Seller Account Suspended for Counterfeit. Appeal help.

[alekov]

I think there are plenty of people on this Forum that have had same thing happen to them. Imagine 100 of us go after the 500 largest sellers on Amazon? It would be an unprecedented hit, and Amazon would definitely get the point that their system is NOT working properly. Shutting down a major revenue stream for them will deff make them notice it, and once the whole thing is revealed I'm sure they will fix their mistake and obviously reinstate those Sellers, so I don't think it will affect those businesses, maybe just temporarily. Just an idea.. Or we can continue as usual, and keep getting suspended after building our businesses for one or two years, or 5 in some cases. I do have the guide, together with Beat Amazon Suspension, 15 steps to get back on Amazon, Maintaining Multiple Seller Accounts on Amazon, and every other guide ever written. It's not a problem for me to get back on. I just know it will happen again in the future, and want to put an end to this, for me, as well as for every other seller out there.

[Superfly101]

Gamefreak,

I re-wrote my appeal letter with HOW I am going to prevent the situation from re-occuring. Could you please review and provide feedback if this appeal letter is better and may address the Seller Performance Teams concerns? Thank you!!

Dear Seller Performance Team,

Please consider reviewing our appeal and plan of action that we have implemented in order to avoid any repeat violations from re-occurring in the future and ensuring that the buyer experience from us is top notch.

After a review of our account, Amazon.com selling policies, and the notifications received from Seller Performance, these are the violations of Amazon policy that led to our account being suspended for the 1st time:

1) In September of 2014, one of our staff members made an error, which violated Amazon.com selling policy by listing a product we had purchased from a Manufacturer against another listing that did not accurately match the Catalog detail pages.

2) We did not properly update the Seller Performance Team regarding both our plan of action to be in full compliance with Amazon.com selling policies that we implemented on our end and how that our plan of action had solved the listing error, including following up with our factory in order to obtain approval for providing their contact information.

Below is our plan of action that we have implemented for your review to consider us for reinstatement of our selling privileges and preventing the unauthorized listing process from re-occurring, including, the Amazon buyer receiving any merchandise that does not accurately reflect the Catalog page in which they make a purchase from:

1) We have reviewed our listings to ensure full compliance with Amazon.com selling policies.

ACTION ITEM: We have removed both the listing and inventory from our seller account that was incorrectly listed against another Catalog page. We have found that an Ergonomic mouse was the product that caused the buyer complaints.

2) We will not list any product again that does not accurately match the Catalog page by our thorough inventory checklist process we have implemented.

ACTION ITEM: We have implemented a checklist that we created for each item before we consider listing any item from us on an Amazon.com Catalog page. Each item is individually reviewed for compliance against the Amazon catalog page to ensure that the ASIN, UPC codes, color(s), quantity, version, description(s) of product details, Manufacturer name and brand, photo(s), product variances, technical specs match exactly with the listing and inventory purchased. If any variance is found, the item will not be listed on the Catalog page.

3) We only purchase all inventories directly from the Manufacturer’s and require written authorization that we are authorized for resale of their product explicitly on Amazon.com.

ACTION ITEM: We purchase inventory from the Manufacturer directly and no longer utilize any 3rd party Manufacturer’s. We also specifically request permission from the Manufacturer to ensure that we are approved to sell their merchandise on Amazon.com.

4) We will retain all invoices on hand so that we can readily provide them to the Amazon Seller Performance team and will monitor our performance notifications section daily in our seller account.

ACTION ITEM: All product Invoices for items stored on Amazon.com will be stored in a cabinet for retention with their corresponding Manufacturer product authorization letters by brand in order to be able to readily provide this information to the Seller Performance Team at anytime.


Thank you for allowing us to have the privilege of appealing our selling account to you.


Sincerely,

[bananaappeal]

I think your pissing in the wind - but send and find out.

[RosieTosie]

Originally Posted by alekov

I will be notifying Amazon of the specific Sellers, and the intention of proving how easy it is to do that to another Seller (which happen to us), in an attempt to make them realize that their system is rigged.

I sure hope once I provide the name of the Seller, the names of the Buyers who claimed receiving ⊗⊗⊗⊗ items, and videos documenting the whole process, on numerous blogs (hopefully be able to get couple papers to publish the story as well) Amazon will have the decency to reinstate the aforementioned Sellers realizing that it was a stunt.

If you are a Seller on Amazon you should realize by now that they hold you by the balls, and just because you are NOT currently suspended doesn't make you safe from suspension anytime in the near future, for NO apparent reason. I think all Sellers should strive to change the system now, rather than find themselves in my position sooner or later, which I guarantee you will happen if you are successful on Amazon. Quick google search will show you people with many employees, warehouses, and years in business left on the street by Amazon. Your false sense of security is actually detrimental in the long run...

