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Remedies for a Suspended Amazon Account:
Your Questions Answered
SUSPENDED AMAZON ACCOUNT
Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved.
Here's an Interview with Ravi Kant, V.P., eCommerce Division, SunTec India,
and an Amazon Seller Central Consultant and Expert, focused on
accurately listing and managing your products on Amazon, merchandising
your product pages – photos, descriptions, etc., Amazon Sponsored Ads
and product promotions management, competitor analysis, account
health optimization, building Amazon store inventory, FBA services, and
overall improving your conversion rates on Amazon.
01
Question
Answer
What are the most
critical reasons leading
to suspended seller
accounts?
Although, Amazon never shares any reasons, selling privileges are
commonly removed for:
Poor performance, in terms of customer metrics (order defect rate,
cancellation rate, late shipment rate, policy violations, on-time delivery,
contact response time). Amazon sends a notification if they find any
discrepancy and ask store owners to resolve the issue. Failing to resolve
the issue often results in the suspension
Violations of Amazon’s Selling Policies
Violations of Amazon’s rules about Restricted Products
Adding personal information in the description may lead to account
suspension.
Uploading copyrighted images (pictures that sellers have not taken
themselves) to an Amazon.com product page without permission from
the image owner
Knowingly selling forged copies of products
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Remedies for a Suspended Amazon Account: Your Questions Answered
Interview Q&A
If a retailer opens more than one seller account under the same
person's/enterprise’s name without Amazon's permission
If Amazon finds out that the seller account is associated with a
previously suspended Amazon seller account, for instance:
Same business address, and/or
Same Social Security/Tax ID number, and/or
Same checking account number, and/or
Same IP Address with a previously suspended seller account
What should be the
next step for a seller
whose Amazon
account has been
suspended?
If you are new on Amazon, probably this is going to be the most confusing
question you might have to deal with. It is worth noting here that there is
no mercy shown by Amazon’s Seller Performance team for reasons such
as:
I will work harder from now on
I accept there was a mistake on my part (but no explanation about why
the mistake happened)
I am not sure of what went wrong, but will try harder now
Whatever reasons you have, Amazon will always need an explanation on
what had actually caused the problem. It will also require you to explain
what all actions you are taking, targeting the root cause so that the
problem does not occur again, as well as what are the steps you are taking
towards the affected customers.
In order to recover your suspended store, you must “Appeal” against the
“Suspension”. While doing this, you must ensure to follow these points:
Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved.
Make your appeal on the formal letter head
02
Mention if you are working with a solutions integrator or an outsourcing
partner for managing your inventory feeds, etc.
Identify the issue as to what led to getting your listings suppressed,
originally
Outline all the quality processes that you have in place currently, and
the ones that you plan to incorporate in future to ensure good buyer
experience on your Amazon Store
Maintain positive and professional tone
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Remedies for a Suspended Amazon Account: Your Questions Answered
What should be the
course of action for
suspended sellers who
know that they are at
fault and those that do
not know?
Interview Q&A
What we suggest to all the suspended sellers who know that they are at
fault – Admit it, and provide an explanation as to what all steps or
measures you are taking to correct the situation on an immediate basis.
Amazon’s Seller Performance team will definitely need an assurance from
your end that you are indeed serious about solving the problem so that it
never occurs again.
For all those suspended sellers who don’t know the root cause of the
problem, we would suggest that you be clear that you don’t understand
the reason why you were sent performance notification. It is best to ask for
more details from seller performance team. However, Amazon’s seller
performance team in most cases does not offer enough specifics to enable
you to completely diagnose a complicated situation, and most of the time
you will end up guessing the root cause of receiving Amazon notification.
Once you gain more experience as a seller and start following Amazon
seller blogs you will get more insights on how sellers like you have been
addressing such issues.
Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved.
How should a
response be framed
for Amazon seller
performance team?
What are the major
considerations, while
framing a response?
03
When you are crafting a response it is always best to be as specific as you
can be. This may include saying things such as:
We have hired a personnel whose sole responsibility is to double check
all the outgoing shipments, so as to ensure that all the shipments have
ship-confirmation on them.
We failed to act on notifications sent to us earlier because we did not
have a dedicated resource specifically assigned with the task of going
through and taking steps based on these notifications. But, we have
changed the practice now. We have hired 2 staff members who are
assigned the task of reading the notifications and making immediate
rectifications, if required in order to be compliant with all the necessary
requirements.
We did not have adequate cataloging process in our warehouse
therefore we ended up shipping wrong products to our customers. Now
we have outsourced the cataloging system development to consultants
and it will be ready in 3 weeks time. Till then we are contacting all our
customers who received wrong products and offering them full refund
as compensation.
If you are in possession of any document that supports your claims for
reconsideration, scan and attach it along with your response to the
performance team.
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Remedies for a Suspended Amazon Account: Your Questions Answered
How long will it take
for Amazon’s seller
performance team to
respond to seller’s
emails?
Interview Q&A
You are allowed to appeal your suspension, but there is no guarantee that
Amazon will reinstate you.
Once you have sent an email to [email protected], it will
be unlikely that you will get a response from Amazon unless they require
more information from you or want to not hear from you again.
Therefore, it is best to send response with all the explanations all at once.
Yes, it might feel like explaining situation to a wall in the beginning, without
any human interaction from Amazon, but this is how Amazon functions.
It is worth noting here that seller performance team can be wrong, so you
always need to have proper evidence supporting your claims. If there is
anything that doesn’t seem right to you, try understanding what is going
on, or might be going on, and then rule out the possible cause. This is how
Amazon functions and you need to correspond with them on similar lines.
If you have been doing something on Amazon that you are not allowed to
do, then you probably have a long way to go before Amazon allows you as
an active seller on Amazon. So, it is best to stay out of all forbidden stuff to
have a long, prosperous and hassle free selling experience on Amazon.
Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved.
What if the seller is
suspended for selling
banned products?
04
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