AMZ Insider Info 2/19/20 with CJ Rosenbaum: Patent protections, ABH Pharmaceutical continues to haunt sellers, Terrible advice that Amazon staff continues to give to sellers, May be inauthentic suspensions increasing for sellers.
“May be” inauthentic suspensions are certainly going up.
You need to be prepared. What you need to do is to maintain really good sourcing documents. Have your invoices at the ready at any given point in time. Source from distributors that have an internet presence and make sure that your distributor can be traced back to the manufacturer. Those are the best sources that you can use. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t make boatloads of money if you can buy brand new inventory from sources that aren’t exactly perfect. I’m not saying to do that, but you should know if Amazon gives you a “may be” inauthentic you need to give them an invoice. Also, what you need to know about “may be” inauthentic suspensions is that they almost always arise from a consumer issue with your product. So be prepared for them. They’re rising and I want to see you get back online as quickly as possible.
Really terrible advice Amazon staff has given and continues to give to sellers.
One pertains to telling you to give them change documents to redact the prices, change the volumes, add anything to the invoices. Do not change your invoices at all, ever. If you need to draw Amazon staff’s attention to a particular portion of the invoice, give Amazon one invoice with no changes, no arrows, no circles, then give them a second copy of it and then put your little red circle on it or an arrow. Also, do not redact anything, even though Amazon staff will tell you that you can. Amazon staff has been telling you to open up another account when you have a problem, terrible advice. We know some of the ways Amazon links accounts and then suspends you for related accounts and if Amazon staff is telling you to just go ahead and open another account, don’t do it. You’re creating more problems than you’re going to solve.
ABH Pharmaceutical problems continue to haunt sellers.
Their email list, which was provided to Amazon, was causing account and listing suspensions. On a positive note, it seems that the account suspensions are kind of over. We’re not seeing many callers with that problem, but listing suspensions are continuing. If you have lost money because of ABH Pharmaceutical, contact us 1-877-9-SELLER. We can give you some really, really great advice.
Patent violations and protections.
If you have been accused of violating somebody’s patent and you’re simply selling their product, you bought it, you resell it, there is no patent violation. If you’ve changed the design of a product, you change it significantly enough, there is no violation. Third-party sellers who don’t own the rights, owners, if you’re selling genuine products you’re probably not violating, but if you own a patent, you need to protect your hard-earned product. You developed it. You own it. You need to know how to protect it.
