Amazon listings being hijacked by Chinese scammers

ploughman · #1 09-22-2016

Well, after 9 years of selling on Amazon I have a new problem: Chinese scammers listing competing offers for my items with cheap, homemade knock-offs that aren't identical. These cretins will also misrepresent their ship-from location. Negative feedback has already brought down a couple of accounts, but they keep registering new ones and even claim to ship from Austria (yeah, right) and now one says it's in Texas but has the same inventory as a suspended one in China.

People will get inferior product and the ship[ping will take much longer than expected and some will write negatives, but it might take 2-3 weeks, and I don't know whow many sales I'm losing.

Lately they seem to have targeted my highest selling items (making some kind of knock-off junk) and I KNOW they don't have identical product because the sourcing was obscure and also far away from China.

Of course when accounts get suspended, they just re-register. Amazon may have even put a block on competing offers for my items from China (I say upfromt that none of my product is made there), but they just reappear claiming to be from Austria or wherever.

These scum are exploiting all the weaknesses in Amazon's system and I'm afraid the next shoe to drop is years' worth of favorable product reviews if people write those based on knock-offs. My listings empasize speed and packaging as unique selling points (shipping damage is a big problem), so they create expectations that lead to negatives on the bogus sellers, but that process is slow, it's too easy to get a new account, and way too easy to list competing offers even though it's not the same product. Amazon even gives them the buy box if they get the slightest positive feedback.

What to do?

I cringe at the idea of going through Amazon because of unpredictable results, burden of proof and all that. But lately a few listings have as many as 3 foreign competing offers, all likely from the same source. If this keeps up I may have to put the listings on ice and concentrate efforts in other marketplaces, just like I had to do with eBay in 2007. Only one site can be the alpha male.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any suggestions?

salemzaid1 · #2 09-23-2016

This could be an opportunity to find a better product.
But, could you compete with the price at all? If you could compete, in the price range, who do you think people would choose? Someone with feedback and seemingly trustworthy, or some random guy with "New Seller" under his name from China?

Keep in mind that even if they sold volume, they're going to be under review really really soon. You think they can just sell high volume, with a weirdly low price, on a popular item, from a foreign country and just walk off?

idds · #3 09-24-2016

I find calling Amazon, unlike ebay, to be very useful. Call and explain, open a case

ploughman · #4 09-26-2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by salemzaid1

This could be an opportunity to find a better product.
But, could you compete with the price at all? If you could compete, in the price range, who do you think people would choose? Someone with feedback and seemingly trustworthy, or some random guy with "New Seller" under his name from China?

Keep in mind that even if they sold volume, they're going to be under review really really soon. You think they can just sell high volume, with a weirdly low price, on a popular item, from a foreign country and just walk off?

Thanks for response. Because they're making knock-offs and ⊗⊗⊗⊗ (nothing I have comes from China) I couldn't get in a price war and wouldn't want to. I've been very pointed in the descriptions to set up expectations they can't meet (and am using feedback responses to tell the customer base as a whole what's going on, which Amazon might not like).

Still, on a few of the most popular items I've now got 3 different zero-feedback sellers with competing offers. One of the oldest just got a negative for his first feedback and may be going down soon, in which case they'll register another account. I guess I have to write everything down and keep notes.

It's irritating that Amazon would give the buy box to any of these cretins at maybe just a 5 or so feedback, which they could get from unrelated items or through other ways. Also that years of favorable product reviews are at risk if those who got duped write negative reviews slamming the cheap knock-off thinking it's the real thing.

So far I think I'm still getting most of the volume (not really that high, maybe 50/week), but if they go all out to try to take away the buy box it could change. Negative feedback will keep bringing accounts down, but it's slow with a 3-week shipping time.

They *might* be making it hard to list competing offers from China, which would explain the ridiculous Austria one (with "free" shipping from there). Whoever it is will do just about anything.

ploughman · #5 09-26-2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by idds

I find calling Amazon, unlike ebay, to be very useful. Call and explain, open a case

Will keep that in mind and it may come to that. I admit my view of Amazon may be projected over at least in part from dealings with eBay and their terrible service back in the aughts.

booras · #6 09-26-2016

I have the same issue with my listing. Chinese have kill all my lists

kingdudu · #7 09-26-2016

Yes me too . I'm done 150,000$ in 3 months . but they kill my listings and now is 0 !!! They reported my listings to amazon yes - with TEST ORDERS .

Now amazon review my accoun ...

guitarca18 · #8 09-26-2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by idds

I find calling Amazon, unlike ebay, to be very useful. Call and explain, open a case

What country do you usually speak to? I called a few times a few months ago and I may as well have been talking to the wall next to my desk. I used to switch over to the Canada side of my account and request a call and I would usually get north dakota call center but last time I tried this I got India.

They always say the same thing: "I'll have to submit a ticket to the appropriate department and they will get back to you in 24 hours."

ploughman · #9 12-26-2016

UPDATE: Well, I made it through the Christmas season with about the same volume as last year, but the "Just Launched" accounts selling homemade ⊗⊗⊗⊗ continue to be a real locust plague.

My pageviews are well down year-on-year but the conversion rate is very healthy, and I also started doing the promoted listings.

I give Amazon SOME credit for trying to address the problem, even as they downplay the true severity to the media. There are now literally scores of accounts that did competing offers for my items that have been suspended with no action on my part. The few that stay up long enough to get feedback have such bad product that the first feedback they usually get is a negative.

But they'll keep registering new accounts and falsifying where they're shipping from. Particularly irritating is ⊗⊗⊗⊗ CANADIAN accounts, as it's possible with those to take away the buy box even on ZERO feedback

if there's enough price differential. One ⊗⊗⊗⊗d Canadian account cropped up around 12/10 with "free" shipping for standard and $58 for expedited and not only was given the buy box on zero feedback but was still counted as "arrives before Christmas" just because of that $58 option no one would be taking. I'm sure some people got duped/ripped off by that one.

The Chinese scammers are systematically exploiting every vulnerability in Amazon's system.

bebekeke · #10 12-26-2016

Amazon actually allows this as long as that you don't own a trademark or patent or something like that. So what you do is to get your trademark registered asap and complete your brand registry. Maybe that will help?