One Month Old Account

[supdawg1985]

It has been almost an entire 30 days since a stealth account has been opened. Have done well under the supposed $750 limit so far.

So where to go from here? The items being sold are DVDs primarily.

-Is there a new velocity limit to keep in mind after the first month?
-Does EVERY account get reviewed at some point?
-Should I wait to get more ratings before I take things up a notch (only 1 so far)

In addition to that, just looking for some general tips in order to keep the account in good standing. I was selling well over $1000/day the first time I got suspended (was linked to my partner's account) and want to know how long it will take to get back there again.

[barrycruan]

The 750 limit is no longer relevant. It was but not now a days.

You have to be super careful with DVDs and id seek advice from someone who knows what they are doing in that particular field.

But no, not every account gets reviewed. In my experience if you keep a good feedback to sales ratio and you build the account at a steady pace you will not get a review.

But as I said. DVDs is a minefield so be extra careful.

[MICKY H]

Just take it slow and easy. I sell DVD but we mix with FBA and self fulfilled which I believe is the only way forward. However if you sell dodgy gear you will soon be closed.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by supdawg1985

I was selling well over $1000/day the first time I got suspended (was linked to my partner's account) and want to know how long it will take to get back there again.

Maybe consider multiple ghost accounts

[supdawg1985]

Thanks for the advice.

Another question I have is :

Does Amazon completely dismiss seller's who use the "grey market" in order to source inventory? For instance, if a seller gets stuff from discount deals from other online retailers or auctions, is that fine? Or are they only allowing those who deal with wholesalers?

[MICKY H]

Originally Posted by supdawg1985

Thanks for the advice.

Another question I have is :

Does Amazon completely dismiss seller's who use the "grey market" in order to source inventory? For instance, if a seller gets stuff from discount deals from other online retailers or auctions, is that fine? Or are they only allowing those who deal with wholesalers?

Dude, amazon don't know your suppliers.

[supdawg1985]

The thing is, they will know if they inquire about it. Right now I am just selling stuff from around the house but I will have to start pulling in some inventory from deals I find on different sites.

[supdawg1985]

Another question sprang to mind that I hope can be answered.

If Amazon reviews the account at some point and sees that the tracking numbers indicate a different shipping address than the one on the account, would that be an issue?

[MICKY H]

No, people use 3rd party fulfillers.

[supdawg1985]

I was wondering about the "grey market" because when I look around at the other sellers of DVDs most of them have thousands of ratings. The "little guy" seems to be getting pushed out. Is this true?

Dunno about DVDs but I was kicked off a year ago for selling "⊗⊗⊗⊗" batteries which were actually genuine, despite having the best feedback from 4000+ ratings of ANY battery seller, yet a year on there are many sellers still on Amazon selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗, some with less than 90% feedback.

Long story but I was consistently reported by competitors who eventually got me forced off, but strange that others get away with selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗ indefinitely so it seems.

[supdawg1985]

You were not able to provide invoices to appease the Amazon gods? From my understanding they want proof of purchases from "authorized dealers". Does anyone know who/what qualifies?

Me? Yes I was, the batteries were Samsung branded and produced by a Chinese factory Samsung subcontract to, for which I had the paperwork. Trouble is you won't get any support from Samsung as they want the public to think they make everything themselves.

This was a long drawn out affair though, these guys were sending photos to amazon of actual ⊗⊗⊗⊗ batteries, not the ones I was sending out. It started with a string of negative feedbacks and I got a lot of them, but not all, removed. then came the A-z claims, some were claiming non receipt but they were faking the addresses. I sent suspicious ones by Special Delivery and several came back undelivered, which screwed up their A-z claims claiming they had received ⊗⊗⊗⊗ batteries.

After some months of this going on I finally managed to get to talk to an English manager who said they were aware of the issue and that Amazon would support me fully. A couple of weeks later they asked for the paperwork which they checked and cleared, but then a couple of weeks after that the account was suspended. An appeal failed. After much badgering I finally got them to admit they had received a string of reports of ⊗⊗⊗⊗ batteries.

Basically leaving bad feedback wasn't working, so they switched to filing A-z claims. I got most of them removed so they obviously then switched to reporting me directly, which obviously worked. I had the best feedback of any battery seller - 99% - and only one (genuine) A-z claim from over 4,000 feedbacks, I'm not sure how many transactions in total.

I did get my money after 90 days and luckily got most of my stuff back from FBA, though they charged me per item so I paid the thieving gits a total of around £1,000 to get 8 boxes of goods back.

I also suspect part of the reason I was banned was because Amazon were selling some of the items themselves and I was undercutting them.

Sometimes I wonder if Amazon themselves are the biggest scammers of the lot.

I would like to get back on Amazon as I am really struggling on ebay but I'm not sure if using my partner's name will work, as we're not married and she already has a buying account. but I can't remember which address I used on Amazon - I hire a storage unit and used that for the "business" address but can't remember if I ever used our home address or not.