Inconsistent Child Variation
Hello,
Amazon asked me to write POA of Inconsistent Child Variations and i cannot seem to find any detailed information with that phrase. I have already submitted POA on child variations but I’m required to provide more details on the above.
I would greatly appreciate any help I could get.
Best,
Martra
6 replies
Seller_qYWBbVqeAGVy5
Basically it means that some or all of the child variations do not match the parent listing
I think when Amazon say “provide more details”, it actually just means improve. You can pretty much ignore what seller performance tell you after a failed submission, in my recent experience I think they just regurgitate very basic fail explanations that the appeal team write on the case notes, who probably don’t have the time to write in detail
I have some experience of this violation, if you post your POA, I may be able to give you some pointers
Seller_uzYcEx04X6UHy
Hi DallasKnight,
Thank you for your response. Please find my POA and Amazon’s initial email below. The initial reason Amazon gave me for suspension was the violation of ASIN Creation Policy, after I submitted the appeal they added Inconsistent Child Variation. Thanks a lot for your help!
Hello,
Your Amazon selling account has been deactivated. Your listings have been removed, and your ability to create new variations is disabled while your account is deactivated. Funds will not be transferred to you but will be held in your account while we work with you to address this issue. This could take up to 90 days. Please ship any open orders to avoid further impact to your account. The listing(s) below has been edited due to a violation of Amazon’s ASIN Creation policy.
Variations Corrected
Parent ASIN: [B084N8B2GD]
Abusive Children: [B088GTC2W3 B084287QJ1]
Parent ASIN: [B0898S6VQB]
Abusive Children: [B088P5JCJZ]
Parent ASIN: [B088SYLWNZ]
Abusive Children: [B087ZJG311 B08428JGHT]
Why is this happening?
You have misused ASIN variations repeatedly or impacted customer trust through the usage of incorrect variations. This is against our policies.
How do I reactivate my account?
To reactivate your selling account, please send a plan of action that explains:
– The root cause(s) of the variation policy violation.
– The actions you have taken to resolve the multiple misused variations on your account.
– The steps you have taken to prevent the misuse of variations going forward.
Dear Amazon Seller Performance Team,
I do apologise for breaching Amazon policies and I ensure you it wasn’t intentional. Thank you for making it possible for me to re-appeal my account suspension and I assure you I’ll do my best to do it up to your standards. I’d like to thank all the account team advisors for providing me with valuable advice and feedback. Please find my Plan of Action to resolve the issue with Amazon’s ASIN Creation policy below.
The root cause of the issue
The reasons why I unintentionally violated ASIN Creation Policy are:
*I have mistakenly created new ASINs for the products that I was already selling and that already had their ASINs when I was trying to add variations, creating ASIN duplicates. It was the violation of ASIN Creation Policy.
- Even though I contacted Seller Support Team to get advice I did not properly understand their guidance and created variations breaching Amazon’s policies.
It happened in all listed cases below:
Product 1:”2 Fitted Cot Sheets and 1 Waterproof Mattress Protector 120 x 60 cm’ relationship: different pattern
Parent ASIN: [B084N8B2GD]
Abusive Children: [B088GTC2W3 B084287QJ1]
Product 2: ‘Cot Bedding Set of 5’ relationship: different size and pattern
Parent ASIN: [B0898S6VQB]
Abusive Children: [B088P5JCJZ]
Product 3: Chicco Next2Me and Lullago Crib Fitted Sheets x2 + Waterproof Mattress Protector x1, relationship: different pattern
Parent ASIN: [B088SYLWNZ]
Abusive Children: [B087ZJG311 B08428JGHT]
- In the above cases I was trying to create a parent but I was mistakenly using already existing ASIN (B084N8B2GD, B088SYLWNZ, B0898S6VQB) and its specific description. Whereas the Variations Policy says that a parent is non-buyable and only used to create relationships between children (e.g. colour or size) and should not contain any specifics. Basically- I was using a child as a parent.
- To create my variations I was also incorrectly using Add a Product tool and violating Variations Policy:
- on the Vital info tab when creating a parent I was providing detailed information of one of children, instead of just using a general description that refers to all children.
- I also found out I was repeatedly creating the child-parent relationships between the same products, after they were out of stock and then re-stocked. I was providing different variations themes, using different phrases e.g. ‘grey’ and then ‘grey stars’ creating inconsistent child variations. This was Variation Policy violation.
The actions that you have taken to resolve the issue
*I contacted Account Team straight away to make sure I understand the issue correctly and to get guidance on its resolutions. I spoke to a very polite and patient advisor who explained to me what the root cause of my issue was (he explained duplicating ASINs and the need for general info for the parent)
*After thoroughly reading the policies (Variation Policy, Variation Help Page, Using the Add a Product Tool to Create Variations, Variation Relationships Overview) I realized I was incorrectly creating all my variations so I immediately have deleted all the incorrect products and listings to erase all faulty parent-child relationships
- I have consulted Seller Forums for better guidance and to better understand how to deal with my issues with creating variations; I posted relevant questions and received valuable replies.
- I have bookmarked relevant pages in Help section for future reference.
- I read several pages of guidance on how to create a valuable Plan Of Action on Seller’s Forum
- I have created separate folder on my PC copying all the useful information and advice I could find in Amazon knowledge base and Seller’s University.
- I created POA with great care and hope I can use it again should I need any guidance
The steps to prevent the issue going forward
As a preventive measure to ensure I adhere to ASIN Creation and Variations Policy, before I create a variation next time, I’ll make sure:
- If at any point I realize there are incorrect variations in my inventory I immediately delete any listings that are not following Amazon policies.
*I read and follow ASIN Creation Policy to avoid duplicating - I read and follow Variations Policy to create correct parent-child relationships (with relevant vital info and correct variation theme) and avoid creating inconsistent child variations.
- I use the Add a Product Tool to create my variations correctly by carefully reading and following each step listed. Points to remember:
- when creating a new variation listing by adding a product not sold on Amazon, I shall make sure I add general info in Vital Info tab for the parent, without any specifics
- I make sure I leave the Product Id field blank in a parent product to avoid creating duplicate ASIN
- In Variation Matrix, even though it’s not required, I add seller’s SKU and name it ‘parent’ to keep things clear
- I search for more knowledge in Help section and use bookmarked pages
*I use the useful info folder I created on my PC or consult Seller Support to make sure I’m doing the right thing.
I treat my business with Amazon very seriously and I greatly respect Amazon and shoppers as they put bread on my family’s table. I also enjoy the whole experience very much and would be very grateful for allowing me to continue selling with and for Amazon. I hope you find my POA valuable enough to re-instate my account as making it helped me a great deal and clarified the issues I didn’t understand properly.
Kind regards,
Marta Rebacz
Seller_qYWBbVqeAGVy5
Hello Marta
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I was so busy last week that I had forgotten I had replied to your post
Reading your POA, in my eyes I actually think it’s not too bad, but I think Amazon will see alot of unnecessary information and I also think they will want it be more concise
First of all I think you should remove irrelevant information such as the part about contacting the Account Team in the ‘actions you have taken’ part, also the part about consulting the seller forum and the part about getting guidance on how to create an POA, that is not relevant to the violation. In the same section I think you need to include more about how you identified and deleted violating listings
With regards to the actual violations, am I right in thinking that the ASIN’s in question are true variations? it’s just that the listings were set up wrong?
with the following B0898S6VQB, you mention that the variations differ by size and pattern, did you use the Size and Colour variation themes?
Also with the ASIN’s that they didn’t flag, is it the same type of issue? you don’t describe this