Got to say I can't disagree with you alekov, with the amount you were selling and the amount of stock you have stuck in FBA, you gave got to at least have a go at going after them for it, and good luck to you, someone somewhere at some point HAS to say enough is enough with the way sellers are treated by Amazon and eBay and certainly looks like it's your time to go for it.

[Superfly101]

Gamefreak, thank you. We polished our appeal significantly
and made it very clear how we would prevent it from
re-occuring in the future. And they responded back:


Hello,

We appreciate the information you have provided. Please write back to us when you have implemented all of the remedies included in your plan-of-action.
We will then consider reinstatement of your selling priviledges at that
time.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Seller Performance Team

[user3657]

nice job buddy!! there is hope!

[Superfly101]

Thanks, unfortunately, we sent a proper appeal with the forms we created back to their last response and receive this same message as last time:

Thank you for writing about the recent blocking of your seller account.

As you know, your account was blocked because your items fit a set of criteria
that indicates they may be unauthorized by the intellectual property owners.

I have determined that the SP is useless, LOL. I sent them
a proper appeal clearly showing how we implemented our plan of action and
they just sent the same generic as you know response. Sounds like, once your suspended your pretty much done then they beat you up and shut
you down permanently. Bunch of bs.

[Superfly101]

Does anyone know what steps one would take to avoid selling counterfeit product that the SP team would accept?

[RosieTosie]

Originally Posted by Superfly101

Does anyone know what steps one would take to avoid selling counterfeit product that the SP team would accept?

Don't bye from the likes of Ali Express would be a tip if you don't want to sell counterfeit goods, although having said that it is almost impossible to avoid the number of accounts that are very clearly selling things bought from that exact same site!

[Superfly101]

Thank you. I know they have a lot of counterfeit products. But, is their an inventory review method? We have to resend another appeal to Seller Performance because they keep rejecting our appeals as we are not addressing the counterfeit inventory issue properly Seller Support said. We said we would buy inventory from the manufacturer directly, but I guess they want more details,

such as:

We will review the inventory we receive against the UPC code on the manufacturers invoice(s).

We will do search to ensure that we are buying the inventory from the original intellectual property holder.

They want to know how, we thought we explained it, but they keep writing us back, because we are not addressing it to their liking, apparently.

Any thoughts or any articles ?

[Superfly101]

While identifying a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ product can be difficult, to counter the counterfeiters, there are several steps shoppers should take before buying online:

Buy directly from the manufacturer or an authorized dealer to make sure you're getting the real thing.


Do some research to know what the authentic product looks like, sometimes, counterfeiters will alter the color, logo, or sell those ⊗⊗⊗⊗ ⊗⊗⊗⊗ manufacturers never made in the first place.


And, if a price of a new product online is way cheaper than retail, be cautious, it could be a ⊗⊗⊗⊗.

Any other methods to inventory check?

[Superfly101]

So, we sent another appeal in stating that we acknowledge our item was a knock-off after inspecting it and that we must only use credible sources in the USA only such as a wholesale distributor that is authorized by the manufacturer or the manufacturer directly.

Then, Amazon Seller Performance wrote back within 5 hours that we are permanently suspended and that they will no longer respond to any further contact from us, LOL. I don't think they even read the appeal letters!? We called Seller Support and the representative said wait another day and I have a case number and go ahead and resend your appeal and another representative from Seller Performance will review it.

Is Jeff's email an option? Sounds like they want a detailed account of the issues, you give them that, and then they just ban you because they don't want to be bothered reading it.

[Taking The Micky]

Firstly amazon are not holding your FBA inventory if your account is suspended. You can get that back with a few clicks and then wait your 90 days for your cash.
Secondly if you want to try and bring peoples accounts down, you are a nasty piece of ****.
Just get on with concentrating and using your energy on your own business.

[Superfly101]

Today we received another email:


Hello,

Thank you for your email regarding your seller account.

Jeff Bezos received your correspondence and asked that I respond on his behalf.

At this time; your account is under review. You should expect to hear from us within the next 3 business days when our review has been completed. We appreciate your patience in the interim.

Thank you for your interest in selling on Amazon.com.

Regards,

Seller Performance Team

[jeffweico]

First, to the OP: I really DO wish you luck. It does not seem like you intentionally sold counterfeit merchandise, but that it was a purchase from one supplier that went wrong. Some of the Phakes out there are very good - this could happen to anyone.

