OPEN LETTER TO AMAZON
Open Letter to Amazon
Firstly, I want to acknowledge the tremendous and historic opportunity Amazon has given me over these last eight years. I have been able to support my family, for which I am forever grateful. TG.
Recently, Amazon has been targeting long-time sellers, mainly resellers (sellers trading brands). These sellers are prompted to attend a video meeting where they are asked to provide the chain of custody for certain items to prove they are "suitable" (a euphemism Amazon uses for either stolen or suspect items, though no one really knows).
Even after providing the requested documentation, often after months of waiting and not knowing if Amazon will shut down their account, Amazon arbitrarily decides whether the seller can continue selling or not. They usually respond that they cannot verify the supplier and, under Section 3, they deactivate the seller's account (Deactivating an account includes seizing all the goods and funds.) because they provided documents from an "unverifiable supplier."
People who have been selling for many years, trying to eke out an honest living, find themselves seemingly at the whims of an algorithm. They wake up one day and find they are out of business, with all their money and inventory held. They have to fire their employees, they can't pay their vendors, they can't pay their loans, and they have inventory that cannot be sold. Then it impacts their personal lives: mortgages can't be paid, bills are delinquent, and their lives are ruined. Many years of work are eradicated in a moment, with no one to speak to. When calling Amazon help, often well-meaning employees are powerless to assist as it is beyond their scope.
This has put third-party sellers who have not been affected yet in a bind. If they buy from an "unverified supplier," they risk having their account deactivated, with money and inventory held. This essentially kills their business, which many people rely on.
Here are a few takeaways:
1. Firstly, it’s incumbent on Amazon to define a verified supplier.
2. I assume that Amazon is rightfully trying to weed out the bad actors. If that is the case, and amazon suspect one of our products comes from an ill-gotten source, we are happy to work with Amazon and the authorities to find the culprits. As opposed to ambiguously suspecting us to be the bad actor and holding my funds and inventory indefinitely.
3. In most cases, obtaining a supply chain is nearly impossible, mainly because the supplier risks losing business by divulging their source. Moreover, they are not legally obligated to provide their source. Just because a seller cannot prove the provenance of an item past two hands, does not mean it is not suitable.
4. Manufacture Malpractice; What also seems to be happening, even after providing documentation, is that manufacturers won't corroborate that these sellers are authorized because they are not on their list of authorized vendors. Moreover, we believe that manufacturers, in an effort to control prices, have weaponized Amazon’s policy by complaining to Amazon that the sellers which are competing on price, are bad actors who purchased from ill-
gotten sources. Even though there is zero evidence. This does not mean that the goods are stolen; it just means the manufacturers are unhappy. 5. If amazon has changed its policy, and wants to eliminate third-party sellers and have only authorized distributors or/and direct manufacturers on their platform, tell us! That way, we can part ways instead of luring more unsuspecting sellers into essentially a trap by allowing them to sell, build cash and inventory, and then one day turn off the spigot.
6. If this is the case and the deal market/third-party sellers are over, please make an official announcement with ample time for us to part ways amicably, with our money and inventory, so we can move on from Amazon, as opposed to holding our inventory and slowly depleting the funds left in Amazon by charging for storage, etc.
I speak for many long-time sellers affected by this latest purge, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales. Many of them have had their lives and livelihoods ruined by what seems to be an overcorrection. We are essentially victims of the bad actors, being cast in a broad net with them.
We would all love to continue selling on Amazon, and ultimately I believe Amazon and third-party sellers' interests are aligned. We want to work with Amazon to root out the bad actors and sources so we can clean up the marketplace.
In conclusion, we urge Amazon to work collaboratively with its sellers to establish clear guidelines and transparent processes. By doing so, we can protect both the integrity of the marketplace and the livelihoods of those who depend on it. Together, we can ensure that Amazon remains a trusted and vibrant platform for all.
OPEN LETTER TO AMAZON
Open Letter to Amazon
Firstly, I want to acknowledge the tremendous and historic opportunity Amazon has given me over these last eight years. I have been able to support my family, for which I am forever grateful. TG.
Recently, Amazon has been targeting long-time sellers, mainly resellers (sellers trading brands). These sellers are prompted to attend a video meeting where they are asked to provide the chain of custody for certain items to prove they are "suitable" (a euphemism Amazon uses for either stolen or suspect items, though no one really knows).
Even after providing the requested documentation, often after months of waiting and not knowing if Amazon will shut down their account, Amazon arbitrarily decides whether the seller can continue selling or not. They usually respond that they cannot verify the supplier and, under Section 3, they deactivate the seller's account (Deactivating an account includes seizing all the goods and funds.) because they provided documents from an "unverifiable supplier."
