Amazon Advantage inventory errors

Hi Folks,

Usually when I post here it seems to be to criticize Amazon.com. Sorry, I
can't help myself!

Do you folks who use the Advantage program keep track of their stated
inventory? And if so, is it accurate?

A couple of years ago Amazon dragged it's feet for months fixing it's
inventory of my book. They had made a mistake on their inventory, it seems,
and had "accidentally" failed to report the sale of about 40 books to me.
Here's my follow-up to my original post on the topic...

' "Around the Christmas Holidays I made a couple of posts concerning
problems I
was having with amazon.com's "advantage" program. It was basically that I
was sending them books left and right, and they were showing lots of books
in stock (40-60+) but on my book's page it was usually listed as "usually
ships in 2-3 weeks."

After many canned responses, they said that those 40-60 books were
unavailable because they were damaged, something I was very skeptical about.
Finally, after asking that the damaged books be returned many times, they
returned 11 books. (The rest were fine the whole time, meaning in all
likelihood I lost most of the Christmas Holiday sales.) The corner of their
returns box was open, and they were packed in the box so loosely the covers
were rubbed severely and the corners bent. Made it kind of hard to
determine what kind of damage they may have had when they arrived at Amazon.
I'd pointed out to them that the advantage agreement said "damaged books
will be returned promptly," so apparently they felt several months was
"promptly." '

Now I've just gone through that process again, with fewer books, but lots of
effort was required again. Here is their email answer after I INSISTED they
tell me exactly how many books they had:

"After further research, we have detected a problem with your item's
inventory level. As displayed in your online Advantage account, the
inventory reads 8. However, the actual inventory level is 4. We
take seriously the accurate reporting of your inventory level, and
we are working to update our site with the correct quantity.
However, this process may take several months."

SEVERAL MONTHS!

I suggest you check your inventories carefully.

Bruce L. Nelson
www.bucktrack.com

In article <vubq8i4nbgr4cc RemoveThis @corp.supernews.com>,
"Buck" <brucetakethisout RemoveThis @gci.net> wrote:

 > Hi Folks,
 >
 > Usually when I post here it seems to be to criticize Amazon.com. Sorry, I
 > can't help myself!
 >
 > Do you folks who use the Advantage program keep track of their stated
 > inventory? And if so, is it accurate?
 > <snip>
 > After many canned responses, they said that those 40-60 books were
 > unavailable because they were damaged, something I was very skeptical about.
 > Finally, after asking that the damaged books be returned many times, they
 > returned 11 books. (The rest were fine the whole time, meaning in all
 > likelihood I lost most of the Christmas Holiday sales.) The corner of their
 > returns box was open, and they were packed in the box so loosely the covers
 > were rubbed severely and the corners bent. <snip>
 >
 > Now I've just gone through that process again, with fewer books, but lots of
 > effort was required again. Here is their email answer after I INSISTED they
 > tell me exactly how many books they had:
 >
 > "After further research, we have detected a problem with your item's
 > inventory level. As displayed in your online Advantage account, the
 > inventory reads 8. However, the actual inventory level is 4. We
 > take seriously the accurate reporting of your inventory level, and
 > we are working to update our site with the correct quantity.
 > However, this process may take several months."
 >
 > SEVERAL MONTHS!
 >
 > I suggest you check your inventories carefully.
 > <sip>


Rather than deal with Amazon and their "Advantage" program (which mostly
give an advantage to Amazon), why don't you distribute your books to
Amazon through Baker & Taylor. With B&T you probably will have similar
inventory and damage problems (it's endemic to the business), but at
least you'll have distribution to regular retail bookstores as well. The
typical 55% discount from list available to small publishers is no worse
than the "Advantage" program ... and there's no additional fees like
those that Amazon is threatening to charge to most small publishers who
are members of the Advantage program.

Baker & Taylor will waive their usual "start up fee" (about $200) if you
show that you've made a reasonable effort to advertise to the library
trade. Or, join the Publishers Marketing Association
(http://www.pma-online.org) and B&T will waive their fees. (PMA
membership will also provide many other benefits to a small publisher.)<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->