Fencing

Bit of fun...

We usually put up some Christmas lights on the house - some fairy lights on the metal fencing at the front, but a pain as means a cable out of a window. They are usually just normal fairy lights.

But with my new found expertise in WS2812 style LED strips, and my controllers, I decided to do better.

11m of wooden fence at the front of the house on the road. So let's do this properly. The key point is I have outside power at the end of the fence for the hot tub. So I was able to install, under cover, a 20A 5V power supply.

I then got 4 strings of fairy light style water proof 5V WS2812 LEDs.

I drilled nearly 200 holes, carefully measuring each to be level and evenly spaced. That is surprisingly hard work, LOL. James followed me poking LEDs through the holes. We were both expecting to fall off the damn wall, and James's main concern is I would fall off whilst he was not videoing!

But it is not quite so simple. Just in case you don't know, there are two common issues with LED strips.

Current limit

One issue is max current draw can be too much for power supply. To test you can either work it out, or, simply set all LEDs full white. 200 LEDs is too much for a typical small 5V USB charger plug. Hence the 20A 5V supply.

I actually also did 663 (11m) RGBW LEDs on nice 45 degree extruded trunking with diffusers for the hot tub as well, from same supply. Now that used a lot of current - just one 5m strip is too much for a USB 5V charger when white.

Voltage drop

This is slightly harder to solve. Along the strip the current draw means voltage drops as you go along. Different LEDs need different voltages. First you lose some blue making it yellow, and then some green, making red/pink. And even before that, when white still, you lose some brightness.

So with this 50 LED strip - one strip works. Two strips work but losing brightness at end. Three strips means going distinctly yellow at the end. I wanted four strips!

The solution

The solution is power feed in - the strips even have extra tails for power as well as the three wires for power and data. You feed in extra power at each strip end, so for my 4 strips I feed in at 5 points.

But how do you feed in power? In some cases you could simply power your longer strip at both ends and not have enough drop to the middle to notice. But I don't have power at the other end.

But actually it is possible to feed in even with just power from one end. The reason is the resistance of the wires, these are classic Chinesium™thin wire. If you actually have some thick good quality copper wire you can run and extra power lead the whole length and feed in at each strip end. This is what is in the WAGO boxes in the image.

Merry New year!

P.S. my son sells the controllers and stuff, https://hiwtsi.uk/

Update: Measuring resistance on the 50 LED strip power lines showed 1Ω but the leads were 0.1Ω, so 0.9Ω. A similar length of copper wire registered 0.4Ω, so 0.3Ω, so ⅓ of the resistance.

James did a video :-)

Playing cards

One of the fun diversions I have had in my time was making playing cards. I did a whole chapter in my biography on this.

My playing card design site https://www.me.uk/cards allows you to make a wide variety of cards. It is a fun little system I set up long ago.

However it has come up lately for a few reasons.

For a start I made some cards for the pub, on Amazon. Please buy some.

But also some error reports I had - some edge cases made bad cards. And making the cards for the pub meant I wanted custom card backs which it did not allow.

So I have updated. New features...

• Fixed a bug making some size cards mess up court cards.
• Upload custom artwork (PDF) for backs.
• Upload custom artwork (PDF) for jokers.
• Maze and arrows backs are more random, each deck is different (obvious all cards the same back in each deck - but every deck we make is unique).
• Tidied the options to be clearer.
• Added an option for a second set of aces to be included.

The last point was one I pondered. We make some unique decks, with an "11", or a "0" or "1" card, which is unusual. But actually what may sell better is a deck with a second set of aces, to have, well, "up your sleeve". So why not.

I have added custom ace of spades now too.

Playing with microphones

The latest LED board designs have included a TDK PDM I2S microphone - the idea was to make sound reactive LED strips.

It is tiny (3.5mm x 2.65mm x 0.98mm) and cheap(ish) $0.76. But it is digital.

Now, this was a can of worms for which I was ill prepared. I2S is not like I2C, it seems, and there are a number of ways of doing it.

This particular device is PDM based, so has just a clock and data line - the clock to the microphone, and data comes back. The concept is that you have two of these, one set for right and one set for left channel, on the same clock and data. The left and right are on the rising or falling edge of the clock. It is fixed 16 bit per channel, and works at a specific (wide) range of frequencies of clock and hence sample rates.

But other I2S devices work in a different way, with extra pins.

I went through some stages for this...

• Simple analogue microphone (cheaper) - realised that was a daft idea.
• This mic, set to right channel, and it did not work.
• This mic, set to left channel, and it did not work.

What did not work was using WLED, a common LED driver package which works nicely on our LED modules. We realised it wanted I2S, and then realised it only did PDM on left channel, hence the different iterations, but no joy. Hopefully we can get some feedback in to that project so it does work as TDK is likely a good brand. It is amazing how sensitive it is.

My guess is it is not clocking at a rate the device will handle when using WLED, sadly.

So time to do it myself, as always!

I coded I2S as per ESP32 library, and, well, it worked, I got raw data. I could even tell it I want mono only and which channel. Amusingly using the wrong channel works too as the data floats for the other channel - though I picked up some high frequency noise that way. So best to set it correctly (I nearly said "right").

The next step was a simple FFT function - I have not gone for anything fancy or uber efficient, as it keeps up well enough, especially when I went for some simple oversampling on its input. I cannot clock the microphone as slow as I would like for normal working. But even at 30k samples/sec I could keep up with FFT 30 times a second, just, all done with floats. These ESP32s are impressive.

