I’ve been selling used stuff on Amazon.com off and on for well over three years now — mostly used video games, movies, accessories and such. Despite fairly hefty seller fees, it’s been a lot better than the other alternatives for me. Compared to eBay, the listing process is dramatically faster and simpler, sales prices are often higher, and items stay listed (at fixed prices) until sold. Compared to craigslist, Amazon.com gets you a much wider market (helpful for obscure games & accessories), and a simpler sales process. (coordinating a meeting time just to sell a $15 game? No thanks.)
So over the weekend I was cleaning out my office and listing some old games and controllers. Then I thought about this Lenovo ThinkPad X220 I’ve been trying to sell for months. There was a listing on Amazon.com for the X220 with a couple of other used listings, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot. I listed it Sunday night for $725.
That ThinkPad listing must have triggered an automated account check (due to the dollar amount, no doubt) that the last 3+ years of listings did not. Hours later, close to midnight, I got this cordial email from Amazon.com (emphasis mine):
Hello from Amazon.
We are writing to let you know that we have removed your selling privileges, canceled your listings, and placed a temporary hold on any funds in your seller account.
We took this action because our records indicate that this account is related to another selling account that was closed by Amazon. Once selling privileges have been removed, sellers are not allowed to establish new accounts.
Due to the proprietary nature of our business, we do not provide detailed information on how we determine that accounts are related.
We encourage you to take appropriate steps to resolve any pending orders. Note that any amounts paid as a result of A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks may be deducted from your seller account.
After 90 days, any remaining funds will be available per your settlement schedule. Once the hold has been removed, balance and settlement information will be available in the “Payments” section of your seller account. If you have questions about these funds, please write to payments-funds@amazon.com.
While we appreciate your interest in selling on Amazon.com, the closure of this account is a permanent action.
Regards,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com
The tone of the email didn’t give me a lot of hope. It’s clear that Amazon is not willing to provide details on how they made this determination, or leave an opportunity for appeal. And to be clear, I’m certain that I’ve tripped a false positive of some sort. I have never used another seller account on Amazon.com.
I logged into the seller account to see what it looked like. There was a glimmer of hope: an Appeal button. I dutifully filled out an appeal as follows:
I have never had another seller account with Amazon.com. I’ve been using this account to sell stuff off and on for over three years now, without any issues. I can only assume that this was due to an automated false positive. Please review and reinstate my account.
Amazon replied less than twelve hours later with this:
Hello from Amazon.
Thank you for writing. After a review of your account by an account specialist, we have decided not to reinstate your selling privileges.
We regret we are unable to provide further information on this situation. Further correspondence regarding the closure of your selling account may not be answered.
The closure of this account is a permanent action. Any subsequent accounts that are opened will be closed as well.
Regards,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
So that’s that, it seems. It’s clear from the tone of these emails they are not especially sympathetic to the concerns of sellers whose accounts have been mistakenly flagged.
eBay & Paypal have received a lot of well-deserved flak over the years, but compared to this, they come out looking good. They have email addresses and online chat systems and phone numbers answered by actual humans who provide actual details about your case. In many of the Paypal horror stories that circulate, the worst material comes from bad customer service reps. But when you deal with Amazon.com, at least as a seller, there’s no customer service rep to talk to. Cold emails like this are all you get.
I hope this will be helpful to two groups of people:
1. Sellers — look for other alternatives. If you sell on Amazon.com, don’t put all of your eggs in that basket. For me, this just meant a harder time clearing out the closet. But for someone doing a lot of sales on Amazon.com, this could cause a serious loss of business.
2. Amazon.com staff — seriously, just look at this from the customer’s point of view, and try to tell me this is a customer friendly process. More transparency is in order. Your secret fraud detection system is fallible, and it should be treated as such.
If nothing else, this has left me seriously second-guessing my loyalty to Amazon.com. They’ve been far and away my favorite Internet retailer for years, but I’m not going to be quite as eager to shop there any more, especially in categories with strong competition.
Update
Amazon just reactivated my account at 12:15 pm today (AZ time). I did not make any further attempts to contact Amazon after the above account, so I imagine that this was only done as a result of my post hitting the front page of Hacker News. The email regarding the reactivation was as follows:
Hello from Amazon.com.
Thank you for writing regarding your Amazon.com selling account. We have reviewed this situation and have reactivated your account.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. In our efforts to protect our community, we sometimes err on the side of caution.
We appreciate your interest and wish you the best of luck selling on Amazon.com.
Victory? Well, partially. I’m not totally satisfied until and unless Amazon admits to problems with their fraud detection system, and puts in place a better process for recourse. Failing that, others who don’t get this level of publicity will continue to get shafted.
Update 2
Here’s my blog’s visitor count by service provider, per Google Analytics. Looks like a few people at Amazon have taken notice.
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Well, it sends clear message that relying on any single platform or vendor is ultimately futile approach.
You’re web developer though – create your own product and sell it! -
Keep escalating. Also, try the payment developer forums. Some Amazon risk assessment employees are there. Good luck.
