Divert customers to an alternative product
Hi! I am currently out of stock of a particular item I sell in Black with orders waiting. I also have no idea when I’ll be able to get some more (supplier issues). Am I able to point my customers at another ASIN which is an identical product but in Grey? Can’t find out if this is possible/allowed?
Thanks
Paul
11 replies
Seller_1qKTBDbgtHefM
Pre-sale yes, post-sale no. If you try it post sale its known as “Bait & Switch” - selling a product you don’t have then switching them to another, sometimes at a “small” additional cost. I think you are just trying to offer an alternative product so there would be no additional cost, but it would still be baiting based on selling an item you know you do not have.
So just to re-cap, if you’re answering a pre-sale question you can point them to an alternative item. If you’ve made a sale, either supply the item you’ve sold or cancel it and take the hit. I would not recommend contacting them to see if they will accept an alternative item. Whilst it seems sensible, its against Amazon rules and at least one Consumer law.
Seller_QlN0mmCAFPtjZ
Sorry Paul but I believe that is totally against Amazon’s rules . How did you intend to achieve this ? Amazon does not allow one to post URL’S in the listing even if it is not taking the customer off the site .
If it is just a colour difference , why are they two seperate listings . If this was a variation listing than you would not have had an issue
Seller_0guzAqgkNn0iH
Delete your listing for black. Once your supply of black resumes, relist.
Seller_x3BT9arv4ODzZ
Strictly not allowed on Amazon - you need to take the hit and cancel the orders, trust you have already stopped selling the items, as selling stock you don’t have is frowned upon by the Amazon bots and could cause you problems.
Seller_LMFXfaPUqD0CQ
Sorry guys. I should have been clearer - Thanks for all your posts. It is an FBA listing. I didn’t create the listing. I’m purely selling the product so have had little control over the way it has been set up. Curiously, the black one is in a category that doesn’t allow variations (so I can’t create a parent-child set up), but the orange blue and grey ones are being sold as variations under one listing - in a different category! So it’s a bit of a mess. I’ve raised a ticket with Seller Central support, so I’ll see what comes back - Interestingly,once I started stocking the coloured ones and I went to set up “Sell yours” , the system set them up as 3 different listings rather than 3 variations of the same product. (Although I’m guessing this is something to do with user error on my part 
) The only seller that has the 3 coloured ones has set them up as variations (but all 3 appear to have different ASINs)
What I don’t understand, is how they are selling when I don’t have any and I don’t have any inbound?? How does this work? In fact the listing says out of stock til Oct 1st. Where has that come from? I won’t be getting any by October 1st…?!
