At last I have done it! A few weeks ago I decided to list English Worry Beads on Amazon. I had been putting it off as I suspected it was going to be highly stressful. Boy was I right. I can cope with lots of actions needed to get a listing but what I can’t cope with is a complete lack of logic. You would have thought that Amazon being a billion pound international corporation that sells just about anything would have its processes spot on, NO!
To start with I had to have my brand agreed as being sufficiently professional to be accepted. Thank heavens I had got a professional to do it. That agreed I then had to have the products agreed as being of sufficient quality as they are classed under, “Health and Well Being”. A relatively simple process apart from the fact they want pictures of the products on white backgrounds. I take the pictures and submit them. They are declined and they give a standard response that they must be on a white background. OK I can do this! I get a “more white” white background and am refused again. Eventually someone at Amazon explains that they don’t want a white background they want the product pictures to be put through a piece of software to remove all background so that the product sits in a computer generated white background. So why didn’t they say that in the first place?
Eventually I find some software, but I cannot buy it, I have to licence it on a monthly basis, aaahhh! Unfortunately the software works well with things that are one big blob. Worry beads do have a wooden pear but thin chains and shiny semi-precious stones are not liked but the software at all. I eventually figure out a method of cutting up images enlarging and shrinking them so that at last I have acceptable product pictures. I get sign off I can now sell.
I thought I had gone through hoops but my problems had just started. I had to fill in a spread sheet with everything imaginable about each set of worry beads I wished to list. I am very experienced with Excel so this did not daunt me, it is just a case of being methodical and reading the 100 or so pages of guidance notes. I was fine until I got to about column 100 when I came to a “Required” column. It wanted the wig length for the worry beads. OK an essential fact if you are selling wigs but why was it required for all other health products? I input “none” and carried on only to be faced with chemicals that are in my product, “Required” again for every listing. I typed in “none” and carried on. With all the columns reviewed I submitted the spread sheet.
I received back a huge error report, but I could not understand what any of the errors were, or more important how to fix them. I went through each of the funny questions and blanked the columns, and re-submitted. A huge error report again but different things, aaahhh! Ok so I had not managed to do everything correctly but how do I correct the errors. Unfortunately Amazon does not like people asking silly questions so none of their emails can be replied to. And you guessed it, there is no button that says, email for help. Out of desperation I found a forum for issues with set up. This yielded no responses but the Amazon Support Team must monitor the forum as someone contacted me to offer assistance. It turned out that I had not put information into a column that was “Required” even though the instructions did not ask for it, aahhhh! With this data included it worked, yippee!
So a huge long story but how does this relate to worry beads. The timeline of all this frustration was approximately three weeks. Almost every night I was left with no answers and a pile of stress. This is the type of situation where I cannot cope and my anxiety will go wild. I could not understand how a global company like Amazon could run such a “bag of nails” set up system, but they do. Each evening instead of dwelling on the issues and letting them take over I would use my worry beads to relax and distract me. I still cannot believe it, but they worked. Looking back on it, now that the Amazon account is set up, it seems incredible that I came through it. Even normal people who I have told the tale too believe that they could not have carried on, day after day, issue after issue and come through it. What an endorsement for using worry beads, even if you don’t have health problems.
Kevin
The English Worry Bead Co
www.englishworrybeads.uk
