2nd Biggest Amazon Germany seller suspended

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This week saw the 2nd biggest Amazon Germany seller suspended, for what appears to be the accusation of selling a bootleg DVD.

Mark Steier at wortfilter broke the news on Sunday that saw Berlin based Rebuy with 1.5 million feedback on Amazon had fallen. Seeing the 9th largest Amazon seller in the world and the 2nd biggest Amazon Germany seller suspended was a bit of a shock in the multichannel world and something no one expected.

Rebuy also have over 1.7 million feedback on eBay, more than 40,000 in the past month, and more than 850,000 live listings on eBay Germany, it gives you some idea of the scale that Rebuy operates at. Conservatively, you would expect them to do at least the same level of business on Amazon so overnight they’ve lost more than half their turnover, possibly more, reportedly some 60k sales per day.

An action plan was submitted to Amazon but according to a whistleblower it was rejected. Having been blocked from selling in France it appears that the case escalated up until Rebuy was shut down in Germany as well. The whilstleblower said that Rebuy will own their mistake and the business will continue.

How important is Amazon to your business? If they are willing to cut loose one of the top ten retailers worldwide and happy to reject their recovery action plans, they’ll have no hesitation in cutting loose smaller sellers and banning them.

The good news is that it appears someone at Amazon has seen sense and Rebuy are again listing on Amazon with some 200,000 listings live once again. The worry is if it happened to you, are you big enough to get attention and for a human to look at your case or would you be reliant on the Amazon computers to make a decision. What would you do if Amazon cut you off and you lost half your turnover overnight?

8 Responses

  1. I was actually halfway through a rant on one of the other posts, about “what’s wrong with ebay”, the jist of my rant being that ebay completely and utterly lack any kind of trust, from anyone, and for good reasons.

    reading this article immediately after i regret deleting my rant.

    this is exactly the kind of behaviour that ebay should be demonstrating to try and recover some trust.
    kicking the second-biggest seller off the site would have cost amazon money, this would stop ebay dead in their tracks, amazon realise the value of trust, and actively work to be deserving of that trust.

    don’t get me wrong, they make mistakes, the small guy has a harder time, there are reasons to criticise amazon, but when it comes to trust, i’d trust amazon over ebay any day of the week, and i think that’s ebay’s biggest problem.

  2. @ James. thank you (takes a bow) you must not have read the OTHER thread I was abusing you on. Do try and keep up.

    I thought I would give a little light hearted relief – makes a change from you hurling abuse at ebay. Don’t you sell on their platform?

  3. Your rebuy which is a German magpie will have been to busy chasing pennies advertising everything as very good and not putting any quality checks in process, and it nearly cost them. Shows you not to become so reliant on marketplace selling.
    eBay will have let them continue to sell as it has become a rudderless leaderless shambles.
    Amazon have had me provide proof I am selling legit Sony Microsoft etc, never had eBay ask me for anything ever.
    The amount of fake goods being sold on eBay UK ( and I know Amazon gets it also) is out of control, we reported some to eBay all we got was lip service from one of Hattrells people ( we had trading standards to do the business), but it is a battle you will not win unless the marketplace is willing to police it’s own site instead of this profit however, and they will be inadvertently funding God knows. Maybe if it is sold you will get a more responsible owner who can change things.

  4. Over 8 years I think I have been suspended on Amazon around 3 times.

    1. Amazon EU… Starting off … too many late shipments … lesson learned and never happened again

    2. Amazon US… my employee listed a generic item on an American brand… again lesson learned

    3. Amazon EU… item I had been selling for 3 years, another trader goes and gets it trademarked, so had a copy right infringement case, should have had procedures in place to check new trademarks if there is any chance an old listing could become a liability… another lesson learned

    In all 3 cases at the time I hated Amazon, I had all the excuses, but in the end, Amazon took the correct action and I am a better seller for it.

    I did need help to represent my cases. I do not think there is really a point of no return. You do need some good contacts though, it can cost a little to get that advice!

  5. I think this thread has lost the point…. Amazon suspensions can ruin lives. Computer chips making decisions. No real right of appeal. Action plans, even professional ones, dismissed by template responses from a £10 per hour homeworker. Small business workers lives in the hands of some would be demi-god.

    Yes I do sell on Amazon, No I don’t sell fake good… but it only takes a competitor and friends to bring you down. I am on multiple marketplaces but Amazon is the main one.

    Maybe some smart ares on here will tell me to diversify or open a shop.

  6. The amount of fakes in our product lines on eBay is indeed out of control. The indexing now seems to give priority to price or sponsored with no concern for “fake” negative feedback , seller and listing history or top rated. Many authentic branded products simply cannot be sold on eBay now which will in the long term be it’s downfall with buyers and even myself feeling safer buying on Amazon.

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