Yes, I should have remembered that, after seeing it mentioned so many times over the years in various iterations of the ASF.
While it is true that Handmade is not one of the 50+ choices in the Category Listing Reports’ dropdown selection menu, there is the “All” choice.
There’s a reason why I’m focused upon using CLRs to possibly help in this situation, because they offer what is one of the clearest views as to what Amazon automated mechanisms consider to be authoritative data - but let’s not put the cart before the horse just yet; may I ask whether or not you see “Category Listing Report” among the choices under the “Select Report Type” dropdown menu on the Inventory Reports (link, Seller Central) Dashboard?
Yes except they changed this until further notice. This is why we have crock flashlight inserts in handmade. Only early adopters had to pay the $40 fee like us. We were on Amazon commercial before they were born.
Then they waved the 30 or more item requirement. Everyone, especially the Asian Basin Sellers found they now could get a free Amazon seller account if they signed up for handmade.
You can sign up for Amazon Handmade, and sell for free on Amazon Commercial as much as you like. While this is true, if a Grand Pumbaa wants to nuke this fine with me. Read the art of war to understand…
Though it is true. It IMO was one of the deaths of Handmade.
Here’s what we do at least once every business quarter, in order to enable the 7-day window for downloading our CLRs/RFRs:
Navigate through the Help Menu to open a “Other account issues” case with SS/ASPS (“Seller Support”/“Amazon Selling Partner Support”), not with Brand Registry Support.
Change the “Short Description” to “Other account issues - Request to Temporarily Enable Category Listing/Reverse Feed Reports for Download from Inventory Reports Dashboard”
Navigate to the newly-created case in the Case Lobby Dashboard, and add this (w/o the quotation marks I’ve added here):
"Greetings from Merchant ID [OUR MERCHANT TOKEN]
We’d like to request that the Catalog & FEEDs Department enable our Category Listing Reports (also now known as Reverse Feeds Reports) for download from our Inventory Reports Dashboard, please - thank you!"
That works like a charm, at least for us (n.b.: I’ve had to re-write our training materials several times to accommodate various changes which Amazon has made in the “Contact Us” workflow in recent years, but the quoted message we send hasn’t changed since 2016); I would also add that our people download each and every CLR with which we are presented (there’s been some change of the ‘overarching categories’ offered up for download over the years), so that we can see if what WE know to be authoritative data jibes with what Amazon’s automated mechanisms believe to currently be authoritative data.
CLRs have pulled our fat out of the fire more than once.
Thanks for the link, although the copied text is truncated and I refuse to go to the DoxMeBaby new forum. @Dogtamer — is it possible to reprint your entire instructions? Or message me if it’s too long.
Yes - here’s the excerpt of my reply to that OSFE discussion:
At that time that post written, some years back, it had long been the default for CLRs to be disabled, so that template was created in 2016 to ease the quarterly need to open a case - we download every CLR, even for Categories in which we do not currently (and/or ever have) make Offer-Listings, @ least once each and every biz quarter, so that we can keep a sharp eye peeled upon what the system thinks is authoritative @ that time.
Shortly after that post was made, however, Amazon drafted some 3P Sellers into a Beta Program of keeping CLRs available upon demand; for some time afterward, there was a “Beta Warning” once CLR had been selected for report type - but that was recently removed (@ least for us).
I mention that simply because we have not had to open a case for some time, so the steps you’ll have to take to get the Case ID will be different than what I described being in play back then.
In that regard, I just took a spin at the wheel, and it seems that you’ll want to select the ‘My issue is not listed’ “button,” and then populate the ‘Or, describe your issue’ dialog box with “Other account issues - Request to Temporarily Enable Category Listing/Reverse Feed Reports for Download from Inventory Reports Dashboard” (without the quotation marks), then click the ‘Continue’ “button” - presenting you with another round of options offered up by the AI which will not help, but also with another ‘My Issue is not listed’ button.
I haven’t clicked that because I strongly suspect that it will immediately create a new case, which I’d then have to close manually with a a mea culpa.
If following that path does indeed do as I suspect, then I’d navigate to the Case itself in the Case Log Lobby, and paste in the template (after substituting in your Merchant Token).
One caveat: given that I’m not a Handmade Artisan, I cannot say for sure whether or not CLRs are entirely blocked for those who are - I wouldn’t think so, but this IS Amazon, so I’d refrain from any mention of being enrolled in Handmade.
Also it seems like they had nothing to do with the violation (if they filed a complaint it would be a “received” complaint), so they have no obligation to respond to you.
The bot action suspected are harder, I couldn’t get out of the bot loop, same damn auto reply over and over.
I was out of stock anyway so I quit trying to show them how sloppy the bot is to pick up on only one matching word and demand I erroneously change the correct brand name on my page to match the wrong one.
They took the detail page down. Seasonal item, sold for years, they’ve killed it for next season’s availability.
How can they condone such sloppy programming with real consequences, that makes fraudulent accusations??
