Believe I Was Framed
I have been selling on Amazon for 10 years now. I have almost 10,000 feedbacks with a 97% feedback rating and a 4.8 star rating. 99% of what I sell is FBA - DVDs, Blu-rays, and Video Games. I have been approved for the DVDs $25 MSRP or over metric.
Occasionally, I will find a good deal on some items. I found a good deal on some Ray-Ban (I know, I know) sunglasses from an authorized UK distributor, Selfridges. I purchased them and sold about 23 of them over two months.
Recently, I received a suspension because someone, apparently, (no negative feedback left, and because I was not notified that it was the company, Ray-Ban, themselves, I believe it was a competitor), stated that I sold a pair of inauthentic Ray-Ban sunglasses. I appealed with a plan of action (found in the P.S. at the bottom of this message) to discontinue the sales of designer items altogether because of the high level of subjectivity and customer abstract involved. There was no begging, pleading, or fawning, as I have witnessed so many others doing on so many of the Amazon forum threads; quite simply a professionally presented paragraph of pertinent and required information along with the requested receipt. I have been, primarily, an FBA seller, but I sold the sunglasses via merchant. The receipt for the ASIN in question was complete with all the information they required, including the name of the Ray-Ban-authorized distributor, address, phone number, and website. Additionally, I removed all designer-type items from my inventory.
They said they would get back to me by the 18th. That did not happen, but when the 22nd finally rolled around, I received an email that read. "Hello, We are still reviewing your account. We will send you an email when we finish the review."
Well, that was over a week ago, and now I can hear the crickets chirping. Has anyone here experienced a similar situation? It seems to me that it would be cut-and-dried:
1. I have a high feedback rating of almost 10,000 feedbacks.
2. I am authorized to sell DVDs of $25 MSRP (which I do through FBA).
3. I am authorized to sell in many categories.
4. I have been selling faithfully on Amazon and have been a Pro Merchant for many, many years.
5. My customer metrics are currently in the "Good" range, and if any of them ever fell below that (for merchant-filled items) in the past, I always worked to get them immediately rectified.
6. My customer email response time is less then twelve hours at any given time. Sometimes, well less than that.
7. I provided a plan of action, when, in actuality, I did not sell an inauthentic item.
8. I provided a receipt for the ASIN in question from an authorized distributor for Ray-Ban.
9. I had only sold one of those ASINs, so they never did ask me to solicit feedback for the ASIN.
Is there a reason anyone would know about for the delay? I am reluctant to send them a follow-up email, because that action, in and of itself, may just start their entire process over again. AND, I have heard, that when you push them on these types of matters, it usually does not bode well for the seller.
The only thing that I think could be mentioned in addition to the one email I already sent them if I were to write to them again is that "we understand all unused items are not "Amazon new", and will list appropriately in future listings." Also, maybe something like: "We understand that the Amazon platform is quite dynamic and if you are unable to keep abreast of constant changes you will check in specific situations, as they arise, particularly with brand name products."
What do you think? Should I write them again? Or should I let it lie? Please read the original Plan of Action before responding.
Any advice and/or suggestions would be most appreciated.
Thank you, kindly!
Jonny
P.S. PLAN OF ACTION that we sent to Amazon along with the requested receipt from an authorized distributor:
Our investigation into this matter has afforded us the opportunity to understand the complications that can result from selling "designer"-type items on the internet. Since there is so high the probability of customer abstract where designer items are concerned, we will not longer be selling any Ray-Bans or any other similar-class items on the Amazon Marketplace. We have removed all our Ray-Ban stock from our Amazon future-listing spreadsheets and will not be offering them for sale ever again on the Marketplace.
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