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Levi_Dylan_Amazon

Attention all Sellers...We want your feedback!

Greetings!

My team and I wanted to reach out to get your feedback about which topics you would like us to expand upon or discuss within the Account Health category. Examples of this may include:

-a specific topic that may be trending

-clarification on the details of new violation types or updated policies

-pain points you are experiencing

As there are a large number of issues that many of you may be facing, I wanted to provide a space where we can come together to talk about it. As moderators, we are always here to help and we want to support you the best we can, in any way we can. I am looking forward to your responses so we can collaborate!

Wishing you the best,

LeviDylan

1.2K views
68 replies
Tags:Account Health
107
Reply
68 replies
user profile
Seller_sa7AgpF73TNVK

-a specific topic that may be trending

Invoices are not being accepted. I have suppliers I have been using for years and Amazons Bots are not accepting them and then even after following the guidelines to make sure all steps are met we are still declined to be ungated.

-clarification on the details of new violation types or updated policies

Under Amazon's Brand Name policy, Amazon considers a product to be generic if there is no common name, logo, or other name on the product or packaging that groups the product with other products under a Brand. In other words, when a product is non-branded and does not belong to any brand, it is considered to be generic for the purpose of this policy.

When a product is generic, it means the product does not belong to any identifiable brand. In these cases, sellers need to use the value “Generic” in the brand attribute field to indicate the product is unaffiliated with a brand.

Seller are taking Big Box Brand produxt and making it there own by Offering a free gift. This is decietful and disrespectful to the brand owners and sellers on Amazon who sell those products.

When filing a complaint and yes we are filing it correctly, we get an instant email saying no violation has been detected therefore no action will be taken.

-pain points you are experiencing

Sales should be based off scorecards not becuase a seller sells more units. We have lost so many sales but work so hard to keep our account in a clean and positive, professional manner. While competitors of ours are 15% lower in scoring but they get the sales. Something is definitlely wrong when Im at 95% and they are at 70%. Sellers should be treaed fairly and the buy box should move around.

Whats worse is when you have a competitor violating a policy where it clearly shows that a Seller is violating a listing compliance and conducting unfair seller practices by listing 2 listings that hold a low and high sale amount which prevent others from sales. PER AMAZON POLICY: - Listing products at artificially high or low prices to manipulate sales is a violation. This includes listing two versions of the same product at very different prices to limit competition. Duncan's Family Farm Store has 2 versions of the same product at different prices to limit competition.

Agian: When filing a complaint and yes we are filing it correctly, we get an instant email saying no violation has been detected therefore no action will be taken.

190
user profile
Seller_FXkrIDz1ZdFG7

Hello!

I have been trying to get my account reactivated and I feel like there isn't a lot of support for this. My call button has disappeared and although I have submitted what it asks, it asks me for the same information again. I wish there was more clarification on this issue and exactly what i submitted wrong. I tried putting in a support ticket asking for help but I always get the reply back with "This email address is not the correct channel to submit an appeal."

50
user profile
Seller_G53rrrmDqxLLo

FEEDBACK!!!!!! Customers use this to EXTORT SELLERS!!!!!!! I think the feedback option should be eliminated. Amazon tracks its sellers in many ways so it is no longer needed and would provide sellers some comfort from ruthless SCAMMING customers.

360
user profile
Seller_ER3kjSstQJo9g

Hello,

Some clarification on " deferred payments ", what is the reason for having to wait 1 to 2 months to get paid on deferred payment transactions ?

Hope to hear from you.

Thank you

140
user profile
Seller_PksppCuKMZhA1

Voice of the customer is useless until Amazon starts charging customers for return shipping. Half of the reasons listed have nothing to do with the actual product and have everything to do with the free return options amazon provides.

550
user profile
Seller_YBfUTeoG971hG

The new Manage Listings page: why can we not see at a glance if all our listings are Featured Offer eligible?

120
user profile
Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv

user profile
Levi_Dylan_Amazon
-pain points you are experiencing
View post

You have a very difficult job to do, because the pain points for sellers are too numerous and in many cases unresolvable. Amazon's seller tech is so bad and in many cases is effectively a black box that defies diagnosis and resolution to our problems.

But here are two sets of questions I have been wondering about, relating to policies around bad actors who abuse the rights and business operations of sellers who follow Amazon's policies and try to do things the right way:

A persistent problem that scares many sellers is the threat of brands or products being hijacked, coupled with the difficulty getting quick support to revert the changes (see example). Why do hijackings happen, why is it so difficult for sellers to get their listings/brands back, and why aren't the perpetrators immediately and permanently drummed out of Amazon?

