Using Amazon FBA fulfilment. What to do with Item Location policy?

[pm-store-us]

Hi guys.

I am a seller from Ukraine. We have moved most of our stock from Ukraine in the US to Amazon warehouses to make shipping to our customers faster and safer.
Our account has been flagged as violating eBay Item Location policy.
We cannot know the exact location of each product, because Amazon distributes goods throughout lots of warehouses and ships the goods to the client from the warehouse closest to the client.
What do we need to do? What item location to specify?
How do the thousands of other sellers who use Amazon to fulfill their orders deal with this problem?

[devon@ebay]

---

@ittybitnot wrote:

reaches out to our customer support here 

devon@ebay 

Does that link for CS lead to the out of country outsourced call center reps?  If it does, I would think our OP needs something else. 

---

@ittybitnot This is linked from the 'contact us' section on eBay.com that starts as an automated chat and from there they can request a call from us. There are also other options such as reaching out via social to  our eBay support team there as well. 

[ittybitnot]

There are also other options such as reaching out via social to  our eBay support team there as well.

devon@ebay 

Thank you, even though YES or NO would have been an acceptable answer.  I will provide a link to @pm-store-us  now. 

[ittybitnot]

@pm-store-us 

Try using the big blue send message button on this page: 

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

You will have to have a f.book account in order to access it, but it does not require you to participate in other F.book activities. 

This leads to US based customer service that has the authority to help you.  However, it is my understanding that all buyers and sellers registered in the Ukraine and Russian Federation are under some general sanctions on eBay due to the war due regarding financial and shipping issues  That may complicate your problem.  

Let us know what you find out, please. 

[a_c_green]

---

@pm-store-us wrote:

Thank you. Yes, I read that they could think that I'm a drop shipper and this is not allowed.

---

Drop shipping is allowed on eBay. That is when you have a contracted arrangement with a supplier who will ship items for you whenever you sell one.

What is not allowed is retail arbitrage, when you sell something you do not have and then purchase it from another seller to ship to your buyer.

Some sellers have their stock stored by and shipped from Amazon, but it's still their own stock to sell. It would only be a violation if they fulfilled their buyer's order by purchasing the item from someone else.

[ittybitnot]

Some sellers have their stock stored by and shipped from Amazon, but it's still their own stock to sell. It would only be a violation if they fulfilled their buyer's order by purchasing the item from someone else.

@a_c_green 

So what city/state do those sellers that use FBA use as an item location?  It seems to me, if a seller just "picked one" per se, it would be a problem with 'calculated' shipping. 

[a_c_green]

---

@ittybitnot wrote:

Some sellers have their stock stored by and shipped from Amazon, but it's still their own stock to sell. It would only be a violation if they fulfilled their buyer's order by purchasing the item from someone else.

@a_c_green 

So what city/state do those sellers that use FBA use as an item location?  It seems to me, if a seller just "picked one" per se, it would be a problem with 'calculated' shipping. 

---

Good question, though not one that I can answer because I don't have that kind of arrangement; I just ship my stuff myself.

Does someone providing their stock to Amazon for later fulfillment get to specify where in the country the items will be held prior to sale? "Calculated Shipping" might not enter into it, since of course Amazon can do their own delivery however they see fit, so maybe they just show a flat shipping charge regardless of buyer's location. (I'm just guessing so I may be completely wrong on the details.)

[fab_finds4u]

If you are truly using Amazon Fulfillment and have a contract with them to pick, package and ship your items  then you must know which warehouse you sent them to. You said warehouses. Are you saying you shipped your stock to more than one warehouse?  Totally unnecessary. And not believable you do not know the location you sent your items to.

[ittybitnot]

 Amazon can do their own delivery however they see fit, so maybe they just show a flat shipping charge regardless of buyer's location.

@a_c_green 

The OP has "free shipping" and item location states USA, United States.  He is being called out for "item location misrepresentation".   I guess advice/information is needed from someone here that actually uses FBA.  At any rate, I don't think regular chat/callback reps in eBay customer service are going to be of use in the meantime. 

