Amazon Sellers Deal with Copycats and Allege Unfair Practices

by: This a joke, right?

Selling in the categories mentioned is only asking for problems. Can't imagine selling(or buying) jewelry online. I have sold clothes in the past and it was always a pain in the rear. I have sold a few electronics over the years but steer clear of that category now unless I have an item with a large margin  

by: pace306

Its SO BAD in electronics that alot of manufacturers are GATED - ala Monster and SMS Audio.

I dont know what its like in clothing - but its VERY bad in electronics and "really not good" in handbags - a category I left due to so many counterfeits (MK).

It used to be eBay was even worse - but now the chinese have moved onto Amazon.

Amazon co-mingles inventory so the sellers know they cant get blamed .. "it was MY stuff".

I hope Amazon gets a better handle on it SOON!

by: Bill

The Chinese have dominated everything the we in the US (who do not do fakes) have always hold that it is true.

by: koonkat

Amazon doesn't even care about counterfeits.  I reported counterfeit auto parts that are supposed to be made in USA.  The real deal I sell is about $22.  Bogus sellers were selling the "same" item for $8-9. INCLUDING SHIPPING!

I reported the items to the auto mfg., and they evidently made some progress, as a very large portion of the lower tier listings are now gone.  If I were a mfg. I would talk to a lawyer about the counterfeits.  

by: sasikat9

Amazon = Fleecebays evil twin sister.

by: sasikat9

@Bill We in the United States who do not do fakes.

When was the last time you were in a department or grocery store and picked up a house brand.....A fake of the real good stuff it is.
We in the US just don't call them fakes as we use the house brand instead.

by: FEEbay

2016 will be the year that we are finally rid of both of these crooked companies forever....
If you think that selling on Amazon OR Ebay is a good business model...you are insane

by: Chicago48

Since September I have been selling way more from EB than AMZ.  Sometimes I want to list an item and find that it's gated or restricted and have to list it in EB.  Maybe it works for AMZ's bottom line to gate/restrict some categories so that 3rd party can't sell and only the brand names can.  If it works sobeit, but those sellers who went to AMZ from EB some months ago hoping it was the answer are probably running back to EB.

by: Garcia

I am not at all surprised.  It is always tempting to allow anything you can on a selling site in order to boost sales, so counterfeit items have always sold well. I am on that site but will be packing up and leaving well before I have to pay a monthly fee.  If I want to deal with counterfeit goods on a handmade selling site I might as well stay on Etsy where things are easier to understand.  I found Amazon so confusing and such a minefield that it is best to stay away.

by: wellspring

Clothing first. Handmade jewelry next. Amazon might own those Chinese companies as a cover to compete with USA designers and artisans.  

by: Disgruntled_Seller

Amazon will typically do nothing unless the party filing the complaint is the Brand Owner. Even then it is a nightmare. We have over 600 Branded items we sell and that we manufacture, and only we can legitimately sell them as we have no authorized resellers anywhere, and it is a everyday thing to work to remove third party (3P) sellers from our item pages. With Amazon to prove counterfeit you typically have to purchase the item, examine it and then open a case of Amazon. Usually is straight forward, but it takes time. If you are not the brand owner you will have little luck enforcing the removal of the 3P seller from a item page from a time and cost standpoint.

If you are the provable brand owner, having your brand show in USPTO and having your UPC in your name (not just purchased from a UPC reseller) will give you more push.  You can also register in the Brand Registry. The Brand Registry in itself will not prevent a 3P seller from latching onto you item page, but it will mean you have control over the page content as far as Amazon is concerned.  

by: Moonwishes

I sell items that I don't think are actually being copycatted, but the Chinese sellers and those that are in the US supposedly doing the same thing (Chinese with US locations) are listing in completely wrong categories and pricing their items 4-5 times what they sell for by regular sellers such as me. I've seen one substitute their selling name as the brand name in listings titles so maybe they are copycatting things. But it is crazy to see a pattern in a car GPS system category. I hurts pattern sellers and legitimate GPS sellers when they have flooded that category with things that don't belong.

So the other day a friend clued me into an incorrectly listed item and with some research found that just about everything they listed was incorrect. So I write in to CSR to report them. I get an email back thanking me but saying THEY are the wrong department and to send the details to a different department. So I send the details to a different department where upon I get the same type email telling me to report this to yet another department and they apparently want me doing all the research for them. I havn't had time to do this yet, but in the meantime I have picked up 2-3 more 'sellers' to report on. Has Amazon never heard of an internal memo so that THEY can send the info to the write department? Why would they expect their customers to do the research for them. I have my own work to do. But on this I will be persistent as they are messing my the category of what I sell to the detriment of all of us.

One of the main reason that I like my eCRATER store is if a buyer comes from a direct link to my store, they aren't led on any other path to other sellers. Unfortunately on Amazon, that is pretty much guaranteed to never happen. What I can't understand is the sellers that have such high prices are getting sales hand over fist, while my fairly reasonable prices and good listing comments (generally better than all the other sellers) can get ignored. Yes I sell there as well as on eCRATER and can't make a full living on either site and with the slowdown of sales lately can barely earn the basics. Part of the problem is google in my mind and another huge part are these Chinese sellers flooding the market with their bogus items.

by: Disgruntled_Seller

One other interesting aspect about Amazon is not just counterfeiting but the sellers who latch onto a branded item page with a higher price. These sellers have no actual inventory of their own, are merchant fulfilled, and will order the item from you and ship it to the end customer. You as the seller with inventory have no real idea of what is happening. Some say that is good, as you are making a sale as well. But if you get a seller who gets the Buy Box over you (which certain can and does happen) and has the price set to high, the item's sales fall. Happens a lot on Amazon. In theory it is a great model for the non stocking seller who has 10s of thousands of items listed with no real inventory! Nothing to lose, everything to gain for these types. It is another aspect of what to kick off a branded item page that makes life fun.

by: epuise

As long as the customers keep buying inferior quality items w/o doing their due diligence, these sites will be deluged w/ cheap copies and sellers of the real thing will suffer...

by: mcposty

Amazon and ebay love china and tbeir fakes.