Another issue related to brands: When we file trademark or copyright infringements reports under penalty of perjury, Amazon reveals our name and contact information to the infringers and pirates and counterfeiters ... but Amazon never tells us their legal names or registered addresses for us to take additional action, such as filing a report with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for trademark violators.

If we get responses from the perpetrators, it's often an anonymous gmail address pleading for us to withdraw the complaint. We don't know who they really are or where they are operating from, and can't take any action outside of Amazon to stop them. Amazon tells the bad guys the identity and contact info of sellers making legal declarations that their IP rights have been violated - why doesn't Amazon tell the victims the legal names and contact info of infringers and pirates and counterfeiters?

Can you provide clear answers to the bolded questions above? Please don't waffle or refer us to vague Amazon help pages that don't clearly answer these questions. Thank you!

160
user profile
Seller_NzEmZKTEdcpPZ

-pain points you are experiencing

Fighting/appealing violations has become a nearly impossible task due to appeals and evidence/proof not being properly reviewed by Amazon. Replies from Amazon are vague, often conflicts with the previous replies, and do not indicate clearly the reason for denial and what exactly needs to be done.

For example:

We received 38 "Intellectual Property Complaints" with a "Trademark on Product Detail Page" reason violations about two months ago. We provided all documentation requested, including authorization from the trademark owner to use the trademark in question in full capacity at Amazon, including giving us full right of use of their intellectual property. Moreover, we are even a registered agent for the brand/trademark in question.

Amazon kept denying our appeals, stating the same message over and over again: "We received your submission but do not have enough information to reactivate your listing at this time." Absolutely no explanation of what they don't like. Some replies were received within minutes of submitting the appeal, which proves nobody is reading them. Amazon also suggested to edit the listing to remove trademark, but that's an incorrect suggestion because Amazon locked the editing of the ASINs in question and such option is simply not available. Basically, a classic case of left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, plus a complete ignorance and incompetence of reviewing of the appeals. It's like they worry more about meeting their hourly quota of how many appeals they process instead of actually doing their job.

Calling Account Health is absolutely worthless. They repeat what the replies said. When pressed for more specific info, they start a guessing game, listing all different scenarios why the appeal could be rejecting, which means they simply can't see the actual denial reason, i.e. Account Health Specialist is not actually a specialist. They don't even have an access to the specifics. If reading the replies and guessing the denial reasons is all they can do, then that's a worthless department. We can all read Amazon's replies by ourselves, we don't need somebody do that for us.

As of now, violations still stand, even though we proved that they are all wrong. ASINs removed, advertising money wasted, sales lost.

Also, since performance metrics fall under Account Health category, there are quite a few points to be made there:

-Seller Performance team also has issues reviewing the appeals. For example, Amazon recently incorrectly calculated Promised Delivery date to a couple of customers. No shipping option was available through any of the carrier or Buy Shipping (overnight Saturday delivery to a rural area where none of the carrier offer overnight Saturday delivery). No matter how we would ship it, it would arrive late. Because of that, our Premium Shipping fell just below the required 97% and our Premium Shipping eligibility was removed.

We immediately appealed, explained the situation, and even referenced Seller Support Case ID where we proactively reported the glitch, urging Amazon to fix for the future orders. Seller Performance team kept denying the appeals, again, sticking to a standard template, without acknowledging their error and even asking us to submit Plan of Action how we can lower our Cancellation Rate, which completely dumbfounded us because our Cancellation Rate has been zero for years and remains at zero. This, again, shows that they don't review anything and answer as quickly as possible just to meet their hourly "answer quota", with no consideration for the seller and how it affects the business. The issue was resolved, finally, when someone at the SP team finally read the appeal and realized that was not our fault.

-SFP Performance metrics are ridiculous. For example, On-Time Delivery metric counts everything against sellers (buyer is not available at the time of delivery, bad weather, UPS/FedEx delayed a flight or their truck had a mechanical issue, etc.) Appealing such issues does not lead to anything - SP/Account Health refers to the policy and doesn't do anything. That's the problem of the policy, mostly, I'm guessing. The policy where sellers are held responsible for all delays (even though everything was shipped correctly and on time) is simply insulting, senseless, and absolutely unnecessary. Same goes for SFP Speed Metrics - it counts Sunday as shipping and delivery date, which we all know is impossible. Again, that's an insulting, senseless, and absolutely unnecessary metric.

300
user profile
Seller_NmFQpxuHyBFmD

Providing seller paid return shipping for any reason, then allowing customer to retain product for several weeks is a pain!

