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
68 replies
Seller_sqtf8OcTMpDML
1. Some kind of accountability on the buyer's claim about issues with Grocery and Gourmet products (not returnable). I've had bogus claims of things as simple as past-expiration claims that are accepted, no return necessary with full refund, product replacement, AND hits on my account... all to find out that the picture they provide when i reach out clearly shows a date several months out. Situations like this happen all the time.... false claims that have seemingly ZERO accountability... customers have caught on and make repeated complaints about any item which has NO RETURNS in order to keep the product and receive a full refund. Amazon is aiding and abetting these fraudsters.
2. Sellers are charged additional fees if their stock is in a warehouse for over 90 days, while they also face an additional fee per product if they do not keep enough stock in the warehouse.... The only way to work with this seems to be weekly restocking which some seller simply do not have the time for with their business model, or balancing full time jobs. Amazon should not be dictating how stock is kept by pigeon-holing sellers with ridiculous fees. a .70 additional fee on a listing that only nets a 2.50 profit is just out of line. Especially when the sales outlooks are often wrong, and certain products hit spikes for a month at a time. and to increase prices kills us with competitive sellers... This is outrageous.
Seller_8HBeojhszSviQ
@Levi_Dylan_Amazon
Thanks for the opportunity to bring to light some issues that our seller community is facing. Could you please look into what is causing Amazon to add 5-6 shipping days to what is being displayed to buyers? There are several threads active bringing this issue to Amazon's attention for weeks now, more recent ones demonstrating the issue are provided below.
Sellers using both manual and automated AHT and SSA are being impacted without it being a metrics issue. Seller after seller including ourselves have been posting screenshots of their OTDR metrics showing less than 1 day promise extensions but having about 5 extra days tacked on to the delivery date displayed to potential buyers on the PDPs. This has ruined conversion. Here is a screenshot of our OTDR metrics from this morning. Current OTDR 14 day 98.07%.
I have confirmed with several members of the internal team that this issue is not seller faulted such as poor OTDR delivery performance, account health, or improperly configured shipping settings.
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/3d8472d3-beed-46b9-b08b-2dcde5564ff3?postId=3d8472d3-beed-46b9-b08b-2dcde5564ff3
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/dd2bd438-8a26-4672-892d-ee44d61ad923?postId=dd2bd438-8a26-4672-892d-ee44d61ad923
Seller_x407DmXAuMaDx
Fraudulent buyers who return a book for reasons that aren't true. Documented proof is submitted to Amazon through A to Z claim, but Amazon will only refund a VERY small portion. At minimum, the buyer should have to pay for shipping it back, plus restocking fee. When a book is brand new, and then returned, seller should be able to receive full refund, including return shipping. Anything less than this simply teaches buyers how to lie and cheat.
Seller_LAnyaUmHTJjX7
The largest pain point that I see is false positive account deactivations where the seller is thrown into an endless loop with appeals. We dont get to speak to knowledge reps that can assist with our cases. The account health calls calls are staffed by folks who can only read out the notes on our case, follow set template responses. Many also end up guessing as to why our accounts have been deactivated but they actually don't really know the real reason and cant help investigate further.
Appeal rejections never offer any insight on what is needed to reactivate the account
Seller_tUYpcJn3XkHrh
1. Grocery items are getting returned despite being non-returnable. In the process, the expiration date is not logged, then the product gets sold as there is no way to distinguish it from non-expired goods. We then get a claim that the item sold was expired when we have zero proof from the customer, Amazon, and no photos. Grocery items that are returned (which is problem 1) should at least be checked if they are expired before placing back into inventory. And the account health process should factor in the fact that these products were sold via FBA and if the product was sent out by Amazon as expired, why was Amazon not responsible for moving it to unfulfillable when Amazon does NOT provide sellers expiration date reporting?
2. When providing full supply chain provenance, invoices, and LOAs, Amazon does not call/email the vendor to verify — yet denies an appeal saying the vendor was unable to be verified. What more could you possibly want?
3. FBA items are getting returned to Canada FCs via the FBA export program which can cause international violations when we don’t sell on such marketplace. I was told this was fixed, but it is still happening.
4. If there is a grey area or confusing area of policy, account health will often just say to read the help pages and there is zero escalation path to clarify a policy for a specific use case.
5. I’ve spoken with account health many times asking for assistance on writing a dispute or POA and they say “We don’t know why this isn’t being accepted”. Well ain’t that ironic
Seller_roNdLQpqbVoOH
And how is this different from a nearly-identical thread - "Seller Challenges" - posted by @Roberto_Amazon- a mere three weeks ago?
