Amazon Seller’s $19 Million Nightmare | Debi Slaver

Amazon Seller’s $19 Million Nightmare | Debi Slaver Speaker 2: It was a copyright on a wide variety of the bracelets that actually bankrupt a $19 million Amazon company. All because of a stupid copyright they didn't check. Speaker 1: There are brands and there are people out there who are reporting people just to get them shut down. Speaker 2: How can you prevent that from happening? Speaker 1: The most important thing is anytime you get a notification from Amazon, take it seriously because they are the people who can turn off and on the lights. Speaker 2: Selling on Amazon is more than just listing products. It's a minefield of policies, authenticity checks, and compliance traps. One misstep and you could lose trust, face penalties, and even risk your entire account. In this episode, we're breaking down how to protect your business from avoiding authenticity complaints to staying ahead of regulations and policy violations. So let's get into these strategies that every seller needs to know. Our guest has a career spanning more than two decades. She's worn multiple hats in the field of marketing and sales. She's currently serving as the Director of Sales and Marketing. And I hope I say this right. It's SPECTEC or SPCTEC. She has a keen business acumen that allows her to process procedures, budgets, and business plans quickly to become profitable and efficient. Boy, do I got to talk to her. We're talking about Deb Slaver. So before we get to Deb, we have a quick word from our sponsor. Tired of negative reviews dragging down your star rating in sales? Traceviews has your back. Traceviews specializes in removing non-compliant Amazon reviews the right way. I'm talking 100% compliant with Amazon terms of service. And with over 11,000 reviews removed for 400 plus brands, they know what it takes to protect your reputation and boost conversions. And here's the best part. You only pay for performance. That means you only pay for reviews they successfully remove. No contracts, no monthly fees, just results. Plus, as a Lunch with Norm listener, you get two reviews removed for free. Ready to clean up your reviews? Visit TraceFuse.ai. That's TraceFuse, T-R-A-C-E F-U-S-E dot A-I. Now, we can get into it, right? Like only 15 minutes late, but sit back, relax, enjoy this episode and let's welcome Deb, finally. Speaker 1: Hello, Norm. Thank you. Speaker 2: I bet you were just waiting there wondering if I'll ever get to you today. Speaker 1: No, I had confidence. Speaker 2: Yeah, you saw me go down. You saw me in the fetal position. Oh my gosh. So why don't we, first of all, the big question of the day, is it SPECTEC or SPCTEC? Speaker 1: SPCTEC. Speaker 2: Okay. I got it. You know, right. One of the two were right. So tell us a little bit about SPCTEC before we get into anything. Speaker 1: Sure. Absolutely. So we're a full service agency and we have partnerships with Amazon, Walmart, TikTok shop. We also have our own marketing and graphics department. So if you're looking for images to be updated or we can do anything a la carte with images and listings, or you can do monthly memberships and stuff like that. But we're into the eCommerce business for a little, almost 13 years now. Speaker 2: Wow. Okay. So you're in it about as long as I've been in it. So very good. One of the things that I'm curious about and we hear a lot about are counterfeit product or how does a seller really ensure the authenticity of their product. So can we talk about that for a bit? Loving this episode? Sharing is caring. Don't forget to share this episode and give us a review. Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that, you know, everybody always says your success on Amazon depends a lot upon the product and that's a good statement. You can have a poorly listed product, but if it's a great product, it's still gonna sell. It's still gonna have a demand. The problem that we're seeing right now with Amazon is Amazon is really making sure that the people who are selling things have the rights to sell them. So, you have to be smart about who you source your products with. You know, wholesalers, distributors, or manufacturers, you need to make sure that they're reputable and that they have the documentation that you might need like invoices or even letters of authorization. Extremely important. And a lot of them will tell you that, but I would ask to see it. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Even compliance, all those certificates. Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely. All the compliance certificates and stuff like that. It really starts before the product. If you want to make sure that your product is successful, you need to make sure that the source that you're getting it for is You know, legitimate. Speaker 2: You know, this leads me to a really interesting story. So I have a client, actually, we're going through right now, that exact same issue that a client has that we're working with. But back, oh, four years ago, maybe just after COVID, I had a client that was selling all sorts of beauty product. He bought his product through a wholesaler. Okay, everything legit. The wholesaler bought it through the manufacturer and the wholesaler was allowed to sell on Amazon, but he wasn't allowed to sell to another company. So what ended up happening early in the morning, the company that I was representing had their door kicked down to get served a warrant and They seized all of his product, said it was counterfeit, which it wasn't. He had no clue that he was doing something wrong. And at the end of the day, the original manufacturer, and I'm talking with rifles, by the way, like, you know, I've never been in one of those situations, but he was telling me that they all came in, guns appointing, and he didn't know what was happening. And he got sued for $640,000 from the manufacturer. Yeah, now there was a, like that's not what he had to pay, but the amount was not disclosed, but that's what happened trying to do it the right way. