Review Manipulation Suspensions/ More on Amnesty/ Canada Tax Notice

Hello All,

1) Amazon has suspended 1000s of sellers for review manipulation this past week.

“Violations of our policies may also violate state and federal laws, including the Federal Trade Commission Act. Amazon strives to maintain customer trust and provide the best possible shopping experience. As a result, we will investigate when we learn that sellers, vendors, or others have attempted to manipulate reviews. This includes offers of compensation in exchange for reviews.” There is no question that the target was groups that offered compensation outside of the Amazon platform.” (refunding through PayPal).

I do not think they were targeting specific groups. More likely, they used software similar to Fakespot to identify fake reviews. Sellers are being asked to provide specific information on how they obtained the reviews. Amazon will likely use this info, from sellers, to remove many more reviews and possibly suspend many more sellers.

2) Tom from Demo this is offering exclusive discounts to ASGTG members. “Demo This” creates product demo videos effectively showcasing your product’s features and functions. These videos are proven to increase conversions. You can submit your products by emailing info@demothis.co or on their website.

3) A few sellers received rights owner infringements for Lifeproof. The name that is being used to file is Andrew S. Ehard. (He has done work for Lifeproof in the past). The contact email is conpege@lifeproofzone.com. There’s a suspicion that this is similar to the fake OtterBox RO going around a few months ago from Ellen Reilly.

4) Many more sellers have received letters from CA re sales tax (CA is not part of the amnesty program). I spoke with Michael Fleming about the pros and cons of the amnesty. There was a new Telegram group started to discuss the amnesty. To get an invite link, enter your email on this form.

YouTube
DropBox

Discussed:

How are states finding sellers?
What is nexus?
What happens when a state contact you? Can you fight them?

More updates on the amnesty coming.

5) This is new:

In order for your products to be placed in our fulfillment centers more accurately and to be ready for sale quicker, starting on October 2, 2017, you will be required to provide the weight of a product in the manufacturer’s original packaging. This information will help improve the accuracy of your inventory records and help move your products through our fulfillment network more efficiently so that they can become ready for sale quicker. You will receive a prompt to enter this weight for each ASIN when you create a new shipping plan if this information is not already on file. You will only be asked to provide this information once per ASIN. The weight of the product in the manufacturer’s original packaging is needed in addition to the box content information because it allows us to calculate the weight of each unit within the box individually.

6) “You submitted an invalid infringement complaint ……. This is against our policies.”

This can happen for a few reasons. It’s not advisable for any seller to enforce any brand IP with his seller account.

7) UK accounts now have this message in the top right.

You are required to upload your UK VAT number in Seller Central by 31 December 2017, due to changes in the UK legislation. If you do not upload your UK VAT number, we will block your ability to inbound inventory into the European Union fulfillment centers.

8) This month storage fee is 4x the regular amount. If you would like to remove inventory to avoid the storage fees, you can post on the deals group (read pinned messages before posting of course) To get an invite link, enter your email on this form.

9) “This is an important reminder regarding your responsibility, as a Seller on Amazon, to understand and comply with any Canadian federal and provincial sales tax obligations that may apply to your sales on Amazon.ca. More information regarding your Canadian sales tax obligations, as well as information regarding Amazon, provided tools that can help you manage your sales tax compliance, can be found by visiting Amazon’s Seller Central”

Ed Rosenberg – Chag Sameach