Hello Forums Community,
We would like to understand what challenges you have faced or continue to experience as a Seller.
Is there anything that you consider should be a priority to improve your experience...
What is the *&^%^$ POINT of us posting anything about issues we face when nothing is ever done about it? What is this cruel need you mods have for posting this crap, and stirring the pot, over-and-over?
Want me to go back further and find some more of these meaningless posts, none of which resulted in any changes or improvements for sellers? I can...
Suffice to say, I find this despicable.
Seller_JVKegWzhPKmr3
o wow you open a universe of alot of cuestions since we deal with alot of problems here on amazon as sellers its a nightmare for most of us selling on amazon :(
Seller_LTNvvFJ2jqJOv
1. The amount of hijacking that goes on everyday from overseas bad actors and a better way to be able to get the situation handled in a timely manner.
2. Ratings System should be 5 star after 30 days of no comment, anything 3 star or below requires a comment or it is not accepted. The anonymous ratings give us sellers no way to address a problem or identify a fake rating.
Seller_WDo6kiNNjgqZ6
-pain points you are experiencing
Welp, Amazon just slammed the door on a brand I've been selling for over six years with (as far as I can see) not a single notification, either before or after it happened. So that's me with $5000+ of useless FBA stock.
I've got recent invoices and everything, but it's "Not available" so I can't even apply for approval.
I'd say that counts as "pain".
Edit: and now I've just been given ONE DAY'S notice on three other brands that I've been selling for years and have hundreds of items of stock of at FBA. ONE DAY!
Seller_HRcJa1gdGHeov
Account. Health system is completely broken.
Amazon is suspending long time sellers due to false positives from bots and the Account Health team refuses to do the proper due diligence to challenge the incorrect algorithm output.
Account Health providers ZERO information when a suspension occurs ("proprietary") and then proceeds to reject all information provided to them: invoices, LOA's, ....
The video calls for supply chain verification are archaic at best and the people conducting them are very un-informed.
The whole process is bad and needs to be re-engineered ASAP.
Seller_iobipI6xASRkh
- Broken "report abuse" button does not let FBA sellers report customer theft
- Shouldn't returns be checked with FBA to make sure it is even the same item they are being refunded for? It seems more expensive to ship it back to us then refund us for the lost product. Just check it when it comes in like should be done.
- Opening a ticket ends in a generic response that is irrelevant to the issue and a never ending loop ensues (most recently it tells me the listing is inactive but clearly I can see the listing is active)
- There is zero transparency on what is required for compliance
- There is no answer as to what causes an issue so it can not be repeated once we guess our way to resolving it
- Account Health support gives advice that results in account deactivation for abuse
- Seller support advice permanently removes listing resulting in lost sales
- Voice of the Customer is useless and filled with things like "my husband didn't like the style so going to get a different one"
- Zero transparency on fees like "other"
- AI bots are horrible and damage listings, most recently being flagged for improper bullets which were not the ones I submitted but pulled from another marketplace (we don't sell on other marketplaces) so fixing it took 2 months because chat/phone when escalated went back to step ONE.
- Terrified of our business moving because accounts get shut down when no address card is shipped (all over the forums) to verify new address
- Get rid of "Account Health Assurance" or actually use it, it means nothing as Amazon does not uphold it
- Let brand owners control their listings and who is permitted to sell their product - Generic has this but brands don't?
- How can someone not buy a product and spam 1 star ratings without a review? There is no way to fix this
- Hold ALL sellers to the same level of standards, not just domestic. There are so many bad actors selling on Amazon that as quality products are removed by confusing, non-transparent requirements Amazon has become another Temu and people are steadily dropping buying from Amazon. This has killed sales and customer trust in Amazon. My friend went through 3 cameras for his truck before buying one at the store. He had to return them all for false advertisement (not 4K, did not have the mount shown, one didn't work at all and when I looked at the listing the 4.6 stars were all scraped reviews from another product) These junk products are entirely out of control and they have multiple accounts. Gold is fake (illegal) and plated saying it is 14k. Child products are flammable and some have toxic components (my friend had a shopping list for her special needs son's birthday so I researched the links and they were all junk with no safety testing or certifications but super low price point). Used returns being shipped to customers (this happened to me so much I stopped buying). For Amazon to have a successful future, the quality products need to stay and there needs to be a better way to stop listings that violate legal standards. On top of it, that unsafe product is now pulling the price point down in the product category so more quality products are being moved to other platforms because they can't sell certified, safe, quality goods at an unsafe price point. It is a spiral and Amazon is the only one who can stop it.