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's so many different, I don't think you can turn on the computer anymore that you don't see some type of ad where somebody's going to get you a product that earns $10,000 a day type stuff. And the legitimate agencies are all like, yeah, it's not that easy. I mean, you might find one, but you're probably not going to. So, I think it's really important that people understand that when you're looking for your product is just absolutely when you need to take the most care. It's the same thing I tell people when they're looking at samples. You know, look, let the sample take as long as you want in the sample phase because ultimately the product that you're going to sell It has to be approved and if you don't like the first one you get, you don't like the quality, then you just tell them, I don't like the quality. You know, but you need to make sure that you are, when you get that notification from Amazon about counterfeit or inauthentic product and stuff, you know, you kind of get your heart into your throat for a moment because you sometimes don't know what you don't know until somebody tells you that you don't know it. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and it can happen at anytime. Now here's. I know Elena Saris. She's been on the podcast a few times. She ended up, every time there was a holiday, she ended up with some sort of infringement like this that we're talking about today. We're just black hat techniques to kick her off, make her prove that she had an authentic product and then it would happen usually 15 days after the holiday. And it happened twice to her and she lost a ton of money. And I'm not talking just in sales, but she got stuck with a ton of inventory. How can you prevent that from happening? Speaker 1: Well, so the first thing that I usually tell people is that if you get any kind of a notification from Amazon, you need to pay attention to it. I am amazed at how many people come to us and their account has been deactivated And they start showing me the notices and you say, well, what did you do here? Well, we didn't do anything. We didn't know what to do. We didn't really understand it. You know, Amazon, sometimes their emails are a little cryptic. You know, because when they say counterfeit, you know the product is legitimate. You know it wasn't like somebody selling you a Nike that wasn't a Nike, right? And so you don't pay any attention to it because you think counterfeit. I'm not doing anything counterfeit. But the most important thing is anytime you get a notification from Amazon, take it seriously because they are the people who can turn off and on the lights. Speaker 2: Yeah, we again, I'm going to go back to this week, we were talking to a prospect, and we saw these problems that they were having. And so rather than me do it, I just went, Vanessa hung. Help me. She's the expert. I'm gonna pay and I'll pay. It's gonna be a lot more expensive than doing it myself, but guess what? She is gonna get it done. Yeah, and I know it's gonna be done correctly. I know that whatever plan of action has to happen, the wording within that email, it's done. And I think too many people try to do it themselves to save a couple of bucks and it takes them ten times longer. Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you said, we're talking about money. You know, we have people who come to us all the time that will tell us that they're, you know, that's my full income. I've got eight people, eight employees who are depending upon this, you know, and I need to do something quickly to get back up because they maybe have some reserves, but you can't tell with Amazon sometimes how long you might be down because it's not easy to get in touch with people. We all know that. And it's not always easy to get in touch with people who fully understand what you're trying to tell them. Speaker 2: 100%. Yeah, I get it. And, well, why don't we go a step back? Are there any things you can do even in sourcing, like a sourcing strategy that you can do as a seller to help minimize that inauthentic risk? Still worried about your Amazon account health? Well, check out John Cavendish's new episode right here about suspensions, compliance, and more. Speaker 1: Well, again, like I said, the first thing I would want to do is if it's got a brand name on it, If you're selling any kind of a brand and it's got a brand name on it, you need to see something that either authorizes that person who's selling it to you, like the story you told us just a moment ago where he didn't know that they didn't have, could sell To somebody else, right? They were authorized to sell it, but they weren't authorized to sell to somebody else to sell it, right? So the first thing I would always do with any sourcing thing is if you're looking at something and you're going to do, you know, just a white label, you're going to buy a generic product out there. Everything has a brand on it. Does that manufacturer have the right to sell you that brand? And can they prove it to you? Okay. I think we just sometimes don't pay attention to the small or little things. You know, the other thing is you can't mislead your customers