I recently had a run in the with the law.
OK, not the real law... but the AMAZON law.
I was recording a tutorial video for my Ryan's Method: Amazon FBA Course showing how to create product listings.
I ended up creating more than 1 of that product listings, resulting in a violation of Amazon's duplicate ASIN policy
Each year in Q3 they perform automated audits to "clean up" the Amazon catalog, and I was flagged in that sweep.
What's crazy is that even though Amazon makes 6-figures annually off me allowing me to sell on their platform, they determined that I should lose my selling privileges for having created duplicate product listings.
In retrospect, what I did was stupid... I should've deleted the listings.
But did it warrant a permanent suspension...?
Probably NOT!
Either way, I needed to come up with a solution... FAST. When I received the notification, I had over 6-figures tied up in Amazon inventory, so failure was not an option.
Email #1 | Amazon Notice: Policy Warning
This is what I received from Amazon via email:
Hello,
We are contacting you because you may have created product detail pages for items that already exist in our catalog.
Why did this happen?
Sellers are not allowed to create more than one detail page for the same product, which includes, but is not limited to:
-- Adding child products that are not true variations of the parent product.
-- Changing the parent product's detail page so it does not match the children.
How do I reinstate my listings?
If you believe our removal of your listings was an error, please reply reply directly to this email with invoices for these products demonstrating you have the complete, branded items in the conditions described on the detail page. External links are not accepted. For security reasons, we only accept attachments in the following file formats: .jpeg, .jpg, .pjpeg, .gif, .png, .tiff, .pdf, .txt, .csv.
We will review the invoices you provide.
To learn more about this policy, search for "Product Detail Page Rules" in Seller Central Help.
Please review your other listings in the Inventory section of Seller Central to make sure that they follow our policies (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/201186860).
-------------------------------------
Listings Removed
-------------------------------------
ASIN: [OMITTED] and [OMITTED]
Have your listings been removed in error?
If you believe there has been an error, please tell us why. Your explanation should include the following information:
-- How your account has not violated the listing abuse policy.
You can view your account performance (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/performance/dashboard?reftag=email_warn) or select Account Health on the home screen of the Amazon Seller app on your iOS or Android device. The Account Health dashboard shows how well your account is performing against the performance metrics and policies required to sell on Amazon.
-- iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amazon-Seller/id794141485
-- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.sellermobile.android&am...;hl=en
Sincerely,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
I won't even waste your time showing you my first attempt responding.
I didn't realize the severity initially, & I tried to blow them off with a very brief response...
Obviously, this is not what you want to do in this case.
Email #2 | Your Amazon.com Selling Account
Two days later, I received a (scary) follow up email from Amazon letting me know that this was a matter that needed to be taken seriously:
Hello,
We reviewed your account and the information you provided, and we have decided that you may not sell on Amazon.com.
Why did this happen?
The following listings violate our Duplicate Listings policies.
Here are some examples of your listings:
ASIN: [OMITTED] and [OMITTED]
We're here to help.
To learn more, search "Condition Guidelines" and "Prohibited Seller Activities and Actions" in Seller Central Help.
How do I reactivate my account?
-- Greater detail on the root cause(s) of duplicate asin creation policy violation violated.
What happens if I do not send the requested information?
We will review your account again in 7 days.
Please ship any open orders. This usually takes about 90 days, but funds may be held longer. Depending on your account status and activities, you may be required to complete an additional review before funds can be released. Amazon may withhold payments if we determine that your account was used to sell inauthentic or prohibited goods, commit fraud, or engage in other illegal or abusive activity.
You can see your balance and settlement information in the Payments section of Seller Central. If you have questions about those, please write to payments-funds@amazon.com.
You can view your account performance (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/performance/dashboard?reftag=email_appeal) or select Account Health on the home screen of the Amazon Seller app on your iOS or Android device. The Account Health dashboard shows how well your account is performing against the performance metrics and policies required to sell on Amazon.
First, I need to point out the laughable "We're here to help." part... they are NOT here to help in any way/shape/form, at all, whatsoever.
If you get in trouble with Amazon, you are on your own. Like I mentioned earlier - they make 6-figures off me annually & were quick to suspend me permanently over a simple (first time) duplicate ASIN violation.
I took my response more seriously this time (see below). For reference, * this did not work *
Thank you for hearing my appeal - below, I've done my best to go into greater detail while also being concise & respectful of your time.
Greater detail on the root cause(s) of the Duplicate ASINs violation
We created product detail pages for items that already existed in the Amazon catalog.
There was no malicious intent here - it was an honest mistake, that I've made only once in the ~30 months that I've had the pleasure of selling on Amazon.
This is not meant to be an excuse. For context, the mistake occurred because it was the first time creating a new product listing with a parent/multiple children relationship.
Our goal was to ensure that the product listing was created correctly per the Amazon policies & standards, and in creating a "practice" listing, we inadvertently violated the Duplicate ASIN creation policy (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html?itemID=201844590)
Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve Duplicate ASINs issues
1) As recommended, I've re-read the following resources for Amazon sellers:
- ASIN creation policy - https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html?itemID=201844590
- Condition guidelines - https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G200339950
- Prohibited seller activities and actions - https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G200386250
2) The duplicate ASINs that initially spurred this case were already merged, so the root cause has been addressed.