I have made the working audio range configurable, and averaged the FFT down to a small number of bins (24) which are log of frequency to fit better with musical scales (options for linear).

This has led to some simple audio responsive LED schemes - a simple brightness based audio spectograph - smoothing from 24 bins to however many LEDs you have in a chain. And also a simple overall volume based bar graph, and one that is RGB for three levels of sound.

Lessons learned.

Some automatic audio gain was pretty simple.

The next lesson was the log scale on frequency. That was not hard. But made an option.

I reduced the full FFT result to a small number of bands, 24.

Also I needed to make it do a peak level per band and damping (configurable) to give anything that looks nice.

The frequency range is configurable, but log based causes gaps if you go too low, so ended up 100Hz to 4kHz for now, log spread over the 24 bins from a sample rate at a typical 25 blocks/sec and actually sampling over 50-60ks/s down graded (average of oversample) to 12-15ks/s for the FFT giving results to 6-7.5kHz which is more than enough for the bands I am using.

I also ended up making the samples fit the LED update rate synchronously, typically 25 or 30 per second (configurable) to avoid any extra jitter/aliasing effects.

Oh, and when using RGBW, with a colour band for spectograph, before automatic gain kicks in you can have over 1 on a band, so I made that push in to turning on the W, which worked well.

The result

Update: I have now tweaked and got cleaner response across the range, putting 50Hz to 6.4kHz in to 42 log based frequency bins. See youtube for frequency tests.

Now for use with a live band at the pub!

And HIWTSI (my son's business) is doing LED system installs now.

One Touch Switching

It has been some weeks since One Touch Switching was fully live.

TOTSCO say over 100,000 switch orders now, so it is making good progress, well, in principle.

In practice a lot is working, and in terms of volume, with the key players, as well as the likes of A&A, all working reasonably well now, switches are happening, both ways. We are seeing things working both ways and correct billing as well, which is good.

But there are still some challenges.

• Whilst I cannot go in to details, even the big players are still facing some issues, mostly small issues but some bigger, and some with workarounds for now, and for which they are rolling out as updates. Daily calls continue with industry (yes, some I have taken from the pub).
• A lot of smaller players are catching up, but many face the challenges of the huge holes in the specifications. These are still frozen and so grey areas, errors, and contradictions abound. Only once they are live with other ISPs are the issues apparent. In at least one case we have to ask how a CP managed to be live as they had some fundamental errors (like SOR not being a UUID) that should not have passed even the very poor testing TOTSCO claim to do. Even larger CPs are not entirely agreed on some field specifications because of poor wording in one of the better parts of the spec, but are working on it. The daily calls help, but only happen with the early/bigger CPs.
• There is now a formal process for inter-CP communications to resolve such issues, but not everyone is on it yet. There is a fallback process as well. So things are happening, and some of these issues with smaller CPs are being fixed as well.

But even now, even this weekend, I have seen incorrect messages and errors. I have reported, of course, and it may be these end up as defects on the daily calls, we will see.

I worry what will happen when the daily calls stop - reporting an issue to a CP may mean they ignore it rather than spend resource investigating, fixing, and deploying. At present CPs have that resource assigned, but they will not forever.

What next? Well we keep at it.

The next big step I can only hope for is an unfrozen spec and a lot of clarifications and updates. It will be interesting to see how that process happens, and how we can be involved. I have a lot to say on clarifying the specifications and I hope I can be involved in making it happen. But every change will need a lot of agreement, and even some changes by all CPs in some cases. For now, there are some silly compromises like all strings max 256 characters (which resulted from a global update to a Swagger definition system, rather than any informed debate or formal specification change, and is annoying as tinytext in mariadb is 255 characters not 256). Even so, some agreement on even the vague magnitude of things like correlationID is a good start. I suspect, in practice, that one may get defined as smaller, like 64 characters. In hindsight it should have been a UUID, unique per message, but too late to do that now. The problem is the smaller/newer CPs are not in on that discussion, so don't know. Big CPs guessed at 36 characters (UUID size), 56 characters, 64 characters, and so on, as there simply was nothing in the spec, but most had to set something in their code. We changed our handling within the first few days as we understood how broken the spec was, and now handle any size (well, megabytes) but other CPs don't, and we have limits on a load of other strings anyway.

For now, I have every message we receive, and every message we send, run through my NOTSCO checker and reported to me. I feel it is only fair to test us as well. Over time it will only be problem messages that I need to monitor. It has actually highlighted some issues in what we were sending (where customers manually type an address, mainly - I have added more checks now). But monitoring real life message has also meant updates to our checking in the live system, and updates to my NOTSCO tools.

My latest changes include actually using the longer agreed size of correlationID to ensure we tag the message type as a (small) suffix on a UUID, so that we can quickly (pre-database connect/check) validate messages we get back are sensible and reject them. Why? Well one small CP is sending nonsensical replies to replies, or reusing correlationIDs from previous messages with different messages, both of which we can now pick up in milliseconds, and cleanly reject. It looks like they are working on it, but no actual communications back to us, which is a shame - we're happy to help and advise if only they would talk to us.

Overall - OTS is happening and mostly working, so do try it when you want to switch telco.

Pubbing it

I used to go to the pub once or twice a week, a few years ago, not so much since COVID.

What is weird is finding myself going to the pub almost every afternoon now.

OK, well, morning as well, even if that is installing a PIR, or Access Point, to CCTV camera, or door contact, or just some signs. But then in afternoon just go see how it is going - and people watching...