to claim that you have a brand affiliation if you're not authorized. And so that doesn't mean just the product. That means product descriptions, images, titles. You know, if they've got an online and you think, oh, I'll just take all the photos off of their website, you know, well, that now falls into IP infringements. And if they see their photos on there, they can report you. And just like you were talking about earlier, Look, there are brands and there are people out there who are reporting people just to get them shut down. Maybe they're doing it strategically at a specific time, but there are people who are paying attention to their brand and the affiliation out there. Check to make sure that that source is actually authorized to sell to you and check to make sure that they are authorized to. I had a client who came to me who had a letter that was typed up that said, I give permission to, and they were like one of these people who buy pallets. Okay. So they were buying pallets and then they were distributing to people for arbitrage and stuff like that. And they gave them a letter that said, I give you permission to use any images for the product. But they didn't know what product they were even talking about. There's no way that they could be selling hundreds of different brands exactly and say, I give you authorization. You know, I don't want you to tell me you give me authorization. I want to see the letter to you that says you have authorization. Speaker 2: One of the things we learned early on, especially with all the emails that we were just getting hit with back in the day, is we just ended up working through risk evaluation. So we work with teamwork and within teamwork, you have a notepad and you can open up multiple notepads. And what we decided to do was if it happened once or if it could happen, anything major, We took project managers and what should we do? What is our plan of attack if this were to happen? So whether it would be me or one of the team leads or project managers, they could handle it or we would at least have an idea. And I think that's really important. And this is one of those cases where, you know, you get that email, what do you do? Well, first of all, you're going to sit there, fall off your chair, go into the fetal position. Then when you get up, what do you do? And if you have that notebook prepared, that risk evaluation already done, at least you can get started and you know what to do. So, and if you don't know what to do, like, let's say you're putting together that notepad, Dig in to the groups. Dig in. We've got a really great WhatsApp group. These are places where you can ask about that and work with a mastermind of some sort. Ask the questions so at least you understand the process. And I still, it's hilarious when you think of, and I've seen some of the plans of action that people start screaming at Amazon and you think, ah, you're going to get that done that way, huh? It's not going to happen. So it's kind of funny, but that's, I want to just bring that out because it's so important to do, at least understand what you have to do. Speaker 1: Yes, and I think what they have to understand is what happens if you don't do that. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Because you're not only risking just getting like you said there, somebody kicking down your door and suing you for the money. You're risking your account. It's not just that listing. It's not the listing that might be affected, but it could be your whole account. It makes a negative impact on your health rating. It might restrict some of your selling privileges. You might not be able to list certain products anymore and stuff like that. They can take it away and there's financial. So here's the thing and this is something that always kind of makes you go, you know, like they would say back in the 80s, right? If Amazon believes you have a counterfeit product, they will keep all, if you're doing FBA, they're going to keep all of that product and they're going to keep any funds that you have in disbursement. So you're not getting, because we have people who come to us all the time and say, look, I have $150,000 in inventory and I have $30,000 in disbursements. And if we don't get it reinstated, Amazon's not giving it back to you. It's in those terms and conditions that you sign that you're going to pay attention to what they tell you you have to do. I sometimes wonder how much of their net worth is actually from disbursements that they just didn't pay. Speaker 2: Yeah, probably a huge amount. So for the listeners, if you've ever had any of these nightmares happen, let us know in the comments section. I'd love to hear about the issue and then how did you get out of it. So just throw any, and also don't forget about the questions. If you have any questions, just let us know. Now let's talk a little bit about best practices. So what are some of the best practices for storing and packaging products to help minimize the risk of damage during shipping? I'm kind of curious about that. Don't forget to subscribe right now and join us every Wednesday at noon Eastern Standard Time for our live recording of the Lunch with Norm podcast. And don't forget that you have a chance to win big with our weekly giveaways. Speaker 1: The one thing that you want to make sure that you do is ask before it's shipped Ask about what the detail of the packaging is, what the weights are, what the dimensions are, because I've seen before where a small product is placed in a huge box and then it's shipped to FBA and you're paying for that space on their shelves. Where if you had