Fraudulent Product Authenticity Complaint From Competitive Seller
Hello Amazon Community,
I received a product authenticity complaint on one of my listings, our first ever.
I have 1000 units of this product and have only received one order - this one. When this order was placed, we were highly suspsicious because we were priced at $34.99, while the current BuyBox price was $19.99-$20.99. We are waiting for the lower priced sellers to sell through and don't plan on adjusting our pricing.
This means a buyer would have to purposely scroll down through dozens of other sellers (there were 48 on the listing at the time of this purchase) with lower prices and faster/identical delivery estimates to specifically select us as their seller.
We obviously suspected this was a fraudulent or malicious order from another seller on the listing, immediately reached out to Amazon Seller Central's customer service and made it clear we wanted to cancel the order and believed it was malicious because it made no sense to occur. Since the order was FBA, it was unable to be cancelled.
The order was refunded within roughly 12 hours of purchase, before fulfillment occurred, which is another reason why an authenticity complaint is bogus. If a customer never physically receives the item, the product can't be deemed to be inauthentic.
We've responded to the authenticity complaint with our invoice but I'd still like to know others experiences/advice with this type of situation. I'd like to know it's possible to have the person/business behind the clearly fraudulent order reprimanded.
Thank you!
Fraudulent Product Authenticity Complaint From Competitive Seller
Hello Amazon Community,
I received a product authenticity complaint on one of my listings, our first ever.
I have 1000 units of this product and have only received one order - this one. When this order was placed, we were highly suspsicious because we were priced at $34.99, while the current BuyBox price was $19.99-$20.99. We are waiting for the lower priced sellers to sell through and don't plan on adjusting our pricing.
This means a buyer would have to purposely scroll down through dozens of other sellers (there were 48 on the listing at the time of this purchase) with lower prices and faster/identical delivery estimates to specifically select us as their seller.
We obviously suspected this was a fraudulent or malicious order from another seller on the listing, immediately reached out to Amazon Seller Central's customer service and made it clear we wanted to cancel the order and believed it was malicious because it made no sense to occur. Since the order was FBA, it was unable to be cancelled.
The order was refunded within roughly 12 hours of purchase, before fulfillment occurred, which is another reason why an authenticity complaint is bogus. If a customer never physically receives the item, the product can't be deemed to be inauthentic.
We've responded to the authenticity complaint with our invoice but I'd still like to know others experiences/advice with this type of situation. I'd like to know it's possible to have the person/business behind the clearly fraudulent order reprimanded.
Thank you!
0件の返信
Seller_f4a7xAPCCSMqD
My first question would be, do you have permission from the owner of the brand on the listing to sell their product on Amazon? Because that order could have been the brand owner doing a test buy.
Seller_f4a7xAPCCSMqD
If you're selling Nike products on Amazon without Nike's permission, then you are headed for trouble fast. Just search Nike on the forum, and you will see people posting about their accounts getting shut down because of it. Nike doesn't play around.
Stevie_Amazon
Hi there @Seller_eKGzHquA40HOo,
Thank you for utilizing the Seller Forums and providing information on your specific situation.
I do understand you have received a product authenticity complaint and have concerns about addressing the violation.
Product authenticity is held within high regard and generally considered the same as intellectual property. While it is important to respect the rights owner and use intellectual property with proper authorization, it is as equally important to be sourcing from authorized distributors or the brand themselves. Moreover, your customer might have concerns in regards to a product which makes them question if the product is truthfully a branded product.
Did the customer leave any feedback or communicate with you their concerns via buyer-seller messaging? Is there any feedback in the voice of the customer? I ask these questions as you can ultimately use feedback to improve your business practices and create a preventative plan moving forward, to avoid the same complaints.
To ensure you have sourced these products from an authorized distributor or via the proper supply chain, invoices are going to be the key to appealing the violation. Does your invoice meet the requirements as advised in Amazon's responsible sourcing documentation requirements policy? Listed below are the requirements for sourcing documentation request:
- Copies of invoices, receipts or other similar documents that demonstrate where your products are produced or manufactured. These documents:
- Should reflect the sales volume of your product across all Amazon marketplaces in the last 365 days
- Should demonstrate your product’s full supply chain
- Should include contact information for the supplier(s) and the original manufacturer. We may contact suppliers or manufacturers to verify the documents
- Your documents should be able to trace your products to the original manufacturer even if you did not purchase them directly from the original manufacturer. This may require requesting additional invoices or supply chain documentation from your supplier if you are not sourcing directly from the manufacturer.
- You may remove pricing information, but the rest of the document must be visible to enable adequate review of the documents you provide. For ease of our review, you may highlight or circle the ASIN(s) under review.
Alternatively, you may provide a letter of authorization or licensing agreement if you have them from Nike. @Seller_f4a7xAPCCSMqD makes a valid point, in that you might need permission from the owner of the brand in order to sell the products.
The owner of the brand is Nike. They aren't on the/any of their listings and don't have a history of doing test buys or filing IP/authenticity complaints.
Even a test buy would require delivery and inspection of the product to determine if it's inauthentic.
Neither happened in this case which is why it screams competitor.
If you have details on a competitor potentially violating Amazon policies, please provide as much information as possible on such competitor here.
How do you vet your supplier? Are they authorized to sell Nike products? How do you know?
Stevie