I've personally gone through my seller account to ensure that there are no remaining duplicate listings. Anything that maybe have been considered a duplicate has been either removed, or the Merch duplicate pages tool was used to fix it (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G201950590)
Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent Duplicate ASINs violation going forward.
1) In the future, we will never create a duplicate ASIN
2) We will never create a "practice" product listing ever again, nor will we violate the ASIN creation policy in any way.
3) If the product we are looking to sell already exists on the Amazon catalog, we will create an offer. Otherwise, we will create a new product listing, meet all criteria, & follow all Amazon guidelines to the fullest extent.
Thank you for your consideration - this will never happen again.
Again, this didn't work... but it was the best I could do given that I had no clue what format Amazon expected a response in.
Also, what I wrote was not necessarily the truth, but I thought it was a reasonably believable response.
Email #3 | (Uh-Oh)
Two days later I received a response from Amazon.
Unfortunately, that was my best attempt at writing an appeal... and it didn't work.
This was Amazon's response:
Hello,
We reviewed your account and the information you provided, and we have decided that you may not sell on Amazon.com.
Why did this happen?
The following listings violate our Duplicate Listings policies.
Here are some examples of your listings:
ASIN: [OMITTED] and [OMITTED]
We're here to help.
To learn more, search "Condition Guidelines" and "Prohibited Seller Activities and Actions" in Seller Central Help.
How do I reactivate my account?
-- Proof of product authenticity (e.g., invoice, Order ID or letter of authorization). It must clearly prove that your products you are listing are not duplicates of other products on the marketplace. Please send this information, any other documentation, and a list of impacted ASINS to listings-abuse@amazon.com.
OR
-- Greater detail on the root cause(s) of listing duplicate ASIN violated.
-- Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve listing duplicate ASIN issues.
-- Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent listing duplicate ASIN going forward.
-- Greater detail on how your account has complied with our policy.
-- Greater detail on evidence or examples that demonstrate that your account has complied with our policy.
What happens if I do not send the requested information?
We will review your account again in 7 days.
Please ship any open orders. This usually takes about 90 days, but funds may be held longer. Depending on your account status and activities, you may be required to complete an additional review before funds can be released. Amazon may withhold payments if we determine that your account was used to sell inauthentic or prohibited goods, commit fraud, or engage in other illegal or abusive activity.
You can see your balance and settlement information in the Payments section of Seller Central. If you have questions about those, please write to payments-funds@amazon.com.
You can view your account performance (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/performance/dashboard?reftag=email_appeal) or select Account Health on the home screen of the Amazon Seller app on your iOS or Android device. The Account Health dashboard shows how well your account is performing against the performance metrics and policies required to sell on Amazon.
I was losing confidence that I'd be able to solve this on my own.
I reached out to my friend Gary Huang for his advice, and he said that it's not uncommon for Amazon to screw sellers over like this.
He mentioned that there are websites that exist solely to help Amazon sellers get out of trouble like this.
I'm not going to share the one he sent me, because they charge $4,000 to write an appeal on your behalf ($5,000 if you need expedited service).
That's WAY TOO MUCH MONEY once you see how simple an appeal can be...
I actually had a phone call with them and considered paying it, given how much money I had tied up in inventory.
But first, I did my due diligence and looked into similar companies with more affordable rates.
After a few additional phone calls, I ended up agreeing to terms with a California-based Amazon agency: FountainHeadME
They provided expedited service that ended up "bailing me out" of this mess after only 2-3 phone calls.
Ultimately all I really had to do was create them a login to my Seller Central account & approve the hours to write the appeal.
In total, it cost me $318 billed @ $159/hr (2 hours)
Below is the valid plan of action they sent to Amazon on my behalf
Plan of Action
-- Greater detail on the root cause(s) of listing duplicate ASIN violated.
- We accidentally made new listing ASIN: [OMITTED] and [OMITTED] not knowing that we already had the same product listed in my inventory ([OMITTED], [OMITTED]).
-- Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve listing duplicate ASIN issues.
- I have already deleted the duplicate listings and made sure that there is no other duplicate listing on my inventory. We will continue to abide by amazon policies regarding the duplicate listings.
-- Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent listing duplicate ASIN going forward.
- We now have a dedicated Amazon account manager to review daily and monitor all the listings and to abide by amazon policy strictly.
-- Greater detail on how your account has complied with our policy.
- I have already deleted the duplicate listings and made sure that there is no other duplicate listing on my inventory.
- We have studied and read through your product listing policy to make sure that we can comply with Amazon's policy more efficiently.
-- Greater detail on evidence or examples that demonstrate that your account has complied with our policy.
- We have deleted the duplicated ASIN's from our inventory.
It's crazy that people who are desperate for help pay that other company $4,000+ for help writing such a simple plan.
The guy who runs the company is actually an ex-Amazon employee who works on the Seller Performance team, so he has knowledge that may not be made publicly available about how Amazon wants issues like this handled.
Fortunately, so does FountainHeadME, and I was able to save thousands by paying them for their help.