190
user profile
Seller_90uryNUM1NlsB

Voice of the customer is no use, customers using no logic to return the items and affecting our metrics big time.

280
user profile
Levi_Dylan_Amazon

Attention all Sellers...We want your feedback!

Greetings!

My team and I wanted to reach out to get your feedback about which topics you would like us to expand upon or discuss within the Account Health category. Examples of this may include:

-a specific topic that may be trending

-clarification on the details of new violation types or updated policies

-pain points you are experiencing

As there are a large number of issues that many of you may be facing, I wanted to provide a space where we can come together to talk about it. As moderators, we are always here to help and we want to support you the best we can, in any way we can. I am looking forward to your responses so we can collaborate!

Wishing you the best,

LeviDylan

1.2K views
68 replies
Tags:Account Health
107
Reply
user profile

Attention all Sellers...We want your feedback!

by Levi_Dylan_Amazon

Greetings!

My team and I wanted to reach out to get your feedback about which topics you would like us to expand upon or discuss within the Account Health category. Examples of this may include:

-a specific topic that may be trending

-clarification on the details of new violation types or updated policies

-pain points you are experiencing

As there are a large number of issues that many of you may be facing, I wanted to provide a space where we can come together to talk about it. As moderators, we are always here to help and we want to support you the best we can, in any way we can. I am looking forward to your responses so we can collaborate!

Wishing you the best,

LeviDylan

Tags:Account Health
107
1.2K views
68 replies
Reply
68 replies
68 replies
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user profile
Seller_sa7AgpF73TNVK

-a specific topic that may be trending

Invoices are not being accepted. I have suppliers I have been using for years and Amazons Bots are not accepting them and then even after following the guidelines to make sure all steps are met we are still declined to be ungated.

-clarification on the details of new violation types or updated policies

Under Amazon's Brand Name policy, Amazon considers a product to be generic if there is no common name, logo, or other name on the product or packaging that groups the product with other products under a Brand. In other words, when a product is non-branded and does not belong to any brand, it is considered to be generic for the purpose of this policy.

When a product is generic, it means the product does not belong to any identifiable brand. In these cases, sellers need to use the value “Generic” in the brand attribute field to indicate the product is unaffiliated with a brand.

Seller are taking Big Box Brand produxt and making it there own by Offering a free gift. This is decietful and disrespectful to the brand owners and sellers on Amazon who sell those products.

When filing a complaint and yes we are filing it correctly, we get an instant email saying no violation has been detected therefore no action will be taken.

-pain points you are experiencing

Sales should be based off scorecards not becuase a seller sells more units. We have lost so many sales but work so hard to keep our account in a clean and positive, professional manner. While competitors of ours are 15% lower in scoring but they get the sales. Something is definitlely wrong when Im at 95% and they are at 70%. Sellers should be treaed fairly and the buy box should move around.

Whats worse is when you have a competitor violating a policy where it clearly shows that a Seller is violating a listing compliance and conducting unfair seller practices by listing 2 listings that hold a low and high sale amount which prevent others from sales. PER AMAZON POLICY: - Listing products at artificially high or low prices to manipulate sales is a violation. This includes listing two versions of the same product at very different prices to limit competition. Duncan's Family Farm Store has 2 versions of the same product at different prices to limit competition.

Agian: When filing a complaint and yes we are filing it correctly, we get an instant email saying no violation has been detected therefore no action will be taken.

190
user profile
Seller_FXkrIDz1ZdFG7

Hello!

I have been trying to get my account reactivated and I feel like there isn't a lot of support for this. My call button has disappeared and although I have submitted what it asks, it asks me for the same information again. I wish there was more clarification on this issue and exactly what i submitted wrong. I tried putting in a support ticket asking for help but I always get the reply back with "This email address is not the correct channel to submit an appeal."

50
user profile
Seller_G53rrrmDqxLLo

FEEDBACK!!!!!! Customers use this to EXTORT SELLERS!!!!!!! I think the feedback option should be eliminated. Amazon tracks its sellers in many ways so it is no longer needed and would provide sellers some comfort from ruthless SCAMMING customers.

360
user profile
Seller_ER3kjSstQJo9g

Hello,

Some clarification on " deferred payments ", what is the reason for having to wait 1 to 2 months to get paid on deferred payment transactions ?

Hope to hear from you.

Thank you

140
user profile
Seller_PksppCuKMZhA1

Voice of the customer is useless until Amazon starts charging customers for return shipping. Half of the reasons listed have nothing to do with the actual product and have everything to do with the free return options amazon provides.

