Amazon tanked a small business by re-circulating a used diaper that had been returned.
After designing a washable swim diaper for their son, Paul and Rachelle Baron were considered an Amazon success story. That is until one scathing review upended their business and credibility.
The couple got into the diaper business after enrolling their newborn son Beauregard in swim class, but found at the time that the tightness of his swim-friendly diapers made removing them difficult and cleaning him messy. Their frustrations led them to design a reusable swim diaper with snaps perfect for removal and adjusting.
They launched their product under Beau & Belle Littles on Amazon, and it wasn’t long until their small business had reached $1m in sales, leading the couple to appear on shows like the Rachael Ray Show and be profiled in Forbes . They became darlings of the Amazon algorithm until the online retailer sent one customer a used diaper, having not checked the product before reselling it.
“The diaper arrived used and was covered in poop stains,” the customer wrote, leaving a scathing one-star review of the Baron’s product and pictures as well. “Nothing could have been more disgusting!! I am assuming someone returned it after using it and the company simply did not check the item and then shipped it to us as if it was brand new. These were not small stains either. I was extremely grossed out.”
Although the company claims it thoroughly inspects each return before reselling, there’s been a growing issue of damaged products recirculating on the retail platform, according to Bloomberg . One person who worked for Amazon’s returns operation for years explained to the outlet that the hefty amount of returns makes it difficult to fully inspect each of the products returned before putting them back on the market.
However, the Barons continued to pay the price of Amazon’s actions. After the couple informed Amazon that the situation wasn’t their fault and asked them to take down the review, the company kept the review up, negatively impacting their business and finances. They now have $600,000 in debt, and although they may make enough selling diapers to pay off their debt and order more inventory, it hasn’t been enough.
“The last four years have been an emotional train wreck,” Paul Baron said. “Shoppers might think returning a poopy diaper to Amazon is a victimless way to get their money back, but we’re a small, family business, and this is how we pay our mortgage.”
Amazon instituted a new policy earlier this year that gives sellers the option to tell the company whether or not any returned products can be resold. At the time, e-commerce consultant Lesley Hensell commended the new policy, writing in a LinkedIn post: “Better late than never!”
Hours after Bloomberg published the article, Amazon took down the negative review that impacted the Baron’s business.
“When we learned about this incident four years ago, we quickly made improvements to our product returns process to prevent this type of used item being returned and sold as new,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg . “During the returns inspection process, our teams are instructed to open the box every single time and validate the integrity of the inner seal.”
“We are not aware of further incidents with this type of product since these improvements were made several years ago,” they continued. “More recently, we have updated our policy so that no returned products of this type can be resold under any circumstances. It’s extremely rare for these types of mistakes to happen, and when they do we take them very seriously to improve the experiences of customers and sellers.”
They added: “There is no data to suggest this was anything but an isolated incident. We have removed the negative review in question and are investigating why it was not removed previously.”
The Independent has contacted Amazon and Beau & Belle Littles for comment.
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