Fake Chinese Seller On My Listing
I am the brand owner and am brand registered through Amazon. I went through the trademark accelerator program on Amazon. My trademark is still pending with the USTPO.
I have been having Fake Chinese Sellers selling on my listing. They come on drop the price and are ruining and tarnishing my business AND brand. I have tried reporting abuse through the report abuse tab, Amazon does nothing. I have tried to report the seller through Brand Registry but they say they can't do anything because my trademark is still pending. I tried contacting Amazon seller support and they tell me to report it through brand registry (which doesn't work) or report abuse tab (which hasn't worked either). I am exhausted and have had to drop my price dramatically to try and make sure no one buys the fake Chinese item but this has resorted to dropping far below my MSRP, tarnishing my business & brand. I have ordered an item from this seller but the shipping won't get here til October 20th so I can report is as counterfeit with test buy but even then, I don't feel confident AMZ will do anything. AND it is still almost 3 weeks of having a fake seller selling counterfeit goods on my platform. How is this legal?
I make the product out of my house, I DO NOT sell wholesale and DO NOT sell to distributors. I only sell direct to customer through Amazon only. I have no leaky supply chain, that is impossible. However, that is the response I get from seller central, that they can't enforce agreements with distributors/leaky supply chain but I have told them over a hundred times I am the SOLE seller of the product. No wholesale, No distributors.
Legally, Amazon has been aiding and abiding these fake Chinese sellers to sell counterfeit goods of my brand on Amazon! I have applied for the trademark and it is pending but I find it so hard to believe I have NO legal protection in this case? I made the brand, I produced the product, and someone comes along and is selling fakes and that is okay? Amazon won't listen to me. What do I do?
Also ICING ON THE CAKE! This Chinese seller had 20 items in stock and now has 15 so they have been able to get some sales. If I get a negative review on my listing for this item, Amazon WON'T remove it because in their eyes this seller was supposed to be there and is allowed to be selling fakes WHEN THEY HAVE NO AUTHORIZATION. This can't be legal!!
I have opened numerous cases before about this issue and still get the same "we can't help" runaround. I have opened a new case: 16326556181 here for Dougal to look into.
@Dougal_Amazon
Fake Chinese Seller On My Listing
I am the brand owner and am brand registered through Amazon. I went through the trademark accelerator program on Amazon. My trademark is still pending with the USTPO.
I have been having Fake Chinese Sellers selling on my listing. They come on drop the price and are ruining and tarnishing my business AND brand. I have tried reporting abuse through the report abuse tab, Amazon does nothing. I have tried to report the seller through Brand Registry but they say they can't do anything because my trademark is still pending. I tried contacting Amazon seller support and they tell me to report it through brand registry (which doesn't work) or report abuse tab (which hasn't worked either). I am exhausted and have had to drop my price dramatically to try and make sure no one buys the fake Chinese item but this has resorted to dropping far below my MSRP, tarnishing my business & brand. I have ordered an item from this seller but the shipping won't get here til October 20th so I can report is as counterfeit with test buy but even then, I don't feel confident AMZ will do anything. AND it is still almost 3 weeks of having a fake seller selling counterfeit goods on my platform. How is this legal?
I make the product out of my house, I DO NOT sell wholesale and DO NOT sell to distributors. I only sell direct to customer through Amazon only. I have no leaky supply chain, that is impossible. However, that is the response I get from seller central, that they can't enforce agreements with distributors/leaky supply chain but I have told them over a hundred times I am the SOLE seller of the product. No wholesale, No distributors.
Legally, Amazon has been aiding and abiding these fake Chinese sellers to sell counterfeit goods of my brand on Amazon! I have applied for the trademark and it is pending but I find it so hard to believe I have NO legal protection in this case? I made the brand, I produced the product, and someone comes along and is selling fakes and that is okay? Amazon won't listen to me. What do I do?
Also ICING ON THE CAKE! This Chinese seller had 20 items in stock and now has 15 so they have been able to get some sales. If I get a negative review on my listing for this item, Amazon WON'T remove it because in their eyes this seller was supposed to be there and is allowed to be selling fakes WHEN THEY HAVE NO AUTHORIZATION. This can't be legal!!
I have opened numerous cases before about this issue and still get the same "we can't help" runaround. I have opened a new case: 16326556181 here for Dougal to look into.