Today I jogged in to meet an unexpected BT engineer!

This is a bit new to me.

Another pub

If you have followed me on mastodon you will know what is happening.

Some of you may know I purchased a former pub for my home in Wales nearly 4 years ago. Not a pub now. Settling down in Wales, as are many of my children, and grandchildren (half of which are Welsh!).

But now, two of my friends have decided they would like to actually run a pub!

There is a saying: "How to make a small fortune running a pub? Start with a large fortune and work at it until it is a small fortune".

But that does not mean it is impossible, and it seems sometimes that the whole industry is run on the edge of solvency somehow. I may be wrong, and obviously there are pub+hotel and other combinations that work well, but the way some pubs are run is, err, interesting.

I have got myself involved in helping them in a lot of ways now. It started as just "we'll sort internet", but doing more and more. I'm spending most days there helping out right now.

It will be very interesting to see if they can make it work. They are organised, and experienced in related businesses. They are hard working. They take customer service seriously. I think this can work.

Lots of little things, like a defibrillator on the pub - I'm sponsoring that (well A&A are) - one of my staff died suddenly and that scares the shit out of me, more places having these will definitely save lives. And if it saves one life it is worth every penny.

And, of course, the WiFi has IPv6.

They are going for pub + cafe, with decent coffee, and choice of milk and so on, like many other "coffee shops", but also with early opening for coffee and breakfast. Do the coffee right and it could make as much as the alcohol, who knows?

But making sure they are starting it out well from a tech side is my project. They are sorting refurbishing and redecorating, and some serious cleaning. I am sorting decent WiFi/internet, and CCTV and a few other things. Even to the extent of properly registered with ICO and proper published privacy policy. I hope I can provide input on the way some of us would like a pub run. But it is their pub, not mine.

But for now - grand opening end of next week before Abergavenny food festival (only drinks for now), and then finish the refurbishment and start food as well.

I am, however, damn impressed with the WiFi we have put in. It does not just cover the front, but the whole of the Brewery Yard car park and even out the to A40. Some opportunities for take away coffee to the market traders maybe, with the working WiFi connected credit card machine... We'll see how it goes.

I'll post more on opening dates, and so on...

OTS correlation ID

It is complicated to report this as some details would be covered by ramp up rules, where I cannot provide details, but now we are in live on One Touch Switching I think I can report. Even so I will not name CPs for now. This is more about the process, and specification and the fiasco.

To be very fair the main author of the specifications is someone that I feel a lot of sympathy for, under pressure, and then under a change freeze he would not have agreed. He did his best and none of this is a dig at him or his employer. Much more a dig at the process.

Weirdly correlationIDs have turned out to be a big issue, and continue to be so.

What is a correlationID?

Basically one of the message fields in One Touch Switching is called a correlationID

The big issue is the vague specification. It is a field the sender of a message sets so they can correlate the response.

Hindsight

To be clear, in hindsight, and what I have said, is correlationIDs should be per message unique and a UUID. Simple. If the spec had said that a lot of pain and hassle would have been avoided.

Problems?

The problems are various...

• It is not a defined format
• It is not a defined maximum length
• It is not well defined when and how it is unique, or not

TOTSCO 66

So the issue is that some CPs assumed it would be per CP per message unique, and so used it to identify (and ignore duplicates). Indeed a notice from TOTSCO suggested it is used to de-duplicate messages.

A real issue is "why duplicates" which is another issue - they have to be failing to respond in 3 seconds for that, and maybe that is what they should have fixed.

There are also a lot of cases where a duplicate is not an issue, if done right.

But TOTSCO 66 said you can de-duplicate based on per CP correlationIDs being unique per message.

TOSTCO 67

The next notice back peddled a lot, and I was instrumental in raising this I think. All because the specification was so vague. The new recommendation was two fold (a) don't de-duplicate on correlationID, and (b) don't send duplicate correlationIDs. A pragmatic approach without direct blame either side.

Indeed one idea was, if you use correlationID as a more "overall message flow" ID, append or prepend something to each message so they ends up unique.

So CPs are, indeed, doing both, yay! We have all seen a lot of work making this happen, and well done to all the CPs doing this.

To clarify we went through something like three iterations to get this sensible on our systems.

Length

Oh, did the specification say how long a correlationID could be? No. It did not. Why would you say that?

Well, maybe it did, sort of, TOTSCO link to some schema thing (swagger?!) which was updated after the frozen spec and the latest version of that says 256 characters. That is mental long, and I have no clue if 256 characters or 256 bytes (they are different in the UTF8 world of JSON). Just to say, A&A can handle any length up to mega bytes, if needed.

Turns out TOTSCO had limits on what they would handle, as this is a message envelope thing. They were ignoring, and not apparently reject cleanly, if too long. I have not tested with 256 x big unicode characters, yet!

But we have a big CP that would not handle more than 64 characters, but sorted that before 12th, well done, I won't say who. It was a very reasonable choice for them, and I understand it. But well done moving to 256 characters, or bytes, in time.

We now have another big CP that would not handle more than 50 characters. Not yet sorted, but will be soon.

Why such long correlationIDs? Well BECAUSE of TOTSCO 67 notice, CPs using a 36 character UUID and adding a timestamp. That just pushes over 50. And to be honest 50 was also a reasonable design choice.

So 256 characters, is that OK? Guess what, the tinytext type in mariadb is 255 characters, FFS! If I had to make a silly long limit I would have said 255 not 256, really.

