Simply Barcodes Third party UPC company resells old barcodes

I am an Amazon seller with a private label product, patent pending, and participate in the brand registry. I purchased a UPC from their website to use on my new product with the intention of selling on Amazon and retail stores. The UPCs this company sells are prior to the prohibition of UPC resale, so the UPC prefix will NOT be in your company name. The UPC prefix, when searched on the official GS1 database, that Amazon checks, will be assigned to another company.

Per the GS1 website, UPC identifiers (the first set of numbers in a code) cannot be transferred or reassigned to another company unless it is a merger, acquisition or something of the sort. This means when Amazon goes to check the upc, it will list a different company. It will NOT have your company, product or brand name. This defeats the intent of the GS1 and UPC codes to provide a catalog database for consumers to verify and trust. Amazon states the upc must be "valid” and recommends you go thru the GS1 directly rather than a third party like Simply Barcodes.

Further, Amazon’s policy is to remove listings and possibly suspend selling accounts in the event of an invalid upc. When I reached out to this company, they provided me with a doc from 1984 stating the UPC was assigned to another company, but we have "authorization” to use the UPC. I asked simply barcodes to clarify the documents as it did not list our specific upc and was more boilerplate. I also asked them to clarify which company it was assigned to, as the business listed as the upc owner on the documents was not a company until AFTER the letter was prepared.

This was their response: "Sophie,   We have provided ample paperwork documenting ownership of the codes. We will not be researching similarly named companies, located in different states, founded decades later, to alleviate these unfounded doubts of our legitimacy.” Ample paperwork to them was a document that did not list my specific upc and predates the formation of the company. The response is condescending and unprofessional. Instead of taking note of the deficiencies in their documentation, simply barcodes opted to attack our business’ preference for doing our due diligence in ensuring the things we are portraying to the consumer, and what will ultimately reflect on our company and brand.

Had simply barcodes acted in a professional manner, I wouldn’t be leaving this review here. Be warned. If you are a business owner who takes pride in ensuring your practices and business model are legitimate, simply barcodes is not interested. Rather, they are interested in having the last word and preying on small business owners. Look at other consumer sites, they have an awful rating. Wish I had reviewed prior.