Holding funds permanently???

[Robin Hood of Amazon]

So my Amazon account got suspended today for VERO. I'm used to the usual email saying my account is suspended and your funds will be released in 90 days, but this email says my funds will be PERMANENTLY WITHHELD if i don't file an appeal. Is this new? Can they just KEEP your money??? Here is the letter that I received below.

Hello,

You may no longer sell on Amazon.com because we received complaints about your items. Examples of these items are at the end of this email. Your listings have been removed from our site, and we are withholding any funds available in your account. If you have FBA inventory of the items causing “inauthentic” complaints, they are currently ineligible for removal.

If you do not appeal this decision within 90 days, we will permanently withhold any payments to you.

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

To appeal this decision, click the Appeal button next to this message on the Performance Notifications page in Seller Central (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/...fications.html).

Please include the following information for each ASIN reported:

-- Copies of invoices or receipts from your supplier issued in the last 365 days. These should reflect your sales volume during that time.
-- Contact information for your supplier, including name, phone number, address, and website.

You can send .pdf, .jpg, .png, or .gif files. These documents must be authentic and unaltered. We may call your supplier to verify the documents. You may remove pricing information, but the rest of the document must be visible. We will maintain the confidentiality of your supplier’s contact information.


The sale of counterfeit products on Amazon is strictly prohibited. If you cannot provide valid invoices or receipts for the items listed below we will permanently hold funds equivalent to the amount you earned from the sale of these items in the last 180 days. If the equivalent amount is greater than the total amount available in your account, then the total amount will be held. If you have FBA inventory of these items, they will be destroyed at your expense.

Learn more about our policies in Seller Central Help:
--Amazon Anti-Counterfeiting Policy (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/201165970)
--Policies and Agreements (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/521)

-------------------------------------
Complaint type: Inauthentic Item

[Robin Hood of Amazon]

Ok but I also find this on another page saying my funds will be released after 90days. Amazon confuses me!!!
Funds Inquiry

Use this form to inquire about the disbursement of your funds. Note that this inquiry does not represent an appeal of the removal of selling privileges. If you would like to resume selling, click here to appeal.

Your funds are being reserved in your seller account pending the outcome of our investigation or 90 days from the date your account was suspended, after which the funds will be available to be automatically disbursed on the next scheduled disbursement date. Your funds will be disbursed less any A-to-z Guarantee claims or chargebacks.

[rsot]

Likely the payments will be held - sad to say - might get them back with some e-mails and luck

[SaiJin]

OK, so Amazon has a history of keeping people's money if the brand owner actually filed a complaint that you are selling inauthentic items or without their permission.

Right now it's very important that you show them invoices or receipts where you got yur stuff from so they can see that they are indeed authentic.
If you can do this and they accept the document, worst thing is they'll give you 90 days to disburse.

[Beautiful]

I agree with Saijin

Be cautious of your amazon account balance especially if you're getting invoice requests

Keep it low if you are unable to provide legit invoices otherwise you may get suspended and not given the opportunity to retrieve funds/inventory

[dallis]

My guess is that they CAN seize and never funds produced by what they believe to be illegal activity.

The onus to prove the activity was legal is on you, through providing invoices or eventually in court.

Doubtlessly they're required to turn the funds over to the government at some point if you don't contest the seizure.

[rockarockla]

Amazon stole money from sellers

[SaiJin]

Well yea but if it's ⊗⊗⊗⊗ goods they are selling... is that really considered stealing?
There's no point saying the above statement, how about more of a solution or insight?

[RustyShackelford]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

Well yea but if it's ⊗⊗⊗⊗ goods they are selling... is that really considered stealing?
There's no point saying the above statement, how about more of a solution or insight?

Yep it is stealing. It’s a slippery slope. They don’t have definitive proof that the items are ⊗⊗⊗⊗. They don’t send items to rights owners to confirm. They aren’t authorities of law. Plus they shouldn’t keep I’ll gotten funds. It should be turned over to the govt or donated to a charity. Nope. They are fluffing their bottom line. Just as bad as the person who is supposedly selling foo foo

[rsot]

Originally Posted by RustyShackelford

Yep it is stealing. It’s a slippery slope. They don’t have definitive proof that the items are ⊗⊗⊗⊗. They don’t send items to rights owners to confirm. They aren’t authorities of law. Plus they shouldn’t keep I’ll gotten funds. It should be turned over to the govt or donated to a charity. Nope. They are fluffing their bottom line. Just as bad as the person who is supposedly selling foo foo

The amount of ppl being screwed over like this is enormous - very few of them actually push back

[RustyShackelford]

If you live in a large city with liberal judges. Don’t even wait the 90 days after being suspended. If it’s under the small claims threshold 5000-10000 file in small claims immediately. Even if it’s stealth. Most likely they will disburse funds. It costs too much to hire a local attorney to represent them, and they know most likely they will lose anyway.

[SaiJin]

I don't see any solutions to this... unless someone here has one?

The only way is to appeal and prove to them they are not ⊗⊗⊗⊗.

[Theamazoncon]

They did this to us too, totally screwed us. We wrote about the whole process we went though here https://medium.com/@amazoncon/amazon...r-8a76541c69a7

May well be of interest.

[nickopedia]

If you are in the US, file a small claims action, and do it asap. If you are in another country, use your local legal advocate.

It almost always gets their attention and they know it will cost them a lot to hire a local lawyer to defend.

[goodgame]

Any insights on what you have tried?