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why are you only questioning your loyalty to amazon? … it should be well and truly smashed.
Its almost a shame you are not a business so you can sue them for your loss.
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You should check out Swap.com. There’s no fees. Buy/Sell/Trade/Barter
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Thanks for this. I will learn from your lesson and not use amazons seller account. I wish someone had told me the same about googles adsense and a few other services as well, but I thank you.
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I have a rather paranoid hypothesis — you were undercutting the other sellers and one of them demanded your removal. It’s based on the principle of “follow the money.”
Because neither of us have access to Amazon’s determination criteria, we can’t prove anything conclusively, but just for laughs, I ran a search for “Lenovo ThinkPad X220″ a few minutes ago and here’s what I found –
2 new from $909.99
1 used from $762.68
1 refurbished from $699.9928 new from $899.99
feature listing at $1499.99
4 new from $1078.00
1 used from $1149.00feature listing at $1349.00
3 new from $1349.00
2 used from $690.00feature listing at $1299.99
36 new from $1299.99
1 used from $1499.99feature listing at $1398.98
27 new from $936.00feature listing at $1399.99
36 new from $1399.99
1 used from $998.00feature listing at $1657.07
36 new from $1619.00I’m not sure which x220 most closely fits the one you own but most of them are priced higher. That would support the hypothesis.
But some of the x220s are priced comparably or lower. That would undermine the hypothesis.
That Amazon does not disclose their determination process, and they expel instead of suspend (to preclude the chance of retaliation?), seems to support the hypothesis. Such behavior also would support an alternate hypothesis — that Amazon is “firing” you because you don’t generate enough volume.
I wish I’d encountered your post sooner — I just dropped a couple hundred clams on Amazon for Xmas gifts!
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I ran into the same problem with an ecommerce site I used to run.
I had my account closed, enter the ‘appeal’ process, and waited. After being denied once I pressed further and received an email that stated that amazon would “No longer be replying to my further correspondence”.
After 90 days they promptly paid the $15,000 I had in unpaid claims, but it was awful. They earned interest on that money, and if they had no paid it to me there was little or NOTHING I could do short of suing them. Which, if I had would probably have a snowballs chance in hell of going anywhere.
I shut down the eCommerce business after that incident, it placed too much of a short-term cash flow problem and I had to pay vendors.
When your king you get to decide just how much power others have I guess. I didn’t really see any way around it.
Just disappointing that small businesses can be so quickly ‘snuffed’ out of existence when they are beholden to the policies of a much larger ones (eBay, Amazon, Paypal).
I guess I had to tell myself: “You don’t own Amazon, or a meaningful share of their business, so get over it…”
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You are not the customer, you’re the product.
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Via the “executive bomb” [dot com] website, the following “executive customer relations” listing came up:
Company Phone: 1-800-201-7575
Company Contacts:
ecr@amazon.com (Executive Customer Relations)
Date added (DD/MM/YYYY): 9/12/2008I’m not sure if it is still accurate, but you can try that out and see if there are other such websites providing similar information.
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Jeff, I was actually brainstorming a site to buy/sell used goods over the weekend while I was listing stuff, right before this went down. There may be an opportunity here. There would be some hurdles to overcome though — most significantly, the network effect.
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meanguy, I browsed the forums before writing this post. A few others had the same experience; I didn’t see signs of Amazon employees in the threads I read through, or a good avenue for appeal.
The only idea that came up was to plead your case to jeff@amazon.com (Jeff Bezos’s email address), with plenty of detail including the reason my account might have been banned. Oh great, now I’m supposed to divine what may have caused Amazon’s flawed system to divine an account association where none existed!
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Matt, thanks. I’ve never heard of swap.com before; I’ll check it out.
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Why should we believe you. How can you be sure none of your friends or relatives havent misused your identity? As per me, amazon is holding the final word because, it is answerable it its customer. I have also heard amazon is the most customer friendly retail website till date. No offense. Just a thought
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simha, I can’t really be sure, thanks to Amazon.com — they will not provide any details about the other account that was closed.
In my experience Amazon does answer to the shopper, but not to the seller.
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Did you move your address? It is possible that somebody else at your address once had an Amazon account. They use a variety of criteria to detect whether somebody who they have banned in the past is trying to set up another account. Address, SSN, bank account, name, company name are all clues they use to keep scammers off their site. There are probably other things too.
You could set up a new business entity with a new EIN and new bank account and new mailing address and you should be able to resume with another account. Unfortunately you would have to build up your reputation again.
If you think it is just a mixup with the address you should keep trying for reinstatement.
This has happened to me and I had to start over.
Good Luck!
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Mark, I did move earlier this year. A closed account associated with a previous tenant was the only possible cause for this that I could think of.
If that’s what did it though, it’s a pretty crude association — wouldn’t my history with my previous address filter out that association in any competently designed fraud detection software?
I’m not about to set up a new business identity and mailing address to start selling there again; it’s just not worth it for me. I doubt the new mailing address could even be done without faking it — do they allow PO boxes?
