An amusing cautionary tale...
I started selling on Amazon in 1999, so I suppose that makes me an old-timer at this point. Though I started as a "book expert," our business has gone through multiple iterations. One notion that we tried out, and ultimately backed away from, was sending products to be fulfilled by FBA--we gave up on that ten years ago.
One item that turned into a debacle was Earth Therapeutics colored socks. There are multiple varieties. Each variety goes a little something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Aloe-Moisture-Socks-Earth-Therapeutics/dp/B06W2HJM8W/
Each of these items is marked "Made in Korea"--that's where the trouble starts.
When a product is marked "Made in Korea" rational folk deduce that to mean, "Made in South Korea."
Most unfortunately, someone interpreted it wrong, and this ASIN was turned in as being made in North Korea, violating US sanction laws.
This was close to ten years ago. At the time, it was taken seriously, and forty-plus manhours were invested in supplying proper documentation to Amazon, attempting to clear our names. The usual routine of Amazon rejecting first, second, and sometimes third attempts at "anything" could be interpreted as a tough-love approach to toughening sellers up. We endured that--only it never stopped.
Long ago, I was willing to let the whole thing go. Yeah, they seized a few hundred dollars worth of merchandise without reason--that's just the cost of rolling the FBA dice.
THE ONGOING ISSUE IS:
Ten years later, I am still paying long-term storage on 28 pairs of socks. Every day of those ten years, here is what we see:
Total available for removal 0 units
Total not available for removal 23 units
Inventory is temporarily unavailable for removal as a result of an in-progress transaction or other process – please check again in a few days.
I have opened no less than 20 cases, and bounced back and forth on each case until I finally give up.
There are only so many ways to rephrase the issue--please destroy the items, donate the items, whatever, just please somehow get the charges to stop.
No matter if I tell the whole story in great detail, or slip in short notes hoping I will catch a sympathetic soul, the only response I ever get back is a canned response of how serious sanction laws are, and that the listing cannot be reinstated.
A humorous, desperate quote from my last case:
"Please, please, please, if you are tempted to send me a request to reactivate the listing--please don't. If you cannot solve the issue, please forward this to a supervisor. Ten years...please think about that."
As I near retirement, the big question becomes--will my kids be saddled with the responsibility of paying long-term storage on these items in perpetuity? Tongue in cheek, of course--but seriously, this might be an issue.
Seller_Hi7wbO2Kbo6bl
I hope you don't take this wrong -- I enjoyed your post.
Shaking my head.
I hope the post does attract mod attention and that the Korean Sock Scandal will not haunt your heirs.
Seller_aWrza8YvWVgM1
So sorry for the headache... however, this does not surprise me at all.
Dominic_Amazon
Hi @Seller_wUy1i1ZIDxZlX,
Dominic from Amazon here, this is a quite a situation we have! I would like to escalate this for you to try to get this solved. Can you please provide me with the most recent case ID you have for this issue?
Best,
Dominic
Seller_G53rrrmDqxLLo
WOW!!! JUST WOW!!!!! To be honest, I don't think ANYTHING made in NORTH KOREA can be imported into the USA. So I sympathize with your plight to get these items removed. I have never done FBA and I never will. I wish you luck.
Seller_WAifx0MyXVHsT
You should turn this story into a children's book.
Seller_3idxc4BYseB0O
Amazing, yes Made In (Country) or Country of Origin sticker, tags, labels or markings depending on the item are important.
Good Read, Thanks for sharing!!!
Seller_pVAHCqWEdXDbz
"We can not accept your invoice as we can not verify the supplier 'The Supreme Leader' "
Seller_52pUzzgnsLDGs
Oh, my gosh, that is so sad. Just reading about it wears me down. I'm so sorry.
Seller_BE3xPpZWhTS9Z
Sounds like it's time to look into a Trust. :)
Seller_3xZhfSUQsfek8
Thanks for the great post! It definitely made me uncomfortably laugh for us all. I too have been here forever and seen my collection of issues-one of which I just posted on Linkedin from the New York Times about Amazon’s product brand data collection and creating similar products. Here comes the FTC!
I just got back on two months ago after being “kicked off” for 2 years off because of the ever-present "suspected IP violations" raised by AI robots. This “improvement” was to thwart their overseas sellers from copying and selling every they see but ended up destroying even their legitimate sellers. Every single IP listing issue was wrong but try telling that to "Amazon support." I even had an Amazon employee who had handled 7000 POAs help me write mine and said, "Just admit you did something wrong (they love hearing that), create a plan of action, and you'll never do it again...blah, blah. It didn’t work. But with the insight and intervention of some past employees and messages to Amazon execs, I returned to Amazon ambivalently. Now I am welcomed back with 20 emails/day about items being removed for supposed IP violations--this of course after getting approval to sell brand, MAP pricing is too high and I might not be winning the buy box. At least I have people to commiserate with via forum post like yours!