[fab_finds4u]

OK, I get it that Amazon decided to break up your stock and send some of it to regional areas however the original location you sent them to would be the item location you would use.  

[ittybitnot]

@katzrul15

Do you have experience with FBA?  

[pm-store-us]

Hello guys.

Thanks so much for a lot of answers.
Today eBay restricted my account for 3 days. I'm unable to list more items, however active listings remain active.

I read your answers and would like to clarify such info:
1. I'm not a dropshipper, as you see, I sell only scale plastic models and only made by Ukrainian brands. I think it's enough to understand that I'm selling only my own stock.
2. All products I ship to Amazon warehouse in PA. Previously I set this address as Item Location till I got first warning notification from eBay. After that, we changed location to "USA", so this location does not mislead the buyer. Yesterday I downloaded my actual Amazon stock with locations and I was impressed, Amazon divided my stock and sent 1-2pcs of 1 sku to numerous warehouses across the country. As I wrote before, I have an example where 1 sku is located in 13 warehouses. Anyway, order tracking number shows Ship From location of item.
3. I have contacted seller's support a few times, but as you understand, I got responses like: We understand that it's nice that your items lie and ship to a customer from the nearest warehouse, but we have an Item Location policy.
4. I have set FREE SHIPPING and longer delivery time in Business Policy than real shipping time to not mislead the buyers.
5. As you can see from my feedback, buyers are happy of fast and free shipping. That's much better than I would ship all items from Ukraine.
6. Why I'm asking a community? There are lots of online software created for multi-channel order fulfillment (and they approved by eBay). They have thousands of clients who use their stock at Amazon to fulfill orders from eBay. And they should have the same problem.
7. To those who are never used Amazon FBA warehouses. If you don't have experience with that, just believe what I wrote before. I wrote how this works, so please, just accept this as a fact.

The funniest thing, I'm getting punished by eBay for doing a much better job than I could do from Ukraine.

@a_c_green thank you for correction. I meant dropshipping - as a retail arbitrage when you are selling products that you don't have

devon@ebay thank you. I will write again to support, but honestly, I think I will get same respond. Last time guys recommended me to use separate warehouse with fixed location. I see they want to help but they are limited by Item Location policy.

[dhbookds]

There are other big sellers who use "USA" as the location.........

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403937559330?hash=item5e0c8e0322:g:YAAAAOSwVEpjR~Y9&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoP...

despite the "location" information in the help files, that items must have a zip code..... 

It stands to reason that without a zip code the shipping must be flat rate or free since there is no way to calculate it, which is what you have.........free shipping......

I really would try to contact the facebook page......and please let us know the answers/if any.........

[lacemaker3]

@pm-store-us,

Here is a recent post from a very knowledgeable responder @nobody*s_perfect , which explains how to set up the location for your listings where they may be located in any one of a number of warehouses (from a recent response to another thread):

---

@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

You aren't allowed to set up 3 separate listings for the same item, even with different locations.

When you set up a flat price for shipping (rather than a calculated price), you can edit the Item Location section to remove the ZIP Code, and substitute USA for the ZIP Code and then type in whatever you want instead of the city and state. AFAIK, this workaround doesn't violate any policies.

So it will look like this in the listing:

---

[nobody*s_perfect]

I just looked at one of the OP's listings, and this seems to be just about what he has already been doing, before getting restricted. Perhaps it's different because he's registered outside the US?  It makes no sense to me for him to be restricted when his location info is accurate and (as he pointed out) this is actually providing prompter delivery to his eBay customers.

I can't bear to read the whole thread in detail, because so many of the replies are based on a complete misunderstanding about what FBA is.  The OP already owns the stuff, it is being stored on his behalf in Amazon warehouses, and is shipped by them when it sells on eBay.   He has a new listing put up yesterday so apparently the restriction has been lifted. I hope somebody comes along who can better clarify the whole FBA/location issue so the OP is no longer at risk of further restrictions.

[janet9988]

The only reason this is wrong is for the buyer who wishes to return the item.

The buyer should be informed of the return address zip code BEFORE buying.