Based on what I’ve read, I’m not sure there are any avenues open now for reinstatement.
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Yeah the real takeaway is to make sure you have multiple channels for sales if you want to keep selling. Amazon + eBay + Craigslist required. Otherwise you run the risk of being left stranded. Sad to say.
So are you going to stop making purchases from Amazon because they screwed you. I would.
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I wouldn’t open a new account, that would only make things worse, particularly if they manage to make an association between that one and your current one. Amazon has made it pretty clear that they want nothing to do with you from now on, and they don’t have much interest in debating the issue. If you want you can try some of the suggestions given here for escalating the issue, and the publicity you’re getting off this might actually cause someone in PR to take notice. Baring that I’d say find someone who doesn’t treat their customers (and you are a customer, you’re consuming a service they provide and paying for the privilege) like scum. Admittedly the list of companies that won’t treat you like scum is getting pretty thin on the ground, but maybe this latest bout of corporate shaftings will be an opportunity for someone. This sort of thing is exactly what something like bitcoin was supposed to help protect against by cutting out the middle man, so maybe it will take off again, or maybe not (it’s barely limping along right now), who knows.
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I’d like to shop at other stores where I know of good alternatives (ex. Newegg, Crutchfield), but it’s hard to walk away from them 100%. The experience is still fantastic as a shopper (huge selection, reviews, great prices, free & fast shipping over $25, etc.). But I won’t have the warm fuzzy feeling about Amazon any more if they don’t resolve this.
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I recently had this same type of thing. Amazon used to be a very good company, but these “account closures” are pretty mean with no real room for appeal. Like you I just did it to sell my school books back and clean out my closet from time to time. Amazon needs to wake up before Google starts theirs and we all go there.
Personally after this email I can not wait until there is a competitor. I love my Kindle but no appeal is not very polite. -
SHAMED BY AMAZON
For the last 4 years i have been selling various things on Amazon. Sometimes i sold very little for long periods of time. Recently i realized that I could make money buy selling items quite frequently. Today I proceeded to email most of the people that have ever purchased for me over the last 4 years (about 100 people). I understand the actions that Amazon took, but the ODR rate can be impacted by negative feedback. However someone can leave negative feedback because you cancelled the order which has nothing to do with a defect. So I decided to make a website to share the status of this claim. If i only had 200 dollars in my account i wouldn’t mind but i have almost 2k, and i was hoping on getting that money. Im taking the necessary actions to let the BBC now as well at the CEO of Amazon. Thanks for your support. My email is Amazonrobbedme@gmail.com. I would love your support. Thanks -
Even though your account has been reinstated, your experience is a wake-up call. I depend on Amazon for my living. I have for almost 10 years. But I recently received 2 negative feedbacks and, consequently, a warning from Amazon to improve my performance. I may sell my more valuable books on ebay and etsy now. Or I might give up selling used books altogether and try another business. Too bad.
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Same thing just happened to me. I created a seller account for the first time a few months ago, sold one item (well over a month ago) and poof, the account was shut down yesterday with the same “multiple seller accounts” as others. Their fraud detection algorithm needs significant work.
The email they sent is below. It’s a nice cold response to a customer who uses Amazon as his primary shopping source, has made nearly 500 lifetime orders and owns an insignificant number of shares in the company.
“Thank you for writing. We are unable to provide detailed information on how we link related accounts.
However, we have thoroughly reviewed our records and confirmed that we have significant evidence that your account is related to another previously blocked account.
While we appreciate your interest in selling on Amazon.com, please understand that the closure of an account is a permanent action. Any subsequent selling accounts that are opened will be closed as well.”
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Yes, I am in *exactly* the same position. I have had an amazon account and an amazon seller account for several years, although I hadn’t used the latter for a long time. Yesterday, I made the great mistake of trying to update my contact details which were all out of date. Shortly after that, I got exactly the same messages, I sent a very similar appeal and got a very similar reply.
I am astounded that their behaviour is even permissible in law. It feels like I have been violated; how dare they justify themselves by linking me to some other entity I have never heard of, presenting this as though it were a proven fact, without saying what this entity is and why they think this? Police states operate like that.
I am now wondering how Amazon can be legally forced to reveal this information. I am completely sure that this is also a result of what you termed a ‘false positive’. As I see no reason to believe that anyone else has used my account, at that point their case would collapse. There are laws coming in the EU soon that I believe will allow exactly this. -
Just received the same message about related account.
“Hello from Amazon.This is an auto-generated message to let you know we have removed your selling privileges, canceled your listings, and placed a temporary hold on any funds in your seller account. Any new selling accounts you open will be closed.
We took this action because your seller account has failed our review process.
Per the terms of the selling agreement you entered into with Amazon Services, we reserve the right to limit or remove selling privileges as we deem appropriate.
We encourage you to take appropriate steps to resolve any pending orders. Note that any amounts paid as a result of A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks may be deducted from your Marketplace Payments account.