Etsy is joining in as well bowing to china

The solution is stop selling on these venues who only protect china interests.

Dont even buy from these idiots, make them all go.away

by: QueenMab

What about Amazon knowingly allowing Fraudulent Sellers to sell on Amazon and both the Fraudulent Seller & amazon refusing to issue full refunds to Buyers when the merchandise has been returned & the Buyer has proof of shipping to the Fraudulent Seller & proof that the Fraudulent Seller has the merchandise in their possesion?

by: Ming the Merciless

@sasikat9

A house brand doesn't label itself a name brand.

That's the difference. Sheesh!

by: LightWing

Communists are unimaginative droids taught from birth to be liars, cheats and thieves. When you sleep with the dogs you get their fleas.

by: Troy Stiffler

What matters is that they take efforts to fix it.  They definitely have a brewing problem with structured catalog data.  But they're getting so much activity, that they don't seem worried about it.  Maybe they'll start regulating at some point.

They have a big problem with users creating new listings, when they should be listing within an existing listing.  Approximately six months ago, I took steps to really ''work with'' their catalog department on ''cleaning up'' the products I'm selling on there.  The rundown is that I made a spreadsheet of 1000 ''correct'' listings, and approximately 7000 duplicate listings (I also generated perfect titles, features, descriptions, etc).  My hope was to consolidate these items, and make it easier for the customer to browse (and hopefully boost sales).  After doing all of the work (probably a good 40 hours), they said that they can't help me, and I can only submit five requests at a time.

To keep their listings ''independent'', the offenders purposely add ''632'' and ''632SEPTL'' to many of the part #'s.  And then they generate their own internal EAN # that is cross referenced in their internal system.  And all of this is just so they can create their own listings in bulk, which pollutes Amazon's catalog.

I also ran into a problem the other day.  I went to purchase ''Claritin'', and stopped after reading numerous reviews that the predominant ''FBA'' inventory (with Buy Box) is selling expired or near-expired products.

Amazon really needs to clamp down on the users doing this.  Their secret is that they're already using structured catalog data (which is the way to go) to sell their products.  If they're not careful, they're going to start looking like Ebay, and every seller will litter the catalog with their own entries.

The other annoying problem is that all of the duplicates in my sector are from the 4-5 sellers.  They need to ban those sellers, and then cancel all possible catalog entries that seller created.

Last annoying thing - all of these bad sellers (mostly overseas) are doing the same things with the catalog listings (even when they're the good listings).  Bad English.  Wrong pictures.  Wrong thumbnail (which I don't understand why so many thumbnails are different than the default product listing image).  Wrong info within.

I work in a relatively niche market.  So I hope that, by making the data clearer and easier to browse and buy - it's going to increase sales.  Amazon has incredible potential for bringing in the buyers.  And I can absorb the 15% un-tiered fee.  But I want to be selling 10x more than I am right now.

If anyone ''higher up'' at Amazon reads this, find me in your system and email me.  Because I kept getting stonewalled when trying to work this out through your normal ''request updates'' system.

by: Frank F

Amazon sounds like its getting just like ebay and etsy, which are both a proverbial 'cesspools' of counterfeit and tradmark infringing merchandise.

Just have a look on ebay! Be it Superman, Batman, Wonder Women, Disney Characters, Minion, Star Wars, Hello Kitty, NFL, MLB, NCAA, and other sports teams, Chevy, Ford, Jeep, Dodge, etc, etc etc.. You name the big brand and their are 1000s and 1000s of fake items being sold by these Chinese criminals.

A large portion of the counterfeiters are by Chinese and Hong Kong sellers, but their is a ever growing number of US sellers doing the same thing. Ebay doesn't seem to monitor or enfordce its policies, and I imagine it like a game of 'whack a mole' for the brand owners where they are simply overwhelmed by it. For example, they knock a China seller off that is selling fakes, and the China seller is back in business under another id the next day.. I've even seen where the Chinese sellers already have 30-40 ids and roll auctions under different ones so that its about impossible for the brand owners to keep up with them..

If ebay and Amazon are not going to address this, then maybe its high time that Homeland Security should step in. They have an IP Fraud and Piracy Division and it would seem that this would be right up their alley when sleazy foreign criminals are preying on the American consumer selling them fake goods and are damaging the US economy in the process... Sure wish something is done about this, as its going to be the death nail for American ecommerce small businesses.. This has been the worse year selling online in 15 years and I think this fragrant counterfeiting (and the marketplaces condoning it) is the reason why. Everything has been downhill since 2012, and that was the time that these Chinese moved into the direct to consumer market with all these fakes..

Everyone contact your Congressman, contact Homeland Securities IP Fraud Division, and hammer these marketplaces in all your blogs, communities and social media. We need to band together and stand up again this criminal activity!