product erroneously classified as a light bulb and deactivated
Mods, can someoe please escalate case 13087205971? The gist of it is this: Some bot decided that three ASINs in our catalog are "general service light bulbs" and deactivated them.
As a fairly large seller of LED landscape lighting, I'm pretty confident that I know what a light bulb is. The products in question are not light bulbs, do not come with light bulbs, and in fact it's physically impossible to even use them with light bulbs because they have no sockets.They are in no way, shape or form "non-compliant with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) energy conservation standards" (not that anyone has told me which standards are even being referred to).
I provided Lighting Facts labels for all three products, even though none are required to carry those labels. Let's call product A the base product, product B an 8-pack of the base product, and product C the base product plus a brass shield to reduce glare.
After three cases (12967112511 and 13010778381 were the previous ones) and a month of back and forth, Seller Support finally conceded that products A and B are not light bulbs, but continues to insist product C is a light bulb. Evidently, a brass shield magically transforms something that is not a light bulb into a light bulb? At least, that's what the lighting experts in Seller Support seem to believe.
@SEAmod @Topher_Amazon @Sandy_Amazon @Michelle_Amazon @Desi_Amazon @Troy_Amazon
product erroneously classified as a light bulb and deactivated
Mods, can someoe please escalate case 13087205971? The gist of it is this: Some bot decided that three ASINs in our catalog are "general service light bulbs" and deactivated them.
As a fairly large seller of LED landscape lighting, I'm pretty confident that I know what a light bulb is. The products in question are not light bulbs, do not come with light bulbs, and in fact it's physically impossible to even use them with light bulbs because they have no sockets.They are in no way, shape or form "non-compliant with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) energy conservation standards" (not that anyone has told me which standards are even being referred to).
I provided Lighting Facts labels for all three products, even though none are required to carry those labels. Let's call product A the base product, product B an 8-pack of the base product, and product C the base product plus a brass shield to reduce glare.
After three cases (12967112511 and 13010778381 were the previous ones) and a month of back and forth, Seller Support finally conceded that products A and B are not light bulbs, but continues to insist product C is a light bulb. Evidently, a brass shield magically transforms something that is not a light bulb into a light bulb? At least, that's what the lighting experts in Seller Support seem to believe.
@SEAmod @Topher_Amazon @Sandy_Amazon @Michelle_Amazon @Desi_Amazon @Troy_Amazon
6 respuestas
Blake_Amazon
Hey @Seller_yvO8mEXSyy2K8, Let me see if I can escalate this on my end - no guarantees that I will be any more successful than you though!
Seller_yvO8mEXSyy2K8
Thank you @Blake_Amazon for your help. I opened yet another case, because of this line: "To appeal this restriction, please submit a request through Seller or Vendor Central. In your request, please provide the Lighting Facts label, or update the product detail page to include this information."
So that's what I did; the case is 13010778381. And here's the response I got:
Hi,
Please note that there is no path to reinstatement for ASIN: B0BY3NNK7W.
This product has been identified as a general service light bulb that is non-compliant with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) energy conservation standards.
Amazon policy prohibits the listing or sale of products that are non-compliant with federal, state, or local laws.
To appeal this restriction, please submit a request through Seller or Vendor Central. In your request, please provide the Lighting Facts label, or update the product detail page to include this information.
(Links removed)
Thank you for selling with Amazon
Ruchi G.
Amazon.com Seller Support
I can't post links here, but I'm guessing what Ruchi and the other lighting experts in Seller Support mean by "general service light bulb" is in fact a "General Service Incadescent Lamp," which the Department of Energy defines as "a standard incandescent or halogen type lamp that is intended for general service applications; has a medium screw base; has a lumen range of not less than 310 lumens and not more than 2,600 lumens or, in the case of a modified spectrum lamp, not less than 232 lumens and not more than 1,950 lumens; and is capable of being operated at a voltage range at least partially within 110 and 130 volts."
The FIXTURE (not bulb) in question here is neither incandescent nor halogen (it's energy-efficient LED and thus in no way "non-compliant with the U.S. Department of Energy’s energy conservation standards"), it has NO SCREW BASE of any kind (much less a "medium screw base"), and it operates on low voltage (12V) - NOT a range between 110 and 130 volts.
Obviously, this is infuriating. We spend a lot of time and effort growing our catalog on Amazon. For what? So Ruchi G. (who has no idea what she's talking about and isn't even attempting to make a rational argument for why one fixture is not a light bulb but the same fixture with a brass shield IS a light bulb) can summarily deactivate our products? There are a million integrated LED fixtures on Amazon just like this one; none of them are "general service light bulbs." None of them.
Seller_yvO8mEXSyy2K8
@Blake_Amazonany luck in escalating this? Again, it's indefensible to claim that a fixture with no screw base of any kind is a "general service light bulb," or that one fixture without a glare guard is not a light bulb but the exact same fixture with a glare guard somehow is a light bulb, or that an LED fixture that consumes 18 watts of energy to produce 500 lumens of light is somehow "non-compliant with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) energy conservation standards" or "non-compliant with federal, state, or local laws." What possible standard or law would that level of luminous efficacy violate?
Blake_Amazon
Hi @Seller_yvO8mEXSyy2K8, thanks for your patience, I've been out of office for the past few weeks. I did escalate on my end but unfortunately didn't have any more luck than you with this. I'm very sorry for the difficulties this causes, but there isn't anything further I'm able to do.
Seller_yvO8mEXSyy2K8
OK @Blake_Amazon thank you for your efforts. Who can help us, then? A bot clearly went haywire here, and Seller Support has neither the knowledge nor the motivation to make it right. Surely someone has the authority to do that, though.
