Another seller selling my unique product
Hi,
I am currently out of stock of my item because of supply issues. I’ve just found it for sale on Amazon at twice the price that I normally sell at saying it will be available in 2-3 weeks.
I assume that the seller will buy off me when I come back into stock and then send to their buyer (if they get any) or send a counterfeit item.
My product is unique and has IP protection and is trademarked. I am enrolled on the Amazon Brand Registry programme which I thought was meant to stop this sort of thing.
There is more of my product on it’s way to Amazon so I should be back in stock in the next few days.
Is there anything I can do to stop this?
34 replies
Seller_mBENc0rmDmw5W
I think I might buy one of those and wait to see what happens. Using a separate buyer a/c.
Then maybe leave negative fb depending on what / if you receive anything.
Seller_JB8wPCk9zkyad
No, there is nothing you can do.
It’s a dropshipper.
Amazon will not do anything for you. Amazon will not help you. Amazon will not stop them.
Even if you do manage to do something about " the seller " , your item will pop up with another within days or hours. Because many of these " sellers " are the same outfits with multiple accounts and the same software. Eventually, your product page will be corrupted by multiple,duplicate product pages where these sellers are the sole suppliers and you may be bypassed.
It’s nothing personal, they are just running software.
So, you can do nothing about it other than accept it and learn to live with it. No human beings are involved. Amazon will not stop it.
If you get a sale through these guys, do everything to protect yourself, because they may very well INR you.
On Amazon your product is not unique, it is not exclusive, your trademark means little, your brand registry means little.
A torrent of dropshippers are running the show, and they cannot be stopped. Amazon either do not have the resources or the inclination to stop them. But more importanly, they make Amazon a lot of money and that overrides any other consideration Amazon have. Money is king.
All you can do is protect yourself.
And realise that Amazon really don’t care too much for you, the dropshippers have infinite identities, infinite accounts, and paid off insiders, so you should probably make sure you have other outlets for your product if the worst happens.
Seller_n3kq7gcIclCDM
I’ve just checked their other items and they are doing this with other people. Most of their items say available in 2-3 weeks and the sold by name is also the brand name of the item. E.g. (I’ll make one up to illustrate what I mean… “Dodgy mobile phone” Sold By Dodgy.)
They’ve got 79% positive seller feedback and their address is a “virtual office”.
I’ve just looked at reporting an infringement via the Brand Registry reporting page but according to that, they’re not actually doing anything wrong.
They’ll probably buy from me once I come back into stock, send to the buyer and then somehow get a refund from me and there is nothing I can do to stop them. The buyer is much more likely to leave negative feedback because they’ve paid way over the odds.
I’m thinking my only option is to convert my listing to fulfilled by merchant, undercut this dodgy seller by a few pounds, set my delivery time to a bit less than theirs and then fulfil any orders I get in the meantime myself, maybe giving the buyers a partial refund to match my normal price.
Any other ideas?
Seller_6sxtIS0RbZ5k7
You could possibly message them and ask them to stop listing it, as someone said, it’s all done via software. I have successfully got drop shippers to remove my items from eBay before just by messaging them.
Seller_2BrPSydGy6oyq
A trade mark means you own a name that others can’t use, but what IP rights do you own on the product and is your TM imbedded on the product (not just packaging)?
If you own the patent, design, are the manufacturer, then you can use the report infringement to remove other sellers infringing your IP rights.
The use of the Amazon listing and photos is not the issue, it’s the rights of the brand that are the issue, even legitimate goods can be removed if the brand owner views the seller has not obtained them from an authorised distributor, therefor assumed fake until the seller produces valid invoices from an approved supplier.
Seller_n3kq7gcIclCDM
I submitted a report and 9 minutes later received an email to say that the ASIN has been removed.
I was initially very pleased but now when I try to navigate to my ASIN holding page which normally says “item out of stock, we do not know when or if this item will be available” it says “page not found” The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site.
I am now going to open a case to check that they haven’t permanently removed the ASIN and not just blocked that seller from selling it.
Seller_mQzM8i0mkBUO3
why dont you just double your price so when they have to buy from you in and ship any orders they taken in the time you been sold out 2-3 weeks time they wont make any profit and you doubled your money ?
Seller_n3kq7gcIclCDM
I can’t double my price because then I will lose most sales when it comes back in stock in a few days.
I replied to the email from the brand registry team explaining that I did not want the whole ASIN removing, just this seller blocked until he proves his item is genuine.
I’ve received what looks like an automated email saying - thank you for retracting your complaint, the ASIN has been reactivated.
So my ASIN is back up and the other seller has so far not reappeared but there is no mention of blocking them from the brand registry team.
I’ve just had a sleepless night imagining that I’d lost all my feedback and have 12,000 of these in stock complete with a dud ASIN. At least that’s sorted but I’m back to square one.
So it appears that brand registry allows you to either remove your ASIN if you suspect infringement or suck it up, and nothing in between.
Seller_cJms0GbotqqtV
I thought marketplace sellers were not allowed to list items for pre-order. Stock should be available for shipping within the seller’s declared shipping timeframe.
Paul