Ping pong

One of the mistakes we made at the very start, for a day or so, was assuming correlationIDs were ping ponged over the switch process (match, order, update, trigger). I had fields in the database to do this and code to do it (they were tinytext).

Why did I assume this? Well the specification did not say, but the test cases did, they had correlationIDs on an OrderRequest following on from the MatchRequest. They looked a lot like they should ping pong over the process.

Well I worked it out, but did every small CP that is live today?

The answer is no, they have not, and at least one small CP (I feel sorry for them) very carefully followed the spec, and the examples in the test schedule, and did this, like we did.

They will not work with almost any of the other CPs now live. They have to make major changes, now, when live. Really sorry for them.

Helping?

Seriously, we all need to work together. We have a test system that can help these new small CPs, and I am happy to help. https://notsco.co.uk/

One Touch Switching now Live

Today is the day!

There are now 166 providers on One Touch Switching. Congratulations to all of those CPs that have put in the work to make this happen.

These are retail provides of residential, fixed location, IAS (Internet Access Service) and NBICS (Number Based Interpersonal Communications Services, aka telephone service).

If you are trying to switch from a residential, fixed location, service and your retail provider is not on the list, please do let OFCOM know. I don't see Starlink, so that is the first complaint to OFCOM today.

I suspect OFCOM will take this pretty softly, given all of the challenges, so I expect more CPs to come on line soon.

Technically, I have seen no problems yet today, but I have reported one ramp up issue which was before OTS started, 21:24 last night. Even so, it looks serious, so it will be interesting to see how quickly it is fixed. I cannot provide any details because of the ramp up rules.

Stuff not happening yet...

Some of the faster switching of broadband service (next day even) is not happening yet - OFCOM have extended the 14 day (actually 10 working day) lead time on migrating services. However, I don't think there is a reason not to switch quickly if changing to a new provider - expect that the new provide probably has to put physical infrastructure in place.

The faster switching of telephone services is not happening yet - it seems this is not something that One Touch Switching does right away (yes, that fooled me too). A new process is underway way to do this, and gradually, over time, the new zero day process will come along. For now it is still 4 or 9 working days depending on the switch type. This also means it is still possible for a number port to fail, but using One Touch Switching should reduce that risk (as it checks postcode).

Switching 07 mobile numbers are not changing, that still uses a PAC (Porting Authorisation Code).

Business services are not covered - but it looks like many CPs are allowing switching of business services if you can match the details correctly as a residential match - we are. There are, of course, a lot of business only providers that are not on the One Touch Switching system at all, as they do not need to be.

Things break

None of us are perfect, though in all frankness I believe A&A are more ready than a lot of CPs, and we have been for some time. Again, I am not allowed to go in to any detail on this due to ramp up rules.

If you have any problems switching to us, please let the sales team know right away - we are monitoring the process closely and have means to raise issues with the other provider, if necessary.

If you have any problems switching away from us, you should normally contact the new provider, but you are welcome to contact us and we will be happy to look in to it. As I say, none of us are perfect.

Do remember our telephone services are not fixed location services (they are not a landline replacement) so are not covered by One Touch Switching. The non OTS porting process, as used for business services, will need to be used to switch number away from us.

Good luck to everyone involved. It may be a fun few days!

One Touch Switching

We have an interesting one today!

I have been reporting on the progress of One Touch Switching, and some of the many issues. To be clear, we are all working in the industry to make it work.

We are live on the "ramp up", and that has mostly gone well. We have some live switches going though. But there are also issues.

We have an interesting situation where, if, for example, we had a peering problem with some telco, or, well any problem with calls or internet or anything, with another telco, we would, reasonably, explain in a status post that there was an issue, who it was with, and what we, and they, are doing to resolve it. We are very used to that.

There is no point in saying "packets to *someone*, but we can't say who, are not routing correctly", or "calls to *someone*, but we can't say who, are not working right now". That would be utter nonsense.

However, I got a "slap on the wrist" for reporting on our status that one, or more, telcos was not handling match requests at present, were working on it (this is all a trial, really), and will be fixed soon. This is because I named them and explained publicly the problems they have.

So I am at a loss.

Do I remove them from the list of CPs on the ordering system? If I do I will be making it very public who they are by them not being on the list?

Do I say nothing, and leave customers, as one did today, trying over and over again to get a match request to work? But if I do not remove from the list, anyone trying a switch from them will see the problem - if I am not allowed to say there is a problem with them, do I have to somehow FAKE the system to pretend there is not a problem??!

I really cannot see the issue with saying what the issues are with the HUGE CAVEAT that this is ramp-up/trial. So once again a policy from TOTSCO that makes no sense.

But, I'll follow the rules. So sorry, some CPs are not working on the ramp up One Touch Switching, but you'll have to guess which they are. Good luck.

Selling via Amazon

The phase "necessary evil" comes to mind, sadly. I'd like to just sell direct, but in practice selling via Amazon does in fact work. It is somewhat depressing that this is the case, but we are a tad stuck with it.

One thing we sell is the "Faikin" board, which is a controller for Daikin aircon. It works well and sells literally hundreds! Listed here.

Until recently I was able to edit the listing as needed, and the latest boards looks slightly different (mainly the colour of the board), so I went to edit the listing and upload new images. Simples! Or so you would think. But I get this!

So what he hell? I am not trying to edit the "brand", indeed I cannot edit the brand, it is "locked".

