Table of Contents
You may have ordered something as a buyer only to find the order to have a “pending” status.
On the other hand, you may be a seller who may notice a “pending” order and not know what to do with it.
If you are someone who has faced these issues, this guide has everything you need to know.
Quick Summary of This Guide
In this post, we will discuss:
What causes orders to have the “pending” status What you can do about it as a buyer What you can do about it as a seller
Let’s get into it.
What Causes Amazon Orders to Become Pending?
When you make an order on Amazon and it becomes pending, there can be a few reasons for it.
The most common reason is that Amazon’s servers are backlogged which is why it is taking them longer than usual to process the order.
In this case, there’s really nothing for you to do except wait. The order will be processed within 15 minutes to half an hour and after that, it will proceed as usual.
Another common reason why orders become pending is due to some problem with the payment method.
In case you’re a buyer and your order has become pending, it can be a good idea to check your card to see if you have sufficient funds for the order or not.
If you do, then you can check with your bank to see if your card is still active or not.
However, you have sufficient funds and your card is operational but you still have pending orders, then it can be a good idea to contact Amazon Customer Service.
What Can You Do About Pending Orders as a Buyer?
We mentioned some common reasons above why pending orders occur and what you can do about it such as checking to see if you have sufficient funds or if your card is operational.
However, if everything checks out and your order is still pending, it can be a good idea to contact Amazon customer support. If you don’t do something about it, your order can stay pending for as long as 21 days.
Furthermore, if the problem is not resolved after those 21 days, then your order is automatically canceled by Amazon.
You don’t want to wait 21 days just for your order to be canceled, so it’s time to contact Amazon support.
You can do so in three ways:
- Through a chatbot
- Through their callback service
- By calling them
We’ve detailed the procedure for all three ways of reaching Amazon’s customer service below:
Contacting Amazon Customer Support through the Chat Bot
Step 1: Navigate to Amazon’s Contact Us page and click on the “Start chatting now” button.
Step 2: Type “Pending order” in the text field and then, hit Enter.
Step 3: The bot will give you some instructions on how to proceed. Follow them and provide as many details as you can regarding your pending order.
Step 4: If the bot can fix your pending order on its own, it will do so. Otherwise, it will get you in touch with an Amazon representative who will assist you with your issue.
Contacting Amazon through their Callback Feature
Step 1: Navigate to the Contact Us page and this time, instead of clicking on the “Start Chatting Now” button, click on the smaller “We can call you” hyperlink below it as shown:
Step 2: On the page that opens after this, click the “A delivery, order or return” button as shown below:
Step 3: Scroll down to the section with the heading that says “Or, talk to someone” click on the Phone button as shown:
Step 4: Select your country from the dropdown menu and enter your phone number in the field below it.
Once you’re done entering your phone number, click on the “Call me now” button as shown below:
Once this is done, all you have to do now is wait for a call from an Amazon representative on your provided phone number.
Provide the representative with as many details about your order as possible and they will assist you on how to fix it.
Calling Amazon
Instead of using the callback feature, you can choose to directly call Amazon customer support at 0800-279-7234.
Once the Amazon representative picks up, explain your situation as much as possible and the representative will help you fix your pending orders.
What Can You Do About Pending Orders as a Seller?
When you’re a seller on Amazon, you can go to the Manage Orders page to check out the status of all of your orders.
If one (or more) of your orders are pending, then this may indicate an issue with the buyer’s payment method.
It could happen due to:
- An issue with authentication of the buyer’s credit card
- The buyer opts for convenience store payment but does not complete the payment
- The buyer qualifying for free shipping on an FBA order and the order being pending because other items in the order are being gathered
- One (or more) of the items in the order are out of stock.
As an Amazon seller, there’s not a whole lot you can do about pending orders.
You can’t ship pending orders because you don’t have the address available to you when orders are pending. Not to mention, it’s against Amazon’s guidelines.
Moreover, as an Amazon seller, you can’t cancel them either.
All you can do is wait for them to be processed until you can ship the products out to the buyer.
You can find all your pending orders through the Manage Orders section and then click on the Pending tab.
Pending FBA orders can be found in the View FBA Orders tab.
Please note that, according to Amazon’s guidelines, you are not allowed to ship orders to buyers while the order is pending.
This remains true even if the buyer contacts you and tells you about their shipping address.
If a buyer contacts you in this way, you are required as a seller to refer them to Amazon Customer Service.
Pending orders can be annoying for Amazon sellers.
You can’t ship the order, you can’t cancel the order and what’s even worse is that it impacts your inventory.
When an order is pending, the item quantity still gets subtracted by 1 from your available inventory.
Wrapping Things Up…
We hope we were able to shed some light on why an order may turn into a pending order when you buy something off of Amazon.
In most cases, it’s not much of an issue and usually gets resolved on its own.
In case it doesn’t get resolved on its own, you can contact Amazon’s customer service to get it fixed.
Have you ever run into issues with a pending order on Amazon? Let us know in the comments below.
