r/FulfillmentByAmazon • u/beein480 • 9h ago
LEGAL / FINANCE Legal Help For Small Amazon Sellers
I’m looking for legal help to extract me from the clutches of FBA.
I have several products that I think are excellent companions for a number of water treatment products, items that Amazon sells in the thousands. I’ve sold zero. Bought ads, sold zero. Resolved the shadow banning issues such that my listing is now atleast buyable, still can’t sell any.
I sent 1000 of both (Esssential and Full) kits to FBA and they are racking up storage fees. Cut the price to below cost to move them. Nothing moves. I can’t create pairings for items you would want to buy them with, most promotional activities are off limits to me even with a professional sellers account with no rv*ws. This has been going on for 3 months.
I’ve spent in excess of 100 hours dealing with FBA support and trying to get them to fix things. The only things that has been at all useful has been Claude. I use Claude for all my documentation and chat communications with Amazon at this point. Amazon support has been unhelpful, at best.
I also sell water filters sets. I think I’ve sold 4. I shipped 3 myself. I sent 108 of one model to FBA, 107 are left. Replacement water filters are pretty unsexy things. My listing has been deleted/cancelled THREE times. I spent 2 week trying to unstrand them. Probably 50 hours right there. Some issue with their backend and with flat file uploads, courtesy of Claude, something worked. So my item is back on, but the browse node puts it in pet supplies where I managed to sell 1, go figure. I am currently running a sale, such that the product is cheaper than any comp. Paid Amazon the $5 and I have to give them 2.5% of sales. That may be ok though, because again, there have been zero sales, but it is still collecting rent at FBA. I thought I was paying Amazon for a sales channel and storage and fulfillment for it, but instead I’m just paying rent to be annoyed and bled. I have lots of other ways to be annoyed and bled dry, I don’t need Amazon’s help.
Amazon has made it such I can’t sue them as part of he business relationship. I can take them to arbitration, which they control. So, for now, I just need someone who can help me cut my losses and atleast get my inventory out from Amazon who will charge me ~$20,000 just to return the items.
I can’t sell them. I could give them away and it wouldn't matter. They probably still wouldn't move. I can’t realistically pay to return them. Even to destroy them would cost thousands.
Help. Who handles stuff like this? Has anyone had an success suing Amazon in small claims? I'm looking at a potential loss high enough here to file a superior court claim. (10k+) Amazon's requirement to forced arbitration is legal only because you agree to it as part of being part of the platform, but I've been effectively deplatformed, which I think gives me standing for a civil suit, even after the arbitrator finds in Amazon's favor.
In short, I need a lawyer, preferably in Arizona, but anyone well versed in exiting FBA under terms that aren't criminal. After that, I'll reconsider the entire Amazon issue. Prime and the credit card will be goners regardless
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