
“We sued a Chinese company on Amazon and they are now extorting us.” - ikeboy
https://twitter.com/Molson_Hart/status/1231969414062448641
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planetzero
Amazon only seems to care about counterfeits for a certain protected class of
seller. I sold DVDs about 7 years ago and bought them from legit sources and
sold no counterfeits.

I had nearly 100% positive reviews and would bend over backwards to help any
customer with any issues. What I believe now is a competitor purchased a DVD,
filed a claim that it was a counterfeit, and even told me that they were going
to 'punish' me in their comments.

Before I had a chance to even resolve the issue, my account was permanently
banned. All of my messages to Amazon support went to an automated department
and I was rejected outright.

To this day, I can't even open an Amazon seller account in another industry or
login to a companies seller account without the account getting banned.

I now have a business that does millions of dollars in revenue/year (different
industry completely) and Amazon reps have been hounding me for months to open
up a Business account. I always tell them I will do it if they can resolve my
seller account issue and the response is always the same: "That's not my
department" and they stop emailing me.

It's scary that there is really no recourse if a company like Amazon bans you
for life. As we get more reliant on companies like this, there will be a class
of people that eventually won't even be able to buy anything.

~~~
ikeboy
You can take them to arbitration. I've heard anecdotally of people who got
reinstated that way. Multiple stories of people I know personally.

That said, my own account was permanently blocked after false counterfeit
complaints and I'm currently entangled in a lawsuit against the companies that
filed those complaints. Legal process is rough. Takes time and costs money and
is emotionally draining even if you have a strong case.

~~~
planetzero
That ship has sailed. It taught me a lesson not to base any business on any
3rd-party platform.

If I ever start a business on a platform again, my goal will be to move away
from it as soon as possible.

Amazon is a horrible company and although it's tempting to sell products on
their platform, they will only steal your business from under you.

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sarcasmatwork
Sounds like amazon is also to blame for allowing this behavior on their
platform. Getting $$ from someone in China might be difficult from a legal
standpoint.

~~~
ikeboy
Worth taking a look at the proposed law by this person, linked downthread. One
of the proposals is to require all foreign sellers to have insurance to cover
any legal judgements. This would effectively solve that issue, and insurance
companies would presumably do some kind of verification to make sure companies
aren't fly-by-night, which would cut out a lot of bad behavior.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
It's really not hard to get crappy insurance. What's hard is getting that
crappy insurance to pay out when there's a problem.

~~~
ikeboy
If the insurance is required to pay any judgements against the company, they
will pay. The system works for car insurance - you must carry liability
insurance if you drive.