People who have been selling for many years, trying to eke out an honest living, find themselves seemingly at the whims of an algorithm. They wake up one day and find they are out of business, with all their money and inventory held. They have to fire their employees, they can't pay their vendors, they can't pay their loans, and they have inventory that cannot be sold. Then it impacts their personal lives: mortgages can't be paid, bills are delinquent, and their lives are ruined. Many years of work are eradicated in a moment, with no one to speak to. When calling Amazon help, often well-meaning employees are powerless to assist as it is beyond their scope.
This has put third-party sellers who have not been affected yet in a bind. If they buy from an "unverified supplier," they risk having their account deactivated, with money and inventory held. This essentially kills their business, which many people rely on.
Here are a few takeaways:
1. Firstly, it’s incumbent on Amazon to define a verified supplier.
2. I assume that Amazon is rightfully trying to weed out the bad actors. If that is the case, and amazon suspect one of our products comes from an ill-gotten source, we are happy to work with Amazon and the authorities to find the culprits. As opposed to ambiguously suspecting us to be the bad actor and holding my funds and inventory indefinitely.
3. In most cases, obtaining a supply chain is nearly impossible, mainly because the supplier risks losing business by divulging their source. Moreover, they are not legally obligated to provide their source. Just because a seller cannot prove the provenance of an item past two hands, does not mean it is not suitable.
4. Manufacture Malpractice; What also seems to be happening, even after providing documentation, is that manufacturers won't corroborate that these sellers are authorized because they are not on their list of authorized vendors. Moreover, we believe that manufacturers, in an effort to control prices, have weaponized Amazon’s policy by complaining to Amazon that the sellers which are competing on price, are bad actors who purchased from ill-
gotten sources. Even though there is zero evidence. This does not mean that the goods are stolen; it just means the manufacturers are unhappy. 5. If amazon has changed its policy, and wants to eliminate third-party sellers and have only authorized distributors or/and direct manufacturers on their platform, tell us! That way, we can part ways instead of luring more unsuspecting sellers into essentially a trap by allowing them to sell, build cash and inventory, and then one day turn off the spigot.
6. If this is the case and the deal market/third-party sellers are over, please make an official announcement with ample time for us to part ways amicably, with our money and inventory, so we can move on from Amazon, as opposed to holding our inventory and slowly depleting the funds left in Amazon by charging for storage, etc.
I speak for many long-time sellers affected by this latest purge, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales. Many of them have had their lives and livelihoods ruined by what seems to be an overcorrection. We are essentially victims of the bad actors, being cast in a broad net with them.
We would all love to continue selling on Amazon, and ultimately I believe Amazon and third-party sellers' interests are aligned. We want to work with Amazon to root out the bad actors and sources so we can clean up the marketplace.
In conclusion, we urge Amazon to work collaboratively with its sellers to establish clear guidelines and transparent processes. By doing so, we can protect both the integrity of the marketplace and the livelihoods of those who depend on it. Together, we can ensure that Amazon remains a trusted and vibrant platform for all.
71 odpowiedzi
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
I'm definitely not non existent. Why, is reading and understanding all the policies and rules I agreed to when I signed up to sell on Amazon not a good idea?:
It doesn't matter, policy is policy. You agreed to it.
What do you mean? Of course you can! That's the only way to do it properly. You contact the brand owner, and they authorize you as a reseller and then they direct you to their best authorized wholesale distributor to meet your needs in your area.
They are, if they are a brand authorized wholesale distributor. Any supplier that can not provide that documentation straight to the brand owner is a grey market supplier.
Yes
Yes
No, you signed a business solutions agreement.
Then do it! You'll have way more success and then you don't have to worry about or lose sleep about any of your concerns you posted here!
then do it! See if the executive seller relations team will listen (jeff@amazon.com)
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
this is your store under the name you are writing.
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=merchant-items&me=A13WNJJIX1IQHH
I don't have any brand authorization to sell our brands from that store that you linked in the US marketplace as a Canadian seller, as brand owners have already granted them to US Sellers and there is no reason for a Canadian business to have reseller rights from brand owners to sell in the USA. I use my Canadian Primary store account to post on Amazon seller forums as it is my primary account and there is no reason to use 2 different forum accounts here.
You would have noticed this if you looked at the URL in the screenshots I posted above, but it seems like you missed that.
I have a separate business and account for items sold in the US marketplace not linked to that store URL as we keep our Canadian and US business operations separate due to brand licensing rules and for tax reasons.
As you will have probably also seen here, Amazon seller accounts are getting holds placed on their payments from using the same account in different marketplaces if an issue arises in a separate marketplace, it affects a payment hold on your whole account, not just the respective marketplace.
