A main focus of our practice is getting Amazon sellers reinstated after a suspension and getting their ASINs back if they suffer an ASIN suspension.
The #1 reason Amazon suspends accounts and ASINs is its allegation of ‘inauthentic’.
Inauthentic is generally not accusing you of selling counterfeit products, even though that is what the language seems to indicate. What inauthentic usually means is that they want to see where you are sourcing your products from. Amazon wants to see that the products you are selling, to what they consider to be their consumers, can be traced all the way back to a manufacturer to show that they are in fact genuine.
CJ talks about inauthentic suspensions for Amazon sellers (account or ASIN) when it comes to sellers who are drop-shipping.
The top 5 issues regarding inauthentic suspensions & retail receipts for drop-shippers:
1. Walmart receipts: Walmart receipts a year ago were absolutely not accepted. That has changed. Walmart receipts are now being accepted routinely and we have been very successful at getting Amazon sellers reinstated after submitting receipts from retail Walmart stores. We have also had a lot of success in submitting Nordstrom racks and Target receipts. When you are submitting your receipts, you want to make it easy for the person working for Amazon to really identify your products. You want to highlight the product that’s at issue. Highlight the price that you paid. Make it really easy to indicate that the products were in fact genuine and from a legit brick and mortar store.
2. Do not submit forged or manipulated documents: It is much better to use the real retail receipts from wherever you purchased your products from than to try and submit fake documents. If you submit fake, manipulated or forged documents, you are just going to increase the risk of getting caught. Those suspensions for manipulated and forged documents are much more difficult to come back from so whatever you have you have. Don’t change them or Photoshop them. Don’t makeup things or use Excel Spread Sheets. It’s much better to use the real, genuine receipts from where you sourced your products, regardless of where they came from than to make something fake.
3. Take pictures of goods at the store or source of goods: You can actually use pictures of the products when you go to source your goods. If you are going to a discount rack in Nordstrom’s for example, use your cellphone and take a picture of the product with the skews on it, on the rack, at the store. We’re finding these to be successful. Amazon is accepting these pictures they are finding to be persuasive.
4. Do not redact anything from your invoices or receipts: Regardless of the price, the number of units, do not redact anything at all. It just does not help you.
Helping Online Sellers Worldwide
For more information on Amazon suspensions & appeals, visit here.
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