I’ll just leave this here.
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/6735cdf9-e4df-4b33-964a-525673fa6a9d
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/6735cdf9-e4df-4b33-964a-525673fa6a9d
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I’m not certain about the accuracy of everything in OP’s post, but this is true for many Amazon Sellers:
I just don’t have the energy to adapt anymore.
Amazon does constantly change the rules and move the goal posts. It is a uniquely draining sales channel for a (very) small business, especially if you’re mostly a one-person shop and already doing everything for the business (which it sounds like OP is).
Now would I post up on the ASF about it? Naw. But if only half of all that is true, then my sincere sympathies to the OP and my full support of them closing this chapter.
Amazon can be a boon for the right business, but it is difficult every day, twice on Sundays, and three times whenever anyone mentions the FTC out of sheer spite–and it is not a good-fit sales channel for every product or Seller, even on the best of days.
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You can tell he has a really bad brain injury if he thinks the low inventory fee is worse than his supplier raising the minimum order by 5X.
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Agree 100%. If the low inventory fee is the straw that broke the camels back, this camel wasn’t going to make it very long anyway.
I would love to just put my business on auto-pilot and coast. That’s a one way ticket into the dust bin if you can’t adapt and adjust though. Doesn’t mean I like it but the world (and especially Amazon) doesn’t care.
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The comments on the NSFE post are interesting.
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I like this part of one of them:
“I have a neighbor that wanted to start selling here. He had joined a Amazon seller group. I told him about the REAL issues around here and several of the cons. He just looked at me like…what? I told him about the horrible seller support, the glitches that do not get fixed, how they lose shipments and try not to reimbuse them (or how they ask for invoices and then sell your product), the buyer return fraud, how they do not follow several policies, the rampant IP abuse, the increasing fees, etc etc. He said he isn’t interested anymore. I told him start your own website.”
It’s so true. For years as I explain the way it really is, people I know think I’m crazy. They think Amazon is this great place and everyone is so happy.
Amazon has done a decent job of controlling the PR in their favor. Not always but clearly the view of Amazon by the avg Amazon shopper is a lot higher than it should be.
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The last sentence is true.
Everyday it’s like there is something new I need to waste time on just when I think everything is fine.
Even today:
ASIN: B0B2PXQSHY, Title: Neutrogena Beach Defense SPF 30 Spray 6.5 oz (Pack of 2)
Why is this happening?
This product has been identified as pepper spray, mace, tear gas, or another chemical self-defense spray in a prohibited volume. Although permitted for listing and sale on Amazon, pepper spray, mace, tear gas, and other self-defense sprays of certain volumes cannot be sold into jurisdictions such as New Jersey based on law and Amazon policy.
It’s suntan spray. The bot sees the word “defense” and boom! Time to waste time on another case.
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Used some of that on the wife and she kept attacking me.
Must have used it
Seemed like it pissed her off more than it defended me …
Just stating the facts as they happened
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6 posts were split to a new topic: How Amazon’s “high shipping alert” costs customers
What I find “interesting” is that the OP says they have put in 12 years of work BUT their first post to the New NOT Improved Forum was only 9 months ago.
It’s possible that they were just going with the sewage flow on the River and didn’t have a reason to post, OR that they just migrated.
In either case, I just don’t understand how sellers can be so complacent when Amazon is so active in finding new and creative ways to make sellers miserable.
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To be fair: as you well know, many members of our Seller Community chose to obfuscate their prior posting history to various iterations of the ASF when they onboarded to the abomination NSFE.
I am not @ liberty to divulge details, but I’m fairly certain that I might well know what the OP’s handle was in the Age of Discourse & the preceding Age of Jive alike, so I don’t lightly discount the stated longevity.
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There are 3 new rules…
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/00fd861e-fed1-454a-970b-9d3e8384eb6a?postId=00fd861e-fed1-454a-970b-9d3e8384eb6a
We’ve continued to listen to your feedback and are making three additional changes that are designed to better target these low-inventory-level fees to where you have the most control to ensure healthy inventory:
- Because of the greater unpredictability in managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and other low-volume products with varying demand, starting May 15, the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days.
- Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times caused by Amazon or Amazon-managed services will be credited back to you by the 15th day of the following month. For example, May charges with excessive inbound delays will be credited back by June 15.
- Prime Day is an important sales driver for your business that is coming up soon, and we want to ensure that you are set up for success. For Prime Day 2024, we’ll provide a time-bound exception on low-inventory-level fees for products that are included in Prime-exclusive Lightning Deals and Best Deals. The fee exception will apply for the four weeks following Prime Day when inventory levels may be more unpredictable based on Prime Day sales.
They make is sound like this “innovation” is helpful to sellers 
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This marks the second News Headline which illustrates a retrenchment from Amazon’s initial stance on the Low-inventory-level fee (link, SHC) front.
That sort of thing is not entirely unheard-of, to be sure - but, historically, it is a fairly rare occurrence.
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One of our long time suppliers tried their hand at Amazon. The person they had working on it failed so bad, the board of directors forced him to apologize to us face to face, over dinner at the World Ag Expo in 2018, so they could get us to bring their lines back under our brand/marketing/images/etc.
Sadly, I was stuck in Guam for two weeks, because two low self esteem nation leaders, were doing a urinary olympiad on twitter over who had bigger nuclear weapons.
I was told it was AWESOME with a side of begging, groveling, and a bunch of sniveling about how he didn’t know he was trying to hijack the listings. We are all friends now, as his product knowledge is beyond reproach, but his internet skills are on par with my mother, who only recently learned to turn her ipad sideways to watch movies bigger.
Knowledge is good, experience is good, put them together and you can dominate.
He literally replaced photoshopped professionally taken images, with unedited images taken on a potato, using a sheet as a background.
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A winning recipé in most-any situation, in my experience.
Sadly, there are all-too many of us who don’t believe that THIS is The Way.
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Can is the key word. Shall or will would be a gross grammatical error as it sometimes takes blind luck, perseverance, and or a myriad of other traits/events to guide one’s outcome.
Our number 3 selling item came upon us by complete accident when a supplier shipped us the wrong product, and we happened to be the only one in stock when a popular reviewer just happened to buy ours, and left a rip snorting review.
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To be fair, I don’t hate #1 or #2. (#3 is some BS where “if you pay for advertising, we’ll give you a discount”.)
But the POINT is that the decisions upfront are shoddy and made by mush-brains, the implementation is even worse, and the walking back/“improvements” make you crazier than the initial mindfluck ever did.
Amazon doesn’t fight Sellers to the death; they fight “to the pain”.
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At least they made it simpler to understand.
What a joke.
Just ran across a 4th new rule.
“Sellers that stand on their head when the moon is exactly half full at 1:23AM will have their low inventory fee waved on the 30th of February.”
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