Amazon says it will pay up to $1,000 for damage caused by products sold by third-party sellers

Company says it will ‘address the immediate customer concern, bear the cost ourselves, and separately pursue the seller’

Amazon will pay as much as $1,000 to customers who bought items from third-party sellers that caused damage or personal injury following a change in its complaint process for returns.

The online retail giant said on Tuesday that it would go after third-party sellers who are unresponsive or resistant to compensate customers after first handling customer satisfaction issues on its own.

The change in policy will apply to all products sold on Amazon and will take effect on 1 September, CNN reported.

Customers will be able to tell Amazon about an issue with a product, and the company will get in touch with the seller. Amazon said that if the seller doesn’t respond, the company will “address the immediate customer concern, bear the cost ourselves, and separately pursue the seller”.

If a seller denies a customer’s claim of a faulty product, Amazon has said that they may pay out as much as $1,000 to address the issue at hand at no cost to the seller.

Amazon said that its new “A-to-Z Guarantee” is a “streamlined process” that will “save time, money, and effort for both customers and sellers”. The current process involves customers personally contacting third-party sellers about issues with products.

Several products sold on Amazon have angered customers in recent years, such as hoverboards, carbon monoxide detectors, and dog collars.

A lawsuit entitled Oberdorf v Amazon examines if the company can be held liable for damages caused by products sold on its site by third-party sellers.

Amazon has said that it’s not a seller, but instead just a marketplace for other sellers.

“If you purchase any of the products or services offered by these businesses or individuals, you are purchasing directly from those third parties, not from Amazon,” the company’s conditions of use state. “Amazon does not assume any responsibility or liability for the actions, product, and content of all these and any other third parties.”

Amazon is not taking on some of the responsibility to keep customers happy and to prevent sellers from paying out compensation for invalid claims.