English
中文 (中国)
Last updated on January 9th, 2023
Written by Mark Salvania
If you are an Amazon seller, seeing this message in your inbox might be scary:
“We have suspended your Amazon seller account. During our review, you will not be able to sell on Amazon. Please ship any open orders. If you have any funds in your account, they will be available after any amounts paid for A-to-Z claims or chargebacks on your orders have been deducted. This process usually takes about 90 days, but funds may be held longer.”
Getting your seller account suspended can be so stressful that you might start panicking and flooding Amazon with emails. But before you go through the five stages of grief over your Amazon account, read through this article for Amazon suspension help.
When you get your notification email from Amazon, Amazon gives you a simple, one-line explanation as to why your account got suspended. Before doing anything else, first figure out what went wrong. This step may seem obvious, but most first-time sellers panic and end up sending Amazon multiple appeal emails, which can hurt your chances of getting your account back. More on that later.
Luckily for you, Amazon does not rush you to send an appeal. Use this time to perform an internal checkup on your whole operations. Amazon’s suspension notice can be your starting point to find out what you did to get suspended.
When solving a problem, the first step is identifying the problem before solving it. As the famous saying goes, “Knowledge is power.” So before you craft that Amazon reinstatement letter, let us first discuss what got your account suspended in the first place.
Like all businesses, Amazon requires sellers on its platform to perform well. And one way to measure this performance is through performance metrics. If you fail to meet Amazon’s performance quotas, then they will suspend your account. You also need to be aware of this information to create a more detailed and more convincing reinstatement letter.
Amazon measures a seller’s performance in three ways.
Amazon recommends that you keep these ratios under 1%, 2.5%, and 4%, respectively, to avoid account suspension.
Again, Amazon will not give you specifics about your problem areas. So it is your responsibility to find and compute where it all went wrong. Most of these problems stem from insufficient inventory management that results in poor performance.
While Amazon wants to help your business grow, they also believe in fostering a safe and enjoyable shopping experience for their buyers. When you signed up to become an Amazon seller, you agreed to Amazon’s seller and community guidelines and regulations. So if you have violated any of their community guidelines, the company can and will suspend your account.
We have gone through the reasons you are facing Amazon FBA suspension. Now, let us discuss how you can get your account back up and running.
Amazon gives suspended accounts 17 days to appeal their suspension. Do not rush into making one immediately. Maximize these 17 days to find out what the problem is and craft a good appeal. Just remember that simply sending an appeal letter will not guarantee the immediate restoration of your seller privileges. Nevertheless, you can trust Amazon to conduct a careful review of your appeal.
When submitting an appeal to Amazon, you need to include a plan of action (POA) that explains what measures you will take to ensure that this never happens again. You must put the time and effort into making your first appeal submission because Amazon may only give you this one opportunity to plead your case.
When appealing, it is essential to be thorough and precise with your language. You are writing to the world’s largest e-commerce company, not your pen pal. Be professional and detail-oriented when explaining what went wrong, what you have done to rectify the situation, and what measures you have taken to prevent this from happening again.
As previously mentioned, use the time Amazon has given you to perform an internal inspection of your operations and determine what caused your suspension. Perform various tests and computations to assess your performance.
If the reason for your suspension is a violation of selling guidelines, you’ll need to investigate whether the items you’re selling are compliant with Amazon’s policies. Compared to performance reasons, this is more subjective since the community guidelines are broad.
Suppose the reason for your suspension is the selling of prohibited items. In that case, we suggest that you check your inventory and purchasing process to determine which of your items need to be removed or replaced. If Amazon tells you the product in question, there’s no need to review your inventory.
When making a plan of action, no set formula can get your account reinstated. Since your problems are unique to you, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to them. Even if that’s the case, here are some guidelines to help you format your POA.
Having your Amazon suspended account reinstated is a lot of work. You’ll need to jump through different hoops to lift the suspension. However, you don’t have to worry. Here we have a few ways for you to avoid getting your Amazon account suspended.
If you are a first-time seller, you might want to make a new seller account under a new name or email account. Let us be the first to tell you: do not do this. Amazon is a global company, and it is not easy to fool. They have ways of linking accounts together, and when they trace your second account back to your first account, you can kiss your chances of reinstatement goodbye.
If the reason for your suspension is “inauthentic inventory,” you might think of modifying invoices or receipts to make your products pass Amazon’s standards.
Under no circumstances would this work. Amazon reviews thousands, if not millions, of invoices every day and can spot an authentic from a fake document in a second. If you do this, you would be giving Amazon reason to prolong your suspension or, worse, ban you from the platform altogether.
Sending multiple emails after submitting your appeal is a waste not only of your time but also theirs. Amazon Seller Support reviews thousands of appeals, and flooding them only increases their pile of work. After sending in your request, trust that Amazon Seller Support will get to your appeal in time and promptly contact you.
Out of frustration, you might be tempted to threaten legal action against Amazon for a simple suspension complaint. Involving an attorney into the mix will hurt your chances of getting your account back. Amazon may become unresponsive until you contact Seller Support personally. Save yourself time and effort and be patient.
If this is your first time getting your account suspended, do not fret. This problem happens even to established sellers, so if they can sit back and rest easy, so can you. All you need is a good plan of action and an effective appeal letter, and you will be selling on Amazon again in no time. Trust the process, and trust your appeal strategy will work. You will be fine.
Handling this situation can be nerve-racking and time-consuming. If you want to speed up the reinstatement process and increase your chances of getting your seller account restored, Seller Interactive’s Amazon suspension appeal service can help you. Contact us at 1-800-820-3746 and see what we can do for you.
Last updated on March 17th, 2023 Written by Ken Zhou When looking for the best item on the Amazon marketplace, those at the top of search results are always our first options. It's an open secret: sponsored items are the first to appear, so we immediately think they're bestsellers or have good reviews. But what […]
Last updated on March 17th, 2023 Written by Ken Zhou Most answers online will say it takes 7 to 10 business days. It's correct, though applicable only in some circumstances. The answer is much more specific, depending on someone’s role in the marketplace. For starters, buyers and sellers go through different processes to get their […]
Last updated on March 17th, 2023 Written by Ken Zhou It’s no secret that Walmart is one of the most meticulously crafted marketplaces in the world. On top of that, they’re also meticulous when it comes to maintaining the performance of their sellers, which must be on par with their standards. While it has only […]
