So... as of now, what is the point of the Account Health - Suspected Intellectual Property Violations?
Hi. We’ve been selling on Amazon since 2012. And we did $2 million in sales last year. I tell you these things to help frame the fact that we’ve been at this for a while and we’ve seen our share of problem ASINs that need fixed.
Having an account this old, we’ve gotten quite accustomed to the occasional “Suspected Intellectual Property Violation” hitting our account and pulling a listing down. Especially within the last 3 years… they come more and more frequently.
But, it’s always been relatively easy to deal with these (at least for us). 99 times out of 100, the “Suspected Intellectual Property Violation” (for us) has been due to some type of error or typo on the detail page.
Usually it’s because whoever created the listing 6 years ago typed the brand name incorrectly (either accidentally or intentionally). And so the algorithm is catching some keyword that’s supposed to be associated with the correct brand and it pulls the listing down.
The fix was always simple enough: Fix the listing to the correct brand. In order to do this? Well, fix it on your own if you can - but if you can’t - open a case and provide proof of your suggested changes. Usually real world photos of the item showing it from several angles and including the UPC was proof enough to fix these errors and get the brand name fixed.
Once the correct brand name was fixed, the listing was restored and the violation was removed.
That was then. But this is now…
Now, Seller Support / The Catalog team is refusing to make the changes to fix the listing.
What I have done hundreds of times to fix listings over the last 3 years no longer works.
At first I thought it was a fluke. I thought I was getting a new agent. Or an agent having a bad day. Or an agent that just didn’t feel like helping.
But now, after multiple attempts with multiple different ASINs, I am seeing a pattern. Something seems to have changed. The willingness to fix and restore listings has gone away.
What has happened? Can someone explain the policy shift?
WHAT IS THE POINT of your Account Health Page but to alert you to potential problems and give you the opportunity to FIX THEM???
The overaggressive algorithm has been frustrating, to be sure - but all of these suspected violations were always a way to crowdsource the maintenance of The Catalog, right? If you give me a violation, I’m going to try to fix it. Multiply that by thousands of sellers and you have thousands of sellers actively trying to help maintain the catalog.
So what is the reasoning to put a stop to that?!?! Why doesn’t Amazon want us to help fix the cataog anymore? Why would Amazon prefer a listing remain YANKED and INACTIVE rather than have it corrected and restored?
There is an error in the catalog and I’m trying to help you fix it. I’ve given proof. So why won’t you fix it? Why do you want it to remain in error and remain inactive? Don’t you want a robust, clean catalog? Don’t you want the seller fees I’ll bring in once the listing is active again?
So... as of now, what is the point of the Account Health - Suspected Intellectual Property Violations?
Hi. We’ve been selling on Amazon since 2012. And we did $2 million in sales last year. I tell you these things to help frame the fact that we’ve been at this for a while and we’ve seen our share of problem ASINs that need fixed.
Having an account this old, we’ve gotten quite accustomed to the occasional “Suspected Intellectual Property Violation” hitting our account and pulling a listing down. Especially within the last 3 years… they come more and more frequently.
But, it’s always been relatively easy to deal with these (at least for us). 99 times out of 100, the “Suspected Intellectual Property Violation” (for us) has been due to some type of error or typo on the detail page.
Usually it’s because whoever created the listing 6 years ago typed the brand name incorrectly (either accidentally or intentionally). And so the algorithm is catching some keyword that’s supposed to be associated with the correct brand and it pulls the listing down.
The fix was always simple enough: Fix the listing to the correct brand. In order to do this? Well, fix it on your own if you can - but if you can’t - open a case and provide proof of your suggested changes. Usually real world photos of the item showing it from several angles and including the UPC was proof enough to fix these errors and get the brand name fixed.
Once the correct brand name was fixed, the listing was restored and the violation was removed.
That was then. But this is now…
Now, Seller Support / The Catalog team is refusing to make the changes to fix the listing.
What I have done hundreds of times to fix listings over the last 3 years no longer works.
At first I thought it was a fluke. I thought I was getting a new agent. Or an agent having a bad day. Or an agent that just didn’t feel like helping.
But now, after multiple attempts with multiple different ASINs, I am seeing a pattern. Something seems to have changed. The willingness to fix and restore listings has gone away.
What has happened? Can someone explain the policy shift?
WHAT IS THE POINT of your Account Health Page but to alert you to potential problems and give you the opportunity to FIX THEM???
The overaggressive algorithm has been frustrating, to be sure - but all of these suspected violations were always a way to crowdsource the maintenance of The Catalog, right? If you give me a violation, I’m going to try to fix it. Multiply that by thousands of sellers and you have thousands of sellers actively trying to help maintain the catalog.