asked ahead of time, ask the supplier, and this is where it's really important that you start to create a relationship with your supplier. Let them know you're not a pushover. I'm going to ask these types of things. It's my business and I want to make sure that I understand it fully and stuff like that. But one of the things I always tell people to do too is make sure that the brand, the boxing or whatever it is, It's actually the same as what you're going to picture on Amazon because this has happened to people before too where they're doing another fulfillment of the same product that they had but the packaging changed. So now it gets to Amazon and they didn't see it because it went straight from the manufacturer to Amazon and people start receiving it and start making complaints that they didn't get what they paid for. And all it was, was a change in the packaging. Speaker 2: I've had that happen to a client. Speaker 1: Yeah, you absolutely have to make sure that each shipment, not just the first shipment, but each shipment that somebody's taking a photo and sending it to you and saying, is this the packaging? Because you can put into your listings that, you know, packaging may vary. You can do that kind of stuff. What you don't want to do is wait until after you have those customer complaints. That they think that it's not real and stuff like that. The other thing I think is really a best practice is to really keep good records. Maintain your records. Keep copies of your invoices, your receipts. Any authorization letter. I even tell people to print off emails. If you've got a good filing system, put your email in there because it'll have the date. If I need to go back and take a screenshot and send it to Amazon, you would be surprised at how many times we've been able to help people based upon conversations that they had. Look, this wasn't a deliberate on our part. We thought we asked all the right questions. And you can see we got answers. That would have complied with your and so we have to change the way we do things. But remember, especially if you're doing a plan of action or something like that for, you know, Amazon is that you have to acknowledge it, but you have to tell them what you're going to do differently in the future. Speaker 2: About notes. One of the things that I like doing, so I have a Mac and I use Mac notes. I started using Mac notes about three or four years ago and I was just making notes. But now it is one of the main apps that I use just to store information. I've got tons of information in there, but one of the ways that I control it is with hashtags. So I go in there and I'll do hashtag whatever, hashtag whatever, or multiple hashtags. And it's incredible the information that you can store in there, links that you can store, just snippets of links that you can store. Everything, when I travel, just to get off topic, all my travel documents go in there and it's just view as an icon. But then when I get to the airport, if I need anything, I could just go there, show them if any issues come up, hotel reservations, it's all there. So yeah, accurate notes, accurate record keeping is very important. But even just for a business, as being a business person, You need to have accurate records, whether that's accounting or SOP processes that help you streamline things. This is all part of being a good seller and a good entrepreneur. Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's, you know, the corporate entities and the brands that are really well established, you know, they have their processes in place. Where it really comes into play is if you're just starting a new product, or you're just launching a new brand or something like that, you're not as careful. You know, maybe you are starting in your garage with something that you invented and stuff, and you're not taking your time to be careful because it's not a At that point, you don't think of it as a full-fledged business. You don't even know if it's really going to go, right? But from the moment you say, I'm going to get on Amazon, you have to recognize you are in business now with Amazon. Speaker 2: Yeah, you're an entrepreneur. Speaker 1: Yes. And so you need to act like that. And if that's not your expertise and stuff like that, then that may be the first hire that you make is somebody who can make sure that you're keeping all the things that you need to keep. Because I'm telling you that this stuff does help you later if you get one of those emails that knocks you off your chair. Speaker 2: Yeah. And just making sure that even if you are doing, let's say accounting. You have an accountant that knows something about Amazon or eCommerce. I've seen, like I was looking at one of our clients and they've done the last three or four years just as cash rather than accrual accounting and they have tons of inventory. What the heck? Why are you doing cash? The person just, and I've seen it not once but multiple times and I just don't understand. Let's see, it's around the bottom of the hour because we started late. Usually at the bottom of the hour, just like today. We do something different when it comes to the top of the hour. It's called the Wheel of Kelsey. And that's when our guest provides a prize of some sort. So, Deb, what do we have today for our listeners? Speaker 1: Yeah, so SPCTech is going to give you a free Amazon audit. If you decide you want that in a different marketplace, we can certainly do that as well. But here's what I want to tell you. It could be a listings audit. It could be a PPC audit. Whatever you decide that you want audited, whatever aspect of that you want