Buyer-Seller Messaging Service

Understanding Buyer-Seller Messaging Service | Contacting a Buyer | Attachments | Searching and Filtering Messages

The Buyer-Seller Messaging Service allows you to communicate with buyers in the Amazon marketplace via e-mail. The service masks private e-mail addresses, increasing the security of buyer-seller communication.

You may review e-mail sent to and from buyers on the Buyer-Seller Messages page. You can also do a quick check for new messages in the Performance box on your seller account home page.

Additional benefits of the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service include the following:

• Buyers and sellers can see e-mails sent and received both from the service and from your company's own e-mail system (such as Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.).
• Buyer-seller communication is encouraged, which may reduce disputes and claims.
• In the event of a dispute or claim, Amazon can facilitate faster and better resolution because it has access to all correspondence between sellers and buyers.

Understanding the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service

By using the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service, both buyers and sellers communicate with each other via encrypted e-mail addresses. For example, if a buyer wants to contact a seller, the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service will assign an encrypted alias, such as "a222d34b3891234b@marketplace.amazon.ca," instead of displaying the seller's real e-mail address. E-mails are routed to the seller via this encrypted alias.

The Buyer-Seller Messaging Service provides a record of an e-mail that is routed through our systems. You may find it easier to contact or reply to a buyer via your personal or business e-mail system. You can do this, and still allow the service to record your correspondence, by using the encrypted e-mail alias. See "Contacting a Buyer" below for details.

Contacting a buyer

If you have a buyer's encrypted e-mail address (generated by the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service) you may contact them directly using your personal or business e-mail system. Treat the encrypted address as you would any other e-mail address. Once your e-mail reaches our system, a copy will be visible in the "Sent messages" tab of the Buyer-Seller Messages page. (If your e-mail provider delays the sending of messages to Amazon, this delay will be reflected by our system.)

Guidelines

In general, you may contact buyers (Amazon.com customers) only to complete orders or to respond to customer service inquiries. You may not contact buyers for marketing or promotional purposes (including via e-mail, physical mail, telephone, or otherwise).

To enable or block access by your company employees or colleagues to your seller account, see Using the Alternate Address Feature.

If you send a permitted e-mail to an Amazon.com customer, your e-mail may not include any of the following:

• Links to any website.
• Seller logos if they contain or display a link to the seller's website.
• Any marketing message or promotion.
• Any promotions for additional products or referrals to third-party products or promotions.

Contact methods

To contact a buyer via your seller account, follow these steps:

1. Go to Manage Orders and locate the order for which you want to contact the buyer.
2. Click the name of the buyer in the "Contact Buyer" column.
3. On the next page, enter the message you would like to send to the buyer.
4. When you are finished with your message, click Submit.

To contact a buyer via your personal or business e-mail account, follow these steps:

1. Go to Manage Orders and locate the order for which you want to contact the buyer.
2. Click the name of the buyer in the "Contact Buyer" column.
3. Copy the encrypted e-mail address, next to the buyer's name in the "To" field.
4. Go to your e-mail application and use this copied e-mail address to contact the buyer.
   The e-mail will pass through the Amazon messaging service on the way to the buyer. The buyer will not be able to see your personal or business e-mail address.

E-mail Templates

As a seller, you may have a handful of messages that you find yourself frequently sending to buyers. Rather than rewrite the same message each time, you can create e-mail templates for the most common messages that you send to buyers. For more information, see E-mail Templates.

Attachments

You can send one or more attachments to a buyer. You can also receive attachments from buyers. Attachments are indicated by a paper clip icon to the right of the Subject field in Buyer-Seller Messages. The total allowed attachment size is 10MB.

The following document formats are supported:

• Text files (.txt)
• PDFs (Adobe Portable Document Format)
• Word documents (.doc and .docx)
• Image files (.jpg, .gif, .tiff, .bmp, and .png)

Searching and filtering messages

Several search and filter options are available for received and sent messages:

• In the search box at the top of the page, you can search for messages associated with a particular order ID or ASIN. You can also search for messages sent to or received from a specific e-mail address. This search does not include the subject line or body of the message.
• To view the filter options, click "Show filter options" at the top of the page. You can filter messages by date, response status, or attachment status. If you filter by date, you can select a pre-defined time frame or you can specify an exact date range.
• If you filter by response status, you can select messages that have not received a response or messages that have received a response within a pre-defined time frame.
• To see only messages that have attachments, use the attachment status filter.