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?
79 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_vrhLSQE91Ezwp
Switching from FBA to FBM is not going to make anything better. I sell all of my items FBM and I am losing money also due to Amazon's horrible customer service. My items are customized, so they are non-returnable. If there is an issue, per Amazon policy, the buyer is supposed to contact me first, then if I do not respond within 48 hours, Amazon steps in. However, Amazon is not following their own policy. They repeatedly refund customers without my knowledge of there having been any issues. Many of the issues they are refunding are carrier issues, but Amazon does not request proof from the buyer, therefore I am unable to file claims with the carriers. Amazon does not care at all about their sellers.
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
OP: " I sell all of my items FBM and I am losing money also due to Amazon's horrible customer service."
Not sure it is Amazon customer service that is causing the problem. It has to do a lot more with your business model,
OP: "My items are customized, so they are non-returnable."
Selling customized products on Amazon has always been a problem. Amazon is not really geared for selling one off products without UPC codes. And... While sellers believe it when Amazon says they are nonreturnable. RFS doesn't care and will refund the buyer when sent back.
OP: " If there is an issue, per Amazon policy, the buyer is supposed to contact me first, then if I do not respond within 48 hours, Amazon steps in."
That is not Amazon's problem, it is your problem. How can you run a profitable business by not response to a customer/potential customer for 2 days. that just shows you are not staying on top of things.
OP: "However, Amazon is not following their own policy. They repeatedly refund customers without my knowledge of their having been any issues."
While sellers believe it when Amazon says they are nonreturnable. RFS doesn't care and will refund the buyer when sent back. And... If a buyer calls Customer Service, they can be refunded on the spot with no return.
In this regard, you are correct, one on Amazon's biggest flaws.
OP: "Many of the issues they are refunding are carrier issues, but Amazon does not request proof from the buyer, therefore I am unable to file claims with the carriers."
As an FBM seller you are the one who selected the shipping carrier. You are the one who purchases insurance on the delivery.
OP: "Amazon does not care at all about their sellers."
Absolutely Correct. With over 9 million registered sellers on the site, no one seller is of any importance to Amazon. Amazon only really cares about two things. Keeping the buyer happy and extracting as much of a seller's profit as they can get.
Seller_4CuJotOluTjBr
Sell FBM, what a joke show response! How about advising Amazon to fix the FBA issues! Maybe take a billion out of advertising and put it towards actual operations and fix these issues! So tired of Amazon Shills on here defending negligent business operations!
Seller_mFUNUCCYB0cok
You go 100% FBM and your sales drop in half! Profit is even less!
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
OP: "You go 100% FBM and your sales drop in half! Profit is even less!"
Well, not in all cases. Having over 2.5 million sales using FBM, we avoid all of the traps Amazon sets for sellers into believing what is necessary to turn a profit on the site.
We control all aspects of our product sales, and only give Amazon one simple commission, known upfront, per sale. No advertising necessary, just make sure you do all the calculations before the product is even purchased for sale, and it can offered as one of the 3 lowest price offerings.
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
OP: " How about advising Amazon to fix the FBA issues!"
Good suggestion, but probably not going to happen. Selling on the site worked a lot better when the company started. But since that beginning FBA has just kept getting worst. When the company was really run by humans, the humans cared. How it is managed a lot by One-Size-Fits-All Bots who have no mind and can only do one thing.
In addition, today the cash pours into the company like water running over a waterfall. It's an endless supply. This simple factor creates the mindset in the company that no one seller is of any importance to the company. What is important is extracting as much of a seller's profit as it can get, in as many ways as they can.
Seller_guCaS93YGnu0t
That is the trade-off. You turn all control over to Amazon in exchange for higher volume. However I've seen several posts on Reddit, here, youtube and elsewhere that the FBA revenue looks and sounds impressive...but at the end of the day all you are left in many cases is profit of less than 5%. A million dollars in FBA sales yielding only $50k in profit is an awful ROI. The only one making money is Amazon.
Seller_AF6uF6gvn0yie
Sales drop significantly. We are at 2 days in a row with ZERO sales. Before that ONE sale per day. We feel bullied big time. Pic attached of our metrics. We are -84% compared to last month. We had this morning an ASIN search suppressed for us only. Other sellers with way higher prices still on the listing and we were gone. Yesterday another ASIN showing us charging almost $12 for shipping and the Free Shipping option not showing. The comparison of prices with other companies outside of Amazon is stupid. The list was on and on
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
It is all in how you structure your business. Comparing FBA to FBM is not comparing apples to apples. They are not the same. With FBA, a seller pays Amazon to run their business at the seller's expense. With FBM, a seller runs their own business.
Seller_AF6uF6gvn0yie
I am very aware of that. However is Amazon the one with control of the visibility of the stores and the listings. If they don’t provide it, which by now we believe is our case, you don’t get decent sales on a daily basis. They also somehow control the prices comparing them with the competition outside of Amazon and then remove the Featured Offer eligibility. FBM runs their own business but it’s also mandated by Amazon.
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.
