Hi Levi,
I have been selling my home made, patented product on Amazon for 9 years. In that time I grew annual sales to a dependable 6 figures without any advertising. We were featured on The Bachelorette, Howard Stern, etc. and eventually achieved top sales ranking in the Gag gift category.
Lack of UL4200a compliance certification took my product down in May of this year. I had it tested/certified immediately, submitted the passing test results to Amazon, and was rejected without reason. The only information I was given in the rejection notice is shown below:
"The compliance documents that you submitted are not the documents we require. To move forward with the approval process, please submit a full test report from a ISO 17025 accredited laboratory. Please note that we are not looking for Technical Reports, Inspection Service Reports, Constructional Data Reports or Protocol Testing Reports for your products. "
I had the UL4200a test/certification performed by TUV SUD America (the largest ISO 17025 product testing company on Earth). When I told them about the rejection they couldn't believe it. They apologized and were very accommodating, making every possible change I suggested to get the test approved. We iterated the test format 6 times, adding new images, names of all the lab technicians, etc. and each and every time we re-submitted, we were rejected with the same cryptic message as shown above. I begged for an explanation from "consumer-buttoncell@amazon.com," multiple times, and of course, no response.
In November (6 months later) beyond frustrated and desperate, I sent the test results to Stephen Lee (small business ombudsman at the CPSC), and asked for advice. He figured out the problem...
TUV SUD America adds the heading "Technical Report," to all of their "Test Reports." Apparently that's just the way they do it, and no other professional organization on Earth has EVER had a problem with it. Stephen Lee suggested I ask TUV SUD to change the word, "Technical," to the word, "Test," and then resubmit.
TUV SUD made the change. I re-re-re-re-re-re-resubmitted, and voila... My listing is finally live again. But after having been down for 6 months my sales rank is now equal to that of a fresh product. I'm selling roughly 1/10th of what I usually sell this time of the year. So basically, I lost somewhere in the ballpark of $60k and all of my sales rank because Amazon's review team at "consumer-buttoncell@amazon.com," couldn't identify a passing test report merely because it had the word, "Technical," written in the heading.
Please look at the screenshot above to see the difference between how much I USUALLY sell per day this time of year, and how much I AM selling. It's surreal. Is there anything that can be done to restore my sales rank to where it was BEFORE Amazon first mistakenly rejected my test report?
Thanks for your help,
eddie
