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Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

Okay I've been making a little money selling my product FBA. I find my product on eBay and craigslist and then I'd send them to Amazon and make some extra change.

Lately this product has been hijacked by counterfeiters from China. I know these are ⊗⊗⊗⊗ because I can only get about 6 a month because the product is discontinued and even when it was in production it was scarce so there's a high demand, and also there's videos all over youtube demoing the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ comparing the real ones to the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ and the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ are significantly inferior.

The chinese are counterfeiting this product and they have 200 of them at a time and prices are going way down and I can't make any money off of this anymore. All of these chinese sellers have "Just launched" instead of feedback and I bookmarked a dozen of them and they will sell 200 items and then drop off the planet and then the negatives start coming in after they are long gone. The problem is these people are dominating the buy box.

I came up with a clever idea to get rid of the counterfeiters. I bought a $25 Visa Gift Card and then I completely cleaned out the chinese sellers by buying up their entire inventory. I made the purchases using bogus information and did it at a public internet place so. The card only had $25 on it so it would decline, however the inventory got tied up in pending and after all the legit sellers that were lowering their prices to compete with the counterfeits got wiped out, I was getting an extra $45 per item.

The Chinese sellers are back and this time they have a limit of only 2 per buyer. My Visa gift card must be black balled from Amazon because everytime I use it under a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ buying account to buy something the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ buying account immediately gets suspended.

What would be the best way to send these chinese sellers packing? Buying all their inventory worked pretty well for a few weeks and my prices went up but I'm stumped on how I can do it with a 2 per limit.

I found a site called www.getcreditcardnumbers.com/ I am wondering what would happen if I created 50 bogus accounts and "bought" the inventory using 50 different bogus credit card numbers. My fear is that I don't want to use a number that happens to be somebody's real credit card number because I'm not trying to scam anybody. I'm trying to get rid of the scammers that are ripping people off selling crap, and I am trying to get the prices up for my items which are authentic.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

Buy one off them, then take picture and report counterfeit item to amazon and they'll be gone for good.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

...if you know they're ⊗⊗⊗⊗ and can prove they are ⊗⊗⊗⊗ from your purchases just report them?

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

My advice: find another product. This will be a losing endeavor for you, unfortunately, in my opinion

Would be different if you were the brand owner, but you are not

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

This.

ONE counterfeit claim against a new seller account (especially one from CHINA) is a death sentence for the account.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

How do you even make a counterfeit claim? Seems like Amazon just wants you to return something if it's not as described rather than make a claim?

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

Telling them the item is a knock-off/counterfeit/forgery/whatever will get them to examine the account.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

In my category 90% of the items on Amazon are **** and sold by overseas sellers. My small inventory that I obtained domestically at premium prices is no match for Chinese sellers who can undercut me several times fold and provide almost unlimited quantity while mine is extremely limited. So no Amazon for me..it's just insane out there.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

So if I bought an item from the seller and paid for overnight shipping and left the seller negative feedback ASAP. Would that get them thrown off? A just launched seller that gets a negative does that get them thrown off?

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

You've already been told how to do it. Read above, once more.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

Here's my view on this... if they are on YOUR ASIN and you own the brand, sure go for it.

But if they are in their own listing and not hijacking you, I'd focus more on your own sales.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

The problem with that advice is by the time Amazon takes any action the seller will be long gone and a new seller with a "Just Launched" rating will pop up and dominate the buy box. You really need to get these guys suspended within 24 hours of them showing up as they send a bunch of inventory to Amazon and once that inventory sells they dump the account and move on to a new account and have it timed where after a few days they dispose of the account and a new one pops up. I'm guessing they do this to avoid the hassle of getting suspended while the Amazon fulfillment center has a bunch of their inventory in stock and they now have to go through the hassle of getting it shipped back to them in China.

That's why I was wondering what would happen if I used a bunch of ⊗⊗⊗⊗ credit card numbers and purchased from them tying their inventory up.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

I don't own the ASIN and neither do they. A publicly traded company owns the ASIN, and my merchandise is the real deal and theirs is a low quality knock off as evidence by the feedback these accounts get as soon as they abandon their accounts and move on to the next account.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

Why don't you contact the manufacturer?

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

So are they even in the same listing as you?

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

yup, and they have the buy box. Totally ridiculous that Amazon gives the buy box to chinese sellers that have "Just Launched" next to their name.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

I would personally just move onto different products as you'll spend a lot of time/effort trying to get them removed

If you're going to open complaints, you can do it through the seller help contact page, then by sending Amazon an email message

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

Price factors into Buy Box ranking algorithms.

Wonder how the Chinese are able to even create so many Amazon accounts?

I guess they're good at phaking everything hahah

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

Well I don't think it's ridiculous... if they offer better everything, of course they'll win the buy box. You can't think that way.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

When comparing what you sell and what they offer (as ⊗⊗⊗⊗), how much quality and functionality difference? Price is always a trap for buyers. Chinese sellers always claim same functionality with less price.

I believe you need some negative feedback of their buyers then.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

It's tough, i have my own branded product competitors are trying to poach, i registered the trademark back in january but it takes forever to get approved. In the mean time, i just send them cease and desist letters. Eventually they quit, fortunately my price isn't much more than their generics they peddle., i had someone on fiverr make me packaging and brand logo etc.. So now i can even have china put it on the product if i want. I had a guy this past week who kept canceling my test purchase, 15x! I think he figured out, keep canceling would kill his metrics, he finally gave up as of yesterday.He may or may not be back, i did report him w/o the test purchase option, but i finally got a order in, so when it comes, i'll document his ⊗⊗⊗⊗ vs my real and if he ever comes back.It's on.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

2 Billion people, you cannot remove them
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Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

I bought a $25 Visa Gift Card and then I completely cleaned out the chinese sellers ... using bogus information and did it at a public internet place so. The card only had $25 on it so it would decline, however the inventory got tied up in pending... after all the legit sellers that were lowering their prices to compete with the counterfeits got wiped out, I was getting an extra $45 per item.

You're actually bragging about this?

It's like saying, "I robbed a drug dealer and took all his cash, aren't I amazing?"

Your moral compass needs serious refurbishing.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

[QUOTE=chibul;907925]

I came up with a clever idea to get rid of the counterfeiters. I bought a $25 Visa Gift Card and then I completely cleaned out the chinese sellers by buying up their entire inventory.

Not clever at all. Imagine them reading this right now and doing the same thing to you and leaving you negative feedback so you stop 'buying' up their inventory.

Find a different way to compete. This is not a new problem on either eBay or Amazon. You will find this in every category with almost every item you can think of. You need to either find a different selling strategy that is buyer focused because you will not solve it with your 'clever idea'.

Re: Best way to go about removing Chinese competitors on Amazon
 

You're fighting a loosing battle. Reporting an item to Amazon does not simply get the seller banned, it's merely a myth in my opinion.

I still see sellers with a whopping 20% negative feedbacks and they are still active on Amazon. Maybe Amazon Europe is different in this regard though!