550
user profile
Seller_YBfUTeoG971hG

The new Manage Listings page: why can we not see at a glance if all our listings are Featured Offer eligible?

120
user profile
Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv

user profile
Levi_Dylan_Amazon
-pain points you are experiencing
View post

You have a very difficult job to do, because the pain points for sellers are too numerous and in many cases unresolvable. Amazon's seller tech is so bad and in many cases is effectively a black box that defies diagnosis and resolution to our problems.

But here are two sets of questions I have been wondering about, relating to policies around bad actors who abuse the rights and business operations of sellers who follow Amazon's policies and try to do things the right way:

A persistent problem that scares many sellers is the threat of brands or products being hijacked, coupled with the difficulty getting quick support to revert the changes (see example). Why do hijackings happen, why is it so difficult for sellers to get their listings/brands back, and why aren't the perpetrators immediately and permanently drummed out of Amazon?

Another issue related to brands: When we file trademark or copyright infringements reports under penalty of perjury, Amazon reveals our name and contact information to the infringers and pirates and counterfeiters ... but Amazon never tells us their legal names or registered addresses for us to take additional action, such as filing a report with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for trademark violators.

If we get responses from the perpetrators, it's often an anonymous gmail address pleading for us to withdraw the complaint. We don't know who they really are or where they are operating from, and can't take any action outside of Amazon to stop them. Amazon tells the bad guys the identity and contact info of sellers making legal declarations that their IP rights have been violated - why doesn't Amazon tell the victims the legal names and contact info of infringers and pirates and counterfeiters?

Can you provide clear answers to the bolded questions above? Please don't waffle or refer us to vague Amazon help pages that don't clearly answer these questions. Thank you!

160
user profile
Seller_NzEmZKTEdcpPZ

-pain points you are experiencing

Fighting/appealing violations has become a nearly impossible task due to appeals and evidence/proof not being properly reviewed by Amazon. Replies from Amazon are vague, often conflicts with the previous replies, and do not indicate clearly the reason for denial and what exactly needs to be done.

For example:

We received 38 "Intellectual Property Complaints" with a "Trademark on Product Detail Page" reason violations about two months ago. We provided all documentation requested, including authorization from the trademark owner to use the trademark in question in full capacity at Amazon, including giving us full right of use of their intellectual property. Moreover, we are even a registered agent for the brand/trademark in question.

Amazon kept denying our appeals, stating the same message over and over again: "We received your submission but do not have enough information to reactivate your listing at this time." Absolutely no explanation of what they don't like. Some replies were received within minutes of submitting the appeal, which proves nobody is reading them. Amazon also suggested to edit the listing to remove trademark, but that's an incorrect suggestion because Amazon locked the editing of the ASINs in question and such option is simply not available. Basically, a classic case of left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, plus a complete ignorance and incompetence of reviewing of the appeals. It's like they worry more about meeting their hourly quota of how many appeals they process instead of actually doing their job.

Calling Account Health is absolutely worthless. They repeat what the replies said. When pressed for more specific info, they start a guessing game, listing all different scenarios why the appeal could be rejecting, which means they simply can't see the actual denial reason, i.e. Account Health Specialist is not actually a specialist. They don't even have an access to the specifics. If reading the replies and guessing the denial reasons is all they can do, then that's a worthless department. We can all read Amazon's replies by ourselves, we don't need somebody do that for us.

As of now, violations still stand, even though we proved that they are all wrong. ASINs removed, advertising money wasted, sales lost.

Also, since performance metrics fall under Account Health category, there are quite a few points to be made there:

-Seller Performance team also has issues reviewing the appeals. For example, Amazon recently incorrectly calculated Promised Delivery date to a couple of customers. No shipping option was available through any of the carrier or Buy Shipping (overnight Saturday delivery to a rural area where none of the carrier offer overnight Saturday delivery). No matter how we would ship it, it would arrive late. Because of that, our Premium Shipping fell just below the required 97% and our Premium Shipping eligibility was removed.

We immediately appealed, explained the situation, and even referenced Seller Support Case ID where we proactively reported the glitch, urging Amazon to fix for the future orders. Seller Performance team kept denying the appeals, again, sticking to a standard template, without acknowledging their error and even asking us to submit Plan of Action how we can lower our Cancellation Rate, which completely dumbfounded us because our Cancellation Rate has been zero for years and remains at zero. This, again, shows that they don't review anything and answer as quickly as possible just to meet their hourly "answer quota", with no consideration for the seller and how it affects the business. The issue was resolved, finally, when someone at the SP team finally read the appeal and realized that was not our fault.

