Small win for Trike Bike as Amazon Australia offers refund for lack of profits

Queensland business Trike Bike has secured a small victory against retail giant Amazon, with the Australian platform offering to refund its subscription fees between February and April due to the lack of sales.

Owner Michael Coates has previously told SmartCompany he was ready to step off the Marketplace platform after seeing no sales despite paying between $30 and $50 a month to list his products on Amazon’s local Marketplace.

He says Amazon Australia checked his product listings and assured him these were as good as you could get, before promising additional assistance, which never came through.

After SmartCompany reported an update on Trike Bike’s experience last week, Coates quickly received an email confirming the listing fees he had been paying since February had been refunded.

The reason for the refund was that “that you have not generated profits with the activity on Amazon”, according to an email seen by SmartCompany.

The total value of the refund is close to $110 and Coates says it is enough to have his company stick with Amazon until June.

However, he does question why listing fees came in so soon for Australian businesses, given that many have not seen traction yet. In fact, Amazon itself has told him it will be a while until local brands start gaining real momentum on the platform.

“If they want to really establish the platform, they should have allowed us to put everything up there and then not charge us until we actually made sales,” Coates says. 

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