After 90 days, the hold will be removed and any remaining funds will be available per your settlement schedule. In addition, balance and settlement information will be available in the Payments section of your seller account. If you have questions about these funds, please write to payments-funds@amazon.com.
To appeal this decision, please reply via the Notification page of the Customer Metrics section of your selling account (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/customer-experience/summary.html). In your appeal, be sure to include all applicable information listed under the “How to expedite an account review” section of our “Velocity Limits and Account Reviews” page in seller Help. ”
I really had 2 accounts which was stupid move to open second one.
But as soon as they put review under my account and sent evaluation message that I have to close all listings on other account to prevent suspension of both accounts I did it right away, I cancelled and removed all listings from second account.
Later they sent this message that I failed their review.
I appealed twice and said that I have taken all required steps they asked to prevent account suspension. and nothing! Here is the resonse:
“Hello from Amazon.Thank you for writing. After a review of your account by an account specialist, we have decided not to reinstate your selling privileges.
We regret we are unable to provide further information on this situation. Further correspondence regarding the closure of your selling account may not be answered.
The closure of this account is a permanent action. Any subsequent accounts that are opened will be closed as well.
Regards,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com”
They don’t really care that I have done everything to prevent account suspension. and now they don’t reply at all. And they put hold on my funds which are around 4k. And I have inventory to sell specifically on Amazon for around another 3k and all of them are on credit cards. so now I’m screwed.
Can’t really rely on them.
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Do you think that if you used FBA services this would avoid Amazon shutting down a seller’s account? I wonder if they are more favorable to sellers that exclusively use FBA since this lessens the chance of fraud and protects Amazon and the buyers. Just a thought…
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@Shizant Could be, I have no idea.
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Our four year old business just got shut down yesterday. We’ve gone through two appeals, both have been denied. For us, this is our living, and unfortunately up until yesterday, Amazon made up 70% of our sales. Yeah, that means 70% of our company revenue just died yesterday in a matter of moments.
We have no choice but to try and start a new store and “hide it” somehow but I’m feeling pretty hopeless. Our other option is to create an entire new company with new bank accounts and everything so that we can sell again. All because our Order Defect Rate went up to 2.14%.
What a nightmare. -
I’ve been selling on Amazon.ca for years and have hundreds of feedbacks. My feeback rating is 99% positive. I started listing as well on Amazon.com about a year ago and have 4 feedbacks, all positive. About 6 months ago I sold an expensive textbook to someone in the US on Amazon.com. The next day he asked if I had a tracking number. No one else has ever asked for a tracking number, so I suspected it was not going to go well. He then put in an A-Z claim saying he never received the book, but the tracking number said something about it not being accepted and being returned to me. It was never returned to me, and it has been months now. His A-Z claim was denied, which I understand is quite rare. He must have pulled this stunt too many times. But now I had a bad mark on MY record. Then I received an email, 3 months to the date of shipping, from a buyer in New Zealand who said he never received the book. I suspected he had, given the exact timing of the email. I refunded his money no questions asked. Then a few days later he said the book DID arrive, and I managed to get my money back from him. But now I had 2 bad marks on my records, no fault of mine. Then a buyer said a book I mailed arrived, “heavily damaged”. She gave no details, just that she wants a full refund. The book left my possession in perfect condition and was shipped in a book mailer. I told her I would not give a refund. Then she put in an A-Z claim, again no specifics, just that the book was damaged. Not a single word on what type of damage, I suppose it would have taken too much effort to flesh out the lie. Amazon granted the A-Z claim but paid out of their own pocket. Then my account was suspended! Due to 1 repeat scammer, 1 probable confused customer, then another scammer. Fortunately my Amazon.ca account is not affected. Amazon sent me an email saying I need to send them a business plan saying how I am going to improve my sales record and maybe in 3 months they will re-instate me! I’m not interested. With hundreds of sales over at least 5 years on Amazon.ca I’ve only had one scammer. They emailed me saying they did not receive their book. I ignored them and that was the end of it. I don’t know why there are far fewer crooks on the Canadian site, maybe people are not so desperate for money here.
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I don’t know what is the problem with Amazon. I made an account for the first time with email address neelharia99@gmail.com. I am not very good with computer and it was my cousin who insisted to step up an account. So i told him to do the process with my email. I am selling in traditional way to major universities all over the world.
Suddenly I receive a message from Amazon after 15 days that my account is closed because my account is related to another selling account that was closed by Amazon.
I just don’t understand all this and only thing I need to say is that we are huge wholesalers and retailers for books with over 10 retails outlets named as book selection centre.
If Amazon is seeing to this than I need to tell you that my account could have yield great commissions to you because my inventory is over 9 lakh books valuing $ 45 million.
With Amazon closing such big banners, inviting competition and a bad name in my territory.