-SFP Performance metrics are ridiculous. For example, On-Time Delivery metric counts everything against sellers (buyer is not available at the time of delivery, bad weather, UPS/FedEx delayed a flight or their truck had a mechanical issue, etc.) Appealing such issues does not lead to anything - SP/Account Health refers to the policy and doesn't do anything. That's the problem of the policy, mostly, I'm guessing. The policy where sellers are held responsible for all delays (even though everything was shipped correctly and on time) is simply insulting, senseless, and absolutely unnecessary. Same goes for SFP Speed Metrics - it counts Sunday as shipping and delivery date, which we all know is impossible. Again, that's an insulting, senseless, and absolutely unnecessary metric.

300
user profile
Seller_NmFQpxuHyBFmD

Providing seller paid return shipping for any reason, then allowing customer to retain product for several weeks is a pain!

190
user profile
Seller_90uryNUM1NlsB

Voice of the customer is no use, customers using no logic to return the items and affecting our metrics big time.

280
user profile
Seller_sa7AgpF73TNVK

-a specific topic that may be trending

Invoices are not being accepted. I have suppliers I have been using for years and Amazons Bots are not accepting them and then even after following the guidelines to make sure all steps are met we are still declined to be ungated.

-clarification on the details of new violation types or updated policies

Under Amazon's Brand Name policy, Amazon considers a product to be generic if there is no common name, logo, or other name on the product or packaging that groups the product with other products under a Brand. In other words, when a product is non-branded and does not belong to any brand, it is considered to be generic for the purpose of this policy.

When a product is generic, it means the product does not belong to any identifiable brand. In these cases, sellers need to use the value “Generic” in the brand attribute field to indicate the product is unaffiliated with a brand.

Seller are taking Big Box Brand produxt and making it there own by Offering a free gift. This is decietful and disrespectful to the brand owners and sellers on Amazon who sell those products.

When filing a complaint and yes we are filing it correctly, we get an instant email saying no violation has been detected therefore no action will be taken.

-pain points you are experiencing

Sales should be based off scorecards not becuase a seller sells more units. We have lost so many sales but work so hard to keep our account in a clean and positive, professional manner. While competitors of ours are 15% lower in scoring but they get the sales. Something is definitlely wrong when Im at 95% and they are at 70%. Sellers should be treaed fairly and the buy box should move around.

Whats worse is when you have a competitor violating a policy where it clearly shows that a Seller is violating a listing compliance and conducting unfair seller practices by listing 2 listings that hold a low and high sale amount which prevent others from sales. PER AMAZON POLICY: - Listing products at artificially high or low prices to manipulate sales is a violation. This includes listing two versions of the same product at very different prices to limit competition. Duncan's Family Farm Store has 2 versions of the same product at different prices to limit competition.

Agian: When filing a complaint and yes we are filing it correctly, we get an instant email saying no violation has been detected therefore no action will be taken.

190
user profile
Seller_sa7AgpF73TNVK

-a specific topic that may be trending

Invoices are not being accepted. I have suppliers I have been using for years and Amazons Bots are not accepting them and then even after following the guidelines to make sure all steps are met we are still declined to be ungated.

-clarification on the details of new violation types or updated policies

Under Amazon's Brand Name policy, Amazon considers a product to be generic if there is no common name, logo, or other name on the product or packaging that groups the product with other products under a Brand. In other words, when a product is non-branded and does not belong to any brand, it is considered to be generic for the purpose of this policy.

When a product is generic, it means the product does not belong to any identifiable brand. In these cases, sellers need to use the value “Generic” in the brand attribute field to indicate the product is unaffiliated with a brand.

Seller are taking Big Box Brand produxt and making it there own by Offering a free gift. This is decietful and disrespectful to the brand owners and sellers on Amazon who sell those products.

When filing a complaint and yes we are filing it correctly, we get an instant email saying no violation has been detected therefore no action will be taken.

-pain points you are experiencing

Sales should be based off scorecards not becuase a seller sells more units. We have lost so many sales but work so hard to keep our account in a clean and positive, professional manner. While competitors of ours are 15% lower in scoring but they get the sales. Something is definitlely wrong when Im at 95% and they are at 70%. Sellers should be treaed fairly and the buy box should move around.

Whats worse is when you have a competitor violating a policy where it clearly shows that a Seller is violating a listing compliance and conducting unfair seller practices by listing 2 listings that hold a low and high sale amount which prevent others from sales. PER AMAZON POLICY: - Listing products at artificially high or low prices to manipulate sales is a violation. This includes listing two versions of the same product at very different prices to limit competition. Duncan's Family Farm Store has 2 versions of the same product at different prices to limit competition.

