Hijacking of your listings: How to resolve this situation?
Hello everyone,
I have recently seen on the forum discussions regarding the "hijacking" of your listings by other sellers.
So, what is it, and how to resolve this situation if you are impacted?
Hijacking of your listings occurs when a seller modifies the brand name, images or descriptions of your product listings with false information, in order to improperly appropriate them.
This allows this malicious seller to:
- Take advantage of your customer ratings and reviews
- Attract searches to their own offers
Possible consequences can be:
- Loss of control over your flagship listings: for example, you can no longer edit the listing
- Separation of your variations into multiple listings
- Lower sales on these products
- Damage to the reputation of the ASIN concerned: if, for example, counterfeit products or products that do not match the listing are received by customers
What to do if this happens to you?
- Document the changes with screenshots
- Open a case via the Brand Registry program if it concerns a product of your registered brand
- File an official complaint via the "Report a violation" form. This is an extremely important step since it is this team that investigates and takes the necessary actions, to resolve the problem, but also to prevent it from happening again in the future
- Contact support
Do not hesitate to share your experiences in the comments: Have you ever faced this problem? How did you solve it?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Hijacking of your listings: How to resolve this situation?
Hello everyone,
I have recently seen on the forum discussions regarding the "hijacking" of your listings by other sellers.
So, what is it, and how to resolve this situation if you are impacted?
Hijacking of your listings occurs when a seller modifies the brand name, images or descriptions of your product listings with false information, in order to improperly appropriate them.
This allows this malicious seller to:
- Take advantage of your customer ratings and reviews
- Attract searches to their own offers
Possible consequences can be:
- Loss of control over your flagship listings: for example, you can no longer edit the listing
- Separation of your variations into multiple listings
- Lower sales on these products
- Damage to the reputation of the ASIN concerned: if, for example, counterfeit products or products that do not match the listing are received by customers
What to do if this happens to you?
- Document the changes with screenshots
- Open a case via the Brand Registry program if it concerns a product of your registered brand
- File an official complaint via the "Report a violation" form. This is an extremely important step since it is this team that investigates and takes the necessary actions, to resolve the problem, but also to prevent it from happening again in the future
- Contact support
Do not hesitate to share your experiences in the comments: Have you ever faced this problem? How did you solve it?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
8 replies
Seller_zDUw7ekrB6OEy
How about Amazon stopping them from doing it in the first place?
Seller_2AncqftqxwegN
Most of the time we have no idea who is doing it, listings are changed so regularly, we aren't informed that an item we are listing on or have listed on has been changed. Submit corrections and crickets. The Amazon database does not have working controls, until Amazon understand the fundamental failings all you're doing is elastoplast at best.
Seller_tQCfsb3zoC4AP
no point in reporting to Amazon as Amazon system makes it almost impossible to fix any problem. The only way to deal with this problem is too press delete and sell the products on other sales channels.
Seller_MYW4mrY7RosgH
This doesnt help at all. I sell personalised products on a generic listing. The title and description, images get changed. Amazon dont change anything as they want proof of brand!!
Seller_WIndmNYDp7rQF
Ok, so Amazon are clearly fully aware that this is happening yet they expect the affected seller to do all the heavy lifting and use there own time to attempt to have a brick wall fix it.
Disgusting.
Seller_T4plsYV65dBBK
I contacted Amazon back In November about this very issue and on my case log the matter is still "Pending Amazon Action"
Seller_vQ8w6wHuh1Z2L
Two questions:
What if I’m not brand registered?
If I report the violation will MY seller account health be affected?
Thanks in advance.
Seller_YbXLloAyWB3ME
Sometimes it isn't malicious intent. Sometimes it's an IT glitch/mistake that just happens and then isn't fixed. The Amazon system is broken in places, and needs to be fixed (but Seller Support never acknowledge that there is a problem).
Example - brand "grehge"
About 8 months ago (approx.) 100s of listings were 'hijacked' by the brand "Grehge" - a trademark of a Chinese Company that makes Electronic Equipment - eg. Air Purifiers, Kitchen Scales,
For some unfathomable reason, 100s of listings (mainly BOOKS, but not exclusively), had their brand name changed to "Grehge" and the word "Grehge" was included in the products Title - overwriting what was there.
Just do a search for "Grehge" in the search box and you'll see what I mean.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=grehge&crid=3V36VLRIRK6ZH&sprefix=grehge%2Caps%2C162&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Literally 100s of products affected. For ALL of them the brand is now given as "Grehge".
I say it is an ERROR, not deliberate/malicious, because the Company behind Grehge get no benefit from this. Why would an electronics product manufacturer want/need brand registration for products that they do not sell? !!
If you try and report any of the affected products to Seller Support, they send an immediate automated response that "you are not allowed to change any details because it is now controlled by the Brand. Eg. Grehge".
But they are NOT Grehge brand items!! It's crazy. I have tried multiple times to engage with Seller support and am met with a brick wall every time -> You are not Grehge, so your issue is being ignored.
I can no longer sell the few affected titles that I used to sell. I know other sellers are also affected, and there seems to be nothing any of us can do about it.
So, yes, the Amazon system itself is broken. Until cases like this are addressed, we will ALL be negatively impacted.
Please @Spencer_Amazon look into the Grehge mess, and let us know if anything can be done? Thank you!