Regards,
Neel -
The same thing happened to me last week. I had been selling books and media on Amazon since last Aug. My business was growing, I built new shelving. And, since I am a writer, I wrote a “How to” book on how to get back to work. Since 5.4 million Americans have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks, it seemed like a great way to get some people back in the work force selling on line. I wrote a book and sent the manuscript to 3 publishers, all the while, still selling books. This is not a get rich quick business and I made that clear in my book. But, it has been well received. I have increased my inventory, by buying books from estate sales, and retired school teachers, and now have 4000 books on new shelving. Suddenly I get the same message you received. I was shocked. I almost get all 5′s in customer feed back. There is the occasional unhappy person. They pay 1.00 for a used book and then complain that “he this is used”. It was discribed as used. But, you refund their 1.00 and shipping and move on. 1000′s of book sales, mostly low cost books. but a negative feedback for a 1.00 books counts the same as a 100.00 1st edition Hemingway. And, they never complained. The problem now, is they sent these warning letters about ODR to my junk mail. Then they just cut you off and you may never sell again. You appeal, no deal. So not only am I out the funds in my seller account, I have 4000 books all listed and described with no place to go. So, my books needs a chapter, do not put all your eggs in one basket. A publisher contacted me this week. They like the manuscript but want some changes. How can I promote a book, that could leave people hanging like this. My presentation for my book has been to “Women’s Sage” and “Laura’s House”, these are people starting over they were so excited to be working again. This is devastating. The Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos needs to re-evaluate his seller performance department. When they publish my books I will not sell it thru Amazon. The seller performance group at Amazon hides behind nameless emails and takes no phone calls. What a crock. Another Big Corporation screws over the American People. I wasn’t free we paid for a service. The seller performance team gathers information and uses gestapo tactics.
We are writing to let you know that we have removed your selling privileges, canceled your listings, and placed a temporary hold on any funds in your seller account.
Bla bla bla,
available in the “Payments” section of your seller account. If you have questions about these funds, please write to payments-funds@amazon.com.
While we appreciate your interest in selling on Amazon.com, the closure of this account is a permanent action.
Regards,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com
Note……no name.Selling books and media on line was a great concept and working well. Sure you got screwed over buy some buyers who want something for nothing but more often customers are honest. It is the 2% that want something for nothing.
I am really angry and will not be using Amazon. We need another seller platform to sell books and media.
Sincerely,
Donna Sue -
To Ashal and Karen….I am in the same spot. Just closed down in May for ODR over 2. My sales have increased since last Aug. More sales so more complaints over rediculous things. They say they never received it. So they collect on A-z policy. Or the packaging was not adequate and the book had damage, or the 1.00 book was a gift for someone and it was not new. It was listed used. We still take the hit. Clearly America has more customers who have learned to work the system. I was willing to take give the refund and move on. But, Amazon with their Nazi tactics hide behind e-mail only communication. no phone calls. This is wrong. Get it Jeff Bezos.
Publishers are excited about my book manuscript. I have found the key to make my offering more appealing to another seller. And, it has nothing to do with the condition of the book. I just recently found out about this a-z claims thing. Customers ask for a refund you are waiting for the book to be returned and they request an a-z claim. Then if you get the book, you credit them a second time. This is a scam some customers have figured how to work. But, the super smart “seller performance team” make decising based on metrics that are totally rediculous. A 1.00 paperback book should not carry the same defect rate as a collectible Hemingway. Who ever created this seller performance system should be fired. Is anyone paying attention in Amazon performance. Now I have written a book on how to sell books on line which has helped people in its draft form and power point presentation. I have over 4000 books listed and described in my inventory. And, I cannot sell because of this inflexible system to create better customer service. But, just allows customers to learn how to cheat the system. Our court system says Americans can see their accusers. But Amazon hides behind a veil of e-mail but no names and not addresses. Amazon needs real people answering the phones. Come on Jeff Bezos, hire some people to answer the phone and assist sellers, like American Express. We are sick of communicating thru e-mails and receiving unsigned e-mails with form letters about some transgression not even valid. We cannot fight your system as it is. I cannot do business not can I promote my book to assist unemployed Americans. 5.2 million Americans are my audiance. Americans need another seller format.Disgusted with your CEO performance.
Sincerely
Donna Fleming -
As you might be aware, Amazon has Seller’s Forums which is supposed to be helpful. In fact, it is stuffed with bullies, and if you step on the wrong toes, you’re toast. This is exactly what happened to me. I had a disagreement on the forums with a bully who subsequently purchased a book from me, and then gave me a 1/5 neg fb, which he signed with exactly the name that he’d posted on the forums with, abcman. The feedback was totally untrue; not that it mattered to Amazon anyway. My account was suspended and then closed. Now the bully has his money back, and is keeping the book, too.
This bully’s name is Charles B. Robinson, aka C. Robin, PO Box 10471, Santa Ana CA 92711-0471. This is FYI that if per chance he wants to buy from you and then do the same he did to me, your best bet is to cancel his order. Following which, I don’t know, probably put your storefront on vacation and lay low for a few months.
Now that I am unable to log into my account and/or contact Seller Support, I tried e-mailing Amazon CEO but it probably went into the trash basket. Why, I haven’t even heard back. I didn’t hold out much hopes for this one, anyway.