Agian: When filing a complaint and yes we are filing it correctly, we get an instant email saying no violation has been detected therefore no action will be taken.

190
Reply
user profile
Seller_FXkrIDz1ZdFG7

Hello!

I have been trying to get my account reactivated and I feel like there isn't a lot of support for this. My call button has disappeared and although I have submitted what it asks, it asks me for the same information again. I wish there was more clarification on this issue and exactly what i submitted wrong. I tried putting in a support ticket asking for help but I always get the reply back with "This email address is not the correct channel to submit an appeal."

50
user profile
Seller_FXkrIDz1ZdFG7

Hello!

I have been trying to get my account reactivated and I feel like there isn't a lot of support for this. My call button has disappeared and although I have submitted what it asks, it asks me for the same information again. I wish there was more clarification on this issue and exactly what i submitted wrong. I tried putting in a support ticket asking for help but I always get the reply back with "This email address is not the correct channel to submit an appeal."

50
Reply
user profile
Seller_G53rrrmDqxLLo

FEEDBACK!!!!!! Customers use this to EXTORT SELLERS!!!!!!! I think the feedback option should be eliminated. Amazon tracks its sellers in many ways so it is no longer needed and would provide sellers some comfort from ruthless SCAMMING customers.

360
user profile
Seller_G53rrrmDqxLLo

FEEDBACK!!!!!! Customers use this to EXTORT SELLERS!!!!!!! I think the feedback option should be eliminated. Amazon tracks its sellers in many ways so it is no longer needed and would provide sellers some comfort from ruthless SCAMMING customers.

360
Reply
user profile
Seller_ER3kjSstQJo9g

Hello,

Some clarification on " deferred payments ", what is the reason for having to wait 1 to 2 months to get paid on deferred payment transactions ?

Hope to hear from you.

Thank you

140
user profile
Seller_ER3kjSstQJo9g

Hello,

Some clarification on " deferred payments ", what is the reason for having to wait 1 to 2 months to get paid on deferred payment transactions ?

Hope to hear from you.

Thank you

140
Reply
user profile
Seller_PksppCuKMZhA1

Voice of the customer is useless until Amazon starts charging customers for return shipping. Half of the reasons listed have nothing to do with the actual product and have everything to do with the free return options amazon provides.

550
user profile
Seller_PksppCuKMZhA1

Voice of the customer is useless until Amazon starts charging customers for return shipping. Half of the reasons listed have nothing to do with the actual product and have everything to do with the free return options amazon provides.

550
Reply
user profile
Seller_YBfUTeoG971hG

The new Manage Listings page: why can we not see at a glance if all our listings are Featured Offer eligible?

120
user profile
Seller_YBfUTeoG971hG

The new Manage Listings page: why can we not see at a glance if all our listings are Featured Offer eligible?

120
Reply
user profile
Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv

user profile
Levi_Dylan_Amazon
-pain points you are experiencing
View post

You have a very difficult job to do, because the pain points for sellers are too numerous and in many cases unresolvable. Amazon's seller tech is so bad and in many cases is effectively a black box that defies diagnosis and resolution to our problems.

But here are two sets of questions I have been wondering about, relating to policies around bad actors who abuse the rights and business operations of sellers who follow Amazon's policies and try to do things the right way:

A persistent problem that scares many sellers is the threat of brands or products being hijacked, coupled with the difficulty getting quick support to revert the changes (see example). Why do hijackings happen, why is it so difficult for sellers to get their listings/brands back, and why aren't the perpetrators immediately and permanently drummed out of Amazon?

Another issue related to brands: When we file trademark or copyright infringements reports under penalty of perjury, Amazon reveals our name and contact information to the infringers and pirates and counterfeiters ... but Amazon never tells us their legal names or registered addresses for us to take additional action, such as filing a report with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for trademark violators.

If we get responses from the perpetrators, it's often an anonymous gmail address pleading for us to withdraw the complaint. We don't know who they really are or where they are operating from, and can't take any action outside of Amazon to stop them. Amazon tells the bad guys the identity and contact info of sellers making legal declarations that their IP rights have been violated - why doesn't Amazon tell the victims the legal names and contact info of infringers and pirates and counterfeiters?

Can you provide clear answers to the bolded questions above? Please don't waffle or refer us to vague Amazon help pages that don't clearly answer these questions. Thank you!

160
user profile
Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv

user profile
Levi_Dylan_Amazon
-pain points you are experiencing
View post

You have a very difficult job to do, because the pain points for sellers are too numerous and in many cases unresolvable. Amazon's seller tech is so bad and in many cases is effectively a black box that defies diagnosis and resolution to our problems.

