Like many others our products recently have been classified as pesticides, even though they are not, nor make pesticidal claims.
When we contact Amazon Health Support, they “regurgitate” the information on the performance notification stating we need to upload a correct EPA reg # but offer no further help.
The items in question, are not pesticides and thus do not have EPA reg #'s. We have appealed stating such, with photos of the items and the packages (also uploading them to the detail page) and all we receive back are denials with the same original “cut and paste” text.
We have went so far to reply, “Please describe what exactly the issue is, either within the listing detail page, and/or on the product itself, so that we can immediately address it…” and again get replied to in cut and paste.
We’ve been selling for years, so not surprised, but we just can’t wrap our head around Amazon’s processes. They bring a “problem” (even though its wrong) to your attention and then literally make it impossible to resolve. I am not quite sure how this is serving Amazon’s interest as we are all losing sales on these items, Amazon included.
With that said, does any one have any further ideas or tactics to get ASIN’s reinstated, other than measures we have taken above?
Did you take the pesticide class, so you can determine if your item or its keywords are pesticide related? Historically, Amazon will only let sellers who have completed the module, assert that something is or, in your case, is not a pesticide.
Also check all keywords and descriptors in the listings, for things related to pest, kill, eliminates, and all the other trigger words in the pesticide class.
We did take the class, we have reviewed the listing and nothing “jumps off the page” as triggering the pesticidal claim. We are not the brand owners, so as I am sure you are aware it is also difficult to Amazon to accept a detail page change from us as well.
It would obviously be so much easier if Amazon cited the specific problem : “insert here” so that we can specifically address it instead of wasting time guessing what the issue is and being stuck in this endless loop…
Well, Amazon has changed over the years and they don’t want sellers having the ability to play around with brand owners IP. It also can get triggered by a foreign version of the ASIN so you will simply have to either scour each word or get the brand owner to get you a letter or something.
You can try uploading the MSDS. It worked for us on one item last year.
I agree but what I am lost at is, how does it serve Amazon to be so ambiguous? Would it not serve everyone to get this quickly fixed, so that we can continue to sell and Amazon continue to make money off it?
Because the site is full of amateur clowns who will simply copy that one resolution and paste it for everything. Amazon expects sellers to be intimately knowledgeable or have access to that capacity for certain things like this,pesticides, MSDS, LOA, Invoices, etc.
We see this daily with IP theft, used sold as new, duplicate listings, hazmat reviews, all because some inept seller decided the rules and legitimacy are not convenient, or some nefarious actor is determined to make a buck and all points in between.
I feel your pain, but based on the volume of inept/bad actors, I can see why Amazon does not simply say “do this to fix your issue”.
Part of it is this, where they want people to learn their lesson and not do it again. Another part is they don’t want to necessarily tell people when a suspension decision is final, so they leave the messages ambiguous. There’s suspensions where they will not ultimately accept any kind of appeal, but they generally don’t tell people that to keep them guessing.
Yup. I am not going to point out where the security cameras are installed, to the person casing my building for another robbery. I also will not do it for the bad/drunk drivers who have run over my mailbox wondering how the police got their licence plate.
Respectfully we are not “avoiding the rules” we are trying to be compliant. If they would say word “X” or phrase “Z” is the problem, then we use our time and theirs ultimately more productively than they waste of time back and forth.
If we have a problem with one of our employees, we don’t just say “you violated our code of conduct policy” we explain how they violated and what they can do to prevent it from reoccurring.
Again, we are not the enemy here. I am not sure why we have accepted this role as third party sellers to be treated like enemies.
It is fairly good at filtering out stupid sellers though, which are just as big of a problem.
People who think they can ship stuff when they want instead of getting stuff out on time, or the people who think it’s ok to sell stuff with packaging that’s “slightly worn” as new are a dime a dozen.
If we were in the dark on something (and we often are), then we might try to find the same or similar product to compare how the title, bullets and description are written. We would keep in mind that those listings could also be wrong but have not yet been caught. On the other hand, the comparison might enlighten us to what the problem (problem word/wording) might be.
Just a Thought
Apples might be green, red or golden but the color doesn’t matter when the apple has a worm hole in it.
As you intimate that you do not enjoy DPC (‘Amazonese’ for “Detail Page Control”), I’m not sure if this will work, but may I ask if you have navigated to the Safety & Compliance ‘tab’ of your Offer-Listing in MYI (‘Amazonese’ for “Manage Inventory”) Editor, and under the “Pesticide Marking” section set the value of the “Pesticide Registration Status” field to “This product is not a pesticide or pesticide device, as defined under the U.S. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act” ?
The ‘tab’ & ‘field’ nomenclatures used here might vary by category, and it’s possible that either a flat-file or a feeds upload might be required to push it through, but if I had already passed the Regulatory Compliance Module’s test in Seller University - and were sure, as evidenced by the appearance of an “Pesticides and Pesticide Devices” approval with the ‘Application Type’ “Sub Category” on the View Selling Applications (link), that Amazon’s automated mechanisms actually recognized that status as authoritative -
I’d be inclined to try that first.
This is how it is set originally and that is the problem. They are looking for an EPA # because some robot decided somehow that it was a pesticide. And no matter how much we ask in writing and/or on the phone with account health why they have made this determination and what we can then do to appeal that determination. They literally repeat exactly what the performance notification says, which is absolutely nothing of relevance to ASIN at hand.
If this happened out of the blue, then perhaps you could describe the product.
There are some good imaginations here, that might be able to make a connection for you. You might cite the FIFRA regs to show that your product does not fall under any pesticide category, as citing regulations tends to lend authority to one’s argument. For example:
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The term pesticide, as defined in FIFRA section 2(u) means: any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest; any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant; and. any nitrogen stabilizer.
Our product is none of the above, and makes no claims connected in any way with any of the above. Therefore, Section 2(u) defines our product as a non-pesticide.
Ok will go back to the drawing board, thanks!