Last time I reported a violation (another seller, selling fakes on my brand listing), I got a section 3 for "Taking actions in order to harm other sellers" !!!

Especially the very important lost input from so many very knowledgeable contributors to the old forum that could not agree with the new format.

Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid

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lessons need to be learnt from the 'old' one.

But if the violation is Amazon themselves it does not work.

For example the Amazon_EU selling profile bringing invalid information (wrong language of product titles etc) in from another amazon marketplace - then it cannot be report as abuse - as the automated system does not accept any reports against amazon themselves.

I gave up reporting violations yeas ago because they were always closed automatically with a message to the effect that I wasn't the brand owner' or 'nothing to see here, move along'.

I only reported ASINs in BMVD.

These 'violations' were generally things like individual seller condition notes appearing as main Product Descriptions, duplicated ASINs usurping ISBNs and EANs already in the catalogue, missing or incorrect product images &c.

Some sellers are serial abusers of the BMVD catalogue. They use sophisticated software that duplicates and mangles millions of legit ASINs/EANs/ISBNs to create what is effectively a parallel catalogue of overpriced duplicates.

This catalogue abuse is obvious to those of us who manually list in BMVD but Amazon's robots seem totally incapable of spotting these (to human eyes) clear violations of Amazon listing policies.

Can I just add that I think reporting problems, errors and 'violations' in BMVD should be dealt with differently to those in other areas of the catalogue.

The bulk of sellers in BMVD are not brand owners nor do they have access to authorised suppliers. Most books, for example, are out-of-print and it is literally impossible to supply evidence from 'manufacturers' to back up suggested changes and improvements to existing catalogue info.

I haven't really bothered attempting to report catalogue problems since Amazon introduced the brand registry process to BMVD. It's far too much hassle convincing SS that brand registry is irrelevant.

What we need are human staff with a reasonable knowledge of publishing methods and formats (be it printed literature, recorded music, video, or audiobooks &c).

Often, just a pair of human eyes looking at the ASIN page in question is all that is needed to spot obvious errors.

[edited for...errors!]

How about a non-exhaustive list of exactly what Amazon considers a violation, how were meant to report it, and what we can do to track the progress of that report. Every time Ive reported something wrong in SS, they dont TELL me to report a violation, but just signpost me to it without saying if what Ive reported to them is a violation. Then, theres no way of then knowing what action, if any has been taken.

Perhaps SS should keep open cases until the apparent "violation" has been addressed or rejected. Amazon need more effective case management processes and the system were given to manage them needs to be improved, so that cases close when we close it, not just after 5 days. And if the issue doesent get fixed, the case doesent get closed.

Also, if we report a violation to SS, they should put some frigging work in and just address it, not signpost us away from them to a non-entity who may or may not actually act.