That's actually the rules. You do have to have a wholesaler invoice of a brand verifiable supplier of minimum 10 units to ungate brands and certain items.
Amazon does not have the time to have a human approve an invoice for each listing you want to sell, so generally it's one invoice per brand/ or category if Amazon trusts that you are following the rules you agreed to.
I don't have any inside knowledge, it's all public information on these forums and discussed on social media seller facebook groups, discords, etc. as well as Amazon's Seller University videos and articles.
It can, but not as "brand new" condition.
Best Buy is a retailer, not a wholesaler.
There isn't any way possible that you'd be able to meet Amazon's competitive price rules and make money by purchasing an item from a retailer like best buy, once amazon factors in commission and selling fees and your shipping fee.
You're expected to sell at the same price on Amazon as other retailers like best buy, so you would have to purchase wholesale at 30-40% cheaper than retail to be able to meet Amazon's competitive marketplace pricing rules.
You'll have to contact seller support to do that. I do not work for Amazon.
If that gets you no where, all i can suggest to you is to open up a new forum thread here in the forums with your failed CASE ID's referenced and perhaps a forum moderator may be able to help you out. There are several friendly forum moderators that are happy to help out and escalate if they can.
You could also try emailing the executive selling relations team and cite your failed case numbers there too, but you have to have stone cold hard proof before they will respond to you, and if you abuse it, you lose it.
Seller_FD1X8lFBgSdAY
Supported and written very well
Seller_EhfgFhfsOh8gF
AMAZON: Issues like these are what have kept us from investing more in our Amazon business over the last 6 years.
Every time I think about growing our Amazon business I see some nightmare story about losing or almost losing a valuable account, inventory and, money due to things like IP issues or section 3 issues or something similar. Often these account owners sight having good extensive track records and having what they thought was good documentation but, nothing ever seems to be good enough.
Everything is all on us with zero real help from Amazon. We take all the risk, all the liability, all the burden of proof, all the loss and Amazon provides sellers with nothing but fake seller support and no answers.
A good example is a counterfeit without a test buy claim. How could someone making that claim possibly know if an item is a counterfeit or not if they haven't even purchased the item? And yet the burden of proof is on the seller. Even if that seller has perfect account health, 100% positive feedback, no other issues for 8 years, pictures, invoice, etc. its not enough. If that invoice is missing one word Amazon will say "nope sorry your out we are taking all your inventory and money bye".
Amazon has an army of lawyers, why not use them to set up a place where sellers can safely sell products that they purchased to sell to delight customers without getting seam-rolled. Why can't sellers just sell products in the land of the free?
Throw us a bone.
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
Amazon already has a whitelist for many brands, but there are a lot of brands that aren't registered with Amazon and do not have the ability to give Amazon this information, or have someone at the brand that can continuously update Amazon with this information
As long as you've contacted the brand and buying from where they say you should be buying from, then when Amazon contacts the brand for verification, your supplier will be approved by the brand when Amazon contacts them for verification.
Amazon doesn't contact your supplier for verification, they contact the brand owner and make sure that your supplier is verified.
Amazon themselves re-lists returns as Amazon warehouse deals in used condition.
Best buy ain't giving you a wholesaler invoice with all your business info on it.
The problem with receipts and buying retail, is well, any seller can just go in and buy something and then provide amazon with the receipt, and then return the items.
Also, Best Buy is a competitor to Amazon. They aren't going to have a team to work with Amazon to verify all third party sellers receipts. LOL they aren't going to work with Amazon at all to verify anything as they are Amazon's competitor.
You can try emailing the executive selling relations team, or attend the Amazon webinars, or go in person to the Accelerate events in Seattle. Do you not have an Amazon account rep? Most business professional sellers get them automatically once they reach a certain threshold. The account reps are kinda useless with support but they do have some extra internal escalation pathways for certain issues.
Seller_lo3gKtsoiSWzz
So, bottom line, you clearly seem to have some inside knowledge of Amazon's new direction (I hope you're wrong). Amazon is effectively killing third-party resellers.
(PS: Those screenshots are meaningless; you can find them with a quick Google search. Again, a moot point. I just hope some important people at Amazon are reading this so they can get real-life feedback from sellers.)
I gave you a bunch of examples of ways one can buy goods legitimately—which will be difficult to trace back to the manufacturer. You're getting hung up on Best Buy, but there are many retailers looking to liquidate, which is a perfectly legitimate and legal form of business. Just not brand authorized. It is 100 percent legal. This is the space where legitimate sellers like myself operate. We have been selling on Amazon for years with an excellent track record. Brands do not like us because we do not adhere to MAP. That doesn’t make us bad actors who need to be shut down.
