I send around 100 large letters ( £1.55 ) per month and find that 20-30% dont have delivery confirmation - so it's worth checking delivery , even if you dont get a customer complaint , because you can claim compensation for all those without confirmation ... if each item is worth £20 that's an extra £200 - £300 per month compensation from royal mail .

very rarely have non delivery for tracked 48

Fellow sellers, I'm seeking some advice on a frustrating situation I've encountered with another seller undercutting repeatedly.

I initially found a product with great profit margins over 100% ROI and there is about 10-15 sellers. I matched the current Buy Box price and sales were going well for about a month. Then yesterday, another seller started hugging the Buy Box, going just 1p below the current buy box.

It's evident they are using a repricing tool to constantly undercut the lowest price by 1p in order to solely maintain the Buy Box themselves. While I understand the motivation to capture all the Buy Box sales, it's exasperating when sellers configure repricers so aggressively just to box others out.

This particular seller has over 200 seller feedbacks, so they are an experienced seller who surely understands pricing strategies. As a result of their relentless undercutting, my potential ROI on this product has plummeted from over 100% down to only 5-10%.

I've now sold out of my inventory for this item. My question for everyone reading is would you continue sourcing more of this product knowing you'll likely just enter another Buy Box battle? Or would you cut your losses and move on to other products?

I'm all for healthy price competition, but it feels unethical when sellers setup repricers to continuously undercut by the smallest increments just to own the Buy Box. I wish we could agree as a seller community to share the Buy Box rather than trying to monopolize it. But I realize that's unlikely to happen.

Any thoughts or advice on how to approach this type of situation would be appreciated.

Here's to better seller karma for all of us.

Hello Let me explain the whole story in a few words.

Starting on 10 April 2024

Amazon indicate to us we need to pay GBP 47,258.28 VAT starting from 2021.

You can continue to sell, but your Amazon sales proceeds will remain temporarily ineligible for disbursement from this account, and any related accounts, until any UK VAT owed is paid to Amazon.

The company behind this account was established in August 2023, so it is impossible to have VAT from 2021.

According to the notification you (AMAZON) indicated to me, you also have to pay GBP 47,258.28 VAT ... THIS THING IS NOT POSSIBLE because we have not even generated sales of this amount, so we should have so much VAT to pay, which is wrong.

The company was founded in August 2023, so it is impossible to have VAT from 2021 to pay.

Until September 2023, the Amazon account belonged to a UK-based company whose owner was a UK resident for whom Amazon collected VAT.

After many many emails with drtax-vatliabilitysupport@amazon.co.uk we send all the document requested like: id, passports, driving licence, contracts, bills, banck statments, invoice .... etc.

Since April and until now, no concrete answer, every time I send an email or open a case, the same answer is returned to me:

//////

Hello from Amazon Selling Partner Support,

My name is Guillaume and I am contacting you regarding your VAT liability request. Thank you for your patience in this case. I understand how important this is for you and I am glad to assist you the best possible way.

Please let me inform you that our internal teams are working actively on your case. There is no action required from your side and I will keep you updated about the process.

Thanks again for your patience. We remain available.

Have a nice day !

//////

Hello from Amazon Selling Partner Support,

We understand how important is this matter for you. In response to your inquiry regarding the VAT applied to your invoices, we would like to inform you of the following:

The corresponding department is still working on your case and we will get back to you as soon as we have further information to provide.

We appreciate your patience and it was a pleasure to assist you.

Thank you for selling with Amazon.

///////////

on 19 June:

Hello from Amazon Selling Partner Support,

Thank you for your patience. At the moment, I am working with our internal team to reach a resolution on your case. While I don’t currently have an update, I will follow up with you as soon as additional information is available.

Thank you for selling with Amazon.

Sara B.

//////

3 months have already passed and nothing.

Does anyone know how soon the verification will be completed?

Can anyone help me speed up the verification process?

Very bad impact on store sales near to zero for 3 months.

