I got hit by a Product Authenticity Customer Complaint and appealed with a proper invoice from a reputable UK wholesaler.
They rejected the appeal asking for further information from my supplier’s supplier which I am not able to obtain.
Is it worth to appeal with the same invoice again or I have no option but to provide the information from my supplier’s supplier?
How can I reinstate my listing?
To get your listing reinstated, send us the following required documents and information from your supplier’s supplier:
Copies of invoices, receipts, contracts, delivery orders or authorisation letters from your supplier’s supplier issued within the last 365 days.
If you are not the brand owner, provide an authorisation letter and a complete set of documentation to prove a valid supply chain.
If you are the brand owner, provide a copy of the brand registration certificate and business licence or personal identity card.
So there is no point in insisting on appeal. Thanks for your answers tough.
I am still wondering what triggered further investigation about the supplier when they only asked for invoices in the first notification.
You inquiry to the wholesaler is simple - "Please provide YOUR letter of authorization from [the brand] to document that you are an authorized distributor of legitimate non-counterfeit products. Please see your attached paperwork, where you stated or implied that you were authorized when selling the goods at issue."
If they don’t, you then directly contact the brand, and say “Hey, these guys claimed to be your authorized distributor, are they? Look that this paperwork, looks authentic, doesn’t it?”
These kind of documents allow you to show Amazon that you have done your due diligence, and either bought from an authorized distributor, or were lied to.
The downside here is that if the wholesaler is a true ongoing criminal conspiracy, they might get angry at you for poking around, and decide that the cheapest way to make the problem go away is to hire a goon to do some violence. So maybe you just want to contact the brand directly, and skip alerting the wholesaler to your inquires.
Is the manufacturer or an authorized representative of the manufacturer selling their products on Amazon?
If no, you can try to contact the brand owner/manufacturer for help with the issue and they may be willing to make you an authorized resellers and provide documentation stating as such.
If yes, you’re an unauthorized competitor and they likely will not help you, and contacting them may call attention to yourself and get them to take action against your other listings of their brand.
To be more clear, the brand is called Veet and is sold by many resellers but having said that I am not 100% sure if they have an authorized seller on Amazon.
I spoke with the Citizen Advise to report the issue with all the details. They said this was now being passed on Trading Standards and also suggested having the product tested by an independent firm to verify whether the product is authentic or not.
The reason I contacted them was to find out if there is a legal way to push the supplier to prove their supply chain or obtain a letter of authorization.
I believe they must be responsible for the authenticity of all products they offer just like us, even though they don’t sell on Amazon or any other marketplace.
Well, if you can’t get the brand owner’s assistance on this, the best you can do is roll the dice and hope you don’t get any complaints (and this ASIN will not be reinstated). If you do you can’t defend them without the proper documents.
If it’s saying you have to appeal by a certain date (usually 7 days after the complaint), it means exactly what it says. It’ll be deactivated on that date. You can continue selling until that date, though if you receive another complaint it could get it deactivated sooner.
Before Appeal:What happens now?
Your listings are still active. However, to remove these violations from your Account Health Dashboard, please provide copies of invoices or receipts from your supplier issued in the last 365 days for every ASIN listed at the end of this email
If we receive more complaints about your listings, we may remove them.
After Appeal: What happens if I do not submit the required information?
If we do not receive the requested information, your listings for the above items will remain inactive. (but the listing has never became inactive)
As it stands now, the most likely scenario if you don’t/can’t provide a LOA from the brand owner is that the listing could be shut down, but your account probably won’t be impacted.
If you get additional violations on this ASIN, you will almost certainly suffer an Account Health Score defect, and those score defects increase in severity with repeated offenses.
If you cannot provide the documentation requested, I suggest you get off this listing ASAP. Your account in unlikely to suffer any wider ill effects. However, the longer this listing remains in your catalog, the greater risk you run of more severe problems.
