Potential Pricing Error
I started selling Feb of this year, mostly used books FBA. Last week 4 books got flagged as ‘potential high price error’ and the new maximum is $2.40.
I called seller support and their findings were my ‘product prices are higher than other competitors.’, which is 1) not true, 2 of the 4 don’t have any other offers currently but I checked ABE books for comparables and 2) no one is selling any books for $2.40, that is an absurdly low price.
I’m frustrated there seems to be no proper recourse for this, having them arbitrarily set a price at $2.40 is insane. That price would cost me money and is clearly an error on their part. Do I just need to keep calling seller support or is this a lost cause?
Potential Pricing Error
I started selling Feb of this year, mostly used books FBA. Last week 4 books got flagged as ‘potential high price error’ and the new maximum is $2.40.
I called seller support and their findings were my ‘product prices are higher than other competitors.’, which is 1) not true, 2 of the 4 don’t have any other offers currently but I checked ABE books for comparables and 2) no one is selling any books for $2.40, that is an absurdly low price.
I’m frustrated there seems to be no proper recourse for this, having them arbitrarily set a price at $2.40 is insane. That price would cost me money and is clearly an error on their part. Do I just need to keep calling seller support or is this a lost cause?
22 replies
Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp
"Do I just need to keep calling seller support or is this a lost cause? "
For starters, you are about a DECADE too late to start selling books of any kind on Amazon.
Since you only have the one post on the Forum I'm going to guess that you have NOT read any of the DOZENS of posts by experienced book sellers that have the same issue.
You have also not seen the dozens of posts by sellers that are leaving here for other, better venues.
You most certainly have not seen the posts by sellers that have been suspended for selling books from publishers that have put total restrictions on ALL their book brands, both new and used.
And, you have certainly not read any of the posts by booksellers facing all the issues with storage fees and wading through too much and not enough inventory fees from Amazon for FBA.
As to the recourse on the pricing -- NOTHING that you can do except try putting in min/max pricing but once Amazon has a target in mind they are not likely to change anything.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
There's not a lot you can do. Amazon will take a list price from 1970 of an out of print book, and insist that you match it. Or see a copy on eBay that is missing the cover and first 20 pages, and insist that your Like New copy be sold at the same price (no, I'm not making that one up; I actually tracked down the lowball price)
The one work-around that works most of the time is to list as Collectible. This usually gets past the bots, but be aware, there must be a statement in the condition notes about why it is collectible. Thankfully, Amazon has stated that OOP is a legitimate reason for something to be collectible. Sometimes if it's a competitive price, 3 months after that's sold, the alert might go away if you wait. But other than that, best bet is to try to sell it elsewhere.
Seller_micqs6u8ObDaR
I cannot wait to see dealers selling brand new cars worth 100K on Amazon and the Potential Pricing Error will be $1,000 because the reference price was sold in a dump for that price!
Seller_Ha6JyVvDK6Ybs
We now constantly check and shift items to ebay over this issue. We were averaging 10 item per day taken down for Amazon PRICE FIXING with HIGH PRICING ERRORS trying to drive prices lower to increase sales traffic and this should be illegal! Many are taken down with "No applicable Reference price" which means Amazon is just simply ATTACKING SELLERS.... Also remember once a listing is ATTACKED by PRICE FIXING BOTS consider that listing dead as sales data will all be corrupted and that item will never ever sell like it once did and you may still consider m moving the inventory elsewhere for sales.
Seller_wFxoSFsGpPEvQ
Try listing in the collectible category.
Seller_z1JDNz6de1lqc
THIS IS HOW AMAZON IS DRIVING SALES AWAY FROM ITEMS!
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No featured offers available
We feature offers with an Add to Cart button when an offer meets our high standards for:
Quality Price,
Reliable delivery option, and
Seller who offers good customer service
“No featured offers available” means no offers currently meet all of these expectations. Select See All Buying Options to shop available offers.
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We got 6 High Pricing Errors today and we got 6 new ebay listings today! Items with this issue once they have been flagged for this issues the will more than likely never sell again that is if customers will ever even see the item in their feed as everything is price suppresses algorithm bots and botted support. This wording Amazon states makes you think do not but bad sellers fake item buy Amazon sold item instead and total horse sheep!
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
And then there are books like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0025953001
Maybe the trick is to go FBA. You can even get the BB with a price 50x higher than market price!
Atlas_Amazon
Hello @Seller_V5az5RXLupaBB
Thank you for the information provided regarding the pricing violations that you have received. Pricing violations will be the result of our team wanting to ensure a fair marketplace on the platform. They do utilize a number of sources for determining the target.
With pricing violations, it will require updating the price or providing documentation to sufficiently explain the current price. I understand that you sourced the book from a library which may not have provided an itemized invoice. This may prevent you from being able to dispute the violation which would mean the only option would be to update the price.
If you have any additional details or updates you would like to share, we ask that you provide it to this thread for support.
Best,
Atlas
