It’s stuff like this product (and there’s a lot of it), that have destroyed the entire industry and had us all labeled snake oil salesman.
There are good brands out there that actually market stuff that’s beneficial and works. It’s all in the science. Sadly, those brands are few and far between and almost always get CRUSHED by brands like this one.
Nice (good) people tend to finish last. To survive, while doing the right thing, you have to be ruthlessly on top of your game defending everything you possibly can. It’s not easy or for the faint of heart.
From SAS. Zilch, nothing, nada today on any of our open issues. I don’t like this guy. He’s like the first guy that took 48 hours to reply to everything. Last SAS manager got back to me within an hour, every single time during normal biz hours. She was amazing.
I’ve noticed that some of the brands have had this video removed somehow today but not many. Kardashian isn’t one of them. It’s still on her Lemmee product…
Got an interesting response from Seller Support on this. Of course they want us to report it a different way but the wording of “Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention” is something I think I’ve only seen once before from Seller Support.
Even if you are with SAS (Strategic Account Services), the first step is opening a reg case and then you can escalate it if you don’t like the results.
That’s what I am going to do because I really do fear that if I use the standard reporting path, ordinary brand registry / seller support could take our ASIN out instead of doing what should be done due to confusion / ineptitude. This way, even if it does get screwed up, it can be quickly reversed through SAS.
Probably escalate this on Mon AM. Will advise on the results.
Wow… That crap brand has another influencer making the same comparison videos and posting them all over the place…
Interestingly, one of our competitors, who they hit, the packaging is showing the IP they stole from us in this brand new video… They had applied a sticker over it to save what they had but I doubt they would still have those labels or product in stock 2 years later. Time for a test-buy and this time we can report through Amazon and get them in trouble for real…
Last time we just C&D’d them because the TM was just applied for. Now it’s live.
That’s the way it works in the swamp that it is my industry.
ETA - I already have an open internal investigation against this “brand” with Amazon’s compliance department.
They claim they are Sugar Free on ~20 ASIN’s but use Dextrose in them. For those who don’t know - Dextrose is Sugar. Doing a test-report to see if Amazon will take it out. It’s the same ASIN as the IP. I’ve been hunting for ways to systematically destroy them for years. If it works, going after the rest of their assortment.
There’s something in the code / law above that specifically addresses ingredients that are sugar or known to be sugar in regards to sugar free claims.
I actually believe that they are too stupid to even know what they did. Shows how bad their manufacturer is as well. That label never should have passed internal compliance. GMP manufacturers have a duty to ensure label / claim compliance.
ETA part 4 - It’s not just on the listing (sugar free claim) - It’s also on the product label. Our SAS manager was particularly disturbed by this because his Dad is a diabetic.
Well, sleazy & shady operators in that marketplace do not typically possess Steve’s well-established skills - nor are they typically prone to even begin the learning curve which he’s followed for decades now passed, despite all obstacles - so:
They are desperately scrambling to gain market share, whether by hook or by crook.
Sadly, the latter is currently running Win-Place-Show in most of the races, where Amazon’s A9/A10 algorithm is the arbiter, unless this or that Pay-To-Play mechanism is engaged.
Just got off my Bi-Weekly SAS call where this was a topic of discussion. My SAS manager’s director was on the call (probably bc this guy isn’t very good and may have seen my email complaining about his atrocious follow up time).
The Director was pretty disturbed by what’s happening with these influencers and he’s taking this on himself to investigate.
Does this mean anything - probably not but it’s nice to see other real people agreeing with our position on this BS.
He already was by the “Advertising Executive” assigned to our account and was given this issue by our SAS manager against the advice of his boss. We were told that this was cool and the video was sponsored against our listing.
Aaaahhhhh - but that’s not true. It’s a video within our listings video carousel and not below the listing where these BS sponsored videos live.
We will see. You can’t compare a 13 ingredient, 2 a day capsule “lose weight while you sleep” product to what we are selling. It’s a ridiculous comparison that means nothing at the end of the day to our business. I just don’t want it there and not letting this go.
The way this was done is not consistent with the intent of the program nor does it follow policy guidelines. If Vitafusion and others can get it blocked / removed from their listings, so can we, one way or the other.
Yes, you are correct. This is a TikTok thing for Amazon. Amazon was making strides in cleaning up how listings were presented to buyers and now we have all these silly, poorly made, unprofessional videos all over the place made by 19 year old girls in their bedrooms, talking about products made for those of us in the middle / end of their life cycles.
Our future path and future will not be dependent on Amazon.
Like I had mentioned, not overly concerned about this particular video, rather what might be coming down the pike from others.
With that in mind, we are testing the waters at Amazon to see what path they might take with this sort of nonsense. This will just end up being something that is too big to control like everything else on Amazon.
SAS manager / his boss / Ad “Executive” all have this on their plate now. Not expecting anything to happen but still interested in how this gets spun now that it’s understood that this isn’t a paid video ad on our listing, rather a part of it, as if we put it there or worked with an influencer to do the same.
We did get a note this morning that it’s being reviewed internally now that they firmly understand through screenshots and a video screen capture I sent them that their assumption that this was paid was incorrect.
Again, some brands were able to shake these videos from these morons off their listings. We would like the same.
While XXXXXX is investigating from his side of the business. XXXXXXX had shared with me the resources to find the root cause of this. I have done some research and this clearly falls under bad actor activity on Amazon. I am locating the right POCs to present the issue to.
XXXXXX, please continue to share your findings on this thread and I will do the same once I have an update.
I should probably put a couple of the emails from today on this just to illustrate just how sharp the Ad Account Exec is. Being with SAS is not dissimilar to dealing with seller support.
The only difference is the language barriers are a little less (but still exist in some cases like this one), and I have people’s email addresses to contact directly and at will.
This is back and forth with the “Exec”. That last note I shared was sent by our SAS manager after this back and forth.
I think you’ll all enjoy this.
Hi Steve,
Just got back from the internal team.
So Amazon Live team did not create any of those videos, video does not violate any of our content policies such as creators can upload reviews and product comparisons.
This is a negative review kind of situation.
Best regards,
XXXXX, this IS NOT a negative review kind of situation. This is an influencer being paid by XXXXXXXXXX to post these videos on every listing they can get their hands on.
Here’s a screenshot of just some of them. And here’s a LINK, And here’s a LINK to the other influencer they have paid to do the same.
XXXXXXXX - Will you be looking into this further from your end as discussed yesterday? I will submit again that this can’t be Amazon’s intention of the influencer program.
Regards,
Steve
Got it.
I am sending the image back now. Will let you know soon.
