Suspended from Amazon - what to do with inventory

[tmonta]

I have recently been suspended from Amazon and have a question about my inventory. I have over 50000 units in the FBA Warehouse. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I can do with this inventory? Can I sell it to another Amazon seller? My father has also been selling on Amazon for a year (products completely different from mine, different bank, address, different everything). Can he purchase my inventory without hurting his account? Any advise would be helpful.

[Airun]

I would think it depends on what you were suspended for. If you were suspended because of the items not meeting Amazon's standards I wouldn't give to your father, just take them to ebay. If you weren't suspended because of items give your father a few at a time. If all 50000 are the same item I would have him list like 30 at a time and stagger the listings, list 30 sell 30 and wait a few days to relist again.

[TonyAlmeida]

First thing to do is get all 50k items from FBA back to you

[tmonta]

We were suspended for two items not matching product detail pages. The kicker is that the listings were correct when we listed them and were changed by another seller with incorrect info at some point. Have been trying to get it resolved with Amazon but I am losing hope. Its actually approx 1500 different items totaling approx 75000 units. eBay is not really an option because it will take a lifetime to sell the units there.

[tmonta]

Originally Posted by TonyAlmeida

First thing to do is get all 50k items from FBA back to you

Am I going to have any problems getting them returned to me?

[TonyAlmeida]

Your account already had a problem with it. You can sale your item with that account anymore. If you don't set them back then what are you going to do with them.

Just request them return to you and keep your finger cross

[Airun]

That always intrigues me about Amazon. How people can just change the details of an item and then all of the sudden your product isn't valid. Like Tony said request your items and pray they send them. And sell or give them to your father to sell slowly.

[barrycruan]

Your going to have a problem in that Amazon charge you to send stock back.

Have you tried using the CEOs email. Obviously you don't get to talk to Jeff but the email usually is dealt with by a more capable team than seller support.

One of my accounts has just gone down for this exact same reason and we are currently trying to fight it. I've seen people get reinstated for this so don't give up hope yet.

[TonyAlmeida]

Originally Posted by Airun

That always intrigues me about Amazon. How people can just change the details of an item and then all of the sudden your product isn't valid. Like Tony said request your items and pray they send them. And sell or give them to your father to sell slowly.

Only the original creator of that item can change it. People doing that to screw other sellers that list in their listed (most of the time is cheaper price)

[RosieTosie]

Originally Posted by TonyAlmeida

Only the original creator of that item can change it. People doing that to screw other sellers that list in their listed (most of the time is cheaper price)

I have something like this going on at the moment with my Amazon account, I just listed some new items that have turned out to be quite popular and I had some sales. There are quite a few others selling these items, some in large quantities. I have the lowest priced items currently, each time I log in someone has reduced 2 or 3 of their items by one penny, to take the lowest priced tag off me, so I countered by matching their prices, and so it goes on, and on, and on.

[TonyAlmeida]

Originally Posted by RosieTosie

I have something like this going on at the moment with my Amazon account, I just listed some new items that have turned out to be quite popular and I had some sales. There are quite a few others selling these items, some in large quantities. I have the lowest priced items currently, each time I log in someone has reduced 2 or 3 of their items by one penny, to take the lowest priced tag off me, so I countered by matching their prices, and so it goes on, and on, and on.

Are you the original creator of that ASIN? If not, nothing you can do to control others

[rsot]

Best of luck getting the product back then - and WITH PRODUCT IN HAND - can you consider options

[Taking The Micky]

Firstly you cannot sell these to another seller while they are in amazons warehouse. They are stickered with your unique identifier.
You are able to request a removal order to return them to you, this will cost you an absolute fortune.
My advice, amazon are holding your funds for 90 days, once the money is released to you then create a removal order, cancel the credit card thats on the account and empty your bank. This way amazon cannot charge you for the removal. I think the amazon charge is 15 cents per item for return.
Good luck, and when you get your stock back you will have massive task removing all the permanent stickers as if you don't and just sticker over the old ones you could get linked.

[skyline]

Originally Posted by tmonta

We were suspended for two items not matching product detail pages. The kicker is that the listings were correct when we listed them and were changed by another seller with incorrect info at some point. Have been trying to get it resolved with Amazon but I am losing hope. Its actually approx 1500 different items totaling approx 75000 units. eBay is not really an option because it will take a lifetime to sell the units there.

You were banned for that...? Doesn't make any sense why you can't get reinstated if it wasn't your fault. I really dislike Amazon. When I was selling there it was 1 strike and you are out...

At least on eBay they gave a few warnings. But even still I was banned b/c I created another accnt while my real accnt had a 7 day suspension. If eBay would've warned me not to create another accnt while I was on the 7 day suspension I don't think I would've been permanently banned. They seemed to make it clear AFTER they banned me which was kind of unfair. I was not expecting them to lay down the hammer after a few minor warnings.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by skyline

You were banned for that...? Doesn't make any sense why you can't get reinstated if it wasn't your fault. I really dislike Amazon. When I was selling there it was 1 strike and you are out...

