Refrence Pricing issue
I have 5 items that are not posted because of a pricing issue, and I keep getting told to change the price to the Reference Price, but I can't do that because the reference price is not accurate, they're must be an error, and I don't know how to fix this.
10 replies
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
Amazon's "reference price", at least in media (the only thing I sell here) often has no connection to reality.
The most common is using a "List price" for a product not produced for 40-50 years, therefore an unrealistic price not adjusted for inflation. Another I had that I was actually able to track down the "competitive price" on eBay, where the seller had a book with the cover missing (which generally considered "stolen"), and Amazon wanted my to price my LN book to match that price.
They will base "reference" price on sales prices on pretty much any website, and also base it on anything they consider "similar".
Hopefully the legal case with the FTC will eliminate this (they can't do it anywhere else in the world), but until then, I don't know of anything around it, although since I sell only one-off offers (and can sell them elsewhere) I've never gone to extensive lengths to fix it.
You might try opening a case, with any documentation you think supports your pricing. If you do, keep us posted.
Seller_J46Ruz3VzvWCV
Sadly you can't. Nor will Amazon listen to sellers on this. It's all hard coded and can't be overridden.
Seller_Aq9qyNWeozQPP
I have been arguing with seller "support" about this same issue
We have a suppressed book because our price is too high according to their system
Problem is, the price range is:
maximum price : 4 cents
minimum price: 3 cents
The book to which I'm referring is a scholarly monograph on optics. It came out at over $100
"SUPPORT" is incapable of recognizing the irrationality of the amazon system, hence, they do nothing but plead igorance and subservience to their "pricing guidelines"
This MUST violate our seller agreement on some grounds
Seller_r9wMm8LrE5iKj
Lucky you, with an inaccurate reference price. Our listings are buy box eligible because they're "too expensive" with no reference price.
Many of our items were put on sale, and that sale ended well over a month ago. Many items still show on the inventory page like this: "Featured Offer: $254.15 + $0.00" which was the sale price on an item where we're sole seller, have the buy box in many instances, and are selling at a higher number than the one displayed above (i.e. we are once again selling at current MSRP/MAP).
This is obviously a bug. It craters our buy box rate and overall sales. The solution would be to never put items on sale on Amazon, raising costs to customers. Of course, that would violated Amazon's (blatantly anti-trust-y) most favored nation clause when the items go on sale elsewhere. Of course, that's only a problem presuming the bots work well enough to catch those violations, and a given here is that he bots suck.
No point in wasting the hours I have even trying to get the rare, clueful Amazon escalation rep to put in writing what's obviously happening, even after they admit that this is exactly is what's happening. Then they pass it back to front line reps that go back to copy-n-pasting the wrong solution, until I get threatened with account closure for reopening cases that have been "solved."
This blows away the line between incompetence and malfeasance, and I have to assume that at some level Amazon has looked at the whole steaming pile of bits and clueless support (which exists only for purposes of plausible deniability) and concluded "this is fine." From which I would conclude "scr*w you, too."
Seller_z1JDNz6de1lqc
No Fix this is just Amazon Price Fixing items! We have 111 taken down many with "No applicable Reference price" or amazon is setting price to manufacture list price from 5 years ago. All you can do is either leave dead and many time you check back a year later and pricing may be corrected or list on a different smarter platform one that offers seller support. even before this point is SEMI SUPPRESSED LISTINGS where price is higher than what Amazon is fixing so they remove buy box and make listing almost impossible to sell unless you lower price...
Seller_4HsL3GZbyDLea
Here's a silly, but sadly not too far from reality, analogy.. Imagine you are selling a brand new Mercedes S Class. Next to no miles. Mint condition. Amazon will see a destroyed Mercedes S Class with 300,000 miles that has recently caught fire after having been in a 20 car pileup. It is a charred hunk of metal, rubber and glass that now does not even resemble an automobile. It is being sold for parts at a junkyard for 100 dollars.
You will need to match their price.