audited, you just let us know. We're going to do what you need. And so I would just say to make sure I hope that you get entered into the drawing because we would love to help you know your business a little bit better. Speaker 2: Very good. Okay, so let's go to a sponsor and we'll come right back. Hey, Amazon sellers. Are you leaving money on the table with Amazon? Well, TrueOps is here to help you reclaim every last cent you're owed. Over 1,400 brands have already recouped millions with TrueOps cutting-edge technology. Finding reimbursements others may have missed. And guess what? You only pay 10% commission. No more overpaying the industry standard of 25%. Plus the first $1,000 in reimbursements is free to you. Here's the best part. TrueOps doesn't get paid unless you do. If Amazon ever reverses a claim, TrueOps automatically credits your fees back to you. Now that's peace of mind. Remember, $1,000 free reimbursements to start than just 10% of successfully recovered funds. You have nothing to lose but the three minutes it takes to sign up for a free audit and so much more to gain. Sign up with the link in the description and start reclaiming what's rightfully yours. All right, we are back. Now, we were touching on plans of action earlier on, but let's get a little bit deeper into it. So what steps can sellers take when they're putting in a complaint regarding any product authenticity? Speaker 1: The first thing I know, sometimes it gets real emotional for people and they just want to just start firing back right away with something. But I always tell people, just breathe deeply. Let's take a moment and really look at what the email is saying to you. Make sure that you understand and grasp fully what is the root, what happened, okay? And I tell people take your emotion out of anything that you send to Amazon. First of all, it may be looked at by an AI bot who doesn't understand or get your emotion at all, you know. You may be a disabled veteran, but that may not mean anything to the person who's looking at your plan of action. And so, be very precise in what you do. If it's about a customer complaint, express your empathy or apologize for the customer's concern or any inconvenience that may have happened, even if you believe the product is genuine, okay? Even if you know that the source that you got it from, this isn't You know, now make sure that you understand if the customer has specific details about why they believe it's not. For instance, like the packaging changing, okay? And somebody complained because the packaging wasn't the same. Then, now I understand there was a packaging change, but it's the same product. And now I can address that, right? So, make sure you understand the nature of the complaint fully. And then you're going to start to verify any order details that you have, any invoice Invoice is easy for me to say, right? But double-checking the legitimacy of your supplier, distributor, all of that type of thing. Maybe you have to order one yourself and get it shipped to you just so you can physically examine it. But when you determine what you want to do, if you're doing this for a customer, you're going to offer resolutions, okay, based on your investigation. Tell them they can have a full refund, a replacement with a verified authentic product, or assist them in returning it. But always, if you have proof, you can offer that to them too. Again, you just need to be very careful. And that is one of the things I like about AI now. There's been a couple of times, Norm, when I wanted to just fire off an email to somebody and just tell them a piece of my mind and then I thought, you know, I think I'll put this in Gemini and see if they can rewrite it a little bit better for me. And you know, they always come across much better than my emotional, you know, err, feeling that I had, right? Speaker 2: Yeah. I, uh, I know that feeling. Speaker 1: So I think then if, if you have to appeal it to Amazon, if this is a customer complaint, you're going to appeal it to Amazon as well because your account health is impacted. And one of the things we do at SPCTech is account health is our specialty. We really work with people who've had account health issues. We work in a lot of industries that have We work in, I would say, health aides and stuff like that because you have to be so careful about what you say. And Amazon often says you're not doing it correct when you are doing it correct. So you have to make sure if your account health is impacted in any way that you would appeal it to Amazon with your evidence. Also tell them the resolution that you came to with the customer and stuff like that. And any plan of action that you have to make sure it doesn't happen again. So I think it's just really important that you breathe. Don't get emotional. Don't get emotional. Speaker 2: That is that is so important, you know, I know that feeling when you just want to scream back and you can't do it and Using chat GPT or using any of the LLMs works fantastic Even even grammarly, you know, yeah something something like that would work. Well, okay another question is about the different types of IP so There's so many things that just happened this week, but I was working with a client. They had a trademark and they felt that because they registered with Brand Registry that there should be no other sellers. Even though they sold to these resellers, and I'm talking about wholesalers, they felt that they shouldn't be allowed to sell on Amazon. Well, there was nothing in their retail sellers agreement, but they felt that they owned the brand. So trademarks not going to stop