Amazon appear to have gotten a little overzealous in policing marketplace listings on their site. A seller has recently shared a saga where his listings were ended for supposedky selling animal fur:
“The sale of real animal fur, whether from farmed or wild animals, is prohibited on Amazon.co.uk and you must not list any products on Amazon.co.uk which contain real animal fur.”
– Amazon
It’s fair play that Amazon ban the sale of furs on their site, but the listings in question were actually sterling silver charms – things like a magicians hat with a rabbit in it. Whilst a real rabbit might have fur, there’s absolutely no chance that there’s any fur in a silver charm.
The annoying thing is (and we all know that these events are largely triggered by automated processes) is the number of emails it’s taken to get it sorted out. Phone calls, multiple emails and the seller was eventual even passed to Amazon India before it was resolved and they were given permission to relist the items. Surely in cases like this the first person contacted should have been able to instantly see an error had been made and give permission to relist?
Have you had experience of Amazon taking their time to resolve an issue? Is this is one of blip or do you always need a level of persistence to get a resolution?
6 Responses
I tend to find ebay CS are very good at sorting, as long as the item is in their country.
If I have a problem with a buyer or item or whatever then the CS rep will usually be able to help.
Amazon is a different kettle of fish and will have you passed around from pillar to post, and BOY it can be frustrating!
That is a frightening tale Greg.
The “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” scenario, has never been truer.
A brief search on Amazon for rabbit skin just now revealed several listings with real fur and real rabbit skin.
And there are plenty of real sheepskins on the site, too plus real Mongolian lamb, so the Amazon statement above is bizarre.
We had a bunch of pencils removed by Amazon because they said they breached the REACH regulations. I can only assume that they believe that pencils contain lead. Even after 10 months the listings still haven’t been reinstated but I don’t care enough to chase it.
More frustratingly is when we’ve had art tools removed under the blades policy while Amazon continues to sell the same products themselves.
We had a baseball cap removed because it supposedly contained fur. It didn’t but it’s not worth the argument.
We also had a “Ted” stuffed bear from the movie Ted 2 that had been taken down, Amazons reason was that is was an adult sex toy believe it or not?
They later reinstated Ted but it just shows how automated it all is.