Thank you

any help is highly appreciated @Seller_DNQGSsdC7DccM @Seller_gAhPNiLrkfTcr @Seller_yk3kzHpjMMa4B @Seller_VJ4XoAkjDpjPH @Seller_Huz6FT08OxHAR @Seller_fgtTzyHQfOM1x @Seller_TSXM2A5nxWSuH

Does anybody have any experience of using a PO Box address on Amazon, especially for returns?

We have been on Amazon for over 10 years, so not a new seller. We are moving from our business premises in a few weeks and will be using a residential address for a period. We do not want our residential address publically available for security reasons and have set up a PO Box address. This is no issue on any other marketplace or our website, but Amazon seem to be less than helpful with these type of changes.

All other business information will remain the same - company name, registered business address, company number, VAT number, contact details etc

- The return address will need to be changed to the PO Box address so that customers do not have our residential address.

- The ship from address can remain as our residential address if this information is not publically accessible and used only internally by Amazon. If it is shown publically then this would also need to be changed to the PO Box address.

Does anybody else do something similar or have any experience of it?

Thanks in advance

@Seller_gAhPNiLrkfTcr

@Seller_z3k8APxGfbQEK

@Seller_TSXM2A5nxWSuH

Total waste of time reporting anything like this to seller support. We gave up doing that years ago. Most issues require 20+ responses, weeks to resolve, constant auto replies, nobody taking ownership of the problem, and then we are usually told that nothing can be done for any number of reasons.

When this happens we just sell through eBay instead.

Amazon are losing thousands in fees from us because of the huge volume of products that we cannot sell on Amazon because of issues like this - I am talking thousands of products which cannot be added.

I have had over 30 parallel import claims in the past 6 months. It seems to be the go-to loophole for brandowners trying to illegally limit competition. Ive been able to appeal succesfully for the most part but then they just resubmit and deactivations are back.... These brand owners are getting the tools to break anti-trust laws in bulk, there should be an investigation as soon as possible. Ive opened many many cases and many were escalated, but no response. I even have written proof of cases where the brand owner even admits to me that it has nothing to do with parallel import, they just dont want us on Amazon.

Correct invoices are rejected because the reviewer is not properly trained to understand parallel import, the product even has an EU flag on it + the brand owner itself is selling on the listing with the name "<BRANDNAME> EU", like how much proof does one need. But no, once identity of brand owner is confirmed, they can block others from selling the product they sell in the same market = 100% ILLEGAL.

Some items they say in their complaint that they did tests orders but we have 0 orders for them since the start. Its ridiculous.

Our BE store is currently deactivated on 5 remaining cases and forgiveness path for Parallel import claims is gone despite all the succesful appeals, we are pushed in a corner.

Legal action against these brand owners is my next step.

This was originally a reply to a forum post by @Seller_z3k8APxGfbQEK@Seller_DNQGSsdC7DccM. I decided to post it separately as this will soon become a serious issue. I'm hoping Amazon will be proactive to keep honest sellers' businesses getting damaged by ill intended people/sellers.

TLDR: fraudsters find small US brands and fraudulently apply for UK trademark (fake ownership documents +170GBP), then kick other sellers off the listing via "parallel import violation".

***

Hi Julia,

Sorry for replying so late.

The trademark itself is a fraudulent application. If you check the address on the UK UPO website, it shows up as a company "Mint Formations Ltd", which is a business that forms UK Ltd companies. Also the company owner (public info) owns 10+ other UK Ltd companies, all classified as "Retail sale via mail order houses or via Internet" businesses. I am pretty sure all the other companies have or had Amazon Seller accounts which were suspended/banned, or simply exist to illegally evade HMRC VAT (keep annual turnover below 85,000 GBP and switch owner of Amazon account to the new LTD)

I can go on about the illegal and fraudulent behavior of such sellers from abroad. This IP claim is one of those. Sellers such as these find small US based companies who are not active in the UK and fraudulently file for IP to the UK (fake ownership documents + 170 GBP filing fee), so they can sell the products on amazon.co.uk exclusively. There are "courses" being sold by "amazon gurus" that show them step by step how to do this. This is also how I know such an organized crime gang exists.

Such US companies do not even have any idea about having UK trademarks.