anybody from selling on your price, a free market. But let's talk a little bit about IP protection like trademarks, copyrights and patents. Speaker 1: So one of the things I think is really important to understand is that particularly say in From your first sale, you've started the clock. You now have one year to register that patent or you lose it completely. Alright. A lot of people do something that's very unique and don't apply for a patent because they think I'll do it in the future. It's an expensive, you know, thing for me to do. So I'll do it in the future and stuff like that. And you know how fast a year goes? It flies by, right? And then you don't have any way to protect yourself against it. So it is really important that if you want to protect yourself, you're going to have to go to the right agencies and make sure that you are protecting trademarks or patents or logos or any of that type of stuff that you want. The trademark, you know, Amazon has basically three types of IP information that it will protect for its sellers. The trademark, and the trademark is actually anything that's distinctive in your design or your symbol or phrase, like Taco Tuesday, right? You know, there was a big debate about whether or not that belonged to, I think it was LeBron James, or it belonged to one of the taco fast food places because he said it in the thing and they caught on to it. So, anything, it can be a brand name, it can be a logo, slogan, and it could even be packaging. If you have a unique design element to your packaging, that could be a trademark. Then, they have copyrights. Okay. Now, this is original works of authorship. So, this could include product descriptions, images, or any kind of creative content. Again, anything that's on the packaging that Gives it some element, but not necessarily the structure itself. Okay, copyright protection generally applies automatically when you do an original work. Okay, so there's no formal registration for a copyright. But it can offer you benefits if you think you're going to go after an IP or an infringement later. And then the last thing is patents. Now this is for inventions, new products, processes, machinery. Getting the patent done is a formal application process. with Patent Authorities and you have to be able to, it will protect you from unique product designs, any utility patents. The most common is like the function of an invention. I will tell you an interesting one. I had a, I'm not quite up to your storytelling there, Norm, but I'm going to tell you a story anyhow. I had a lady who was selling on Amazon some kind of What it wasn't a lift but it was a pad that you put in your shoe, you know for medical reasons and stuff like that. She came to us because she actually had somebody else who was going to sue her because they thought she took her patent. So we started looking at all the paperwork. She filed her patent before they filed their patent. So now we were able to go back and say I didn't copy your patent. My patent was on file almost a year before you guys filed for your patent. So now they have to figure out whether or not she actually had any similarities, because if they did, they may have been an infringement. So this is just something that you do to protect yourself, all right? But you can always register your brand with Amazon, but know that Amazon is not the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Okay, so they may be able to protect you a little bit on Amazon, but even that is limited as to what they can do for infringements and stuff like that. But as a seller, I think it's also really important to avoid using any trademarks, any copyrights, or any patents that belong to others, again, without authorization. But those are really the three places that you can look at IPs, trademarks, copyrights, and then patents. Speaker 2: And for patents, you really do have to police your own patent. You know, it's not up to Amazon to do the policing. But yeah, you've got to keep your eyes open. And, you know, make sure this is something this is on trademarks. So Kevin and I are creating this company and we just gave our patent attorney a bunch of trademarks, sorry, a trademark attorney, all these trademarks that we needed to have done. We spent $5,200. This is just for a name search, not to file a name search, $5,200. None of them really could be trademarked. And we thought we had something very unique. We did our own searches, but he came back and he said, no, no, these are not unique enough. And you have to check the different classes. So I hear people saying, oh, you can go and do it with a paralegal or you can do it yourself. That's, in my opinion, not the greatest advice. If you're going to have something that's going to be yours, that is going to turn into goodwill, that is going to add a zero or two to your valuation at the end of the day, why are you not spending good money for a good attorney to make sure that everything is the right classes? And this goes for patents or this goes for anything. There's good money to be spent And there's so many times you try to do this on the cheap and you pay for it. And there's a ton of people that are probably listening right now that have had this come back and bite them two, three years once they get into it and now they've got a problem. And one of the really great companies I worked with did bracelets and it was a copyright. on a wide variety of the bracelets that actually bankrupt a $19 million Amazon company. Speaker 1: Wow. Speaker 2: Yeah. All because of a stupid copyright they didn't check. Unknown Speaker: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. I