Amazon FBA automation ? Scam or Opportunity?

A few days ago I saw an interesting advertisement on Facebook. It was for a new service that I have not seen before. Amazon Automation. This is not to be confused with coaching. The company basically offers to manage you amazon account, add a bunch of drop shipping products that are proven sellers to the inventory of your amazon account, then when a order comes through their team would place the order for you with the drop shipper to ship out the product. 

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I watched their explanation video, they claim that within 4-7 months they will have your store doing $100,000 in sales per month. With a profit margin of 10-22%. That would leave you with $10,000 – $22,000 income per month. 

So here are some questions that popped in my head…. Why would they do this for other people? Why not create more accounts for themsevles and keep all the profit for themselves? They said it is because after a few accounts Amazon will find out and not allow multiple accounts. I personally feel that doesn’t make sense. They could open up several businesses and corporations and each of them would be a different entity, therefore I don’t see on what grounds Amazon would deny them. 

Let’s just say what they are saying about that is true. I wanted to know what is in it for them? They said that they will take 33% of the profits they get you every month. For example, the $100,000 in sales = $10,000 profit – 33% = $6,700. You would basically be left with $6,700 a month in income after their 1/3 fee. This part I was totaly ok with, if they are making sales for you and doing all the work involved in it, they deserve to get a cut. 

However, THAT’S NOT ALL FOLKS! Here is where the doozy comes in, they charge a $15,000 sign on fee, that must be payable via bank transfer, wire not credit card. Knowing that I would then not be protected by my credit card, I asked if they have a contract where their claims are in writing. He said yes, however he can not guaratee the $100,000 in sales even though he knows he can get there. Keep in mind this program is being instroduced by a multi-million dollar Amazon seller and coach. A legit one. 

More questions came to mind, if he can’t put his claims into writing, $15,000 is a lot of money to risk on people whoe seem pretty nice but I don’t really know personally. How am I protected here? The answer is, I am not. He mentioned that he would not fabricate his claims because his name is on the line, he has a facebook group and many people he coaches, he welcomed the opportunity for us to go on the facebook group and ask about him. If he lied , we would go on facebook and ruin him or on the internet. 

That is true, however $15,000 is still a ton of money to take a risk on without any sort of claims in writing. I ask for them to send me the agreement they do have. What they say in there is basically that “they are only building you a store” , “they can not guarantee you will make ANY MONEY” , “they can not guarantee the longevity of your store”. These statements sort of caused some red flags. 

I really liked the guy, and I do for some reason trust him and belive he is telling the truth. However there is still a risk and the amount of money is a big gample. I messaged them and let them know that if they were willing to modify their agreement addressing all their claims that I would do business with them. Unfortunatly they wre not willing to do that. I really would like to make that $6,700 a month on automation, but I just don’t know. If this guy screws me over I probably wouldn’t forget about that money for almsot ever….

What would you do? Would you send him the money or continue building your own Amazon seller account?

Comments

  1. I’ve seen these ads too, and I’m skeptical as well, especially with the startup fee. Can you identify which automation program you are referring to? Was it Steven Mayer?

    1. To everyone on this thread, I’m a 59 year old successful business man and entrepreneur, having built and sold many business’. I am writing this to let all of you know that it doesn’t matter what the company is doing this, it’s a SCAM. There is no free lunch and their marketing technique simply preys upon the fact that most people want to believe there is some easy way to make lots of money – there isn’t, trust me. Save your money, read some books on how to build your own Amazon Online Business if that’s what you’re interested in, or find some other business you could start the leverages your God given talents (yes, you have them, we all do), and that you are passionate about, and start moving. It’s your time, and you have what it takes, trust me. But don’t waste your precious time with this type of stuff, it’s beneath you. Good luck to you all, you can do it!

  2. Build my own account… this seems really scary and scammy… This guy probably isn’t who he says he is and created a fake profile and pictures to say he’s someone he isn’t so when the shit hits the fan it really wasn’t him in the first place…

  3. i think its legit, i spoke with the adviser and he seemed nice and told me everything to expect to see if i were a good fit, however they are upfront and dont lie about anything, the advisor sent me a couple videos in my yahoo mail and talking about the whole process. by the way steven mayer has a youtube channel where he shows multiple accounts that he built.

    1. There is a saying: if it is too good to be true, it is too good to be true: if they were honest they would take a commission and invest THEIR funds in your business; this is what investors and venture capitalists do. Asking for fees and payments are big red flags! It is a scam; 100 percent sure. Dont waste your scarce savings. There are no easy money unfortunately.

  4. Hi
    Thanks for sharing your experience with this company. I recent saw their advertisement on Facebook as well and I was interested. But I didn’t know how much they charge after reading your post I got the inside of it. Personally I would go for it. 15K is a lot of money to invest on somebody you know. Especially the fact that they cannot guarantee any of their claims. So I wouldn’t go for it. Best of Luck!

  5. This is a scam! You have no legal standing to make a claim for your money back because their contract/agreement with you states that they guarantee nothing. There advertisements say they are doing this because they want to see people succeed and that they themselves are millionaires. This would not be consistent with asking for $15,000 as an up-front payment. Do not pay the $15,000. This is a scam!

  6. If it’s too good to be true, do not go through. Waiting for this show on Dirty Money or American Greed. Your red flags says something is not right and your gut feeling is it does not add up, so like any Ponzi schemes, you may see a few dollars until money runs out. Walk away is my recommendation.