Now, brands in Amazon are hard work. It look a long time to get "AJK" on the "brand registry", even though I have the UK registered trademark on this (here). It was seriously hard work, and the product listing was made with brand "AJK". In fact I had to make a new listing having sold a few initially under grand "Generic" as Amazon policy is you cannot change the brand on a listing, which is damn annoying in itself.

But did you notice?

Yes, the brand is now "greenoak"!

Given Amazon policy is you cannot change brand, how the hell is it "greenoak".

So now, to show you how Amazon work, the unedited ticket on this (long, and boring)... OK not all, as it seems they truncate it on their help pages, which is a pain. But you get a flavour for dealing with Amazon...

Hello from Amazon Brand Registry Support,

We understand that you would like to update brand name for ASIN: B0D56W182P to "AJK".

Please be informed that, we cannot proceed with your request as it is against Amazon policies and guidelines. Brand name change requests beyond the minor fixes are considered rebranding and we are not authorized to make this change for your ASIN.

Kindly do understand that multiple sellers can list/sell the same ASIN: B0D56W182P. if you make a brand update on this ASIN, it is possible that you may be reported by another seller due to a listing policy violation, which could have a negative impact on your account health.

Brand differences and packaging differences after a product is rebranded may cause customer orders to be returned and may affect your performance metrics. To avoid this unexpected result, we are not allowed to change the Amazon Product Code (ASIN) brand name.

Therefore, we are unable to update your Brand name, it would be better to create a new ASIN instead of updating the brand name of the existing ASIN.

For more information, go to "Amazon Brand Name Policy": https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/help/hub/reference/G2N3GKE5SGSHWYRZ

If the intended brand is not part of Amazon Brand Registry, we recommend that you complete registration via "Enroll a new brand" link on the Brand Registry landing page: https://brandregistry.amazon.co.uk/

To help us continually improve, we ask that you take a moment to complete our survey below to tell us about your experience with this specific interaction.

Were you satisfied with the support provided?

Thank you!

To view your case details, please click https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/case-dashboard/view-case.html/ref=sc_cd_lobby_vc?caseID=10120297812

Please note: This e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. If you require additional support, please contact us at https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/contact-us/contact-amazon-form.html

Thank you for selling with Amazon.


Hello from Amazon Brand Registry Support, We understand that you would like to update brand name for ASIN: B0D56W182P to "AJK". Firstly, we are unable to process this brand name change request because the brand account and/or the account for the user you wish to add have an unhealthy status. We require all relevant accounts across all marketplaces to have a healthy status to add a role to a brand. Secondly, we cannot make the suggested brand change to ASIN B0D56W182P due to the following reason: - Requests to update an ASIN brand name attribute from "Generic" are not supported. - In this case brand name change from "Generic" to an abusive brand is also considered as re-branding. As informed earlier that, if you choose to rebrand a product you must create a new ASIN rather than update an existing ASIN. This is true even if the product does not change materially after the brand update. Rebranding and packaging differences on products can cause customer order returns and can potentially hurt your metrics. To prevent this unwanted outcome, we don’t allow the brand name to be changed for an ASIN. For more information, go to "Amazon Brand Name Policy": https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G2N3GKE5SGSHWYRZ Register products to your brand: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G6DU75NSM86VXKZC If the intended brand is not part of Amazon Brand Registry, we recommend that you complete registration via "Enroll a new brand" link on the Brand Registry landing page: https://brandregistry.amazon.com/ To help us continually improve, we ask that you take a moment to complete our survey below to tell us about your experience with this specific interaction.


I have no idea what you mean by the brand being "unhealthy" - please elaborate - other products are still brand AJK. We are selling hundreds a month, what is "unhealthy"?


I am NOT rebranding the product!

The product always was, and remains AJK.

This is not a change from Generic!

You can see that so why say that?

he packaging and brand HAS NOT CHANGED since the product was first listed.

It was listed as AJK, and is still branded as such.

All of your arguments about brand changes make sense so WHY HAVE YOU CHANGED THE BRAND? CHANGE IT BACK! YOU (AMAZON) HAVE CHANGED THE BRAND TO greenoak FOR SOME REASON, CHANGE IT BACK!

The brand AJK is part of the brand registry.

PLEASE TRANSFER THIS TICKET TO SOMEONE THAT CAN READ!

Hello from Amazon Brand Registry Support, Thank you for reaching out regarding the brand name update request for ASIN from "Generic" to "AJK." Upon reviewing the case thoroughly, it appears that the ASIN is currently listed as a non-branded product, hence the brand name being displayed as "Generic." I would like to inform you that requests to update the brand name attribute from "Generic" are not supported due to potential violations of listing policies, specifically regarding the use of a brand's Intellectual Property in generic product listings. In such cases, we advise sellers to create a new ASIN for the product with the desired brand name rather than attempting to update an existing ASIN. This ensures compliance with our policies and maintains the integrity of the Amazon marketplace. We highly appreciate your understanding and co-operation in this regard. Have a nice day. To help us continually improve, we ask that you take a moment to complete our survey below to tell us about your experience with this specific interaction. Were you satisfied with the support provided?


PLEASE ESCALATE THIS CASE TO SOMEONE THAT CAN READ!

The brand is not "Generic"

The brand is listed as "greenoak"

The words "Generic" and "greenoak" are not the same.

The listing was created with the brand: AJK

The product has, as you can see from images, the "AJK" registered trademark logo.

The product has always been brand: AJK

YOU (AMAZON) HAVE CHANGED THE BRAND FROM AJK TO greenoak

CHANGE IT BACK!