@Dougal_Amazon
53 Antworten
Seller_CaD5hYnTnyJHh
You should receive your test-buy order first AND you have to do this many time til the day you get the APPROVED trademark on USPTO. Sadly, any seller can sell your own product, which you took pictures of yourself, without any approval or guarantee from the seller or Amazon that the product is the same as the one you are selling. Even Chinese sellers with nearly 100 1-star reviews can still sell normally.
Sandy_Amazon
Hi @Seller_XJ5fPXK82lIHl
My name is Sandy from the Community Manager team.
As many sellers mentioned here, test buys will be the standard way to report an item is counterfeit while your trademark is still pending.
I understand it may take awhile to receive the item, however without valid proof of purchase, Amazon cannot take action.
When the test buy arrives, please only state facts on HOW and WHY it is counterfeit. (Ex: material, size differences, etc.) Once you have submit this and the outcome was not what you intended, please let me know again here.
Sandy
Seller_lCX40xAkSs1xm
They could, they just don't care - which is sad.
Seller_SyPyRMzMXi9AL
Where are they located? How do I KNOW YOU ARE legit?
Seller_52pUzzgnsLDGs
Until you have a trademark you cannot protect your brand. Close the listing and reopen it when you get your trademark approved. The last thing you need is someone else to degrade your brand before you are even in business.
Seller_R2dP7Hunjcdj0
[Moderator Edit: removed inappropriate commentary]
Seller_BRcBOrguaVL8l
Your situation is word for word exactly what has been happening to us. Handmade product and no wholesale, but unfortunately Amazon will not do anything to help you in this situation. Don't even waste your time on all of these support cases or trying to get your brand gated like I did, if your trademark is not active, there is nothing you can do. Thankfully mine goes live in a week but I couldn't imagine having to deal with this for potentially a year, I think our brand would take too much damage.
The test buys are useless with these Chinese sellers because the delivery timeframe is so long that by the time you get the counterfeit product the seller is long gone and a new one (or 10 has taken their place).
These sellers often operate 5-10 different accounts so that they can keep getting away with it. One week, I had a different hijacker Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. I test bought all offers but it was no use because they were either just switching to a different account intentionally or getting shut down and then switching to another account. All 3 accounts were hijacking the same products which was a clear indication that it was the same individual operating the scam.
Their goal is to make a quick buck and get their payout and then leave before getting caught. Some of them ship empty packages, some ship counterfeits and some do not ship anything at all.
My advice to you would be to Keep your inventory levels high. If you are FBM and are able to switch to FBA, I would recommend it as you will still show up as the main offer if you are on prime and it will be harder to see theirs. When our inventory was high and we were on prime, they had less of an impact since the shipping timeframe is so far out. Trying to compete with them on price is tough because it is just going to be a race to the bottom as they are able to keep lowering the price since they are selling counterfeits. Also, if you have A+ content, make sure to mention "To receive the highest quality authentic products, make sure it says Sold By: X Company".
It's so sad that Amazon allows these fraudulent sellers with terrible seller feedback to do this. It is so damaging to a brand. You shouldn't have to wait 18 months while your trademark is finalizing before you can get protection for your brand from these clearly fraudulent entities. Best of luck!
Seller_qD0b68Wo456ec
I just had this happen to 2, $15 asins. hijacked the brand, then i get a trademark misuse, now 3 days later the asins are dead. Seller support cant help. They want me to get authorization from the hijacker as they show them as the brand.
Then report the hijacker separately.
The asins have been killed off.
Good Luck
Seller_LP17xTJb4xyA3
Just wait until you start getting bad reviews because of their product. It's infuriating...Unfortunately there's nothing you can do without a trademark or copyright. Probably shouldn't have started selling it without one. The only thing you can do is hire an IP lawyer and have them send a cease and desist to both Amazon and the seller. Even then you can't actually take action with out a trademark. Terrible situation, I'm sorry.
Seller_BEMvkt1prZmR2
We have had the same issues, and the same lack of response and blow off from Amazon. However, our competing sellers are turning around and buying inventory directly from us using stolen credit cards with accurate shipping info for "their" customer, and then we get chargebacks. Incredibly devious.
Because we are the only ones that manufacture our product and we also have no agreements for other retailers to sell our products, I've been buying a product and then sending a legal nasty-gram to the seller as soon as I order. It seems to be effective so far, but it is frustrating as hell.
We, too, have tried getting gating and we DO have active trademarks, to no avail.
I think it's criminal that there's no default way to say these ASINs are only valid for our company's use. The end. Anyone who wants to use our ASINs has to demonstrate a valid contract to Amazon, and Amazon should get confirmation from us as well. Seems pretty straightforward to implement, and even automate.
