Still trying to find my first supplier. Just have to keep plugging away.
Here are some more quotes from Seller Talk that might be useful to me.
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"Hi. I signed up for a professional seller account in [month] 2018. I've only recently added inventory to FBA in [month] which means 3 or 4 months without any account activity. Is it possible to get reimbursed the subscription fees for those "empty" months?"
Finding the form to submit is a little tricky. In Seller Central click 'Help' in the upper-right to open up the slide-over help box. At the very bottom of the help box is a navigation bar where you'll click 'Contact Us'. When the new page loads, select 'Selling on Amazon'.
Now, here's where they try to confuse you by opening up the help box again with no immediate way to close it. Clicking any link in the help box should make the 'X' in the upper-right appear to allow you to close the help box.
You should now be on the Contact Us page without a help box. Select... Your account :: Other account issues. Select the Email tab, fill in the form, and they should get back to you shortly with an account credit appearing soon thereafter.
UPDATE: This worked for me and my checking account was credited for all past charges!
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At this point I have 5 suppliers with usable price lists - I have not called anyone on the phone, I have not 'cold emailed' anyone - all of them had a link on their website for companies interested in becoming a distributor or reseller. Sometimes you can do it all online, sometimes you have to print and fill out forms, then scan before emailing it back. Some have approved me with nothing more than that, while other emailed me with questions and/or requests - that I complied with - and then I was approved. Look for those sites that are asking you to sign up with them! Good luck!
I haven't kept very good lists of that. I think it's about 30-40; some didn't reply, some gave a reason for not accepting me, some didn't have a good list... at this point I have 5.
I got fed up filling out complicated online forms only to find out that the supplier does not have a spreadsheet or any usable file. I've now reduced my initial email to the following or similar:
We'd love to sell your products. Can you supply us with a spreadsheet containing UPC codes, SKUs and prices? We will need this to feed into our purchase order system.
I add my website address so they can check me out. The website states explicitly that I am an online retailer. This seems to work well. They either send me a spreadsheet or ask me to sign up with my reseller certificate etc. or if they don't have what I want they don't reply. Saves a lot of backward and forwards with emails.
My comment. This might be useful to try out.
More to come