In your first response, you tell me to view it through the lens of the brands. I tell you to look at it through our lens. On the opportunity/deal end, we also fly to shows, build our network, etc. We actually serve a vital part of the business. Where do you think the brands sell their overstock, excess, and end-of-life products? To guys like us. We spend millions taking risks buying this inventory. When we provide invoices, Amazon says it's from an unverifiable supplier. They hold our money and inventory. If your reaction is, "Well, you signed up for this," either you are heartless, a bot, or a hired gun.
So if Amazon doesn’t want us in the business anymore, and they only want brand-authorized sellers, effectively killing this market, let us bow out intact. I personally do not think Amazon is taking this position; I think it’s an overcorrection. Hence my responses to you. (I'm hoping they read it.)
There are many ideas on how to overcome this hurdle. one idea is creating a database of verified suppliers and pre-approved wholesalers, so we can buy with confidence.
Amazon, if you’re reading this, I have more ideas like these.
I actually have ideas and would love a meeting (I have done tens of millions in sales and I’m in a network of sellers representing hundreds of millions annually), so I know a thing or two about how this space works. So whoever you are, please pass this up the chain for them to reach out to me.
Seller_8sP6ffckcRn6v
Absolutely 100 percent legal. That does not mean that Amazon has to allow you to sell those merchandise on their platform.
It does look like they are going in that direction.
They way they act lately, it looks like they are taking this position.
I agree. They should be more transparent and clarify their position.
The sad truth is that they do not care.
Seller_roNdLQpqbVoOH
Amazon has been getting "real-life feedback from sellers" for years, on all manner of ongoing issues, including this one. There is constant feedback on these (and previous) forums, and Amazon is indifferently aware of it.
Has anything changed (for the better) for sellers?
What makes you think anything will? Do you know how many "Open Letters to Amazon" have been posted over time?
Amazon has chosen its path. So unless what you want aligns with what Amazon wants, nothing will change. Amazon is not going back to meaningful human support. The machines are here to stay. And they will eventually push even us booksellers of two-decades-plus out the door.
It still saddens me, though, to see sellers pour out their hearts like this to an entity that has no capacity to care. You are, in effect, talking to no one but other sellers here. Mods may try to "empathize," but the issues are of no concern to anyone higher up.
Unfortunately, this may be your ultimate answer.
Seller_W6vNnb9Dv4v3c
J Part---It is a good thing the rules you quote were not in place when Jeff started the business. Jeff would have had to put himself OUT OF BUSINESS! He sold Used books and Used VHS Tapes back then. He had NO Documentation. He had NO Brand Certification. He had NOTHING! This discussion just shows how Lawyers can RUIN something good, and Amazon has way too many lawyers. I believe his partner back then, his Real Wife, played the role of lawyer back then.
By the way, you know way too much how Amazon works now. There is something that is BAD about that! Just My Opinion!
Seller_HRcJa1gdGHeov
OMG, nail hammer; this is unfortunately very accurate and happens all the time. Amazon's archaic invoicing policy and reliance on bots to authenticate them is absurd and is creating mass chaos and destroying small businesses at a rate that is rather alarming.
Amazon arbitrarily decides if they will accept valid invoices and suppliers, their methods and criteria are a black box.
Unfortunately I no longer agree with this statement; Amazon has known about the issues you brought up for awhile and continues to act in bad faith; often times doubling to tripling down on the policies that are causing the problems. Amazon is a cash machine and only really cares about continuing the steady flow of profits for itself; the time for 3rd party sellers on this platform is closing, there are other markets that actually respect and work with us.
Seller_HRcJa1gdGHeov
Amazon customers want new, genuine supply chain items! They don't want items that have changed hands a few times before they buy it if they're paying full Amazon price!
This is just a completely arbitrary opinion based statement with absolutely no facts to back it up. Amazon is literally flooded with product that does not fit your interpretation of an acceptable supply chain (albeit based upon Amazon's stated criteria); used books, 15 year old out of print Lego sets, discontinue toys, ..... None of these have an invoice dated within the last 6 months from a valid wholesaler; yet they are all for sale on Amazon. I would wager that 90% of Amazon's catalog does not meet their current invoicing criteria. The hypocrisy of Amazon's supply chain criteria is what gets me; either take all the stuff off that does not meet it (and take the sales hit) or come up with a better way to authenticate goods and sellers on the site.
Seller_XKrRcjpW7oAWE
This is definitely going on reddit.
Seller_W1w4IAbSKp9ki
I'm going through the same issue :(