But here are two sets of questions I have been wondering about, relating to policies around bad actors who abuse the rights and business operations of sellers who follow Amazon's policies and try to do things the right way:

A persistent problem that scares many sellers is the threat of brands or products being hijacked, coupled with the difficulty getting quick support to revert the changes (see example). Why do hijackings happen, why is it so difficult for sellers to get their listings/brands back, and why aren't the perpetrators immediately and permanently drummed out of Amazon?

Another issue related to brands: When we file trademark or copyright infringements reports under penalty of perjury, Amazon reveals our name and contact information to the infringers and pirates and counterfeiters ... but Amazon never tells us their legal names or registered addresses for us to take additional action, such as filing a report with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for trademark violators.

If we get responses from the perpetrators, it's often an anonymous gmail address pleading for us to withdraw the complaint. We don't know who they really are or where they are operating from, and can't take any action outside of Amazon to stop them. Amazon tells the bad guys the identity and contact info of sellers making legal declarations that their IP rights have been violated - why doesn't Amazon tell the victims the legal names and contact info of infringers and pirates and counterfeiters?

Can you provide clear answers to the bolded questions above? Please don't waffle or refer us to vague Amazon help pages that don't clearly answer these questions. Thank you!

160
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user profile
Seller_NzEmZKTEdcpPZ

-pain points you are experiencing

Fighting/appealing violations has become a nearly impossible task due to appeals and evidence/proof not being properly reviewed by Amazon. Replies from Amazon are vague, often conflicts with the previous replies, and do not indicate clearly the reason for denial and what exactly needs to be done.

For example:

We received 38 "Intellectual Property Complaints" with a "Trademark on Product Detail Page" reason violations about two months ago. We provided all documentation requested, including authorization from the trademark owner to use the trademark in question in full capacity at Amazon, including giving us full right of use of their intellectual property. Moreover, we are even a registered agent for the brand/trademark in question.

Amazon kept denying our appeals, stating the same message over and over again: "We received your submission but do not have enough information to reactivate your listing at this time." Absolutely no explanation of what they don't like. Some replies were received within minutes of submitting the appeal, which proves nobody is reading them. Amazon also suggested to edit the listing to remove trademark, but that's an incorrect suggestion because Amazon locked the editing of the ASINs in question and such option is simply not available. Basically, a classic case of left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, plus a complete ignorance and incompetence of reviewing of the appeals. It's like they worry more about meeting their hourly quota of how many appeals they process instead of actually doing their job.

Calling Account Health is absolutely worthless. They repeat what the replies said. When pressed for more specific info, they start a guessing game, listing all different scenarios why the appeal could be rejecting, which means they simply can't see the actual denial reason, i.e. Account Health Specialist is not actually a specialist. They don't even have an access to the specifics. If reading the replies and guessing the denial reasons is all they can do, then that's a worthless department. We can all read Amazon's replies by ourselves, we don't need somebody do that for us.

As of now, violations still stand, even though we proved that they are all wrong. ASINs removed, advertising money wasted, sales lost.

Also, since performance metrics fall under Account Health category, there are quite a few points to be made there:

-Seller Performance team also has issues reviewing the appeals. For example, Amazon recently incorrectly calculated Promised Delivery date to a couple of customers. No shipping option was available through any of the carrier or Buy Shipping (overnight Saturday delivery to a rural area where none of the carrier offer overnight Saturday delivery). No matter how we would ship it, it would arrive late. Because of that, our Premium Shipping fell just below the required 97% and our Premium Shipping eligibility was removed.

We immediately appealed, explained the situation, and even referenced Seller Support Case ID where we proactively reported the glitch, urging Amazon to fix for the future orders. Seller Performance team kept denying the appeals, again, sticking to a standard template, without acknowledging their error and even asking us to submit Plan of Action how we can lower our Cancellation Rate, which completely dumbfounded us because our Cancellation Rate has been zero for years and remains at zero. This, again, shows that they don't review anything and answer as quickly as possible just to meet their hourly "answer quota", with no consideration for the seller and how it affects the business. The issue was resolved, finally, when someone at the SP team finally read the appeal and realized that was not our fault.

