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.