Put pricing error software in the bin where it belongs
I used to love Amazon if I had a slightly rare book on say Argentine lighthouse they would have a customer who was willing to pay £100 for it. The book is not available on Amazon any more .
Recently I complained I had a £150 book which was the cheapest in the world flagged as a pricing error in spite of 6 sellers on amazon in the usa selling at a prices which were multiples of mine.
After nearly an hour on the phone with Amazon they reinstated it only for amazon to throw it off AGAIN a few days later.
It is clear the Amazon staff cannot permanatly reinstate a pricing error book.
I have had another batch of books thrown off with the suggestion I sell below cost. It takes so long to appeal that it is tototally uneconomic timewise to appeal.
2 days ago I had the Honda Myth on Amazon for £75 and it was thrown off for pricing error despite two other copies on Amazon at £180.99 and £229.99 . They I believe are USA sellers but Amazon don’t tell you that.
I put it on Ebay and it sold via their Global Shipping Programme for £75.00.
The shippers now send standard shipping and not expedited and the cost to the buyer is quite modest.
Ebay have two (what I have found are) very reliable shippers and the one for this book claims they handle 300 million items a year.
Amazon are missing a trick here - get rid of this rubbish software and offer a global shipping programme and they will taking on staff not sacking them.
I don’t know about your experience selling abroad but about 1 in 20 are returned for some reason and they often take 2 months to get there. 2 days to reach the country and 2 months in customs. It would be nice to have a nice reliable global shipper for Amazon who takes responsibilty for all duties and sales taxes and can offer a reasonably quick service.
Put pricing error software in the bin where it belongs
I used to love Amazon if I had a slightly rare book on say Argentine lighthouse they would have a customer who was willing to pay £100 for it. The book is not available on Amazon any more .
Recently I complained I had a £150 book which was the cheapest in the world flagged as a pricing error in spite of 6 sellers on amazon in the usa selling at a prices which were multiples of mine.
After nearly an hour on the phone with Amazon they reinstated it only for amazon to throw it off AGAIN a few days later.
It is clear the Amazon staff cannot permanatly reinstate a pricing error book.
I have had another batch of books thrown off with the suggestion I sell below cost. It takes so long to appeal that it is tototally uneconomic timewise to appeal.
2 days ago I had the Honda Myth on Amazon for £75 and it was thrown off for pricing error despite two other copies on Amazon at £180.99 and £229.99 . They I believe are USA sellers but Amazon don’t tell you that.
I put it on Ebay and it sold via their Global Shipping Programme for £75.00.
The shippers now send standard shipping and not expedited and the cost to the buyer is quite modest.
Ebay have two (what I have found are) very reliable shippers and the one for this book claims they handle 300 million items a year.
Amazon are missing a trick here - get rid of this rubbish software and offer a global shipping programme and they will taking on staff not sacking them.
I don’t know about your experience selling abroad but about 1 in 20 are returned for some reason and they often take 2 months to get there. 2 days to reach the country and 2 months in customs. It would be nice to have a nice reliable global shipper for Amazon who takes responsibilty for all duties and sales taxes and can offer a reasonably quick service.
83 replies
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
I have lost count of the number of books I have had delisted for ‘potential’ (!!!) pricing errors - they are not potential, and they are not errors, and like you often have the only one available, or other sellers have them listed for far more - it is madness.
You can get round it by listing as collectible - as long as they do fit the criteria for collectible books.
As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I have recently had several vintage Ladybird books delisted - my price 1.99, 2.99 - but telling me I had to list at 15p as that is the list (RRP) price on the book !!
At least with Ebay’s GSP they do all the overseas shipping, taxes etc.
Seller_EJzOykmLucgf9
I upvote that, they are saying my own brand are pricing errors!
Seller_wP2N4PFKiopDt
How do you get the moderators to view my posting so that they can kick it upstairs and get something done.
In passing I understand the other Ebay shipper claims to handle 2 million transactions a day.
All that lovely business Amazon are missing out on!
Seller_pD4k5nUkDbIgP
You might find this article interesting
Seller_oGFKRixtdkjxL
It’s not just books, we have the same issue - we even have it where there are no other sellers on this or other platforms. We’re heartly sick of it, we jump though hoops, eventually manage to have something reinstated after 7-8 contact messages, and exactly as you describe a week or so later the delisting notification comes through.
We can’t work out it they’re really that stupid that they designed software so clunky it doesn’t have a price opt-out for the SS reps, we suspect so. Getting anything amended is neigh-on impossible on the platform. We’ve basically given up. Amazon knows this, us giving up saves them some pennies in SS time.
De-list, demoralise, don’t assist, is I assume the tag line for the catalogue back-end department.
Seller_zMdVY1OvvxqwA
It’s all so arbitrary as well, the price Amazon considers worthy is just based on recent offers on Amazon and elsewere. Over time prices drift, which is why rare books listed several years ago suddenly get delisted for ‘pricing errors’, and why, a few months later when the market has shifted, it is often possible to put them back on again for exactly the same price without having to list them as ‘collectible’. The algorithm is an unintelligent, blunt instrument that shouldn’t even exist. Price-fixing was illegal last time I checked.
Seller_N0kQDKMgwda6y
I can ship my second hand books anywhere in the world on Ebay with minimum hassle. I dont even bother listing outside the UK, on Amazon, because there are too many rules and regulations, and their postal allowances are utterly unrealistic.
Seller_FQHkqHJI5SqTh
I really don’t get why booksellers get their knickers in a twist over this.
We have a number of very viable sites to sell through, as the OP demonstrated, other than Amazon.
Seller_ELaWUFv1LySZR
Maybe we are looking at this the wrong way. I sell a lot of collectable figures books etc so FBA is not viable. We should get the other platform to open up its GSP to other platforms
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
I had a number of old and OOP paperbacks suppressed for being higher than the Amazon price, mainly Penguins last printed in the 1980s and earlier.
On these ASINs, Amazon has given itself the buybox with a ‘currently unavailable message’.
A convoluted advanced search brought up loads more…here are a few examples:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buried-Alive-Arnold-Bennett/dp/0140040684
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thirteen-Against-Bank-Norman-Leigh/dp/0140044450
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suzy-Cookstrip-Benghiat/dp/0140463240
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wines-France-Penguin-Handbooks/dp/0140462376
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coconut-Killings-Patricia-Moyes/dp/0140045937
If you have one of these listed, chances are you will get a high price warning.
Strangely, I attempted to purchase some of these from Amazon but received the following message when attempting to place an order (but only on these ‘currenty unavailable’ listings):
Anyone else seeing a similar message when attempting to add them to their basket or going to checkout?
There are countless more examples of Amazon giving itself the buybox for similar out-of-print books that they cannot possibly supply ‘new’ though I notice quite a few have reverted to ‘unavailable’ since I spotted them a couple of days ago.
Something really weird going on there…