The problem is that while some bullies have the capacity to log into the Forums with a name that’s different from their Seller name, the others are not. This makes the rest of us exposing our Seller name and be vulnerable to the Bully attacks. Say something they don’t like, and I don’t know what their problem is, but the next thing you know, you’re done.
Keep this in mind if you ever want to participate in the so-called Seller Forum on Amazon. You’d better not. There is another site, totally unrelated to Amazon, yet it is useful. The name is SellerSoapbox [dot com]. It will come up in Google search as Seller Soapbox – Index. This one is safe & sane.
YMMV
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Aaron,
Glad to hear they reinstated your account! That is great news, but I agree with what you said, there are definitely flaws in their fraud detection system. The same thing happened to me (minus the reinstatement). They keep insisting that my account is linked with a previously banned account. The only thing I can think of is that I’ve signed on from multiple locations. Maybe one was connected to a banned seller, I don’t know. I’ve blogged about my experience as well, and posted it on their FB page and tweeted about it in an effort to get more people to be cautious in their dealings with Amazon. I just wish there was something more we could do. If you’d like to read my blog posting it’s at: http://albertmansour.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/amazon-com-closed-my-seller-account-and-gave-no-details/Thanks,
Al -
I have been at the receiving end of Amazon Supplier Performance Team and their behaviour is absolutely dreadful and is a supliers nightmare customer. I have read so many blogs recently about this issue over the past three weeks and there is definitely a clear trend which are:
1. Temporary cancellation and account suspension seems to be standard practice the vast majority are not justified.
2. Holding onto sellers funds for upto 90 days is widespread and there is a clear indication that they are making a profit from this process.
3. Volume supplers seems to be Amazon preferred supplier type and you dont see those types of organations having their account closed or suspended.
4. Communicating with the Seller Performance Team is like talking to a brick wall. They are not interested in what you got to say nor bothered that they may be wrong in their decision.
5. Deliberate bully and threaten smaller companies with suspension and ignores those companies IPR (especially when they want to sell the item themselves).I must admit at the time of receiving the dreaded account cancellation notice from Amazon I was annoyed but have come to the conclusion Amazon was going to do this at some future date regardless of whether my performance was good or bad. Amazon clearly has a particular supplier profile they want to retain and a policy of deliberately suspending or cancelling accounts of smaller companies so that they can profit from withholding money owed to them (just look at their accounts). Amazon is very unethical and morally wrong in their business approach and I have now accepted that they are not the company I want to trade with. What Amazon seems to forget that eventually smaller companies will avoid trading on Amazon as the risk of not being paid by them is too great. Amazon is very short sighted in their approach and seem to forget that most innovation comes from smaller companies who have very long memories.
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my email said my account was closed be cause i failed the “seller account review process” i have no clue what that is, i have 100% feedback rating and only 1 refund i have only sold things i buyt at garage sales, and the money was getting good but as soon as 21 days hit and i was scheduled my first disbursment…BOOM SUSPENDED I am dissapointed and let down i was actually having hope…smh
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This exact thing just happened to me. I guess I will be going to half. The way they handle this leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Not only do I not want to sell on amazon, I don’t want to buy on amazon and I will make sure I spread my story to anyone I talk to to trying to get them to spend there money elsewhere.
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Well, add me to the list of suspended sellers. I have been selling on Amazon.com for over ten years. My feedback ratings have been 4.8 to 5.0 continually and my lifetime rating is 99%.
In the last year or so I’ve been taking my listings up and down more frequently because I have been traveling a lot. Recently I sent out an order that was well packed – like all my orders are but the post office damaged it anyway. I went on vacation the next day after sending it out and didn’t notice the issue right away and the recipient filed an AtoZ claim. I had also recently gotten ONE negative feedback from a customer who didn’t like that his $3 CD had scratches. ONE negative in a year. But because I had no other current posted feedbacks because of a low amount of orders it knocked down my current rating.
I got this message from Amazon:
Hello from Amazon.
We are writing to let you know we have removed your selling privileges, canceled your listings, and placed a temporary hold on any funds in your seller account. Any new selling accounts you open will be closed.
We took this action because your order defect rate (ODR) does not meet Amazon’s performance target of less than 1%. The ODR metric is based on A-to-z Guarantee claims, negative feedback, and chargebacks. Your performance metrics and previous notifications are available in the “customer metrics” section of your seller account (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/customer-experience/summary.html).
We encourage you to take appropriate steps to resolve any pending orders. Note that any amounts paid as a result of A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks may be deducted from your seller account.
After 90 days, the hold will be removed and any remaining funds will be available per your settlement schedule. In addition, balance and settlement information will be available in the Payments section of your seller account. If you have questions about these funds, please write to payments-funds@amazon.com.
Before we can consider reinstatement of your selling privileges, you must provide us with your detailed plan to meet our performance standards in the future. We will then review your performance plan and determine whether to reinstate your selling privileges.
For information on creating and submitting a performance plan, search on “Appeals for Suspended or Blocked Accounts” in seller Help.
