Bully Sellers on Amazon; and PROOF that Amazon likes me!

NOTE: This blog has moved to: http://www.HonestOnlineSelling.com

You've only got a few years left, lady: lighten up!

Sheesh. You'd think, with all the bad economic news floating around, Amazon sellers - with such a successful selling plaftorm - would be a positive, happy bunch. Nope - I'm afraid there are some nasty bullies among us.
Have you had bullies in your life? I have: abusive relatives, schoolyard bullies, corporate bullies, and now -- yes, it's true -- bully Amazon sellers.
Who is a bully Amazon seller? Typically:

• Someone who believes EVERYONE's a competitor and thus they "don't deserve" to sell on Amazon....
• Or someone who may be jealous of your sales volume....
• Or someone paranoid of sellers -- like me -- who share our Amazon selling strategies with folks (like you) and thus (gasp!) the bullies' 'own' secrets are now being 'stolen' by (oh no!) more competition!

These bullies are also folks who poison hang out in online seller help forums all day to:

• talk down to others...
• scold them...
• insult them on with forum posts (but without the gall to confront them in 'real life'), where they safe within the anonymous confines of their own homes; and
• with airs of braggadocio, trumpet their own accomplishments - however trite - instead of spending their time doing, um, oh, I dunno, something constructive like growing their business.

But lately, these bully Amazon sellers are reaching for straws - by poisoning telling other sellers that my current Amazon seller feedback score (92% for the past 30 days) is increduously disgraceful.

Should I be scared? Should YOU be scared? NO. I'll explain:

Selling on Amazon is relatively new for most of us. So I, like plenty of other folks, have made some mistakes in product sourcing (i.e. inadvertently listing some items as 'New' when they should have been 'Like New'; listing a game that had missing pieces, etc.).  Thus I have received an occasional negative feedback from an Amazon buyer, and hey, I admit that I deserve it. I also received some negative feedback from customers - whose product was fine - but they're the types that just can't be pleased (you know: "the picture showed a different shade of red on Elmo. I want a refund".  That type).

But these bully Amazon sellers - who INSIST their feedback 'never' falls below 99% (yet they refuse to openly share their feedback score, as I do), emphatically wag their fingers at sellers like me and come just short of calling us 'the devil' for not having 'stellar' feedback.

So how am I doing? Out of my 63 feedbacks from customers in the past 30 days:

• 58 were positive 
• 1 was 'neutral'
• 4 were 'negative'

Is that 'Bad', disgraceful, and worthy-of-seller-suspension performance? According to the bullies, YES! ... WOW!

But I'm brushing off their negativity. Despite all the paranoia these bullies are spreading to other sellers (maybe even you), I've found that Amazon is pretty forgiving! See, It's AMAZON who thinks I haven't done anything wrong. And aren't they -- not the bully Amazon sellers - the ones who determine my fate? Here's my PROOF:

This is my "Customer Experience Performance" email I just got from Amazon, where they give me 'insight into how you're doing with respect to customer satisfaction'.

So how's MY performance, according to Amazon? Just fine, thank you. Amazon judges you NOT on your feedback score (like my 92% that the Bullies are having heart palpitations over), but your 'Order Defect Rate', "Pre-fulfillment cancel rate', and 'Late shipment rate'.

And if you see my performance metrics, all my scores meet Amazon's requirements, with 'room to spare!'

Now don't get me wrong - if you're constantly getting negative feedbacks from buyers, you're probably doing something wrong and you need to address it. But there's certainly no reason for a seller with a score of 92% to hang up his hat and stop selling. (Hey, wait, wouldn't the bully Amazon sellers just LOVE it if I did!)

Geez, I hope those bullies don't see this video, or they might send an angry email to PETA or something.

"Don't throw stones at your neighbors', if your own windows are glass" - Benjamin Franklin, 1961

"Judge not, lest ye not be judged.” (Matthew 7:1)

"You stick your head above the crowd and attract attention and sometimes somebody will throw a rock at you. That's the territory. You buy the land, you get the Indians." - David Lee Roth

How about you? Does your happiness get interrupted by bully sellers? I want to hear from you!

-Jordan
Founder, HonestOnlineSelling.com & FBAFinds.com

P.S. For help with improving your Amazon seller feedback (maybe yours is less than my 'disgraceful' 92%), read my free guide here.