Okay, I will be posting truths, facts I have observed after being on the Platform for over 2 years (I guess) and why FBA Wholesale is not a viable business model unless Amazon fix these things, in this brief I will be sharing first thing that as far as I understood makes Amazon totally unsafe place for its 3rd Party sellers.
Policy on LOA or Letter of Authorization.
So few months back out of nowhere we received section 03 performance notification of in-authenticity about one of our products and Amazon demand two things
1. Video call interview.
2. All supply chain documents including LOA.
We had everything except for LOA and we were given 14 days to appear for video call interview, we approached distributor to get us brand LOA and after pleading to distributor and brand, we were given LOA for that product, proving that we were selling legit product.
We had plans to invent over $50k in this business model this year but after this LOA episode, Amazon made us really think about it, after thorough consideration we decided to close our Amazon business, because we have been selling listings that brands allowed 3p seller to sell on Amazon but those brands were not giving LOA to anyone and since Amazon policy includes LOA to prove supply chain.
We couldn't take this risk further, we believe Amazon unreasonable policy with regards to LOA means Amazon doesn't want any 3p seller anymore.
And if you don't have LOA that means as per Amazon policy you selling counterfeit even if you have sales agreement, invoices, bank statements, receipts, shipping labels, purchase orders, even if you were shipping directly from the brand warehouse etc but if you don't have LOA, you are doomed and Amazon will suspend/deactivate you for good (i heard after video call, if they suspend/deactivate you, that means game over for good), so that wastes your years of efforts, money invested into building your business but also Amazon seizes your funds and destroys your inventory because again you are guilty unless you have LOA.
This is one reason we are quitting on Amazon, in the next number of posts I will share few more.