Sellers say Amazon "bots" have been running amok late this week, aggressively deactivating their listings due to "potential pricing errors."
A seller who lists signed first-edition books started the conversation
on the Amazon discussion boards. He clarified, "The problem I'm having is that the Amazon bots are matching my collectible signed first editions with worthless, beat-up, unsigned copies listed for a penny. The good books, the ones that would appeal to collectors who have money to spend, are being eliminated from the retail site."
"I don't see how you can complain that your collectible books are being deactivated when you are not listing them in the "Collectible" category," wrote one seller.
But numerous sellers agreed that the bots were a problem for their items as well. One seller said the problem had been happening over the past 3 days for books, comics, and DVDs.
Another seller wrote, "Suddenly, 3-4 days ago we started getting a rash of listings deactivated due to high price but even when we adjust the price to match or be 1c below, the listings immediately move to inactive."
Sellers discussed strategies to avoid what they considered over-aggressive bots. Setting a minimum selling price and maximum selling price was a common suggestion to avoid listings getting blocked, but other sellers said it did not fix the problem for their listings. Others discussed the viability of alternative marketplaces.
One said they believed it was either a technical problem or an unannounced change, others said they believed Amazon was trying to force sellers to lower their prices.
"If they want the prices closer to what is offered on other websites, they should reduce the fees they are collecting from sellers," one seller said.
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Amazon Sets Pricing Bots Loose on Sellers
by: RKTOYS