Dramatic Vendor Central Changes/ Documents for New Account/ SFP Turned off in NY

Hello All
1) Multiple sellers/vendors received this email “Greetings from Amazon Direct Fulfillment, Your direct fulfillment warehouse XXXXX has been suspended. As a result of the suspension, inventory for all items in this warehouse is set to zero; no new orders….”. Many received emails that it was reinstated, but no Pos were sent. Vendor Central seems to be changing dramatically and may even be closing. If you are not getting Pos, it is likely a business decision by Amazon.

2) Multiple Sellers are reporting that new US .com accounts, even those that were opened with a corp, now require a passport or driver’s license for every account. I am not sure if its 100% across the board yet. I do not think they will ask for existing accounts.(HT JN)

3) I spoke with Jeff Cohen from Seller Labs this week. We discussed important recent updates to Amazon policy. We clarified many misconceptions about recent changes. Very interesting.
Some topics discussed:

Email communication

Contradictory information from Amazon

YouTube 
DropBox 

4) SFP was turned off for many NY sellers for being in a region impacted by storm – Even though there was NO SNOW and NO STORM. This has happened a few times recently.

5) New on Vat Obligation in Germany (DE) 

6) “We reached this decision because you have listed items that are not permitted for sale on Amazon.com, despite previously assuring us you had adequately addressed the issue. Items sold on Amazon.com must adhere to all applicable laws and Amazon’s policies.” If you get a warning for restricted products, make sure they are deleted, not just closed.

7) SFP sellers received this: “Hello, we are contacting you to let you know that, due to human error, we inadvertently disclosed your email address to a small number of US SFP sellers. This occurred yesterday while sending our standard SFP refunds report. We contacted these sellers immediately and asked them to delete the report. No action is required on your end, and we apologize for this mistake. Sincerely, Seller Fulfilled Prime Team”. (HT Barry L)

8) When reporting counterfeit via Brand Registry, make sure only to delete the sellers listed that are selling counterfeit. If you make a claim against the ASIN, you can delete yourself from the listing and its hard to recover. Reports via Brand registry should NOT include the ASIN as they will remove all offers for that ASIN. (HT Eli B)

9) New! ASGTG funnel. This is a funnel of all 40 ASGTG groups. I am working on a filter to receive notifications when certain keywords are used — coming soon.

Good Shabbos – Ed Rosenberg – ASGTG – The Voice of the Seller