-SFP Performance metrics are ridiculous. For example, On-Time Delivery metric counts everything against sellers (buyer is not available at the time of delivery, bad weather, UPS/FedEx delayed a flight or their truck had a mechanical issue, etc.) Appealing such issues does not lead to anything - SP/Account Health refers to the policy and doesn't do anything. That's the problem of the policy, mostly, I'm guessing. The policy where sellers are held responsible for all delays (even though everything was shipped correctly and on time) is simply insulting, senseless, and absolutely unnecessary. Same goes for SFP Speed Metrics - it counts Sunday as shipping and delivery date, which we all know is impossible. Again, that's an insulting, senseless, and absolutely unnecessary metric.

300
user profile
Seller_NzEmZKTEdcpPZ

-pain points you are experiencing

Fighting/appealing violations has become a nearly impossible task due to appeals and evidence/proof not being properly reviewed by Amazon. Replies from Amazon are vague, often conflicts with the previous replies, and do not indicate clearly the reason for denial and what exactly needs to be done.

For example:

We received 38 "Intellectual Property Complaints" with a "Trademark on Product Detail Page" reason violations about two months ago. We provided all documentation requested, including authorization from the trademark owner to use the trademark in question in full capacity at Amazon, including giving us full right of use of their intellectual property. Moreover, we are even a registered agent for the brand/trademark in question.

Amazon kept denying our appeals, stating the same message over and over again: "We received your submission but do not have enough information to reactivate your listing at this time." Absolutely no explanation of what they don't like. Some replies were received within minutes of submitting the appeal, which proves nobody is reading them. Amazon also suggested to edit the listing to remove trademark, but that's an incorrect suggestion because Amazon locked the editing of the ASINs in question and such option is simply not available. Basically, a classic case of left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, plus a complete ignorance and incompetence of reviewing of the appeals. It's like they worry more about meeting their hourly quota of how many appeals they process instead of actually doing their job.

Calling Account Health is absolutely worthless. They repeat what the replies said. When pressed for more specific info, they start a guessing game, listing all different scenarios why the appeal could be rejecting, which means they simply can't see the actual denial reason, i.e. Account Health Specialist is not actually a specialist. They don't even have an access to the specifics. If reading the replies and guessing the denial reasons is all they can do, then that's a worthless department. We can all read Amazon's replies by ourselves, we don't need somebody do that for us.

As of now, violations still stand, even though we proved that they are all wrong. ASINs removed, advertising money wasted, sales lost.

Also, since performance metrics fall under Account Health category, there are quite a few points to be made there:

-Seller Performance team also has issues reviewing the appeals. For example, Amazon recently incorrectly calculated Promised Delivery date to a couple of customers. No shipping option was available through any of the carrier or Buy Shipping (overnight Saturday delivery to a rural area where none of the carrier offer overnight Saturday delivery). No matter how we would ship it, it would arrive late. Because of that, our Premium Shipping fell just below the required 97% and our Premium Shipping eligibility was removed.

We immediately appealed, explained the situation, and even referenced Seller Support Case ID where we proactively reported the glitch, urging Amazon to fix for the future orders. Seller Performance team kept denying the appeals, again, sticking to a standard template, without acknowledging their error and even asking us to submit Plan of Action how we can lower our Cancellation Rate, which completely dumbfounded us because our Cancellation Rate has been zero for years and remains at zero. This, again, shows that they don't review anything and answer as quickly as possible just to meet their hourly "answer quota", with no consideration for the seller and how it affects the business. The issue was resolved, finally, when someone at the SP team finally read the appeal and realized that was not our fault.

-SFP Performance metrics are ridiculous. For example, On-Time Delivery metric counts everything against sellers (buyer is not available at the time of delivery, bad weather, UPS/FedEx delayed a flight or their truck had a mechanical issue, etc.) Appealing such issues does not lead to anything - SP/Account Health refers to the policy and doesn't do anything. That's the problem of the policy, mostly, I'm guessing. The policy where sellers are held responsible for all delays (even though everything was shipped correctly and on time) is simply insulting, senseless, and absolutely unnecessary. Same goes for SFP Speed Metrics - it counts Sunday as shipping and delivery date, which we all know is impossible. Again, that's an insulting, senseless, and absolutely unnecessary metric.

300
Reply
user profile
Seller_NmFQpxuHyBFmD

Providing seller paid return shipping for any reason, then allowing customer to retain product for several weeks is a pain!

190
user profile
Seller_NmFQpxuHyBFmD

Providing seller paid return shipping for any reason, then allowing customer to retain product for several weeks is a pain!

190
Reply
user profile
Seller_90uryNUM1NlsB

Voice of the customer is no use, customers using no logic to return the items and affecting our metrics big time.

280
user profile
Seller_90uryNUM1NlsB

Voice of the customer is no use, customers using no logic to return the items and affecting our metrics big time.

280
Reply

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