How Do I Remove a Hijacker Without Brand Registry?

Bradley Sutton, Helium 10’s Director of Customer Success and Training, is back with more answers to your most sought-after questions. In this episode Bradley is answering the question, “How do I remove a hijacker without brand registry?”

Do a test buy, and take preventative measures with Helium 10’s Alerts tool.

If you’re one of the Amazon sellers affected by a listing hijacker (aka someone trying to piggyback off your listing by reselling your product or selling a counterfeit of your product), don’t worry, you’re not alone.

And, if you’re asking this AMA question, we assume it’s too late to take preventive measures – so first we’ll break down how to do a test buy, and then explain how to better protect yourself going forward.

A test buy is a term you may hear in Amazon seller discussion groups, and Amazon seller support itself often suggests this method to prompt them to look into your issue. If you try to report a hijacker and you A: don’t have Brand Registry and B: haven’t performed a test buy, nine times out of ten they’ll tell you they can’t help you.

A test buy is where you’ll purchase the hijacker’s product as an Amazon buyer so that you can prove that the product is counterfeit or somehow a violation of your intellectual property.

To perform a test buy, use an Amazon customer account to purchase the product from them. Make sure that, if you (or another authorized seller) has the buy box, to go into the ‘available from these sellers’ section of the listing and specifically add the hijacker’s item to your cart.

Make the purchase, and document EVERYTHING, including your order ID#, any communication from the hijacker, etc.

Once you’ve received the item, a document you opening it with videos and images, then document comparison of the counterfeit item to your authentic item. Images showing the items side by side, and with FNSKU labels displayed, if possible, are helpful. Save every piece of evidence you can.

When your evidence is ready, open a case with Amazon seller support and send them everything you’ve documented. Again, write your appeal from the buyer’s perspective. As many of you know, Amazon almost always sides with the buyer over the seller in a buyer-seller dispute, so the way you frame your case can help you.

Instead of approaching it from the angle of “I am a seller and my rights have been violated,” approach it as “the subpart counterfeit product will disappoint buyers who are expecting x level of quality advertised in my listing.” That way, Amazon realizes this can lead to potential customer dissatisfaction and is not just an isolated issue for you as a seller.

That’s the 101 on test buys. Hopefully, with enough evidence, your case will be enough for Amazon to kick those pesky hijackers off of your listings.

Now for preventative measures. First and foremost, register for Brand Registry if you can. If you’re unable to or ineligible at this time, learn more about the process and how to get it going on their page, here.

Second, make sure you have Helium 10’s Alerts tool set up! Alerts is designed to warn you the moment a hijacker shows up on your listing. A quick glance at the tool dashboard will give you a summary of your listings and buy box status: a happy face icon means you have the buy box, and a sad face means another seller has it.

Arguably the most useful function of Alerts, however, is that the moment a hijacker shows up on your listing, you’ll receive an email and/or text message (depending on your settings) to alert you to take action. With Alerts, you can respond immediately to potential threats and stamp out fires before they start.
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