Greetings @Seller_HRcJa1gdGHeov,

I wanted to stop by and show my appreciation for your feedback. I am going to forward this information for consideration by the appropriate teams.

Seller_HRcJa1gdGHeov

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1. Suspected IP

2. High Price Errors

3. CPC Re-verification (well know massed produced toys).

4. FBA Storage Fees (need full time accountant to keep track).

5. Lost, stolen, Damaged FBA Inventory

6. Supply Chain Authentication (can anyone tell me what a valid wholesale invoice is to Amazon).

The community and I want to support you here, so if you would like to provide any relevant case IDs, performance notifications, or e-mails that you have received, I will look over that information for you.

I look forward to supporting you,

Stevie.

spot on assessment of the current situation.

We have been selling on Amazon for ~5-years now and while we have been profitable over that time, we realized last year that the risk of suspension for some randomly minor thing (such as a bad customer review for either a product we did not sell them or was comingled with another seller's) is not something we want to rely on for our future growth. Additionally, we continually are frustrated with Amazon's policies that appear to not apply to them. For example, how can one's product / account be flagged with a high price error and then removed from the marketplace when the same item is sold by Amazon at a 30% higher price and at the average 180 / 365 day price? Why is their product not flagged and removed at the same time?

Another example is when we order from Amazon directly for other parts of our business and receive items with up to 6-labels on the packaging. When we sell items on Amazon, we would have to cover all but 1-label, and also provide our own. It may sound trivial, but based on Amazon's pricing, it would cost us about $3-4 to cover the labels, and saves Amazon $3-4 by not having to. No wonder we can't compete with Amazon on certain products, they simply do not comply with their own policies.

Our last example is more of an observation, how many times have we all received an item from Amazon late, damaged, incorrect or our favorite, the wrong quantity, either personally or for our businesses? If it was any 3rd party seller, they would run the risk of suspension and have their account deactivated. Has Amazon every been suspended? No, of course not.

We are sure other sellers have similar experiences and our point is just that based on what can only be called unfair trade practices, we have started to further diversify our business away from Amazon in an effort to ensure consistent revenue even in the event of some random account issue that requires considerable time / efforts to resolve with Seller Central. We would be more inclined to focus our efforts on Amazon if we all were on the same playing field using the same rules, but unfortunately as noted in many other posts across this forum, we are required to play by Amazon's rules of which rule 1 in many cases is "do as I say, not as I do". Until Amazon as a seller and Amazon as a marketplace are separated in which Amazon as a seller has to comply with all the same rules as the 3rd party sellers, we will continue to move away from Amazon.

Best.

I agree about the fees being too high. However, I don't want to work a 9-5 to survive. I make amazon work because I don't want to go back to a job! Haha.

To illustrate how BAD Amazon has become, in June of 2020, I made over $1200 selling books only. It was only slightly lower than that in 2021. Fast forward to June 2024, I have made, so far, less than $150.00 in the entire month of June. Thanks to Amazon's idiotic policies, their price-fixing, and their listing suppressions. I have been moving to other bookselling sites that are way more professional, and they are slowly but steadily making better and better sales. I can't wait to finally say BYE BYE to Amazon.

SAME. VERY WELL SAID. ALL THE PEOPLE I KNOW THAT SELL ON AMAZON AGREE. THEY ALSO BEEN GOING THRU IT & THEY ALSO ARE 3RD PARTY SELLERS. I COULD WRITE A BOOK ABOUT ALL THE SCAMS AMAZON DOES TO 3RD PARTY SELLERS. IT WOULD BE A SCANDELOUS BOOK, IF I EVER DECIDED TO DO IT.

It's going to take a real marketplace competitor or get to a point where the majority of 3p sellers can't financially make it before we see any change. I don't see any real sustainable competitor out there. The current state is probably as good as it's gonna get for a while.

I feel you and I personally know people who have the same experience.

But why do you hire an accountant to track FBA fees? I gave up doing that and pay Amazon whatever they charge me. Figured it's cheaper and less headache to audit the charges.

100% agree. We started here in 2008 and loved the platform and loved the support! HUGE decline of that over the years turned that love into disgust.

We tried FBA, but had to pull out because of small issues that if an actual human could review, would be good to go in a matter of seconds.

Now we cannot even add or update products because of massive system issues within Amazon. We can spend weeks escalating, but the system just reverts back and creates problems again.

Everything would be much improved if Amazon had actual Seller Support to assist with all of the issues.

This is now the platform we focus the least on and it's the last to get a new product added to, if at all.

Even Customer Service on the buyer side is horrendous and we're the same way- avoid buying from Amazon as much as possible. I use it to find a product or read reviews, then search for the seller outside of here and buy direct, even if I have to pay a bit more.

What would it take to fix it? Leadership at Amazon that actually cared. There is no way they don't know how bad the system and "support/service" is.

We are making money- they are making money. It won't be 'fixed' until they're not.

I wrote a post a while ago about this. Sucess is like a wave you ride it, as it gets bigger and bigger till your wave crests. Then is the time at the crest that you have to decide, do I ride till the end, or do I let my wave of an ego make me say I can beat the way. This can lead to you crashing down. Amazon has had its crest and has been defiantly of the mindset it can beat the way. This comes at the expense of us Sellers.

We do not concentrate on amazon for our success. As mentioned above amazon can crush your business with one e-mail. I am 71 and stared my first business at 22. Amazon is going to be around for a while, but they are in a slow-motion crash. The Chinese are attaching amazon with junk and Hack sellers. oh, and Temu is trying to eat amazons Lunch.

The forum is full of give me a case number. Sellers on the forum do not like amazon because it offers very little help. Like links that are not the best.

I do not hate amazon but in many ways amazon is inept. The bully on the block.