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Received an email saying I'm not an authorized dealer..
 

Been selling a product for 5 months now. Became a featured merchant last week! :clap::clap::amen:

Anywho, I received an email today claiming to be a lawyer saying that my company is not authorized to sell this product and I have two weeks to stop selling. The email provided a name and a phone number, nothing else. I googled the number and it does show up as a lawyer...

How do I take this? They did not provide the lawyers office name they work for, just my name is john doe and my number is xxxx.

I was thinking of emailing them back and asking for them to send me a certified letter in the mail on company letter head? My stuff is legit I purchased this from a big box store on clearance and my basement is filled with this.

If this is a legit product purchased through a legit source I would ignore it.

May depend more on the item(s) sitting in boxes in your basement.

Did you determine before selling you could do so just that.

I do not mean seeing other sellers doing the same. Did you check the fine print for this item?

:spy:

I get what you are saying....but how do I confirm the email isnt just another seller?

Not sure the issue is it's another 'seller'.

I would be more concerned it's not counsel for some company.

:spy:

Email them saying your products are authentic from a licensed usa supplier. Ask for lawyer name, address, phone number, physical address location, web site, as well as a legal document stating all this information in print. You can say you have no problem abiding by all rules, regulations, and laws, but as far as you know there is none of that being done. Also let them know impersonating/practicing a lawyer is a felony in most states, and if this is the case scare them by saying you will alert the correct legal force which deals with that.

Are you a lawyer? :snicker::snicker:

Great advice!

Whatever you choose to do, do NOT do this request - that's ASKING for headaches...repeat DO NOT!

If I have to explain why because of the many reasons....well, you need to be creatively thinking :)

Lawyer
 

I would list the items as used in excellent condition... Seems like I have less trouble on the used listings with that...

you might have to give up a little profit doing it this way, but if they have it in for you, they can cause problems.

Also, you might try selling a few, removing some listings, and then going back and listing them again.

If items have serial numbers on the box, I would remove those too.

He is a featured merchant that can get the buy box. He might as well sell them on the street corner than put them in the used category.

This is some Chicken sh&t attempt at trying to stop you from selling the item, MANY companies try to Bully sellers this way, Apple is the BIGGEST Culpurit,,,
These companies do NOT recognize the existance of the secondary Market,.

all they know that in order to be "Authorized" you need to Purchase the Items from them, and sell them as exactly as they say, the problem is that MANY of these "Authorized" Distributors and Resellers OFTEN go Bankrupt and their Inventories sold at Auctions, or sometimes they need to Raise Cash so they sell off their inventory FAR below what they Paid the Manufacturer,

Items bought this way are what makes up the Secondary Marketplace which the Manufacturers REFUSE to recognize,,,

However you do have a very POWERFUL friend in this,,,The LAW,,,the "First Sale Doctrine" gives you ths ABSOLUTE Right to resell those items, so long as you do Not misrepresent them of course,,,

So you can do 1 of 2 things, Ignore them, or Reply telling them you do NOT Need the Manufactures Permission under the First Sale Doctrine, and that if they truly feel Differently, tell them NOT to respond to your Email, just tell them to go ahead and file their Lawsuit and BRING it,,,

BELIEVE me they will NOT,,,I have been in your shoes MORE than Once, NEVER a Problem,,,

Companies do this in order to protect their Price, their 'Authorized" dealers ALWAYS cry and Complain that they cannot sell their products because potential Buyers can purchase the same item online for LESS than they PAY for it.
so the manufactures try their best to eliminate the Small Online sellers like us,,,Do NOT Worry, F^ckem

The other issue with gray market is that warranties are usually void unless purchased thru an authorized dealer. So it creates headaches for companies that have to deal with irate customers. Just sayin...

They should just take a prozac and chill. :clap:

Agree with Slapped...been there too with a Company that attempted to scare me with law suit...I threw the First Sale Doctrine at them and that was the end of that!

My items were purchased legally and were not misrepresented in any way.
It's sad that some people are willing to go to extreme lengths to push you out.

I would find out more about this so called Lawyer before even decide to call their office.

That is somewhat true,,in EVERY Manufacturers Warranty in the "Fine Print" it ALWAYS states that the Warranty is Voided if the item is not purchased from an "Authorized" Source, However very FEW Manufactures enforce this simply because at the end of the day the Consumers anger will be directed towards the manufacturer who made the item NOT the seller who saved the Buyer (Consumer) money when they initially purchased the item,,,

Another small point,,Grey Market Goods are a little different from secondary Market goods, where Grey Market goods are Items that are made for a SPECIFIC Country (Market) but are essentially Identical to the ones made for the US Markets, the reason that Companies do this is because sometimes a Product that they can sell in the US Market say for $100.00 cannot be sold in say France for that price, but they can get $70.00, So the "Create" a Special Version for the French market that may or may not contain a Slight variation, MANY times these goods find their way back to US Markets because is is actually cheaper for resellers to import them BACK to the US rather than buy them directly here, by the way there is NO law that protects you from reselling "Gray" Market goods,

Re: Received an email saying I'm not an authorized dealer..
 

This is not really how it goes. Gray market sellers can never be authorized because they are breaking their contract with the manufacturer by selling outside their boundaries. It is all a game that everyone knows about, even the manufacturer but they have to denounce it to keep the BIG companies satisfied that they r paying the same price or higher than some smaller sellers.

I would tell that lawyer to go eat a sandwich. You cannot be prosecuted because it is not illegal to resell authentic products even if you don't have the manufacturer's permission. They cannot sue you because you don't have a contract with them. This lawyer is just trying to scare you.

The only thing they could do is take action against your supplier if they are an authorized distributor by cutting them off or forcing them to cut you off. I imagine you are not getting them from an authorized supplier because if you were, they would have taken the action to get you authorized and prevented this mess in the first place. If this is the case, you have nothing to worry about.

The person that emailed the OP probably just found a name, phone and used that to scare him.