    1. Thank you Jim,
      For you input on this!
      I’m looking into drop-shipping and I was communicating with a company to obtain an appt to speak with someone..I agree it’s a scam. Well I’m not a sucker, and my 1st question was going to be; can you send me the company contract..My research couldn’t even find the company name, —-They didn’t even keep the scheduled appointment to speak with me. RED FLAD x’s many discrepancies. I’ll just go to the source and use their program and learn the right way!
      Thanks again

  7. IM INTERESTED, OPEN MINDED, BUT WOULD LIKE MOE DETAILS.. HOW IS MY MONEY INSULATED FROM TAKING LOSSES. WHAT ARE YOUR FEES FOR HELPINH ME RUN THESE BUSINESS’S. I JUST HAVE ,ORE QUESTIONS, BUT CANT TALK RIGHT NOW.

    1. This is a scam, Steven Mayer started one with a company called Valiant that stood all of their customers money, $30,000 each and disappeared. Kevin David also started one and Its a scam. It seems to be the flavour of the week. They’re not liabe as it seems you agree to their terms which is basically agreeing that you may not make the money they claim. Amazon FBA is more difficult worth the tight profit margins, seller fees, storage fees. So for them to take that much % I find it hard to believe you can profit at all. It’s very unlikely. Do your own product research, find a niche, learn the basics of amazon and try to sell a few. Sell on Shopify or Walmart. For $5,000
      People like myself can set up a complete business and you can automate it yourself, do some marketing and have a true business, not some fake guru whose going to steal all your
      Money. Watch CoffeeZilla on YouTube who talks about fake gurus like Steven Mayer and Kevin David.

  8. I am looking into this and wondering if you pulled the trigger and if so would be willing to give any details?

  9. To me, it seems like he is the one looking to make more money and expansion through me. So therefore, it should be free for the initial start. Within time or months we both can be happy making some cash.

  10. If you have that kind of money i would rather use it to set up my own store myself and learn the process. There’s no way in hells ass that I’ll pay 15k to sign up, along with 1/3 of my profits that is not even guaranteed. I definitely would say no. But if that kind of money won’t affect you (which you stated it will) then sure, go ahead.

  11. no i wouldn’t not without a contract. and anyone can set up a store…. to good to be true and now there asking for 30 grand no fing way ….. if you believe this i have a bridge for sale in brooklyn it’s 200 plus years old

  12. I’m interested in this as well. I’ve been doing research on this and weighing out different providers. Did you sign up?

  13. Stay away! Almost all these Amazon automation companies are scams! I actually invested $15K in Sept last year l, and guess what, Amazon suspended my store, and I have not made any of that money back. It’s a total scam. They won’t disclose to you either that this business model (retail dropshipping) will probably get your account shut down and you have no way to recover your funds.

  14. Doing FBA(Fulfilment By Amazon)

    Let say you are a small timer book seller that grow a little too big(Amazon started out more than 20 yrs ago as an online book seller). Your inventory is getting more than 20 thousand books. You start dumping all of them into Amazon warehouse. They will take care the whole process(process order, pack and ship). Let’s say Amazon get 25% cut from total sale plus 75c rental monthly for a cubic feet that your books occupied in their designated spot in the warehouse. You just sit there and follow up with the sales to earn your money. They take care everything including customer services until your book sold out. You still have the confidence on control your products and profits on Amazon.

    Now with this new service of FBA-Automation, I am not sure for the guarantee you can make the money. You have no clue of what products you sell. For the control on the products, you vest them all on the people who advertise this service. The problem is the 15K is a very big amount of money. You gotta do FBA yourself first, you can do it with a few hundred bucks then explore the opportunities. It’s not very easy to buy low and sell high unless you have your own production.

  15. I was scammed out of $5000 last July by a Raphael…Instragram name Rapha-El Daligheto…Money was sent to Marketing Partner LLC for him to build my Amazon Store. A Skype call was done to buy a software that would placed products in the store…started getting hundreds of notifications that products were being added. This was all fake! Only one product was added on the Skype Call. After I realizing that this was a scam, I requested a refund immediately. I never got any refund. My store was never set up and Raphael’s http://www.profitsbyamazon.com website that explained what this “company” offered was removed shortly after they stole my money.

  16. @Peter Smith, totally feel the same way. Just wish people would do some research before comitting themselves these too good to be true opportunities.

  17. You guys are missing something. First of all they take whatever percent IF YOU MAKE MONEY, from net profit not revenue.
    Then, to be able to make money you will need credit card. A big one. otherwise you will not make money. Credit card gives you cash back, and gives you opportunity to spend the money that you dont have.
    I didn`t buy it. But i`m about to buy one of them.
    I`m doing dropshipping for 2 years now and i bought $1000 software like this and it works.
    so thinking about to step up the game.

  18. I came across this post after being introduced to the same concept on Walmart. This program has the same profit splits and made the same claim regarding one account per household. They want 50k to setup store and call it kind of like a franchise fee. I don’t think its a scam in the general sense of “take your money and run” but seriously question the return on investment. Logic tells me if they were cranking out sales as they claim and getting 33% and simply needed “account holders” then they would have the split inverted and take 70% profit and give holder 30 with no up front fee. They would have more account holder than they know what to do with. They are making money on the fee, plain and simple

  19. I also wanted to sign up with an automation company today after going over their contract decided to do more research and i am about 90% sure it is a SCAM. After reading some of these comments, I will not sign up I’d rather open an amazon or a Walmart store myself and not lose my $15 to $25K that some of these automation companies charge.

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