Why we do not sell on Amazon anymore
Because Amazon closed our store. That's right, they sent us an email that said "...we have blocked your selling account. Your open listings have been cancelled and you may no longer sell on our site..."
The only way to contact them is via email, and our request for a telephone conversation resulted in this email: "While we understand your concern, we regret that the Seller Performance Team does not offer telephone support. We may be reached via e-mail at seller-performance@amazon.com."
Now, to put thing in perspective, we are infinitesimally small compared to Amazon.com. However, we pride ourselves on our customer service. We go out of our way to deal with all kinds of errors that happen outside of our control, such as misdelivered packages, and the ones that get lost in transit. We send replacements without waiting for returns, we send replacements for any package that gets mishandled or simply stolen. Above all, we COMMUNICATE. We call, email, call again. We empathize!
Not so with folks at Amazon. They have their own rules and that's that. One of their rules says that to list a product one must find a corresponding one on their site or sold by one of the other vendors. One of our employees had set up a site that sold unique products, imported porcelain goods. It was listed on Amazon under some strange category which did not fit. When he listed porcelain under the category that fit it best, his listings did very well... until his store got abruptly closed by Amazon, many months later. Fast-forward to present time. His name is on our corporate card that was used to open the Amazon merchant account. This looks like a perfectly valid reason for people at Amazon to say "we don't care that you spent time and effort to list your products with us. We don't care that you spent time and effort to integrate your systems with ours. We don't care to COMMUNICATE with you!"
Understood. We will not. We will also never do any business with Amazon. And we will advise you to do the same. Why would you think that people at Amazon care if this is how they treat their partners?
Comments
I find the news above of Amazon.com's sudden and rather ruthless termination of your sales relationship to be wholly unfair and unwarrented.
Why do companies like PetsTruly.com, who went out of their way to both call me and send my Victorian Style Bird Cage via second day air cross-country, because of an urgency on my part...why do companies that do business the old fashioned way end up having their companys' subject to punishment rather than reward.
When I ran my small computer business I did so with an eye on being fair in my charging, giving those in need a special rate, among other courtesies, yet I encountered a sort of paranoia, as if my charging those with low or little income ws a weakness of my business, and when I tried to give extra support to urgent problems I would often get a letter stating that I was replaced with a Certified Technician, even when the job was done perfectly and my rates for services rendered were half those of the Certified Technicians. With all of this I still had a very strong business until my spinal disease changed my life forever.
I am horrified at what has happened to PetsTruly.com by Amazon, and I, for one, will have nothing further to do with Amazon.
To my friends at PetsTruly.com, I wish you the best and should you need any services or assistance from me plesae feel free to ask. I am infuriated with Amazon and their corporate tactics.
Good luck to my dear friends at PetsTruly.com, I am so very disturbed at these bullying tactics by Amazon.
Your most permanent customer,
Jon Ferber
Posted by: Jon Ferber | December 7, 2008 09:40 AM
I also wish you all the best.
Amazon.com has no idea what it's losing in you. I'm sure long ago, Amazon lost any humanity within it's bloated bureaucracy.
You don't need them and their uneducated view of your company doesn't matter!
"Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis"
(All things are changing, and we are changing with them)
Posted by: Johnnie R Torres II | March 19, 2009 12:58 AM