Amazon is very strict - worrisome at times

[barrycruan]

Amazon charges start at 60p per item to return in the UK and 20p to dispose of it for you. But 15 cents is a nice thought. Again please refrain from making things up.

[barrycruan]

Originally Posted by rsot

Amazon is very strict - worrisome at times

Yep. The same thing has happened to one of our accounts with a $600k a year turnover. Not even a warning. They just said two items don't match the product description and that's it.

[RosieTosie]

In my experience Amazon are only that strict if you have massive turnover, I am at the opposite end of the situation, I only have a small turnover, and when I phoned them up once about something and asked what my limits were, I didn't have any. I have been concentrating on sorting out my ebay accounts so Amazon is more of a sideline for me because listing on it can be a real pain, buying items from wholesale suppliers only to find beause an item is not already listed I can only list by creating a new item.

Creating a new item can be not worth the hassle as well, talk about going through hoops, toys and makeup are a nightmare to list, they ask for more and more info and even when it's provided the 'vital info', sign doesn't go away.

[Taking The Micky]

Originally Posted by barrycruan

Amazon charges start at 60p per item to return in the UK and 20p to dispose of it for you. But 15 cents is a nice thought. Again please refrain from making things up.

Sorry my mistake 15c for disposal 50c for return

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200685110

[Taking The Micky]

Originally Posted by barrycruan

Amazon charges start at 60p per item to return in the UK and 20p to dispose of it for you. But 15 cents is a nice thought. Again please refrain from making things up.

Also Barry I did use the word "think" not "they are"

[Taking The Micky]

Originally Posted by barrycruan

Yep. The same thing has happened to one of our accounts with a $600k a year turnover. Not even a warning. They just said two items don't match the product description and that's it.

FIND THAT SO HARD TO BELIEVE, the standard e mail is below, not suspension, more must have been going on.
Hello from Amazon.

We wanted to let you know that we have received a potential customer complaint regarding
the item you are offering below. It is possible that the item you are selling does not match the
product description shown on the detail page or may not have been listed in accordance with
our Condition Guidelines:

ASIN:
Title:

Please note that at this time, no action has been taken to remove your offer on this item and
you do not need to contact us regarding this notice. However, we ask that you review your
listings and make any changes necessary to comply with our policies. You can modify your
listings in the Inventory section of Seller Central
(https://sellercentral.

Customers may complain when they receive an item different from what they were expecting
based on the product detail page - and our policies require that items offered for sale on
Amazon.com match the detail page in every respect and be listed in accordance with the
Condition Guidelines. Problems may include inaccurately listing the brand, manufacturer, UPC,
edition, binding, quantity, version, color, and condition.

Finally, please note that you cannot list an item that does not match the product detail page
even if you describe the differences in the comments. If an appropriate detail page is not
available for your product, you are welcome to create a product detail page by using our
"Create A Detail Page" service.

We want to call your attention to these policies because violations may result in the removal of
your Amazon.com selling privileges. To learn more about these policies, search "Prohibited
Seller Activities and Actions", "Product Detail Page Rules", and "Condition Guidelines" in Seller
Central Help.

[tmonta]

Yes this has been an absolute nightmare. I was selling over 45000 units a month for over 2 years now with 100% feedback. Never an A - Z claim. Apparently any seller can take control over the items detail page at any time. Amazon determines which of the sellers take control over the details pages automatically based on an algorithm consisting of inventory levels, feedback score, seller health etc. We received two policy warnings about two asins not matching the items details page. The policy warning said to email seller support our plan of how we were going to fix these to listings. I immediately removed them from FBA inventory and stopped selling them because I saw the pages had been changed at some point. I also immediately responded to the policy warning stating we were removing them from FBA and will no longer be selling them. Then approx 2 weeks later I received a suspension notice stating we continue to list against incorrect item detail pages but the letter did not mention any new asin problems. I spoke with seller support and they told me that even though we removed them from FBA and stopped selling them, I failed to actually delete the item from our active inventory list and that triggered the suspension. Support instructed me to put that info in our appeal, which I did and was denied the appeal with the standard 'permanent action' response.

As for the two incorrect asins.....After the initial policy warning but before the suspension, we found approx 10 other listings of the same sort of item (different variations) that also had incorrect detail pages. We contacted seller support and was told that one of the sellers listed themselves as the brand owner (which was false info) and the detail page was using their detail info. In that case, seller support can not change the pages and that I would need to contact seller performance. Well I did contact seller support and they removed the brand ownership from that seller and the seller was warned that they can not list themselves as the brand owner if they are not.

So that is how I have ended up here. I have over 70000 units in the FBA warehouse valued at over $200000 in cost that will end up costing me $35000 just for FBA to return them to me. I have had a few items returned so far that I need to sell in other outlets and so far everything I have requested has come back.

I have not completely given up hope yet. I still have a few avenues to try to get through to Amazon.