Amazon Sellers Compliance issue #15 – by Ed Rosenberg

This is a continuation of an ongoing series of Amazon Seller Performance Related information.

The goal of these articles is to try our best to avoid compliance issues and best deal with them when we do get into trouble.

1. HMRC has been forcing Amazon to suspend sellers even after they submit a VAT# if they do not back pay what’s owed for years past. It’s virtually impossible to sell in the UK now without a valid VAT#.

2. “You may no longer sell on Amazon.com because you have supplied documentation to Amazon which appears to be forged or manipulated. “Amazon seems to have become more aggressive at verifying if an invoice or document is doctored. If you need an invoice revised to meet Amazon guidelines, you must ask the supplier to revise and reissue a revised invoice in their system. Amazon will call and verify that the invoice is as the supplier has issued.

3. “You submitted an invalid infringement complaint ……. This is against our policies.” This can happen in a few ways. It’s not advisable for any seller to enforce any brand IP with his seller account.

4. Amazon has suspended 1000s of sellers for review manipulation this past month. “Violations of our policies may also violate state and federal laws, including the Federal Trade Commission Act. Amazon strives to maintain customer trust and provide the best possible shopping experience. As a result, we will investigate when we learn that sellers, vendors, or others have attempted to manipulate reviews. This includes offers of compensation in exchange for reviews.” There is no question that the target was groups that offered compensation outside of the Amazon platform.” (refunding through PayPal). I do not think they were targeting specific groups, but used software similar to Fake spot to identify fake reviews. Sellers are being asked to provide specific information on how they obtained the reviews. Amazon will likely use the info sellers will provide to remove many more reviews and possibly suspend many more sellers.

5. ASIN misuse variation – You generally cannot create a two pack if the company does not sell the item that way. For example, if you pack 2 HP toners and call that a variation, you will probably get caught for variation misuse eventually.

6. If you buy batteries in bulk and package them, you need to at a minimum clarify on the listing that item does not come in full retail packaging. There seems to be some kind of a crackdown on that.

7. “Your listings have been removed from our site. We arrived at this decision because we were unable to verify information related to your seller account, including your selling history and listings. “It can be that the country your logging into or items you’re selling (if they are high risk) or any combination of these. This happens if you’re considered a risky seller, for a variety of reasons. And is hard to come back from. This can happen if you created your account in Israel.

8. SP is making phone calls to suspended sellers much more regularly. Although those calling are not the actual decision makers, they are (somewhat) helpful. There are other initiatives planned within Amazon

9. If SP says you listed a generic item against a branded page, send them invoices that clearly show the brand name on the description on the invoice. The first word of the description of the item should be the brand. It’s also wise to submit photos of the item with UPC showing the item is real.

10. When sending in inauthentic invoices, check if the company’s address on the invoice matches the address online. If the address on the invoices is different that when what’s available online, an explanation should be included. For example, some suppliers use PO box as the address on the invoice.

Ed Rosenberg (to join ASGTG Sellers Group email [email protected] / asgtg.com)

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