GOODBYE FBA
After 13 years of playing by the rules. Amazon has made it impossible for the small business to get ahead. After some serious consideration I have decided to close the doors and take another path. Thousands lost in revenue because of the way they go about making it impossible for fairness. Inventory "lost" constantly. Fees upon Fees upon Fees. For the last 10 months my "call me now" feature doesn't even work and there's no alternative to contact them other than email or chat. The people that work chat don't know anything other than copy and paste answers. When you have an actual problem, no one wants to help. I put my heart and soul into my business only to lose myself in the end. Even in closing I lost more. Requesting my inventory to be sent back to me only caused most of it to be damaged during shipping because they do not package your things like they do for buyers. They take no care in how they ship things back to us sellers. So many items broken during shipment. Then they use Amazon partnered carriers that you can not track. These are just a few of the reasons that I feel like Amazon could care less about us. I am hurt, but I guess why did I expect it to be any other way. I just want to get the rest of my items out of inventory and close the account, but even that is causing issues. Every time I request certain items in a removal order they just cancel it. The worst is I have 35 of an item that is stranded. The ASIN has been deleted from the catalog and it has a hazmat review request. I can not submit my paperwork because there's no listing. It gives me an error that says ASIN is invalid. I can not make a new listing because there's nothing in the catalog for it. I can not remove it because it is stranded. Can anyone help me with this last issue?
GOODBYE FBA
After 13 years of playing by the rules. Amazon has made it impossible for the small business to get ahead. After some serious consideration I have decided to close the doors and take another path. Thousands lost in revenue because of the way they go about making it impossible for fairness. Inventory "lost" constantly. Fees upon Fees upon Fees. For the last 10 months my "call me now" feature doesn't even work and there's no alternative to contact them other than email or chat. The people that work chat don't know anything other than copy and paste answers. When you have an actual problem, no one wants to help. I put my heart and soul into my business only to lose myself in the end. Even in closing I lost more. Requesting my inventory to be sent back to me only caused most of it to be damaged during shipping because they do not package your things like they do for buyers. They take no care in how they ship things back to us sellers. So many items broken during shipment. Then they use Amazon partnered carriers that you can not track. These are just a few of the reasons that I feel like Amazon could care less about us. I am hurt, but I guess why did I expect it to be any other way. I just want to get the rest of my items out of inventory and close the account, but even that is causing issues. Every time I request certain items in a removal order they just cancel it. The worst is I have 35 of an item that is stranded. The ASIN has been deleted from the catalog and it has a hazmat review request. I can not submit my paperwork because there's no listing. It gives me an error that says ASIN is invalid. I can not make a new listing because there's nothing in the catalog for it. I can not remove it because it is stranded. Can anyone help me with this last issue?
0 replies
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
OP: "After 13 years of playing by the rules. Amazon has made it impossible for the small business to get ahead. After some serious consideration I have decided to close the doors and take another path."
Well, don't shut the door, simply take another path. Amazon, by design, uses FBA to extract as much of a seller's profit as it can get, Give up FBA and switch to FBM where you only pay one commission per sale. Nothing else.
OP: ".I put my heart and soul into my business only to lose myself in the end."
Actually, you didn't put your heart and soul into your business. You put it into making Amazon rich off of your products sold. You bought into Amazon schemes and the idea of letting Amazon run your business for you.
OP: "Can anyone help me with this last issue?"
Yes. Start placing all of your effort into yourself by selling your products using FBM.
1. You already know the salability of your products and how much profit you will make per sale.
2. You can list 300,000 different products and only pay one commission (known up-front) after the sale takes place.
3. Shipping- The buyer always pays for the shipping, so calculate the shipping to event address in the USA and add it into the product cost.
Seller_Dx0S3nyuJzIkC
More fba sellers need to do the same. Amazon needs to be taught a very important lesson. They are out of control
Seller_K7LqHXdiKwZFk
The biggest problem is the constant loss of goods on Amazon for incoming goods, too long calculations and all the confusion related to that.
Seller_DoE5ubBCyvPjv
I feel you. One of my brands did 45k in sales last month, but had a net loss of 4k.
13.5 to Advertising, 2k to refunds, 26.5k to Amazon fees, and 7k was the COGS. Insane. 4th quarter is not my season, but if I don't smash it out of the park this spring after everything I've invested to increase my profit margin, I'll likely throw in the towel as well.
Seller_Cj39FIFBjVLNf
sorry to hear that.
I'm in the same boat. Amazon fees are getting outrageous.
I'm running out of energy. not sure I have it in me to switch my business model, advertise in other places, and do my own fulfillment. U.S. production is too hard post COVID, and no one wants to buy businesses with U.S. labor. Not really worth it.
Seller_Kl53CHl0ygVod
As it shows on the "Manage Shipment", my first shipment to FBA was on Apr 13, 2014. Almost 11 yrs.
When they applied the "inbound placement service fees", I was like, "sht, im done with FBA". From a few hundred orders a day, now I have like 1 or 2 orders with FBA. I still have a hundred items in their fulfillment center, then I can say goodbye.
Seller_ZWeT6zcruj5HZ
I have used FBA, and I have to say it’s absolute terrible. I disposed of all my FBA inventory. Somehow, one unit was left. I created a removal order. Amazon stated that no fees would be charged during the removal process. However, they still deducted my fees. They said it would take at least three months to complete the disposal process. My removal order was created on November 4, 2024.
Then, magically, they canceled my removal order. After I opened a case on January 8, 2025, they created a new one and claimed that the removal order was initiated by the seller. Today, January 16, 2025, out of nowhere, an FBM order appeared for that ASIN.
Well, you know, this ASIN—everything I did was through FBA. When I shipped inventory, sold products, and disposed of them, everything was under FBA. There was absolutely nothing related to FBM. And yet, now there’s suddenly an FBM order for an FBA item. Truly magical.
Seller_kLq7pWyhB9Yg9
Thats astonishing. I am a new seller from outside USA and may have to rethink some suitable model.
Seller_3qllv6SY8mdjV
Ive been selling since 2010, first FBM then FBA, was able to build a massive (mid 7 figures) business.
2024 was the first year my profits decreased and I started to notice some serious problems... all related to the fees, fees, fees.
My sales are still fine, that isnt the issue. But with Amazon now taking the lions share of profits through their endless fees, it is hard to stay afloat. They seem to have not read the story of the goose that lays golden eggs. They used to be ok with taking some of the eggs, now they want to kill the goose and see whats inside.
This is the first year in 20 years on the platform I am seriously looking at alternatives.