Hello from Amazon Brand Registry Support, Thank you for contacting us. I am Aleena, and I am glad to assist you. I went through the details of this case and understand that you are concerned about updating the Brand name to the ASIN: B0D56W182P. Please be informed that we are de-escalating your case and addressing your concern in detail. We cannot proceed with your request of updating the Brand name as if you choose to rebrand a product, you must create a new ASIN rather than update an existing ASIN. This is true even if the product does not change materially after the brand update. Rebranding and packaging differences on products can cause customer order returns and can potentially hurt your metrics. To prevent this unwanted outcome, we don’t allow the brand name to be changed for an ASIN. For more information, go to “Amazon Brand Name Policy”: https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/help/hub/reference/G2N3GKE5SGSHWYRZ If the intended brand is not part of Amazon Brand Registry, we recommend that you complete registration via “Enrol a new brand” link on the Brand Registry landing page: https://brandregistry.amazon.co.uk/ To help us continually improve, we ask that you take a moment to complete our survey below to tell us about your experience with this specific interaction.

AGAIN ESCALATE TO SOMEONE THAT CAN READ REALLY PLEASE THIS IS GETTING SILLY!!!!

PLEASE ESCALATE TO SOMEONE THAT CAN READ

You say I am not the registered brand owner for the grand greenoak.

You are correct. That is not the point!

This product is branded AJK - look at the image 

This product listing was created with brand AJK

I am the registered owner for the brand AJK

You say it is Amazon policy that the brand cannot be changed on a product

 SO HOW DID THE BRAND GET CHANGED FROM AJK TO greenoak ?

Just change the brand back to AJK

As per Amazon policy IT SHOULD NOT HAVE CHANGED TO greenoak. I am unable to edit the listing because of this.

Hello from Amazon Brand Registry Support,

My name is Deblina. As per your mail, I understand your concern regarding updating the brand name of ASIN: B0C2ZYXNYQ. Please know that I was unable to approve your requested change since we have not received sufficient proof that supports this request. - Manufacturer's or Publisher's (for books) website link clearly showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available. - Manufacturer's catalog (Product User Manual), either scanned image of the physical catalog or PDF version showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available. - High-resolution product pictures, clearly showing the suggested changes, along with a visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.). - A high-resolution photo of the item in its original packaging showing the product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.) code and the attribute or attributes that you need to change We request you to take this extra step and provide us with all the information needed so that, we can ensure that you get the correct resolution for your query. Once we will receive the details, we will investigate further and will get back to you.

Please confirm...

1. Was B0C2ZYXNYQ created with brand: AJK ?

2. Does the main product image for B0C2ZYXNYQ include the registered trademark "AJK" logo on it?

3. Has the brand been recently changed to "greenoak", against Amazon policy saying brand cannnot be changed?

4. Will you change the brand BACK to AJK please?

For your information.

As per UK registered trademark UK00003740137, I, Adrian Kennard, am listed the trademark holder for AJK. https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/1/UK00003740137

As per GS1, EAN 5060634238151, is registered to Andrews & Arnold Ltd.

As per Companies House, I Adrian Kennard am the director of Andrews & Arnold Ltd https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03342760/officers

From this you can tell I have full authority to say that this item is brand: AJK, as it was originally created in the listing.

Hello from Amazon Selling Partner Support,

As we requested previously, in order to address your concerns, we will need some additional information.

Please respond to this message to provide the details requested below:

- Manufacturer's or Publisher's (for books) website link clearly showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available.

- Manufacturer's catalog (Product User Manual), either scanned image of the physical catalog or PDF version showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available. 

- High-resolution product pictures, clearly showing the suggested changes, along with a visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.).

- A high-resolution photo of the item in its original packaging showing the product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.) code and the attribute or attributes that you need to change

We request you to take this extra step and provide us with all the information needed so that, we can ensure that you get the correct resolution for your query.

Once we will receive the details, we will investigate further and will get back to you. 

----

WAS THIS PRODUCT LISTING CREATED WITH BRAND: AJK

YES OR NO?

Hello from Amazon Selling Partner Support,

We are currently unable to provide you with an accurate response directly. We need to try and submit a system review to you. At the same time, we need you to provide one of the following valid forms of documentation before processing your request:

- A link to the manufacturer's or publisher's (for book products) website that clearly shows the proposed changes and visible product codes, such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., if any. This is the only valid form of proof for requests relating to product images.
- High-resolution product images that clearly show proposed changes and visible product codes such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.
- A high-resolution photograph of the unopened product, showing the product ID such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., and one or more attributes that need to be changed.

Note that for requests relating to product images, the only acceptable form of evidence is the manufacturer's or publisher's (for book products) website URL.

If your product is a GTIN exempt product, please provide an image showing the model/part number, etc., or a URL to the manufacturer's website.

Have a nice day!
----


It is, after all, a very very simple question.

Was the product listing (B0C2ZYXNYQ) created as brand: AJK

Yes or no?

Let me know when you can provide an accurate response.

----

Hello from Amazon Brand Registry Support,

I went through the details of this case and understand that you want to update the brand name for ASIN - B0C2ZYXNYQ and whether the product listing (B0C2ZYXNYQ) created as brand: AJK

I am happy to help you with this.

