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Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

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Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#51

Post by kaffee »

dangravell wrote: post #46
ahmedalsudani wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I read this advice, I can't help but feel it's futile. Do you realize how hard it is to gain people's attention without being on one of the major platforms? How do you get people to come to your website, to trust your service and give you their credit card details? How do you accept payments? You have to use something like PayPal or Stripe, also platforms which can ban you for any (or no) reason. The economi…

Depends what you mean by "platform", and it might depend on what you are selling, but other channels you might want to look at are SEO, discussion forums, integration marketing etc. Take a look at the book "Traction".

Which "Traction" book is this? There seem to be a few with this title.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#52

Post by kaffee »

who-knows95 wrote: post #48

Hello, i completely understand your frustration, reading the messages it's clearly some drone on the other side replying. I would echo the statement to put up your own store, hosted on your own domain, and to stop relying on third party suppliers that are not interested in your well being. (but i have no personal experience) i have seen YouTubers echo this statement in regards to ads disappearing, and i have seen ama…

I think this is right. It is possible to sell on your own site. Luxury goods do it right now. For example, if you want to buy perfume directly from Chanel, you cannot do it through Amazon. My sense is that Chanel wouldn't give Amazon product even if they asked for it.

That said, I think this approach is best combined with voting for and supporting candidates and social movements which will break up big tech and/or socialize their assets.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#53

Post by uxcolumbo »

kaffee wrote: post #51
dangravell wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends what you mean by "platform", and it might depend on what you are selling, but other channels you might want to look at are SEO, discussion forums, integration marketing etc. Take a look at the book "Traction".

Which "Traction" book is this? There seem to be a few with this title.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22091581-traction

Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#54

Post by baud147258 »

lm28469 wrote: post #42
fdsa_fdsa_98767 wrote: post #23

Though it may not help your position, I wouldn't dismiss the idea that petty / bureaucratic staff are giving you the runaround. I had exactly that happen with the Apple App Review squad. I managed to somehow offend a mid-level manager type and she purposefully kept moving the bar to get our app through review. "Did I say you need one of those? I meant one or two. You need two." I had an old contact there that was way…

Creating a tmp account to roast minimum wage workers, classy. Feel free to go work as a reviewer at amazon/apple if you feel like you can improve the process. I'm sure you'll enjoy getting 20% of your current salary + being treated like an animal by basically everyone.

I don't think a "mid-level manager" makes minimum wage.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#55

Post by ajonit »

Once (and if) you exhaust all options mentioned by HNers, trying emailing Jeff Bezos and write a proper explanation with kind of tldr; in the first para.

I know it sounds stupid but it worked for me. I had a $$$ of affiliate payment pending with them and the CS staff dilly-dallied the payment - to my Indian account - for more than 10 months. I emailed, Jeff intervened, deputed his secretary on my case. He, in turn, got me in touch with India manager. The Indian manager bent over backwards and was extremely apologetic for the trouble I had to face and sent the amount quickly. He ended the last call saying for any kind of trouble with Amazon I can contact him.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#56

Post by pixl97 »

dingaling wrote: post #24

The only way to protect against commercial deplatforming is to promote and sell through your own website, with a choice of payment processors. It's hard work but there's really nothing else to say. Every other presence should be considered as a disposable inbound funnel. Instagram or Twitter deleted you? Start a new account and link back to your website again.

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/reaching_people

The Oatmeal sums this up very well.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#57

Post by kwiromeo »

I'm going to echo a lot of people's response here, and say that your best bet is to reduce and/or eliminate your dependence on Amazon. As far as IG, I think that it's a channel worth pursuing because your product fits the platform so well.

Just an idea: you mentioned that you had a successful Kickstarter in 2014. If you still have the list of backers, and their emails, this is a good opportunity to start an email list, and tell your story to them. The primary goal will be to tell them why you're not on Amazon, and on IG, and how it happened.

It is an opportunity to also direct them to your new selling channel (or tell them that you are working on one). You can also appeal to your customer to lend your their support (I don't know how, but it is a good opportunity to figure out how that support could look like).

Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#58

Post by thirdsun »

My advice: Think long and hard about which third platforms your products rely on. I understand that it's not practical or even advisable to completely avoid third party providers, but at least your store should be independent and reachable under yourdomain.com. It should be the primary destination for your customers.

I'm not affiliated with them, just a happy customer, but a service like Shopify will enable you to run your own store without a technological background or server administration and it doesn't prevent you from also selling via external channels like Amazon, eBay or others. The difference is that your primary store, or in the worst case your domain, will be there even if Amazon & Co. decide to stop selling your products over night.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#59

Post by baybal2 »

robryan wrote: post #33
baybal2 wrote: post #12

Make a new account - the only thing that works. Amazon has no qualms delisting businesses making tenth of megabucks on Amazon, and it is very unlikely that they will make an exception for a small business.

Very hard to successfully do this, basically have to commit to going full stealth with a different company, owners, emails, bank accounts, IPs ect.

9 times out of 10, they seem to don't mind.

I know no Amazon vendor in China that doesn't deal with random closures by just reopening the account, and often with the same credentials.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?

#60

Post by dang »

nikkwong wrote: post #2

It feels so perverse because I live in Seattle so I am always rooting for Amazon. Now, after having finally taken the leap and quit my job and started a company that's beginning to do well, the companies that I've always applauded are totally screwing up my business and leaving me stranded with no options. Not even a customer support number. I don't typically get stressed but the helplessness in the hands of these co…

I inlined this text into the rest of your post above. In the future, you can get around the word limit by posting half, and then using 'edit' to add the rest.
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