This is a serious issue that is hurting our account (we received yet another parallel import violation today, ASIN B0001LE1VC). If you look at the account that is now exclusively selling this item - which by the way sells 400+/month- is of course a brand new account with 0 reviews and only 1 product for sale. No brand owner would give such an amazon account exclusive rights, let alone letting them hold the trademark to their brand.

Amazon needs to take this issue seriously, as these cases are going to increase -because these "gurus" are selling "courses" showing them the way.

Let me know if you need any further details on this issue. It will hurt resellers like us as long as these types of mischievous and fraudulent people are allowed to carry out their actions on Amazon.

Hello im looking for some advise in how to deal with someone who cant handle any competition

I have been selling generic remote controls compatible with firesticks, if you search for them on amazon there is 2 listings at the too of the page were iver 5k per month are being sold . I am selling them cheaper and therefore i am getting reported saying he owns the "design rights". Basically he has took a photo of the remote and paid £50 to claim he designed it , and he hasnt

The remote was on the market years in china years before he registered his photos of it and obtained a design rights number . There must be 500 people selling the same remotes on amazon but he dont report them as they arent competing and affecting his sales , how can amazon just allow people to pay £50 to get a design right number and claim they are the designer . Surely this is illegal to claim your the design owner and you should be providing alot more evidence to register a design to obtain a rights owner number than putting a product on a table and taking photos of it

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=firestick+remote&crid=3BTRBAEOZ15IW&sprefix=firestick+remote%2Caps%2C156&ref=nb_sb_noss

Everybody loves a deal (and I am sure your customers will too).

I have seen a few threads in the forums asking about what Price Discounts are or how to get “strike-through pricing"?

Price Discounts are a time-bound campaign in which you can offer discounted prices on your products for up to 30 days and on a limited number of inventories. Price Discounts for products with a validated reference price will appear with a strike-through price in Search and on the Product Detail page.

The benefits of Price Discounts are:

• Set a duration - Price Discounts can run between 1 to 30 consecutive days. The discounted price will automatically go live on the Start Date and will automatically end on the End Date you specify.

• Set a budget - Budget capabilities allow you to easily offer discounted prices on a limited number of inventory that is defined by you. When creating a Price Discounts on a product, you can enter the number of units to offer at the discounted price. Once you sell through the committed units, the price will automatically revert to its regular price.

• Increase conversion - Price Discounts can help you increase conversion and sell through inventory, including inventory on seasonal products at the end of the season.

• Product discovery - Price Discounts may help drive additional customer discovery and sales, both during and after the discount has run.

• View performance - While your Price Discounts is running and after it ends, gain insight into the impact it had with access to performance metrics such as Sales, Units Sold, Glance Views, Conversion Rate, and Sell-through Rate.

To be eligible for Price Discounts, you must be a professional seller with at least a 3.5 seller feedback rating.

Your products must meet the following criteria at all times:

• Products must have at least a 3-star rating
• Products must be in new condition
• Discount must meet the following:
• At least 5% off the 30-day lowest price bought by customers
• At least 5% off the current price
• At least 5% off the reference price for products with a validated reference price. Products without a validated reference price will not display a strike-through price or savings to customers
• Adult products, restricted products, or otherwise offensive products are not allowed
• A validated reference price, in order to show a savings comparison. For more information, go to Amazon Policy on Reference Prices

Well that just about wraps up today’s discussion on Price Discounts.

If you have any questions specifically around Price Discounts please feel free to leave them in the reply section below.

Sarah.

Hello. our account was deactivated on 11 april 2024 and funds were hold. upon enquiry with multiple teams on emails, we waited for 60 days. now today on 21 june 2024 we had our interview call done for identity verification. we received email after the interview as mentioned below. i would like to know when the funds will be released as the person only verified my passport and ask few basic questions only. it went smooth. and what enforced team they talking about? as my account deactivated due to recent VAT issue. i will resolve it with the team once the funds will be released as per amazon withhold policy.

@Seller_z3k8APxGfbQEK@Seller_hnDMgUKxMh1V4@Seller_Huz6FT08OxHAR@Seller_yk3kzHpjMMa4B your help will be appreciated if you could get this sorted asap and get my funds released please.