Please note that we are unable to answer this question. Either way, before processing your request, we require you to provide one of the following valid forms of documentation:

- A link to the manufacturer's or publisher's (for book products) website that clearly shows the proposed changes and visible product codes, such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., if any. This is the only valid form of proof for requests relating to product images.
- High-resolution product images that clearly show proposed changes and visible product codes such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.
- A high-resolution photograph of the unopened product, showing the product ID such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., and one or more attributes that need to be changed.

Note that for requests relating to product images, the only acceptable form of evidence is the manufacturer's or publisher's (for book products) website URL.

If your product is a GTIN exempt product, please provide an image showing the model/part number, etc., or a URL to the manufacturer's website.

We look forward to hearing from you. 
----
Please pass this to someone that CAN answer the question then?

Was the product listing (B0C2ZYXNYQ) created as brand: AJK

It is not a hard question.

I'll wait for you to find someone that can answer it.

---

尊敬的卖家/供应商：您好！在处理您的请求之前，我们需要您提供以下任一有效形式的文件：

- 制造商或出版商（针对图书类商品）网站的链接，能够清楚显示建议的更改内容以及可见的 UPC、EAN、ISBN 等商品编码（如果有）。这是与商品图片相关的请求的唯一有效证明形式。
- 能够清楚地显示建议的更改内容以及可见的 UPC、EAN、ISBN 等商品编码的高分辨率商品图片。
- 未拆封商品的高分辨率照片，能够显示 UPC、EAN、ISBN 等商品编码以及需要更改的一个或多个属性。

请注意，对于与商品图片相关的请求，唯一可接受的证据形式是制造商或出版商（针对图书类商品）网站 URL。

如果您的商品是 GTIN 豁免商品，请提供显示型号/部件编号等的图片或制造商网站 URL。

期待您的回复。 
---
Was the product listing (B0C2ZYXNYQ) created as brand: AJK

It is not a hard question.

I'll wait for you to find someone that can answer it.
----
尊敬的卖家/供应商：您好！在处理您的请求之前，我们需要您提供以下任一有效形式的文件：

- 制造商或出版商（针对图书类商品）网站的链接，能够清楚显示建议的更改内容以及可见的 UPC、EAN、ISBN 等商品编码（如果有）。这是与商品图片相关的请求的唯一有效证明形式。
- 能够清楚地显示建议的更改内容以及可见的 UPC、EAN、ISBN 等商品编码的高分辨率商品图片。
- 未拆封商品的高分辨率照片，能够显示 UPC、EAN、ISBN 等商品编码以及需要更改的一个或多个属性。

请注意，对于与商品图片相关的请求，唯一可接受的证据形式是制造商或出版商（针对图书类商品）网站 URL。

如果您的商品是 GTIN 豁免商品，请提供显示型号/部件编号等的图片或制造商网站 URL。

期待您的回复。 
FFS?
ello from Amazon Selling Partner Support,

SInce you haven~t provided the proof requested , the following would be the alternative procedure to request a Brand change to B0C2ZYXNYQ.

I'm happy to provide information regarding your claim of listing policy violation.

If you believe a listing policy violation has occurred, submit your concern with supporting information on the Account health dashboard:

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/abuse-submission/index.html

Our investigation team will review the information and take action if there is any violation of our listing policies or intellectual property policies.

If you believe a listing is infringing your intellectual property such as authenticity, trademark, copyright, or patent rights, submit your concern through the Brand Registry or Report infringement page:

https://www.amazon.com/report/infringement

Our investigation team will review the information and take action if there is any violation of our listing policies.

For more information regarding Amazon’s policies related to listings, go to these resources:

"Product detail page rules":

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G200390640

Watch this video on "Report an intellectual property violation":

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/learn/courses?moduleId=2d6fb681-c6c8-4ffb-a1dc-632ef1de5ed2&ref_=su-spsblurbs-report_listing_violation&modLanguage

Good day.

To help us continually improve, we ask that you take a moment to complete our survey below to tell us about your experience with this specific interaction.
---

Was the product listing (B0C2ZYXNYQ) created as brand: AJK

JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION!!!!!!

WHY ARE YOU INCAPABALE OFD ANSWERING THE QUESTION?

TRANSFER THIS CASE TO SOMEONE THAT CAN ANSWER THE QUESTION NOW!!!

JUST SAY, YES, OR NO!!!


You changed the brand from AJK to greenoak, so YOU show me the proof that was provided to make that change?

- A link to the manufacturer's or publisher's (for book products) website that clearly shows the proposed changes and visible product codes, such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., if any. This is the only valid form of proof for requests relating to product images.
- High-resolution product images that clearly show proposed changes and visible product codes such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.
- A high-resolution photograph of the unopened product, showing the product ID such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., and one or more attributes that need to be changed.

---

Dear Selling Partner ,

My name is Ewelina, and I'll be your contact as we work towards resolving your issue. 

I just checked your ASIN B0C2ZYXNYQ and confirmed that the right brand AJK is already related to it.
Could you please double check and let me know?

---

It now shows KppeX as brand

And I could not edit the listing when listed as Greeoak, as it thinks I am trying to change brand back to AJK when in fact I cannot even edit that field.

Actually it has got worse, I now get "You need approval to list this product" when I try to edit *MY PRODUCT*!!!!

---

Dear Seller,

thank you for your answer.
I just updated the brand once to make sure the Detail Page and your Seller Central show the right brand. Please allow up to 24h for the changes to become live. 
Once the brand is correct in all the places, the "approval" message will be gone.
Please let me know in 24h if the changes are visible from your side. 

--



You are still listing *MY* product as someone else's brand (KppeX), see attached screenshot.