think we talked about it before, you know, you're running and operating a business and you need to understand when you get onto Amazon, they're going to be, look, a good entrepreneur Look for expertise. Speaker 2: Right. Speaker 1: And they'll pay for it. They should pay for it because like you said, down the road someplace, that's an additional zero or two zeros to your profit and to what your sales are and your revenues and stuff like that. And so from the very beginning, I tell this to people all the time who come and say, Hey, I think I want to get started on Amazon. You need to make sure if you want to get started on Amazon, You're taking it like it's a business and that you're, in some cases, willing to go a period of time where you might not be making money. Maybe we're doing some PPC to get a launch out or something like that. But you need to understand, everyone thinks Amazon is an easy business to get into. It doesn't cost me a lot. I can get into Amazon easy, right? There's a cost for being a business owner and it's operating properly. Speaker 2: Absolutely. Look, any listeners, if you have any questions, there's no bad questions. If you're thinking about it, I know others are thinking about it. So we've got a few minutes left. Make sure you throw it into the comments section. I don't see any horror stories. I've got tons of horror stories I can tell. So I guess all of our listeners, and I know Tom, Come on, Simon, Steve, I know you're entered in the wheel of Kelsey, but I also know all these guys are successful sellers as well. You gotta have at least one horror story. Come on, guys. But, you know, you're off the hook. There's no pressure. Another really big issue right now, I've seen sellers, like from day one, who owns the photography? Do I have a copyright on my photography? And then now, how can I protect those images? And that's a tough one. Speaker 1: Yeah, that is. Speaker 2: You know, owning those images on Amazon You really don't. From my understanding, other sellers, they jump your listing and they can use those images. No problem. Speaker 1: When they jump the listing like that, it's so much different than if they're just taking those pictures and trying to get it under a different ASIN. You know, if you're trying to sell somebody stuff under a different ASIN and not mention their name, but it's clearly identified on the packaging and stuff like that, you're still doing, you know, trademark violations and stuff like that. And now that AI is getting smart enough to read everything that's on your photography and stuff like that, you're running more risks of You know, getting caught because those little AI bots are everywhere. Speaker 2: That is a whole other topic and question because now you might think you have the perfect picture on your deck and you think it's representing the, you know, the look, the feel, the brand, but when you put it through any of these AI checkers and you find out That it's not even anything like what you think it says what AI is reading in this image. You might have to add something. You might have to take something away. You might have to replace the background because it's just not. I'm picking it up, but I think this is one of those keys to 2025 AI listing optimization is making sure your photographs get read properly by AI. Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think 2025, we're going to see a lot of stuff play out. With Rufus and, you know, all of this type of stuff, everybody's kind of like wanting to see how it's going to work and stuff like that. I think there can be some real advantages to AI, but I also think that there should be some cautionary tales about AI. And I see, I think Tom has said, I'm here in his questions that he's looking for an Amazon seller case management solution. We do everything through Seller Central. We have our own project management software that we use, but it's really just to manage the cases and make sure that we're using all of the different philosophies that we can on them and stuff. So I don't know. Tom, maybe this is where you need to invent something. Speaker 2: There we go. Now, Tom, have you checked out Seller Candy? Seller Candy has a subscription-based format, and I'm sure you probably know of them, and I know we have a discount code if you're interested in this, but they've been on the podcast two or three times, and they take over that customer support opening cases, closing cases, That might be something to look for. So I know you're a large seller and it might be something that would be very beneficial for you. And I do know, and I'm trying to think of the company, I'll do some thinking. I do think once in a while after the podcast, there is something that I know of that doesn't automatically open and close, but it's another company similar to Cellar Candy. But anyways, Cellar Candy, I can also highly recommend working with Vanessa Hong on this. She's excellent at doing this. So the one, Cellar Candy's subscription-based, but Vanessa can do it just one-offs. So if you need Vanessa's information, Tom, just hit me up after the podcast and I'll get you her information. I'm working with her right now. Okay, so anything else that you would like to talk about? Speaker 1: Well, I was going to talk a little bit about IP complaints, if you get one from Amazon. Some of the things that I think you can do for IP complaints, again, You know, a lot of times when you get, when you think, oh, this is somebody who's just trying to sabotage my business, you've got to take that emotional out. Okay. Be, just review the complaint and evaluate. Now, you