My FBA seller account got suspended

[airparo]

Hi,

I have been doing FBA for about 6 months and all was going well.
One day I found out that I can buy amazon gift cards with bitcoin... so I did. Because I drop ship on eBay from Amazon too ( I make about 70 sales a day ) and getting amazon gift cards with btc on a really good rate is a beautiful thing. But I made a stupid mistake and redeemed it from the same IP i log in to my seller central account and my buying accounts. Soon all my buying accounts and my seller account got locked.

This is what they sent me as a message about my seller account:

"Hello,

We reviewed your account and we have decided that you currently may not sell on Amazon.com.

Please ship any open orders. If you have funds in your account, they will be available after amounts paid for A-to-z claims or chargebacks on your orders have been deducted. This usually takes about 90 days, but funds may be held longer.

You can see your balance and settlement information in the Payments section of Seller Central. If you have questions about those, send an email to payments-funds@amazon.com.

We may not respond to further emails about this issue."

But I can not log in to my seller account and they gave me no reason at all why is this happening.

I have read another threads here about this issue and it pretty much seems that there is no chance of getting my account back. My hope is that I get my money that I have in my account and my products back.

I contacted customer support several times and finally got some response:

"Hello,

We will review your account 90 days after the date your account was impacted, which was 7/10/2017. If we do not receive A-to-z claims on your orders, funds will be transferred to you on or after 10/10/2017."

Which is pretty much the same as the first email they sent me.

I already started the process for opening another seller account.

Any advice or opinion will be appreciated.

Thank you

[VanVan13]

did you have one buyer account and one seller account that got hit? you said all your accounts? did they link multiple buying and selling accounts?

[elmo]

It could be the GCs themselves were just high risk. I personally don't mess with them on my amazon seller stores.

[airparo]

Originally Posted by VanVan13

did you have one buyer account and one seller account that got hit? you said all your accounts? did they link multiple buying and selling accounts?

I had/have many buyer accounts - I create new one every 3-4 days (when the account reaches 200 orders - create new one). And I have only 1 seller account. They linked all the buyer accounts and the seller account and locked them.

Elmo, it is the gift cards for sure. They locked few times my buyer accounts where i redeemed those gift cards and after some time - locked every single account - about 40 accounts + the seller central one. Now I work with them on another ip... but it is too late. The worst already happened. The question is: will they release my money from the seller account and will they give me back my inventory after 90 days?

[airparo]

Originally Posted by elmo

It could be the GCs themselves were just high risk. I personally don't mess with them on my amazon seller stores.

When you do mess with those gift cards, where do you get them from? And did you have any issues with amazon? There is a way of using those cards in order to stay below the amazon radar... but I still dont know exactly how to do it.

[yankee]

when the 90 days comes up, the next disbursement day, you should receive your funds. You have a process of receiving your FBA inventory as well.

[airparo]

Originally Posted by yankee

when the 90 days comes up, the next disbursement day, you should receive your funds. You have a process of receiving your FBA inventory as well.

Thank you much. Could you please explain with few words what this process is and how it works?

[elmo]

Originally Posted by airparo

When you do mess with those gift cards, where do you get them from? And did you have any issues with amazon? There is a way of using those cards in order to stay below the amazon radar... but I still dont know exactly how to do it.

I purchase them in store

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by elmo

I purchase them in store

^^sound advice, lol^^

I've thought about buying gift cards off the dark web before but I worry too much about chargebacks. When the person who owns the stolen credit card used to originally purchase the GC's notices the fraudulent charges, they start a chargeback and the GC becomes worthless. I'm sure Amazon refunds the CC fraud victim and drains the GC. Purely speculation but that may have something to do with this case.

[elmo]

Yup that is precisely how it happens. I definitely don't add amazon GCs purchased from localbitcoins or any other site to avoid those potential issues.

[airparo]

If you spend the gift card really quick - the products get shipped ( Prime ) and even when they open chargebacks or close the account - it is already too late.

And if you buy physical cards, not ecodes, the chance this to happen is very slim.