Amazon suddenly identifying random products as Pesticide or Pest Control
I am at wits end because Seller Support chat, call, e-mail do not answer or address this issue. We sell a roll of tape. Tape. For putting on racking/shelves. Tape. Suddenly I am getting Account Health violations saying we are claiming this is a pesticide or pest control and I have spent hours trying to get this resolved. All I get is a canned response from all about Pesticides or Pest Control claims. I did manage to finally get one of the products reinstated (and I have the Case ID logs and e-mail to prove it). This week, again, they say that same product is Pesticide product and now have removed the listing. Not only that but NOW they say another version (we have different widths) is in violation of Pesticide product. I have sent appeals. Pictures. Descriptions of the product - you name it. I can't get any help beyond the people answering the phone using the same basic script about pesticide products. NO ONE will or can tell me why our TAPE is being targeted.
Amazon suddenly identifying random products as Pesticide or Pest Control
I am at wits end because Seller Support chat, call, e-mail do not answer or address this issue. We sell a roll of tape. Tape. For putting on racking/shelves. Tape. Suddenly I am getting Account Health violations saying we are claiming this is a pesticide or pest control and I have spent hours trying to get this resolved. All I get is a canned response from all about Pesticides or Pest Control claims. I did manage to finally get one of the products reinstated (and I have the Case ID logs and e-mail to prove it). This week, again, they say that same product is Pesticide product and now have removed the listing. Not only that but NOW they say another version (we have different widths) is in violation of Pesticide product. I have sent appeals. Pictures. Descriptions of the product - you name it. I can't get any help beyond the people answering the phone using the same basic script about pesticide products. NO ONE will or can tell me why our TAPE is being targeted.
30 replies
Seller_mV3LwXfv6Bo9Z
Hello. I am sorry this is happening to you. We dealt with this for YEARS (2018-ish until 2022 or so). We kept getting notices about this. We sell athletic clothing and no matter what we did we could never be in compliance because somewhere in a Parent ASIN description or A+ Marketing page we referenced "anti-microbial" or something.
We spent countless hours combing through everything and I think it only really went away when we deleted all of our A+ Marketing pages and redid them.
But even when we made changes to listings to remove all references to "anti-microbial" properties (Amazon at one point told us this was our problem, but I think it was deeper than that...the representative just had no idea) the text would still show up in the listings. Even after we edited the descriptions and saved our changes. It was a losing game.
Multiple people here worked on it, started cases, talked to customer support, etc. We tried everything. And after a good 4 or 5 years something we did finally must have worked because we haven't heard from them about this in a while, knock on wood.
Good luck. Amazon sucks and they want us all to fail. Well, succeed just enough to keep us on the platform while also weakened and beaten down enough that we put up with their endless garbage. You can't win. Only Amazon can win. And it sucks.
Good luck. It is impossible to get realistic help or answers from them.
Seller_LImVvUWeyiCfQ
You are located in the US, correct? This may be an easy fix for you simply by taking and passing the Required Training for Selling Pesticides and/or Products with Pesticidal Claims – U.S. Domestic Sellers Only.
If I'm looking at the right product/detail page, there are a few words that stand out to me that the (poorly programmed) bot might be flagging: cleaning, chemicals, industrial cleaners. It's been a while since we took the course, so just speculating on those words.
Many times it's a matter of one making pesticidal claims rather than ones product being an actual pesticide. Start with the pesticide course so you can mark that your listing(s) isn't a pesticide, then identify any claims you've made and remove them, if necessary.
Good luck to you.
Atlas_Amazon
Hello @Seller_k7RD9fUO8m14k
Thank you for information provided regarding the issues you have been dealing with. I understand that you are dealing with the pesticide claims on your listings. We understand how frustrating this might be given that you just recently resolved this concern. You mention having provided the appeals to our team on this issue, have you received a response on this information as of yet?
The documents you mention having provided are what we would recommend to submit. Our team will need to be able to see the specific product details and that the listing has been set up in compliance with our policies. You will need to attempt to appeal the issues you are seeing for us to be able to take additional action. Please keep us updated with the response you are receiving and the cases that your appeals are associated to.
If you have any other details or questions regarding these issues, continue to refer here for support.
Best,
Atlas
Seller_iobipI6xASRkh
Call the catalog department and ask them to review your listings for any claims that can cause the trigger. Not many know this, but they can help determine what is happening and save you hours of guessing.
You can call seller support and ask for catalog because you want them to review your listing. If an agent doesn't help the next one will because they DO have a phone line.
Seller_ua5zEE9zVhria
I experienced similar with one of my private label products. Carefully compare words in your listings. There's something that's a flag for pesticides. A couple of mine are marked HazMat for returns when it's just laminated cardstock! Try removing the offending words and maybe changing the product type? So frustrating...
Seller_6hFuE3oTzYyFr
we had the same problem and Amazon was selling and shipping the exact same product. It was a mat used in front of cat litter boxes. No pesticides. No Claims of pesticides. It appears their bots need training.
Seller_aluFqz4xwJqzk
this exact thing happened to me as well.... Amazon removed my listing .... took me a while (several days and a lot of time...) to get it back up....
Seller_D7mNsI9QDpUdP
Oh yes, the Pesticide Product Pronouncement. First cousin to a Radio Frequency Device . I had one book "A Flag for Sunrise" removed as a "RFD" and spent a while trying to explain that books don't have such things unless you wear a tinfoil hat and see little green monsters in the kitchen. Luckily it was one book, so after a while I just threw out the book. For those who sell in bulk these bots can be a royal pain, and fixing the issue is frustrating, time-consuming, and often, I daresay, impossible. You have my heartfelt sympathy! But no solutions, I am afraid.
Seller_J4xdAQedDDg8G
We have this issue on footwear and insoles. Make sure that nowhere in your listing text that you have words like "anti-microbial", "mildew resistant" or anything similar to this. This is a trigger for their bots. Your pictures can have that wording but not the text of your listing.
Seller_FSJQSK8dDFpH2
Happened to me many times, for screwdrivers and wrenches LOL. I just let the listings disappear.