know, are they objecting to the title? Are they objecting to the image? Are they, what are they objecting to? Just like you said, the AI might make us rethink how we do some of those and stuff. So we need to determine if we used an image or something like that. If we did, then we have to acknowledge it, that we use it without permission and then take it down promptly to stop from infringing them. And if you do that, Amazon will recognize. So you can actually, the seller can actually draft kind of a polite, and again, I do recommend using one of your AI tools to make a polite message. I have to tell it all the time, make this customer or make this If you're customer-centric or polite, you know, to acknowledge a mistake and just apologize for any inconvenience, then give them your commitment that you'll respect those IP rights in the future. Because your goal is to get the retraction of the complaint. From the rightful owner. So the way that you approach them makes all the difference in the world. Because look, most of us have done things like that that we didn't realize, we didn't know. And if you frame it correctly, then you know, now you can't keep going back to them and doing this time after time after time. But at least with that particular person who gave it to you, you can see if you can get a retraction of the complaint. And then If you get the retraction, Amazon accepts your appeal, accepts your plan of action, all of that type of stuff. But a lot of it has to do with how you approach them. Speaker 2: Right. Okay. So I think that pretty much wraps up the podcast today. We're going to be going over to the Wheel of Kelsey. But before we do that, Deb, what or how can people get a hold of you? Speaker 1: Okay, well, my email address is four letters, D-E-B-I, D-E-B-I at S-P-C-T-E-K dot com. If you want to just drop me an email. Otherwise, we do have a website, S-P-C-T-E-K dot com. Again, it's S-P-C-T-E-K dot com and there's all kinds of, you know, contact us forms that you can fill out there or if you want to find out more about what we do, We'd love to talk to you. Speaker 2: Sure. Now, Tom, I'm just reading the comments. It says one more. Do you have one more question? And if so, just throw it in the comment section. I'll run the last sponsor ad and then we'll go to Willa Kelsey. If you do have a question, we'll answer it before we do that. Unknown Speaker: Start, scale, exit, repeat. I'm Colin C. Campbell and I've started over a dozen multi-million dollar companies in the last 30 years. I spent the last 10 years writing the book Start, Scale, Exit, Repeat to figure out what it is that these serial entrepreneurs do over and over again. We interviewed over 200 people. We created 58 chapters, over 30 illustrations, 180 call-outs, and we quite frankly made this book for the ADHD entrepreneur. It's been number one on Amazon in 15 categories and has won 12 awards globally. Get your book today either on eBook, paperback, hardcover, or Audible on Amazon or your favorite bookstore. Speaker 2: And that's changed so much. I think he's won 24, 25 awards right now with that book. Deb, if you haven't checked that out, you might want to. It is a great book for entrepreneurs. It really is one of the best business books that I've ever read. And Forbes is just going crazy over the success of that publication. So we do have a couple questions. Speaker 1: I saw this. Speaker 2: Let's see. Kels, what is that? Unknown Speaker: If we take over account from another company and if you purchased it, what is the best way to make sure brand registry changes ownership without problems? Speaker 1: So you definitely want to make sure that you have the proper sale documents that show that they are no longer associated with, you know, The product that you purchased everything. So yes, if it's an asset purchase, you can submit that to Amazon so that they can change the brand registry for you. But make sure you have again, the correct paperwork to show or designate the sale and who is now owns the brand. Speaker 2: You're not a manager, you're an owner now. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Hopefully that helps you out. If you have anything more or if we need to get more detailed, Tom, just throw it in the WhatsApp group and I'll help you out there. But also there's tons of other people that have gone through it that can help you out even further. Deb, thank you for coming on. We're talking about a bunch of things that people think they know, but hopefully the information that we provided today, there's so much more to understand about everything we talked about today, especially with anything authenticity wise. So that's it. Well, thank you for being on. Speaker 1: I really appreciate it, Norm. I like to listen. I like to read your newsletter, but I like to listen. I was on one of your podcasts last week with Kevin. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: And so I like to watch things during my lunch so that I can make sure that I stay up on what's current and you do a good job. Thank you. Speaker 2: Oh, you're very welcome. So once again, Thank you for being on the podcast. We're going to remove you, put you backstage, and then we'll come back. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: So I think that's it for today. You have multiple ways of getting a hold of us. You can watch a podcast, read the newsletter, come over to the WhatsApp group or the Facebook group. Either one or any combination is great. If you have any questions, make sure you let us know. And that's it for today. We'll see you next Wednesday. Unknown Speaker: Lunch With Norm.