However, I don't see them re-instating your account unless you really ARE now purchasing directly from the manufacturer and Amazon can verify that. Writing to Jeff Bezo's email can help you to get a response, but it is not a guarantee that you will get the outcome you want.

I'm not tying to rain on your parade, it is just that I know how tough Amazon is on any sellers caught selling anything that is a counterfeit. But maybe if a few days you can report that you were reinstated. Again, I wish you luck.

TO THE OTHER PERSON WHO CHIMED IN ABOUT THE MEDIA: I can promise you that NO news organization, newspaper or television station is going to bash Amazon for having a system in place to detect sellers of counterfeit merchandise and putting a stop to it, even if some innocent sellers get hurt in the process. Is just is not going to happen. If anything, the general public would probably be pretty SUPPORTIVE of Amazon's efforts to root out the counterfeits.

Small sellers are the ONLY people who care about small sellers. We are not big enough for the business community or politicians to support and we are not small enough to generate much sympathy from the average person. Most people would just say "So what? Let them sell somewhere else". Seriously.

The fact is, most people are AGAINST counterfeits. And when they hear that Amazon is actively policing their site, it just gives them more confidence in Amazon and may even bring them some new business.

What you are attempting to do by taking down other innocent sellers is ridiculous and childish. Not every seller who has been accused of selling counterfeits by your friends will be banned. Some of those sellers may have longtime relationships with Amazon and Amazon may have confidence in their business practices.

But even if you SUCCEEDED, what then? Amazon is not going to restore your account. Their attitude is going to be "ban the whole kit and kaboodle!"

Unless I am missing something, this should really be two separate threads. One is where the OP made an innocent mistake and paid a high price for it. The other is a rant by someone openly selling counterfeits who is angry that Amazon kicked them off their system for selling counterfeits and is now out to get revenge by getting other sellers kicked off too, innocent or not.

[bogzaskp]

Superfly101,

That Jeff Benzo reply was like after 2 months of the e-mail you sent??

[GhostOfAmazon]

Originally Posted by Superfly101

Today we received another email:


Hello,

Thank you for your email regarding your seller account.

Jeff Bezos received your correspondence and asked that I respond on his behalf.

At this time; your account is under review. You should expect to hear from us within the next 3 business days when our review has been completed. We appreciate your patience in the interim.

Thank you for your interest in selling on Amazon.com.

Regards,

Seller Performance Team

What happened OP?

[Superfly101]

Yes. Thanks, jeffweico. Everyone, here is what happened exactly. It took months upon months!! We are doing stealth now but wanted to do our own brand and didn't want it to be logged in the data base so we kept fighting.

After the email we received from SP regarding to please write to them when we had implemented our plan-of-action. We wrote a follow up appeal showing how we implemented our plan-of-action and whoever read it at SP, did not even acknowledge it. We then received the dreaded kiss of death response; that no further correspondence would be answered and that they decided not to reinstate our selling priviledges, etc.

I wrote a very nice professional short message to Jeff Bezos and did not copy SP. No one responded for weeks. We started received advertising notices from Amazon and then we responded that we tried to fix our mistake and how our plan was denied, so if we selling was not an option then buying was not an option. For some reason, it got forwarded to the SP team, and then 2 weeks later we received the Jeff Bezos response. We just got reinstated last night at 2 in the morning.

Here is the response:

Hello,

Jeff Bezos asked me to investigate your account.

Thank you for agreeing to comply with our selling policies and providing a plan of action.

After a full review of your account and the information you have provided, we have decided to reinstate your selling privileges and removed the hold on the funds in your seller account.

Please note that if you do not comply with our policies in the future, we may permanently remove your selling privileges.

Welcome back to selling on Amazon.com.

Regards,

Seller Performance Team

[jeffweico]

OK, so you now have a second chance. The only thing is, you are most likely on a short leash. If the account has any further issues, ESPECIALLY any complaints of counterfeits, it will probably not last. If that happens, any further appeals will not do any good.

But congratulations, what you did was VERY difficult to pull off! Getting an account reinstated after they shut you down for potential counterfeits is VERY RARE!

I would go back to selling on this account but also create a couple of stealth accounts, just to be sure.

Good luck!

[Superfly101]

Thanks! I know, we got lucky. But I did write a very detailed plan-of-action it is different from what I posted to weed out counterfeits. Actually, we won't be using that account. I just wanted it reinstated so I could proceed with the stealth accounts and not have my brand banned in their database. My client in my rep biz has multiple accounts and sell the same items on them and he never has been linked. Their system must only truly link banned account info and not anything else. In my opinion, despite it being reinstated I'm sure its under some microscopic review, so for now, I'm not even touching it.