when you opened the package as proof of the validity of your query.
NB – sorry, but the app doesn’t yet include the attachment option. Boring old early 21st century web browsers are the way to go if you want to add images.
Once your query is complete, press the “Send email” button. Without technically revealing the seller’s name and address to you, Amazon will route your query to your seller.
If you go this way, it’s regarded as Amazon courtesy to give the seller 2 days to read your query and come back to you before you follow up with them. Be aware, they’re humans too, with lives of their own as well as Amazon seller accounts.
Hopefully, all goes well, they come back to you quickly and either help you with the information you need or follow up with some action that satisfies you. If they don’t, there are ways to get redress through the Amazon guarantee service.
Find Them Via The “Your Orders” Page
Remember we mentioned you could find your seller through the “Your Orders” section of your account?
Easy. Sign into your Amazon account and navigate to “Your Orders.”
If you’ve already placed an order with a seller, it will be listed on that page.
(If you’re using the app, “Your Orders” is in the dropdown menu on the top left of the screen, and is nested just under “Home.”)
If you haven’t already taken delivery of your item, you have two options. Depending on what you need to talk to your seller about, click on either “Problem with order” or “Get help with order.”
If you have received your order but you need to return it, exchange it, or get a refund for it, click on the “Return or replace items” button.
There’s a slight caveat in place with this option. Some sellers handle these matters themselves. If so, clicking that button will get you into contact with them via Amazon.
Some other sellers let Amazon handle the shipping of their products. If so, and you don’t get the option to return or replace items via your seller’s link, you should raise a query with Amazon directly, as it’s the company responsible for the delivery of your item.
While there are questions about doing this in the first instance, and ideally you should try to make direct contact first and give the seller the chance to put right anything that’s less than ideal about your experience, you always have the option of leaving feedback.
That option remains open to you for 90 days after you placed your order, so it’s a great final interaction, so you can tell people whether you had a positive or negative experience with the seller, including their response to any issues or questions you had.
Use The Buyer/Seller Message Function
From the “Your Account” page, you can keep a conversation going with your seller, assuming you’ve contacted them already.
Find your previous messages by clicking on the “Accounts & Lists” tab at the top right of the page. (Again, if you’re using the app, the experience is slightly different. Go to the dropdown on the top left and find the “Your Account” link under “Your Lists”).
On the “Your Account” page, scroll down until you find the “Communication and content” option. Clicking on this option will show you all the links to your communication settings.
Find “Messages from Amazon and sellers.” Clicking that option will give you an inbox, showing all your previous correspondence with both Amazon and your third-party sellers.
Click on the “Buyer/Seller Messages” tab. That will show you a narrowed-down list of the messages between you and your third-party sellers.
Opening the most recent message from the seller you want to contact will allow you to continue a kind of email dialogue with the seller until any or all issues between you are resolved.
This of course is assuming you remain within their communications policies and parameters – it is not in any sense a license to harass or harangue sellers with whom you are in dispute.
When replying to an existing message, which you do by clicking on the “Reply” button, you will get the same sort of text box as you open when you go via the product listing page.
As in that case, you have 4,000 characters in which to type your message, and can add attachments if you’re using a web browser (Again, apologies, appsters – at the moment, this function is only for web browsers).
As before, Amazon never reveals the seller’s direct email address to you, but handles the traffic each way via its own systems.
It’s usually not ideal to have to engage in dialogue with third-party sellers, because it usually means something has gone wrong somewhere in the everyday transaction you had planned.
But at least through the Amazon system, there are several ways to make secure contact with your third-party seller, so you can raise issues, ask questions, and set the likes of refunds and returns in motion if they’re needed.