You are still refusing to let me edit *MY* product listing, see attached screenshot.

Please provide evidence for change of brand of *MY* product from AJK to greenoak.
Please provide evidence for change of brand of *MY* product from greenoak to KppoX

Such as

- A link to the manufacturer's or publisher's (for book products) website that clearly shows the proposed changes and visible product codes, such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., if any. This is the only valid form of proof for requests relating to product images.
- High-resolution product images that clearly show proposed changes and visible product codes such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.
- A high-resolution photograph of the unopened product, showing the product ID such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., and one or more attributes that need to be changed.

If you have no evidence, as manufacturer, I cannot appove or accept either of these brand changes, and so the brand needs to revert to AJK.

If someone else is selling *my* products under another brand, with my trademarked brand logo, I have to seriously consider legal action for trademark infingement.

In light of this please provide full details of the contact details for the legal representative for Greenoak and KppeX.

Thank you

--

Hello from Amazon.co.uk,

My name is Andrea from Amazon Selling Partner Support and I am reaching out to you regarding your request to update the brand name for Asin  B0C2ZYXNYQ to "AJK".

We do not see the proof provided for the changes requested. Before we can process your request, we need you to provide one of these valid forms of documentation:

- Manufacturer's or Publisher's (for books) website URL clearly showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available.
- Manufacturer's catalog (Product User Manual), either scanned image of the physical catalog or PDF version showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available. 
- High-resolution product pictures, clearly showing the suggested changes, along with a visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.).
- A high-resolution photo of the item in its original packaging showing the product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.) code and the attribute or attributes that you need to change

Could you also specify if you registered the brand "AJK" on Amazon Brand Registry?

-- 

You changed the brand, not me.

Please provide evidence for change of brand of *MY* product from AJK to greenoak.
Please provide evidence for change of brand of *MY* product from greenoak to KppoX

Such as

- A link to the manufacturer's or publisher's (for book products) website that clearly shows the proposed changes and visible product codes, such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., if any. This is the only valid form of proof for requests relating to product images.
- High-resolution product images that clearly show proposed changes and visible product codes such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.
- A high-resolution photograph of the unopened product, showing the product ID such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc., and one or more attributes that need to be changed.

If you have no evidence, as manufacturer, I cannot appove or accept either of these brand changes, and so the brand needs to revert to AJK.

--

Hello from Amazon.co.uk,

This is Andrea from Amazon Selling Partner Support and I am reaching out to you regarding your request to update the brand name for Asin  B0C2ZYXNYQ to "AJK".

Please note that we cannot proceed  for the changes requested if you do not provide the required proof.

Before we can process your request, we need you to provide one of these valid forms of documentation:

- Manufacturer's or Publisher's (for books) website URL clearly showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available.
- Manufacturer's catalog (Product User Manual), either scanned image of the physical catalog or PDF version showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available. 
- High-resolution product pictures, clearly showing the suggested changes, along with a visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.).
- A high-resolution photo of the item in its original packaging showing the product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.) code and the attribute or attributes that you need to change

Could you also specify if you registered the brand "AJK" on Amazon Brand Registry?

-- 

You are still misssng the points

You (Amazon) changed the brand!

I CANNOT ACCEPT THAT BRAND CHANGE WITHOUT PROOF FROM AMAZON.

Please provide a copy of the proof you used to change the brand from AJK to KppeX, such as.

- Manufacturer's or Publisher's (for books) website URL clearly showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available.
- Manufacturer's catalog (Product User Manual), either scanned image of the physical catalog or PDF version showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available. 
- High-resolution product pictures, clearly showing the suggested changes, along with a visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.).
- A high-resolution photo of the item in its original packaging showing the product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.) code and the attribute or attributes that you need to change

If you have no proof, revert the brand back to AJK.

--

Hello from Amazon.co.uk,

This is Andrea from Amazon Selling Partner Support.

I understand your frustration, but please note that the proof is required from our internal department, in charge of brand stamping.

If no proof is provided they are not going to update the brand and I have no other way to help you.

Please provide the required images showing the brand name and the product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.).

If you do not cooperate you will only delay the resolution of the issue.

---


13:34
05/09/2024


But *YOU* changed the brand, not me!

If, as you say, proof is required to change the brand then:

        GIVE ME THE PROOF

If you have no proof, as manufacturer I cannot accept the change of brand from AJK, and it needs to changed back.

--- 

Finally some progress.

https://www.me.uk/2024090514002500000.wav

---

Hello from Amazon.co.uk,

This is Andrea from Amazon Selling Partner Support and I am reaching out to you regarding your request to update the brand name for Asin  B0C2ZYXNYQ.

Thank you for taking my call earlier.

I confirm you that I contacted our internal team and asked them to change  the brand name back to  to "AJK".

I will be back to you with a response in due course. 

-- 

Finally fixed, for now.

TOTSCO (One Touch Switching) Live

We're live for One Touch Switching, well, with a dozen (well, 13) other CPs, for on-ramp testing. Live use of OTS. This is public knowledge as we are listed by other CPs as available for OTS.

Updated:

There are, of course, issues being worked out, and daily calls to resolve them - and we are all working to try and ensure everything is sorted by the launch date (12th Sep).

I'd love to explain more, but at the risk of invoking the Streisand effect, I have now been told I cannot go in to any details on progress, even without naming the CPs that are having issues. Sorry.

Obviously customers can see the issues if using our order page to try and progress an order, and seeing the errors. It is just that I am not able to tell you about it.