So what is the reasoning to put a stop to that?!?! Why doesn’t Amazon want us to help fix the cataog anymore? Why would Amazon prefer a listing remain YANKED and INACTIVE rather than have it corrected and restored?
There is an error in the catalog and I’m trying to help you fix it. I’ve given proof. So why won’t you fix it? Why do you want it to remain in error and remain inactive? Don’t you want a robust, clean catalog? Don’t you want the seller fees I’ll bring in once the listing is active again?
72 replies
Seller_Hi7wbO2Kbo6bl
Change that “last 3 years” to last 15 years and I have the same frustration.
I have (with the cooperation of Seller Support) effected many thousands of corrections to book detail pages. Those don’t get suppressed, I am just correcting because they should be corrected. And I don’t bother for minor mistakes – only trying to correct important mistakes (and maybe some minor clean up while we’re at it). I am familiar with the process and know to supply proof, and what sort of proof is needed.
After COVID, with zero percent success, I quit trying.
Seller_oifYCQOJTuorj
Exactly why I have my own website now, and am trying to move away pretty much. So tired of the constant hoops to jump through that no one in seller support will help you with.
For 8 months they took down hundreds if not thousands of toy listings, and now have completely stopped.
Now they are gating funmation dvds and sony dvds. Its getting to the point, you will barely be able to sell anything here. Ive been here since 2007.
Seller support is completely useless, they can not and will not fix anything.
Ive always said I would sink with the ship here, I will continue to sell what I can here, but it feels good to have another ship, that has zero issues when listing items and keeping items active.
Seller_jw3HRo32wY2Hk
Exactly since 2019 and that’s what Amazon should be fixing.
Yes, exactly, I also gave up. The effort was sapping energy and more importantly, that energy has been redirected to other selling venues and opportunities. Not fighting a bot war on Amazon (at no charge to Amazon…)
Yes, as time has progressed (and the volumes of take downs accumulated over last 3 years) it will have meaningfully reduced Amazon’s sales, plus gifted sales to other platforms including new and emerging. Consider when they gated the entire physical music category to new sellers.
In summary, it’s entirely up to Amazon, but sellers cannot expend all energy on Amazon bots, when there is an entire world out there including all the competing platforms vying to take business & only too happy to welcome sellers and poach business - who is “winning” there… not Amazon for sure. Amazon need a big rethink on this entire strategy.
Seller_rttt1yARiCuPx
This is what I was talking about having to overcome @Wyatt_Amazon. This is the SOLE REASON we have only 300 skus now instead of 1500. There are so many small things we could easily fix - color, department, bad photos from other sellers.
However we can do NOTHING because over the last year to maybe 16 months that ability has been removed both from seller support as well as just fixing these small things on our own which we used to be able to do.
EXACTLY how does this benefit Amazon - bad listings staying up or being suppressed so now no one can sell them? What is the point of that?
Seller_C7lJ3IEke9p1M
My theory is that they’ve siloed and handcuffed their reps to the point where nothing can be done. They overreacted to the bribery scandal, so now nobody can change anything. Yet they still send their bots out on patrol.
I feel your pain. I wish I knew the answer to your question, and look forward to anyone else’s solution.
Seller_W7xYtZu8Tg7Yp
One potential suggestion I have, if anyone cares or if anyone important is reading this:
As I said above and have others have said, Amazon has an ARMY of sellers who could be helping them maintain the catalog. Why not LET us?
We would help fix the catalog FOR FREE if you would just LET US.
Of course there are good sellers and bad sellers, experienced sellers and new sellers - but can we not give some extra weight to the suggestions of good, experienced sellers?
I have literally had Seller Support agents tell me that they know I am 100% correct and they know that the listing is wrong. But they still won’t make the needed changes because they can’t.
You could establish some kind of way to identify some qualified and veteran sellers so that they are able to make catalog suggestions that are taken more seriously by Seller Support and not just immediately dismissed.
You could make us watch extra videos and take extra online courses on Catalog maintenance. You could make us sign something that says we take responsibility for our own mistakes.
With a proven track record of excellence and reliability and a few other qualifications, why couldn’t Amazon give more respect and credibility to the catalog concerns that are being raised by established and proven sellers?
I know it isn’t a perfect solution and there is potential for abuse - so Amazon can still maintain some oversight on the suggested Catalog changes. Nothing finalized without being reviewed.
Seller_HPlq3K84XPWUz
As long as my Health is still showing in the good I basically ignore it. Most time it is for some dumb reasons that has nothing at all to do with what I’m selling. I’ve tried to appeal the violations and because we are owned by Goodwill we do not have receipts or certification papers to show them. So I just make sure my numbers in all other areas are good. ( on time shipping, good feed back rating, etc.)