Regards,
Seller Performance
Amazon.comI resolved the AtoZ claim by sending out a replacement at my expense and the customer dropped it. I wrote the seller performance team and asked them what the problem was and requested they reinstate my account. They refused with this email to me:
“Hello from Amazon.
Thank you for writing. After a review of your account by an account specialist, we have decided not to reinstate your selling privileges.
We regret we are unable to provide further information on this situation. Further correspondence regarding the closure of your selling account may not be answered.
The closure of this account is a permanent action. Any subsequent accounts that are opened will be closed as well.
Regards,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.comSubmit a plan? WTF are they talking about? I have a 99% rating. What plan covers the post office damaging a CD? Or that one customer that you can never satisfy that pays $3 for a CD and whines that it’s scratched and leaves you a 1 feedback when 99 other customers give you a 5?
Whoever suggested that this dept of Amazon is run by Nazis has definitely got it pegged. I’m totally annoyed about this.
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After 1 1/2 years and over 1,500 orders, I was shut down by Amazon for allegedly selling “copied media”. I was selling DVDs and all come from a trustworty and reputable distributor. I had exceptional feedback – never mentioning anything about burned, copied, or counterfeit DVDs. All my metrics were outstanding. A couple of weeks prior I received the following email from what I suspect to be another seller:
“Item is True Blood: The Complete Fourth Season [DVD] [ASIN: B003UD7J6W]. There is no order number since an order has yet to be placed (Mark Campbell sent the email as an Inquiry). Not sure where to find the Listing ID either. We received the following email from Mark Campbell this morning at 6:38AM:
“hey stupid-funny how all your items are the lowest price.how about you quit under cutting the other sellers,this is not how it works all you do is lower price.i will monitor your acct.if i still see you lowballing, me or my buddies will order from you and tell amazon this is chinese knockoffs and bye bye acct.see ya pal.i suggest you fix the issue”.
The next thing I know, my accout was suspended. I appealed. They stood their ground with the account closure and did not provide any details. I contend that this is collusion. It appears that anyone with $20 and an Amazon account can buy a DVD from you and submit a false claim of it being counterfeit and you will be shut down.
If there are any pro-bono attorneys out there that want to take my case of collusion, then let me know.
Thanks,
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Same issue. Jeff Bezos and the whole Amazon Seller support totally suck. I stopped shopping on their site just in protest. But what they are doing is tottally wrong.
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It is very likely collusion unfortunately. Amazon will protect whomever has greatest sales volume and dollar amount inventoried through them (FBA).
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Unfortunately, you can’t sell media through FBA. But here is all I have concluded:
Whenever you want to see a DVD for nearly free, then all you need to do is buy one from any individual seller from Amazon, and then either claim it is counterfeit or it doesn’t work. Open up an A-to-Z claim and you will get your money back.
As a follow-up to my posting on 7/14 (and keep in mind, my account has been closed for 10 days — I am going to call out fraudulent buyer bastards):
A buyer attempted to do the following:
“Buyer is submitting a false claim. Wanted to return the item because item supposedly ‘damaged due to inappropriate packaging’. I have sold over 1,500 DVDs in the last two years. And every one of them have been sent in a DVD Mailer. There is nothing inappropriate about a DVD mailer for a DVD. When I received the return, the case and the discs were in pristine condition. We even played the discs without any problems. Therefore, a logical person can only conclude that the buyer watched the entire DVD. Since he no longer had any use for it, he concocted a false claim as to return for a full refund. Now, here is where the A-to-Z Claim has no merit. I issued a 50% refund because the buyer returned a perfectly good working DVD. But since I only issued a 50% refund, the buyer now changes his story from ‘the item damaged due to inappropriate packaging’ to ‘VCG is now selling counterfeits.’ Please be sure to review all correspondence between me any this buyer over this matter. As I told the buyer, I have had over 1,500 satisfied customers with DVD sales. His particular DVD came out a 20-unit batch that I received from my long-standing and reputable distributor. 19 other customers for this batch have not had any issues or contended that the DVDs are counterfeit. I will not tolerate theft. And I will not take a loss due to a false claim.”
Sad, isn’t it?
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His initial A-to-Z claim was the following:
“Counterfeit- : -SORRY IT’S SO LONG I purchased a copy of Chuck: The Complete Fifth Season from the buyer. Upon receiving it on July 6th, I discovered that it was burned onto a single layer disc even though the packaging clearly stated dual layer disc media. Determining that the copy that I received from VCG was counterfeit I, again immediately, requested a return, because I did not want to antagonize a seller who for all I knew was intentionally selling counterfeit DVDs, rather than confronting him with the legitimacy of the discs I simply claimed that they were damaged in transit. The seller agreed to the return and offered me a complete refund plus the cost of return postage. I shipped the item July 16th and it arrived July 18th. The Seller responded to me the next morning, he accused me of fraud, saying that I had simply watched the DVD and then claimed damage so I could return it for free. VCG offered me only a 50% refund of my original purchase price. I confronted him with my counterfeit accusation which he brushed off and when I requested that he withdraw the refund and return the item to me at my cost he refused. I do not know if VCG is purposefully selling counterfeit copies or if he simply bought a bad batch and does not believe me when I say my copy was counterfeit. But in either case all I would like is the other 50% of my purchase price ($9.11) and the cost of return shipping ($3.65) this totals to $12.76. All of my dates and order #s can be confirmed through USPS tracking and Amazon records.”
