#ops-inventory

Do share @Conor

@Conor I look at it mostly as help with issue mitigation. That is the main value I have found, and it has been worth it for that help.

tldr;
• the only strategic insights we had was our rep pushing to do amazon deals and spend even more on PPC
• I had to remind our rep each meeting about our business and what mattered to us
• the SAS core team is not enabled with tools to actually help mitigate any issues. we got caught in endless cycles of submitting separate escalations, which ultimately did not resolve anything. it's a better use of time to call seller support until you get a competent support rep, since seller support can actually do something about your issue. SAS core "watches" tickets and escalations, but cannot do anything to resolve issues themselves.
• you're paying a minimum monthly fee + a portion of revenue for a program that did not deliver any value to our business

We have the same issue with SAS as @Conor..

Isn’t SAS required for deal of the day entry?

I think so. We were never selected 😢 no guarantees @Kennedy Horton

I’ve had some good experience with it…they’ve saved me hundreds of thousands in revenue by ensuring that ASINS weren’t automatically delisted when a food safety complaint was filed…SAS Core was able to guarantee I had a 24 hour period to supply food safety documentation before delisting (which prevented the delisting every time). Saved us at least $400k in revenue over 12 months.

@Conor Kelly here from Dr. Noze Best. Amazon SAS recently reached out to us and given two ongoing support issues - we are seriously considering.

1. Our hero product (NozeBot) is a class II medical device and we are going on 3 months fighting with Amazon CA to launch.
2. In the US listing, we are inexplicably ranking #4 on “NozeBot” brand terms despite being the highest clicked and in good standing. We have an external Amazon agency managing our PPC and providing listing support. They have been unable to get the above issues resolved.

Can you provide a bit more color on what you’ve done contacting “seller support” directly? Any tips to be successful? Especially on issue #1, we are approaching desperate. Appreciate any insights!

hey @Kelly VanRavenswaay congrats on the success so far in the US market!
1. oof - we've just been submitting seller support tickets and calling until we get a capable rep that can help... sometimes takes a while. The SAS sales team explicitly says they are not seller support and they really didnt do much for us with issue resolution. Some of the folks above might have a better experience with this type of issue though.
2. the same exact thing happened to us for our top keywords. We have the highest reviews, number of units bought in the past month, etc. but ranked lower on organic search. My theory is the current amz search algorithm is ranking lower cost items higher up. It forced us to start bidding on top keywords in PPC.

Agreed with @Katie Kay The program is only good for betas and issue assistance. I’ve been a part of it for almost 2 years.