How to get around using the name Amazon in a gig - advice please

[heath_thompson]

Hi everyone,

I’m a copywriter that specialises in optimising Amazon listings and I’ve been on Fiverr for around a year. I had a gig removed this week because of using the word Amazon in my gig. I don’t do reviews, I offer legitimate product descriptions, SEO and help with PPC campaigns.

If you take a look here you will see stacks of sellers using Amazon in their images and descriptions, and Fiverr support said they are gradually working through all of these and will immediately close their gigs.

https://www.fiverr.com/search/gigs?utf8=✓&source=top-bar&locale=en&search_in=everywhere&query=amazon%20listing&search-autocomplete-original-term=&search-autocomplete-original-term=amazon%20listingI

Any ideas of how to work around this and still compete against all the sellers above? I have paused all my gigs in fear that they too will get closed down.

Many thanks,

Heath

[manucornel]

Hi everyone,

I’m a copywriter that specialises in optimising Amazon listings and I’ve been on Fiverr for around a year. I had a gig removed this week because of using the word Amazon in my gig. I don’t do reviews, I offer legitimate product descriptions, SEO and help with PPC campaigns.

If you take a look here you will see stacks of sellers using Amazon in their images and descriptions, and Fiverr support said they are gradually working through all of these and will immediately close their gigs.

https://www.fiverr.com/search/gigs?utf8=✓&source=top-bar&locale=en&search_in=everywhere&query=amazon%20listing&search-autocomplete-original-term=&search-autocomplete-original-term=amazon%20listingI

Any ideas of how to work around this and still compete against all the sellers above? I have paused all my gigs in fear that they too will get closed down.

Many thanks,

Heath

If

Fiverr support said they are gradually working through all of these and will immediately close their gigs

are you sure you want to get back on that list of gigs?

But it sounds strange. I see Pro’s offering " Competitive Amazon Listing Product Descriptions". Why yours wouldn’t be allowed? Are you sure you didn’t break other rules? Can you show us the CS response that said that?

[adrover]

Are you sure they actually read your gig description? I once had a gig removed because I said in the description that I do NOT do academic writing. I guess they automatically flagged it because of those words, “academic writing.”

I contacted customer service and explained that I do not do academic writing, and that I explicitly stated as much in my gig. They sent back a generic response saying that academic writing is not allowed, which showed they never even read my message. So I tried again, and a human being actually read it this time. They reinstated my gig. Maybe that could happen for you?

[miiila]

Sounds weird, there are lots of legit Amazon services, I provide translations of Amazon listings and Amazon itself demands from their sellers that listings need to be in the respective language, so that can’t be a disallowed service, but yes, I guess it may have been either an automated mistake or someone didn’t understand the memo they got, I’d definitely keep replying to that same ticket until I got a reply that made sense.

Another thing though, I see some gigs in your link where sellers use the actual Amazon logo, maybe that’s the problem, of course only if you used it too?
Still would make not much sense to close the gig instead of telling those sellers to not use Amazon’s logo ever again (and reinstate the gig once they comply and check once a few days or weeks later) , but that’s just me.

If it’s indeed the word ‘Amazon’, that would be sheer madness. Can’t rule that out of course, but I’m interested in the exact wording of your CS text too.

[heath_thompson]

Sounds weird, there are lots of legit Amazon services, I provide translations of Amazon listings and Amazon itself demands from their sellers that listings need to be in the respective language, so that can’t be a disallowed service, but yes, I guess it may have been either an automated mistake or someone didn’t understand the memo they got, I’d definitely keep replying to that same ticket until I got a reply that made sense.

Another thing though, I see some gigs in your link where sellers use the actual Amazon logo, maybe that’s the problem, of course only if you used it too?

Still would make not much sense to close the gig instead of telling those sellers to not use Amazon’s logo ever again (and reinstate the gig once they comply and check once a few days or weeks later) , but that’s just me.

If it’s indeed the word ‘Amazon’, that would be sheer madness. Can’t rule that out of course, but I’m interested in the exact wording of your CS text too.

Hi all,

No I did not have an Amazon logos in my gig, only the word Amazon - here is the trail of messages between myself and customer support, in order of earliest first…

heath_thompson, Oct 22, 8:24 AM EDT

Hi,

I have just had one of my gigs denied due to 3rd party TOS violation and as the service I provide is central to what I offer on Fiverr I wanted to understand the issue. I am just creating a website to drive more traffic to my Fiverr gigs you can see it here: but will cancel it if it means my gigs are in danger of being denied.

The gig was to do copywriting for Amazon listings. It is my full time profession and I run and agency employing 25 staff and was using Fiverr simply to attract new clients. All the content is original and does not infringe copyrighting.

Can you clarify the problem please so I can ensure it doesn’t happen again, or I can make changes to other gigs?

Best wishes,

Heath Thompson

Gerardo, Oct 22, 3:43 PM EDT

Hello Heath,

I hope that this email finds you well.

To answer your question, we were contacted by Amazon’s community abuse team regarding your Gig. This service violates Amazon’s Terms of Service and was specifically requested to be removed. Unfortunately, your Gig will not be restored on Fiverr.

For more information about this issue, please contact Amazon’s Customer Support.

We are here if you need help with anything else.

