Ridiculous Policy Violation & Refusal to Remove It
OK, I get it. Amazon’s word is Law and plebian sellers shalt not question it…
We now have a Policy Compliance warning and experience shows that it’s important to clear these as sometimes, you may inadvertently contravene a policy, especially if you are handling many thousands of SKUs; so when one comes in that is in error, why take the hit unfairly?
But the appeal process isn’t really an appeal process is it?
Warning received yesterday - “Changing the product’s detail page to become fundamentally different from the original product listed” and in particular “Image Tampering”. Yes, that would be a serious contravention…
We use M2EPro and feed product data to Amazon, and we are careful to use product images that comply with Amazon’s requirements as these are also best practise for our website and our Google PPC campaigns - so we’ve no interest in violating image policies.
The image(s) we use of the product in question are (1) the supplier stock image of the actual product and (2) a boxshot of the packaged product. The product is an exact match by EAN and to the description on Amazon, and to my knowledge is the same as has been on Amazon for some months
So…I fire off an appeal attaching the images that we feed up to Amazon and an explanation of the above, that the images are compliant and correct
Our appeal is rejected because we have failed to acknowledge what we did wrong that led to the violation, and that we have not included an action plan of how we will avoid being naughty again…
It’s damn hard work not to reply with an action plan of “ensuring that we upload incorrect images since the use of correct images is seen as a violation”
I get that errors happen in automated verification of data, but why have an appeal process that isn’t an appeal at all, that just triggers a stock pre-written response? The appeal clearly hasn’t been read and doesn’t address our defence at all.
Why not just say “we own everything, we go into space, you don’t, so we can kill your account whenever we like - tough”
Anyway…vent over because it’s pointless wasting time trying to communicate with Amazon, we just have to take whatever penalties they randomly apply on the chin
17 replies
Seller_kvr6OkC6b5QTW
They use robots to treat you like a robot. Sometimes they use employees, real people who are in training to be a robot, to treat you like a robot. Robots are not good at dealing with real issues affecting real people. If your question is not an exact match to their permitted questions then there is no point in engaging with them. It’s pretty soul destroying.
Seller_3yhYGU61cigbH
Did you inadvertently put the image of the item in packaging as a main pic?
Seller_tRuvBEHDedp4q
Ive had problems before with images and just cannot get SS to see common sense.
In my case I was selling a bag that came in black and white
However, someone had listed the black one with the picture of the white bag (even though title said black, attributes said black, description said black, EAN matched the black one). People buying the item would see the picture of a white bag and buy - then return stating ‘not as described’ so I had to pay for the return! After several such returns the goods were marked as ‘Very Poor’
I tried uploading the correct picture of the Black bag but it would never take. Despite opening cases with SS and appealing it just fell on deaf ears and I could not get the image changed. I even directed SS to the supplier/manufacturer website to no avail. In the end I gave up and withdrew from sale.
Seller_L1A4u7LImWRtC
Hahaha…ridiculous
After another email trying to escalate it to a human, they responded by sending the “we could not remove your policy violation warning” email twice
But they have now accepted the images and reinstated the listing…NOW WITH A COMPLETELY INCORRECT SET OF BULLET POINTS 
The title is correct
The images are correct
The browse node is correct
The Amazon review history applies to the correct item
Now they have a bullet point description of a totally different type of item, and technical specs of something that doesn’t match either the correct item nor the item in the bullet points
But our account must be marked with a warning because we’ve got it right…and there is no removing the warning.
It looks like some sellers have sent a mixture of wrong information up to Amazon somewhere along this item’s history (not a new line, it;'s been live since 2007), Amazon have made a mashup of it all and now penalises us for not going along with the incorrect information they hold.
How do others guard against this? I mean other than manually reviewing 1000’s of active SKUs every week to see if something has been changed?
Seller_iDiUaLCsDRE0K
Hi @Caravan_Superman,
This is Pia from Amazon to assist you.
I understand that your query is in regards to the policy violations received on Account Health Page.
I completely agree with you that if you’re handling thousands of products you may end getting a policy violation and it becomes difficult to monitor each and every product.
But we are here to assist you any account related difficulties if you face.
Please be informed that whenever there is a policy violation on your account it is expected to work on it proactively to ensure that in future it doesn’t pose risk on your account.
While addressing the policy violations, there are always two path of appealing and disputing, if you disagree you can provide valid proofs.
You may refer this help page for detailed information on the topic.
Please continue to post any relevant information in relation to this topic so it can be addressed at a later time.
Regards,
Pia
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Its even more fun when the brand on the listing is wrong.
It seems showing the GS1 certificate, showing that the barcode on the product and packaging, showing the product on the brand owners website (which is ironically where the listing image comes from), showing that the barcode matches the brand name on the GS1 certificate, the packaging, the website and NOT the one on the listing is not enough to actually get this obvious error fixed.
And what do Amazon do - they do nothing, because the brand owner (that’s the fraudulent one on the listing, not the owner of the actual genuine correct brand) controls the listing and has brand registry.
So it seems like Brand Registry is the way to steal peoples products on Amazon, and Amazon will protect you while you do it!
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Its not even Listing Creator
Its literally the inventory listing that is the Brand Owner, and only that one listing can make any changes.
Which is why I cringe so much when I hear of SS telling people to delete the inventory listing and relist it, because they are literally giving up all their rights as the “brand owner” by deleting the inventory listing that created the ASIN.
After that all bets are off and no-one can change it (well Amazon can, but they won’t)
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Its pathetic, the Amazon catalogue is in a mess, and they only have themselves to blame.
