Amazon, stop messing with 'my' listings
Every day, I find listing after listing that has been altered. I appreciate, no one ‘owns’ a listing, even brands in the normal sense on Amazon, but…
One day it suddenly says 100% recycled content (I didn’t add it, it’s not a field and I can’t change it).
The next day it says “Target Audience: Unisex-Babies” - despite me marking that field as irrelevant, it never gets removed and I didn’t set it in the 1st place.
The next day, you find your description altered to include content you never added.
It’s a wonder I sell anything with some of the nonsense they change/input.
And I am the only seller. Most are in Handmade, some regular. But as the maker and only supplier, I know I am the only one selling and will sell on those listings.
22 replies
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
TBH, I doubt that it’s actually Amazon making the changes.
It’s more likely, that someone is using file upload and amending your products in error.
That does seem to be the way that people are able to change listings.
But all you can really do, is to keep reporting it and changing things back.
Seller_PleS5UsuheGOV
Amazon’s ‘internal tools’, which I guess means algorithm, does seem to make random changes without any input on the listing from someone else. I have had the product description and product title changed before, sometimes in ways that are very misleading to the customers eg. changing the protein source on a protein powder.
Seller_YDtQChf7iSyyu
Amazon is changing something without notice or any information at all. Some of our listings that were ok for years suddenly went into “inventory error” (FBA inventory). We contacted support, but they were helpful as always ;). After days of trying to find a solution, we deleted all listings and, after 24h created, that solved one problem. Still, a week later, the parent item is uneditable with an error, “This SKU has an inconsistent product classification with the ASIN. Please submit a feed to update this SKU to match the ASIN product classification.” The listings are still active, but we cant edit the parent item.
I give up for now.
Seller_maMOyS1F2RGex
I don’t understand how it all works, but i have been trying unsuccessfully for the last few weeks to get Amazon to remove the completely irrelevant description they have put up on one of my products, which i am currently unable to sell until it has been corrected.
This is a follow on to me, according to another one of my products descriptions, of giving away a free necklace with every purchase!
Thankfully for me, on each correspondence seller support have regretted the inconvenience caused and do appreciate my patience and understanding.
Seller_tHi6zf8gbftSd
Same here, 2 of our listings, same brand the product discription is not displaying onthe product page. discription is in the listings but not displaying and only in the UK. EU marketplaces are fine. Have raised about 4 cases at this point and each time we get a different answer to each case. bonkers really.
Seller_xUKHc5xSYJmI4
We had the same issue. The listing was taken over by Amazon. All the product information was changed. We only had the last one in stock. We noticed someone added the item to basket but did not go to checkout leaving the order in pending status for 5 days and then cancelled the order.
I wonder if I can report this as a violation? 
Seller_YUakS29fOXogL
Did someone ever hear about a size called: “Size Name: 50 Count (Pack of 1)” on a variation?
Seller_xUKHc5xSYJmI4
Same issue with our own branded products they ended up in the wrong categories. Then the listing gets suppressed because we were asked to input where sticky labels applied to which part of the body. These labels were only 8mm in diameter. 45 to a page. We did not change any data but their systems did. After months of sending communications back on forth we gave with the product listing because it was driving us insane to try and get the matter resolved. Also have issues with the advertising. We registered for the advertising and associate setup all the products. Noticed that we were paying more for the advertising an we were actually turning over. So we tried to cancel the adverting, Amazon system prevented us from cancelling. It their attempt to resolve the issue they asked us to remove our firewall which has not relevance to the matter in question. We were asked to changed internet browser again has not relevance to the matter. All they had to do is talk to the advertising associate to remove what they had done. Well its been 3 months now and the saga still continues. We know from our own records it is very rare that someone will address and sort the matter out in one visit. The administration costs associated with a simple system issue gives you months of inconvenience. On top of everything else you have to deal with other matters such as their return policy which sends you on a goose chase. Also template responses which fails to address the matter. Passing the problem onto another associate and then another then another just frustrate anyone trying to resolve the issue.
Seller_lgnXYzmNEmTLy
Tell me about it.
Books put in the lingerie category for no reason, which we can’t change; books listed under the wrong category due to the title, which we can’t change; the wrong pictures on the page, which we can’t change; the wrong title/author, ditto. Amazon deleting listings because they’ve decided to sell it themselves under a new ISBN, and hit us with a policy violation on top of that. Amazon telling us our price is too high, though close to RRP, while big dealers without inventory list the same item for £700!
So angry I could throw the phone down.
Seller_vIpv9uvBH6CFY
Those would be the attribute bots. I’ve had plenty of run ins with them myself
There are some attributes that can only be changed on the manual item editing pages. Go to manual edit, If you can see the offending attribute on the form, simply put 0 in those sections and it will remove the attribute. (0 as in the number zero).
Others can only be changed on the ‘listing quality dashboard’. Others only via flat files. On listing quality dashboard, the 3 dots have a ‘does not apply option’. On the flat file, you would put 0 for the attribute.
Try all 3 methods. What I did notice, is they will sit for some time on your ‘listing quality dashboard’, and if you don’t get to them quick enough, the bots will do it for you and then it’s extremely difficult to remove.
I also found some work arounds for the especially difficult ones which just can’t seem to be changed, but these only work some of the time:
One way is if you have international listings, to delete your UK listing, go to the international site, manually edit, and add the ‘sell in other marketplaces’ for the UK. This will copy the international site’s attributes onto the UK site, which sometimes works in its own right, and sometimes it will just allow you to edit them via one of the 3 methods where it wouldn’t before.
Another one is to delete your uk listing, look it back up on ‘sell your item’, and try re-listing it that way. On rare occasions this will allow you to edit the attributes afterward.
And finally, you can try to guess what the attribute would be called in a flat file, and add that column to the file, and fill it with 0. It’s pretty hard to guess what the column should be called, but you might get lucky.
Have fun… this is going to take you forever and there will still be some left which just won’t budge, but it should clear off most of it at least.
