When you’re notified of a suspension, you’re usually given a broad reason and are allowed to “appeal” the decision. When I worked at Amazon, many suspended sellers would message us in anger after they got suspended, asking to close their accounts. To get started, please use the link below. Think of customers as Amazon’s boss. This post is meant to be a full guide to suspensions. Ryan Grant posted a great “case study” of his experience with the Amazon suspension and how he got it lifted. White realized her Amazon account had been shuttered last Thursday evening, when she went to check on a package that was set to be delivered … An enraged suspended seller might be inclined to lash out at the company. It’s better to stick to the truth here and state how you’ll resolve the issues in questions moving forward. The amazon account health team that responds to Appeals for re-activation has stated clearly on the phone that the suspension is old enough that I’m not allowed to sell again. According to an Amazon engineer responding to a question on Quora, Jeff Bezos seldom reads his email personally. Did this happen on specific dates? Yes, unless you have permission from Seller Performance teams. Finally, the Prefulfilment Cancellation Rate “PCR”. Amazon rarely suspends a buyer account, but when they do, it’s usually because a big violation of trust has occurred, for example: The very generous returns and refunds policy has been abused. It is your responsibility to understand the nature of your purchase. These are obviously all percentages. Note: Go to Your Orders to see if there is an order that matches the details in the correspondence. This post wouldn’t be complete without telling you what NOT to do, though. Often sellers try to close a poorly performing account hoping to “start over” again in the future, but Amazon closes that new account for relations to a past account that they were about to shut down. Seller Performance suspends thousands of sellers on a daily basis, and investigators only take a few minutes to review each appeal. DON’T Send Multiple Letters After Submitting First Appeal. Well, you send an appeal to the Amazon Seller Performance team. Amazon has initial control on all of the businesses that operate on their website. All other accounts related to yours have also been closed. So what do you do if Amazon suspended your account due to account hacking? Account health services can help, but are inconsistent, and sometimes give bad or contradictory advice. Submitting an Amazon appeal is not really rocket science, but some people may be too anxious, unsure or need some hand-holding and guidance throughout the whole process. There’s a reason why they’re so successful. We still see numerous sellers failing to follow the proper format, or adding extraneous content that lengthens their appeals to the point where no one at Amazon will read them. When I worked at Amazon, many suspended sellers would message us in anger after they got suspended, asking to close their accounts. She makes purchases from her own Amazon account and credit card, so her reviews are labeled as a “verified purchase.” After the sellers confirm Jessica has left a 5-star review, the payment is made out of Amazon’s view. Sellers who show a “legitimate business reason” can request to open a second account, but the reasons must prove more than just an interest in convenience or in protecting yourself from an account suspension. Hello! This is usually considered the end of the road and it happens after submitting multiple appeals that consistently fail to win the ASPT over. Amazon Account Suspended? There’s no way to request that they close your account when it’s already suspended. Simply being apologetic and telling Amazon “sorry, lesson learned, it won’t happen again!” won’t be remotely enough to get your suspension lifted. Always stay on top of issues and respond professionally and patiently. He’s also offering the exact same POA he used as a free PDF download for inspiration. And we won't rest until your Amazon suspended account or suspended listing is reinstated. To proceed to confirm your account information please follow the instructions that will be required. If you do this, you risk getting the dreaded “we’re done with you, bye bye” email. But this past year, many deactivated sellers who chose the wrong appeals path found out that Amazon plans to hold their funds forever unless your status changes.Amazon could potentially suspend you for as little as one day depending on what info they need back from you, but short suspensions are increasingly rare. Detect issues and “negative trends” early on and act quickly. A guest post on Alex Borisenko’s medium blog told an interesting story about a $60K/mo Amazon seller getting suspended and later being reinstated. Make sure you communicate with them as effectively as you possibly can, every step of the way, and don’t count on the ability to reverse missteps later on. Greeting and introductory paragraph thanking them for the opportunity to appeal, acknowledging and taking responsibility for the issues and inconvenience caused to the customers and apologizing for these issues. Your email address will not be published. The post mentions that ultimately, and when everything else failed, what got the account reinstated is an email to Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos. The principles are purposely very broad to cover a lot of situations, so it’s safe to say that there are thousands of “unspoken” rules that could lead to a suspension. I’ve specifically added the “Holy Grail” part to this heading to indicate how critical this section is. The Late Shipment Rate “LSR” is calculated by dividing the number of shipments that are confirmed to be “shipped” after their ship date by the total number of orders. In fact, Amazon representatives will openly note that Amazon has many automatic triggers which suspend seller accounts. Thanks For Sharing Such Useful Blog. There’s a section about this later in this post. Two “executive escalation” teams handle Bezos’ them. Accounts get “locked” for one of two reasons. Thank you. If customers are Amazon’s boss and Amazon is your boss (you as in the seller), then the customer is technically your boss too. This can be difficult to undo. Pain, anger and disbelief are all common emotions a seller may go through when this happens. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Your email address will not be published. In one version of the scam, you get a call and a recorded message that says it’s Amazon. Specific information that shows you’re well informed in every aspect of your business is important. The Guardian also profiled a man in 2016 who returned 37 out of 343 items he had purchased and had his account disabled, losing a gift card balance along the way. For example, Amazon says: “Amazon will never send you an unsolicited email that asks you to provide sensitive personal information like your social security number, tax ID, bank account … In other words, if there was ever an ultimatum that forced Amazon to choose between a customer and an Amazon seller, the Amazon seller will bite the dust almost every single time. Meanwhile, you’re still not selling, they have your FBA inventory, and you aren’t even sure if you’ll EVER get your final funds. Your browser does not support the audio element. This will help you later because Amazon really likes details. Amazon policies change frequently. Would it look to Seller Perf. Take responsibility and do not make excuses, criticize Amazon or deflect blame. Here are the key points to writing a successful POA: So what to write exactly? The obvious reason being if you’ve already submitted appeals and messed things up, you make it increasingly complex for the agency you hired to do their job. Please advise who should I contact in Amazon in order to avoid this multiple accounts situation. Don’t keep appealing the same way, or expecting calls with Account Health Services to provide missing details needed to correct or revise a Plan of Action. A couple of points worth noting here, though. After he continued operating with the same return habits, Amazon closed his account, refunded a portion of his Prime membership and canceled all of pending orders from said account.