Thinking of giving up after 3 years
We have been selling on Amazon for over 3 years. We did everything properly as professional sellers; set up LTD Company, Carefully selected products ( Baby products ), got our Brand registered with Brand Registry. We ONLY sell products manufactured under our own brand etc.
All our products have high ratings 4.5 - 4.9. Amazon must have liked us, because they offer us in excess of £ 40,000 in Amazon loans !!!
Suddenly the listing of one of our products is removed. ( It had 4.8 ratings, and NO customer complaints to ourselves. Over 1300 units sold FBA ) I think it could be a competitor that fabricated a complaint, and went to Amazon direct?
E mail from Amazon states;
Please supply; Cert of Conformity, test reports, photo’s of labelling etc. etc.
We decided to get the product tested with one of the worlds largest testing facilities Pony Int. at the cost of £ 600. Test reports come back all positive. A big PASS under the current regulations for baby products in UK and EU.
We forward all the required info to Seller Support…only to be rejected. Appealed 5 times, and keep asking what other info they require. No joy. Support refuses to give any reasons, as usual. This while many similar, mostly untested products remain on sale.
Profit margins a low on Amazon, but worthwhile…until now. Writing off thousands of pounds on stock just makes this business almost non-profitable. Thinking of winding it all down.
Anybody similar experiences?
0 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
It’s probably not a complaint - its a standard requirement for baby items
When you say ‘decided to get it tested’, was that before or after amazon requested it and therefore are the reports dated prior to you listing the stock ?
Does the product - and all your products - now have CE mark, UKCA mark, DoC docs as well as a representative address in UK and EU ?
Seller_mMzyYZHz9Qm3j
Hi, we got it tested after Amazon withdrew the listing. We also submitted photo’s of all sides of the new packaging, showing CE marking, with instruction leaflet. Certificate of Conformity backing up the test reports. We gave ourselves as representatives in UK, ( we don’t sell in EU anymore ) as we get the products manufactured ourselves under our own Brand. We told them that the photo’s of the packaging are of the new packaging ordered by us to repack existing stocks. IF any other required markings are missing, I presume they would just tell us to add them?
It is not standard practice to require certification for baby products before they are allowed on the Amazon site. From all the baby dummy clips currently for sale on Amazon, only 2 state they are manufactured to the required uk standard, but none of them states their product is tested.
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
I can’t find them either on Google - where are they based ?
Seller_58y2FhNkywdyp
sell on ebay or set up your own web site, the savings on amazon fees will easily pay for google advertising of your product.
look at it like this, amazon have closed the door on this item but if you have a good stock of it then this could be a godsend of how to expand your business for the future.
Seller_po1g2TPO2uIiR
Hi,
I had same problem with over 100 ASINs. I finally managed to get all of them reinstated. You need to make sure your products and labelling meets their requirements and then apply and reapply. They have automated system that just rejects your requests. You just need to reply and ask them to forward to related team. In my case it was required to be considered by product safety team so I asked seller support to forward it to relevant team. Seller support can reject your documents but you should just reply and ask them to send to relevant team. There will finally be someone who will forward it to relevant team. Once forwarded you may need to submit same documents a few times by replying to the case. There will finally be a day that you wake up and see automated system has forwarded your request to relevant team. You may be rejected by relevant team a few times but there will finally be someone who will look into your case and approves it or asks you to provide additional documents. This is how it works really based on several requests I sent. Try to submit your request on Monday early morning. You will have a better chance to get a human to look into your case and that will reduce number of time you need to go back and forward with them. I can tell you that in all 100 cases they finally approved same documents I submitted with my first message. Just try and try and check if you supplied correct docs.
Seller_lgtLWkBHXkTlR
I think you are answering your own questions
High turnover with low profits and very little control dealing with a meglamaniac company who has no concern for you and keeps the sword of damacles above your head
We only stay with amazon now because on the few products we have left with them we have high profit margins and dispatch ourselves so keep control - that said we have reduced our dependance on amazon so that with the slightest provocation we will leave with not too much impact
Amazon is becoming more and more the realm of the chinese sellers who can produce documentation in house, stack it high and sell it cheap and get their mates to give good reviews for awful products (obviously that is not all chinese companies but they have the size and clout to do that if they wish)
You sound like you are better than that 
Seller_ExkX6IN03C3IM
You put a product on the market that should not have even been allowed without proper testing and labelling.
Seller_qYWBbVqeAGVy5
Amazon is not the only place to sell stuff you know
Seller_x1xMSBwZsJrTE
Write to the MD, ask them why they keep rejecting your product when other untested product are still on sale. Tell them that if they don’t look into your case then you will go to the press and expose them for selling untest baby products while rejecting others that pass safety tests.
There’s nothing like ‘selling untested baby products’ hitting the headlines to destory customer confidence in a company.
If your going to throw the towel in anyway, what have you got to lose? What are they going to do? Throw you off a site you’re probably going to leave anyway?
Seller_x1xMSBwZsJrTE
Yes, this is usually my busiest time of year but no sales today.
I can’t see how I can continue if it’s like this at the busy time.
I was badly hit by Amazon drastically reducing the amount of stock I could send. It wasn’t much to begin with but the limits were unworkable to sustain a business and Amazon were completely inflexible, even over a handful of extra units.
I’ve also been very badly hit by Chinese sellers constantly changing my listings, all with Amazon’s blessing. I’ve had brand names changed, titles changed, bullet points completely removed, descriptions completely removed, and on, and on.
It’s my own bespoke product which I don’t sell to anyone else, so these sellers don’t sell it, have never sold it, and don’t appear to have any intention to sell it (not that they could anyway). Yet they are allowed to mess up my listings whenever and however they wish at the drop of a hat. But when I ask Amazon to change them back to how they’ve been for the last six years, Amazon expect me to jump through riddiculous hoops and provide all sorts of evidence that I am the brand owner and manufacturer. Strangely, they never ask them.
Even if you do manage to convince Amazon to change thngs back, another Chinese seller comes along and messes something else up and the whole charade starts all over again.
I’ve had enough of this nonsense and if the sales aren’t coming it’s just not worth it anymore.
