Forum

Advice on competitor!
 

I have a competitor who has hi-jacked a bunch of the same asins as me and is shipping out the same brand, but a cheaper/different version of the asin(hard drive).

He has been doing this for months and I have wrote Amazon on the buyer/seller side with no luck. I know this because one day he had a great "sale", and I purchased his few units. He sends an email saying he is out of stock, and he can send a different model for the same price........

I let it go a few months, I keep seeing feedbacks left about the issue and somehow he gets Amazon to remove them(FBM). After reviewing a bunch of his ASIN's he has his scam under the descriptions, that if he is out of stock he'll send a similar model. I forwarded all thse asins to Amazon and still no luck!

I decided to do another test buy, and this time he just sends the different product. I guess the cancellations were getting to him.

Im a pretty honest guy, and im fair but this guy is straight scamming people. Hes shipping out a 65$ drive as a $120 drive.

In order to get the buybox my margin is almost breaking even and its a waste.

I dont know what to do. Im thinking of writing Amazon AGAIN about the issue. I've communicated with the seller about a return and im really thinking of throwing the word ⊗⊗⊗⊗ in the next email...hoping Amazon will ask him for invoices.

Any advice?

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

I would totally collect evidence, screenshots of communication item details and etc. and try to prove that customer receives a different product not matching the description.
Amazon is pretty strict on quality so I don't see why they wouldn't react to such claims...

Maybe most of buyers are tech newbies and don't really care or realize that they're overpaying. Thus -- not leaving an adequate feedback. And amazon just sees this as a competitor "battle".

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

bump....

What to do??

Ive contacted Amazon again about this new test order both on the buyer/seller side and no luck. I received a reply from the buyer side stating if I feel my intellectual rights are abused, to file a complaint if I am the intellectual right holder. I wrote in the email the seller was not an authorized dealer so for this product there would be no warranty, seems like I just got a canned response....

After all this I feel like its impossible to get banned from Amazon. Maybe Im not writing my emails clear enough.

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

if you want amazon to listen to you, you have to be a buyer, not a seller ..

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

That says it all right there, Same with Ebay....They don't care for people snitching on each other, but if a customer complaints.....all hell breaks lose!

Report the Seller as a buyer and watch the wheels of justice turn rapidly.

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

few stealth buyer accounts and A-Zs will do the trick

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

you used to be able to pay for those services, not seen them around on the net after the reviews clean-up thing..........

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

Didn't OP say He actually bought a few of these items?
Wouldnt that mean he can complain as the buyer and not a seller on that situation? hopefully you were smart enough to use a stealth account to do the buying. If not open a few accounts just for buying purposes and to it that way - buy a single item on each and keep reporting them. As said above - they'll listen to a buyer's complaint.

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

report him and keep it moving. I wouldn't waste my money buying his products to leave negative feedback. makes no sense.

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

Interesting approach

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

Sounds like a matter for the police, or at least your local council. Fraud is fraud.

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

karma will bite you in the ass for it.

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

With a phrase like that, you need to back it up with a good picture.

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

is is wise to use same stealth seller account as a buyer? or create a new account with buyer only..plus fresh ip and vm ware?

also any guides on buyer accounts?

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

I had a similar thing happen to me before, on a product that I had registered with the US Patent office. Amazon refused to do anything about it even after I provided them with the Patent number and etc.. They suggested I place orders and file "materially different" case once I document what I receive. Unfortunately I had previously sent Cease and Desist letters using the same Amazon account, since I knew that Amazon doesn't allow us to have more than one account and assumed that they are reading/tracking all correspondence. If they wanted me to provide documentation of the materially different orders, they would've seen that I was using different accounts to order. Needless to say, the other Seller knew right away what I was doing as they saw same company name ordering the item as the one on the Cease and Desist letters, and refused to sent me the orders. They cancelled as "suspicious orders" and sent me a letter telling me that they had "notified amazon of the suspicious orders". I contacted Amazon and explained that they are refusing to fulfill any orders from me and continue to infringe on my products, Amazon still didn't care. They actually suggested I use "other" accounts to place the orders. Very strange, since I didn't think we could have "other" accounts... In either case, as per their suggestion, it's probably better to use other accounts to place the orders and simply tell amazon that those are "friends and family" accounts if they ask.

What form are you filling out when you are complaining? There is a form on Amazon that is automatic infringement reporting form that I found works the best. It allows you to put the ASIN numbers and it automatically brings up the product that you are reporting, and the Sellers selling it, and gives you the ability to just place a checkmark next to the Sellers that you haven't authorized to sell it. Don't have the web address for it right now but I think it comes up if you google it or search on Amazon..

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

Ok so this guy is back doing the same thing on another listing I have....
I finally managed to get him kicked off the original listing by using ⊗⊗⊗⊗ in emails that amazon caught....

I have about 150 of these drives and this scumbag is high jacking this listing by selling another hard drive that costs $70 and then selling them at $130.

Im scared to do another test by as he might catch on. Is it easy to setup Amazon buyer accounts? I dont even care if I am out the money, as long as I get him off the listings.

Amazon makes it so easy for scammers to sell its sick. All it will take is one manual review by Amazon to see all the messages and return reasons he gets and they will catch on. I thought he was done at one point because his feedback was below 80%

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

You can get people off listings with bogus buyer accounts and false A-Z claims. A lot of sellers are dumb and will just instantly refund when they get the A-Z claim for a small item, not realizing that by doing so their metrics are getting hammered.

Do it in any way that links to your seller account though, and it won't be pleasant.

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

Amazon wont do anything without test buys. I read through the rest of the thread and saw you got him kicked off one of the other listings. Are these products noticeably different or it is a space type thing? What I would do is get the info about the one you are selling. Do a test buy, and get the info on the one he is selling, and report the differences to amazon, then also cite that you have had this issue with the same seller. If he MFs them there isnt much he can catch on to. Yeah he can see that you ordered it, and he could cancel it if he is MF but that hurts his metrics, he can only do that so many times. You should be solid if he tries anything against you because you are selling the same product that is on the listing.

Re: Advice on competitor!
 

Amazon is a POS. Even after a test buy on this new asin, and reporting him, they send back generic response stating they need more info, like order info and if i am the right owner and to create a new report! This is the same BS I got last time until I got fed up and just used the word ⊗⊗⊗⊗ in an email to the seller to get him kicked off the asin.

I dont think its a good idea to open ⊗⊗⊗⊗ accounts if they all go to the same state, he might catch on.

The only other thing I can think of is when I go on vac in a few weeks create a new account and get it sent to the hotel.. And file A-Z with the word ⊗⊗⊗⊗. Do prepaid cards work on buyer accounts?