From this, I read that the buyer admits to submitting a false claim, and once he was not satisfied with the 50% refund, then he went to claim counterfeit with me. Does anybody else see otherwise?
And what is with all of this about ‘not wanting to antagonize’ the seller? If he had a legitimate claim, then there would be no antogonization. And how could nearly 1,500 people be satisfied with the products they received with the exception of this dork?
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I received the same email as others right before 5 exact days my almost $6000, were supposed to be disbursed to my account. Have been trying to explain the situation. I don’t think it is going to work out. Amazon sucks.
Hello from Amazon.We are writing to let you know that we have removed your selling privileges, canceled your listings, and placed a temporary hold on any funds in your seller account.
We took this action because our records indicate that this account is related to another selling account that was closed by Amazon. Once selling privileges have been removed, sellers are not allowed to establish new accounts.
Due to the proprietary nature of our business, we do not provide detailed information on how we determine that accounts are related.
We encourage you to take appropriate steps to resolve any pending orders. Note that any amounts paid as a result of A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks may be deducted from your seller account.
After 90 days, any remaining funds will be available per your settlement schedule. Once the hold has been removed, balance and settlement information will be available in the “Payments” section of your seller account. If you have questions about these funds, please write to payments-funds@amazon.com.
While we appreciate your interest in selling on Amazon.com, the closure of this account is a permanent action.
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if anyone has solution to it please replay me. as i have a lot of left over inventory to be sold out. and more is coming in 1st week of august. I think they closed my account because I tried to sell green mountain coffee k cups cheaper then them.
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the same thing happened to me i got the same email and i just started selling on amazon I just listed and sold a microsoft web conference camera and they sent the exact same emails to me but never reopened my account.
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Hi Guys . it is not fair they do what ever they want to do to us
WOULD YOU PLEASE HELP ME MAYBE WE CAN DO SOMETHING TOGETHER ? The hold my money around $ 850 .When I opened my account I was very amateur, was just planning to sell a few used items including college books. I made a mistake while listing a price on one of my items. I put $ 1 Dollar (by a typo mistake) for an item which the retail price was more than $ 70. To my bad luck , somebody purchased it right after that and when I checked and realized it, I canceled it because, there was no way anybody on earth would want to sell that item for 1 dollar. While , I was cancelling , it said that I had to explain the reason why I want to cancel and I did that and at the end I apologized from the customer .
The customer on the hand was very unfair and quickly gave me a negative feedback .I also emailed him and explained the situation and asked him to kindly remove his feedback because, that was just a silly mistake that can happen to anybody . The customer didn’t respond to my email and that was it.I sold more than 30 items on amazon. It never happened to me again. If you see my profile you will notice nobody had ever even requested a return I am student doing my internship now. I had bought some whole new DVD and was hoping to sell them on amazon. I mean I never expected this to be happened . I wanted to extend my business thru amazon because, that was the only way I could earn some money for the time being know .
also I told the amazon ,what i am going to do for improvement , but they don’t give it to me any chance????
When I opened my amazon account , my primary goal was to offer the lowest price to make people happy however , from now on I will focus more on so many other aspects as following :
I will definitely get tracking numbers for all the packages.
I will also email customers after they receive their items to follow up with them and see if they are happy with their purchases to grant a positive feedback. Before, I did not even know about the feedback thing and how significant it was and that’s why I was not requesting it.
Communication with the clients will absolutely be my first priority. Meanwhile, I will do whatever it takes to avoid any further issues or misunderstanding that could possibly happen.Please give me any advice or help thank you so much.
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I think Amazon is downsizing and does not want small to moderate sellers unless you are a large store. I do not think their site can handle much more volume. They can manipulate your buyer metrics. If their is a comment on there that they do not like they will delete it. They also monitor your e-mails and delete as they wish. So do you stand a chance no…… They monitor your ip address.
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Friends, Attention Attention Attention please
I just founded a petition entitled The United States Congress and Attorney General: Congressional investigation & class-action lawsuit against Amazon.com. I’ve wanted someone to help us with our mutual problem, and maybe this will help.
I’m trying to collect signatures, and I could really use your help.
To read more about what I’m trying to do and to sign my petition, copy & paste this link:
http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-crushes-small-business-marketplace-sellers
It’ll just take a minute!
Once you’re done, please ask your friends to sign the petition as well. Grassroots movements succeed because people like you are willing to spread the word
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Thanks AL, I’ve waited anyone can sue AMZ closing my account without detail and hold my fund forever like you. Many thanks, I will sign your petition. Your idea I very appreciate
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