Kind regards

heath_thompson, Oct 22, 4:46 PM EDT

Thanks for the reply Gerardo. This has nothing to do with Amazon’s

Terms of Service because their TOS is only relevant to its own

business, nor is it due to the community team which only relates

infringements regarding listings published on Amazon’s site.

The only possible claim Amazon could make is in the use of the word

Amazon, and this would put a lot of people in trouble on Fiverr. I do

not use their logo for this very reason. As it happens, this was a

gig that did not sell, so it is not a problem, but it sounds to me

like a competitor posing as an Amazon employee. I speak with their

Customer Support regularly and they would not be interested in this at

all.

Best wishes,

Heath

Gerardo, Oct 22, 6:40 PM EDT

You are welcome Heath,

We appreciate your comments, we will take note of them.

Also, we do understand that there are pre-existing Gigs searchable on Fiverr and we are working to gradually remove similar Gigs.

Sooner or later, our Team will catch all the other Gigs that are similar in the content with yours and they will be removed too. As this is a violation of Fiverr’s Terms of Service.

We are here if you need help with anything else.

Kind regards.

heath_thompson, Oct 22, 6:48 PM EDT

Thanks Gerardo

Do you mean that it is against Fiverr’s TOS to have Amazon mentioned

in they way you might say PPC for Google or product descriptions for

Shopify/Ebay etc? It’s is still unclear as to what the problem is.

Amazon knows that I write product descriptions for its sellers as I am

being considered to sell my services on Amazon.

Anyway, I will take a new look at your TOS. Thanks.

Heath

Gerardo, Oct 22, 7:24 PM EDT

Hello Heath,

To answer your question, yes, it is against Fiverr’s Terms of Service, As mentioned before, we were asked by Amzaon to remove these Gigs.

We only remove Gigs for third party terms of service violations if reported by the relevant third party.

Any Gig that doesn’t adhere to the Terms of Service of a third party is in actuality, violating our Terms of Service as well.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Best regards,

So, I am not going to report any gigs as I think that is pretty unethical, and we all just trying to earn some cash, but Fiverr does seem to be very draconian in how it deals with this “issue” when they could simply warn a seller to remove whatever is against their TOS or face having the gig removed.

I wonder whether they remove a certain number of gigs with low ratings just to report to Amazon that they are doing something about it.

[miiila]

That seems very off for sure. I don’t suppose Jeff Bezos writes all the listings for Amazon’s own products and personally translates them into the languages of all Amazon marketplaces.

Why wouldn’t people be allowed to hire someone to write their listings on Fiverr or wherever else. It’s not even as if any Amazon seller claims they’ve written their own listings or anything. If someone buys a book that says “written by J. K. Rowling” and then finds out it was written by a ghostwriter, they may get irritated, but who cares who wrote the listing for any Amazon product they buy?

I’m stunned. Fiverr has a product listing sub category. So now are we supposed to say “I will write /translate your listing for a sales platform” now instead of using the word “Amazon”? Good luck to buyers finding our gigs then with the search terms they put in when looking for an Amazon service, and good luck to Amazon with looking like a professional company if all sellers need to write their own descriptions. I’ve seen horrendous listings, believe me.

So I’m now supposed to delete my Amazon translation gig because it has the word “Amazon” in the URL? And why don’t we get an official mail about that if it is so? There are lots of sellers selling completely clean Amazon gigs, they are supposed to keep building up those gigs by doing orders on them, promoting them, and all until Fiverr stumbles over them and closes them instead of spending that time on other things?

And what with the Pros selling Amazon gigs, aren’t all those gigs supposed to be hand-vetted and monitored? Those are no old back-log gigs. How can they have been OKed if it’s not allowed?

That can’t be true, there must have been some kind of misunderstanding/miscommunication between Fiverr and Amazon, or so I hope. If it is, I’m looking forward to hearing an actual explanation by Fiverr or Amazon for this.

[heath_thompson]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

Yes, I hear you both - but you know, I don’t actually believe any of it. I had a similar PPC gig blocked a year ago for the same reason, and nothing much has changed.

I use a photographer from Fiverr who had over 1,000 five star ratings and he got his gig removed. Before this, I had asked a customer to send him their products to be photographed (which they did, 4 of them) however the orders do not start until they are received, so there was probably no outstanding orders showing on his account at the time.

His gig was removed between my client posting them and him receiving them. I had no contact details for him as his account was actually put on hold, so it put me in a very difficult situation. What a mess. So, I wrote to them saying they should have checked with him first and warn him so that “their” customers (i.e., me) would not lose products - but no interest. Thankfully, I found him through Facebook.

My advice is to closely replicate your gigs so if one is removed you still have others. It’s a bummer to lose all the ratings but they are still against your name at least.

But I am not going to pay to host a website to direct customers to my Fiverr gigs with this kind of uncaring attitude.

[miiila]

My Amazon gig actually is on pause since weeks or months currently, I’ll leave it so until I hear something that makes a bit more sense, either way (well, or until they close it).

Regarding the why, I guess we’re left to our own conclusions and theories. Communication obviously leaves to be desired, which is something to be figured into the same.

Thank you for posting, and for the Cs conversation, much better to know at least that bit than nothing at all.

P. S. I just noticed you posted this in “My Fiverr Gigs”, which I can only see when not logged in, many people have that category muted, maybe move it to “Conversations” or something instead, so more sellers can see it, the ones with Amazon gigs surely would want to know about this new thing.