Amazon account suspension (Interested in comments)

[westronics]

Interested in feedback and comments on the following situation:

- Signed up on Amazon mid-november 2008 under a 'marketplace' account

We signed up under 'marketplace' as we saw no reason to limit ourselves to only non-media items, although that is exclusively what we sell.

- We sold ~$5,000 of items during the 14 day review process, very low key.

- Funds were released, no problem.

- 3 days after, the account was placed in review, although we were still able to accepting sales.

- After ~18-20 days of providing highly detailed information (SS card copy even, photos of inventory, etc, etc). The burden of held sales (~$22,000) grew to be a bit much with no clear end in sight. Mostly there was a large few holiday projects needing large financial attention.

- We sent a final notification to Amazon if the review were not completed soon, we would be taking off our items.

- Removed all items on a Friday, Monday the account access was restored, items were relisted (Quite the pain)

- In late December 08, we started using the shipping processor Teapplix to automate order sales. This required API access, which we found was only available under the 'Seller Central' platform. We also found out we could never achieve 'Featured Merchant' status as selling under 'marketplace' either.

- We requested to switch over our account. Denied, and told it was not possible. We asked to just have our Feedback exported (We had been just absolutely nutty on the customer service, and really built up quite the reputation for ourselves), we were told this could not be done either.

- We requested to open the second account. We were told we would have both suspended if we did so.

- Others appear to have a different experience, we on the other hand, had a 4 month long hassle, finally ending on April 2nd with permission to open a 2nd account after a phone call received back from one of the people answering the address 'Jeff@Amazon.com'

- Slowly, we began to sell more on Amazon throughout this process. March sales for instance ~$80,000. Even with this volume we have still been treated like crap. eBay gave us account managers and otherwise just at a $10,000 level. Perhaps this insight is somewhat interesting to some of you having issues on even $500/month accounts and otherwise.

- We listed a handful of items on the 'Seller Central' account Early April, got a handful of feedback (Went a bit over the top upgrading items to higher shipping grades, etc).

- On April 8th, we switched over 100% to the seller central account.

- Our marketplace account was to be closed out 100% at this time, with a phone call placed to both marketplace and seller central support.

- First 14 days ~$5200 in sales as it really is a pain to switch so many listings over. Marketplace has no way to download all the listings into excel or otherwise.

- Funds released fine, kicked it up a notch

- Realized 'seller central' only allows for withdrawal every 14 days, went with it, and just got ~$41900 released OK

- Thursday, one day after that release the account is placed under review, although able to keep accepting sales. I assume it is a different department, and this is the same review we already passed, not so bothered with it.

- Last Friday, we received a notification our 'marketplace' account was suspended due to high order defect rate. Should have been closed already. Phoned in, got nowhere, rude responses, and told to email.

- We replied with stating that the order defect rate (claim rate) appears skewed as we stopped selling this month, and only had a few sales versus claims. Our overall order defect rate is 0.28% for the life of the account. Amazon has stated their target to us as <1%. Other sellers in our market have 92-96% feedback for instance, we have 98-99%.

- In our response, we went into great detail outlining our hassles and problems of the past, as well as stating we are a BBB accredited business with an A+ rating, we have already passed marketplace reviews and otherwise.

- As of tonight, we just received a very short response:

"Hello from Amazon.com.

Thank you for writing. We have confirmed that you switched from our Marketplace account "XXXXXXXXX" and are now using your Merchant account "XXXXXXXXXX".

However, it has come to our attention that a number of your previous buyer from "XXXXXXXXX" have received defective items.

At this time, both of your accounts have been suspended. If you wish to be considered for reinstatement, please address these issues of defective items and provide us with a detailed plan with what proactive steps you will take to ensure this issue does not reoccur in the future.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Seller Performance Team
http://www.amazon.com"

- It would just appear no personal attention or otherwise was giving to my very lengthy and in detail message. Nor is any care given a even a $1M+/year merchant. Honestly, this could probably be kicked up to 5-10 times the volume if Amazon wasn't a constant pain like this.

- At current, despite that email, our items are still listed on the 'Seller Central' account.

- Sent a reply stating it looks like nothing was actually addressed, CC'd jeff@amazon.com

- Of note, our 3 largest and most aggressive (Although certainly lacking in customer service by a big degree) do not have any items listed. Suspended?

As I was saying up top, just curious to hear anyone pick this apart and any comments back I would find most interesting. Any other higher volume sellers out there? I just can't believe how to this day we get treated like dog poop by Amazon still. Our feedback, customer service, and sales volume should get us some pretty decent credit I would have thought.

Maybe it will all be cleared up soon, for lack of better words it just seems like "Something keeps happening"

[TMiles]

way too long of a post.....My head is spinning.....


Buy Aspkin's book and search the forums for help.

[ebaykilla]

i use amazon alot and never had this experience. i think you may have a unique experience here to think through.

[ovidiu]

Hi, yes, they might have sent you a boiler-plate message, but I suggest not getting angry about that. Start reviewing what led up to this. For example, did you know that if you leave too many "policy warning" notices unread in your account, they will suspend you? Log into your account, click on "View your customer metrics summary", read the notices, if any, and appeal the suspension notice from there. Write up a comprehensive plan for improvement, and don't BS the Seller Performance Team. I suggest telling them you will refund all defective orders off the bat, and do follow up on that. It's worth it to avoid trouble.

[westronics]

We refund and take care of all problems. 24 claims in 9000 transactions is darn good. About half of those were denied right off the bat for the ridiculous natures. Otherwise, everyone refunded or promptly issued replacements or otherwise. Our service level is way above and beyond what it should be. I think we have just been hit by a bad piece of the Amazon cog work so to speak. What we need is an account manager I believe and this would all be taken care of.

[ovidiu]

I recommend playing along with their game. It can't hurt to kiss some you know what.

[Alanc]

At this time, both of your accounts have been suspended. If you wish to be considered for reinstatement, please address these issues of defective items and provide us with a detailed plan with what proactive steps you will take to ensure this issue does not reoccur in the future.

With my 1 1/2 year experience with Amazon I think this:

That's a pretty standard letter. They're giving you one last chance to fix whatever they perceive the problem to be. I think that it is pretty much automatic that you'll be reinstated if you answer that letter telling them how you're going to fix whatever they perceive the problem to be.

I received a similar letter. I had around 2000 sales during Halloween. Amazon sends out emails to buyers at a certain point to remind them to leave feedback. I received 3 negatives in rapid succession (during a one week period) out of around 50. I was suspended and received a similar letter.

I answered with ways that I was going to keep this from happening again (there wasn't really anyway or anything that I could change). Amazon answered back saying that they accepted my new business plan and that I would be reinstated. All of the businesses "fixes" that they responded to had nothing to do with the fixes that I proposed. It was like they hadn't even read the email.

I think that you're pretty much doomed. I believe that any couple of neg's or claims will cause them to close your account again, permanently.

I was permanently suspended 3 months ago. I bent over backwards to avoid getting negs and claims. It didn't matter. The 3 claims that I received during the last quarter were all bogus, no contact, etc. and denied by Amazon. I only had 4 claims my entire time on Amazon out of around 10,000 orders.

As I work this out in my head, I'm thinking that Amazon doesn't want any sellers, other than books, unless you're a large company with a well recognized website. I think that Amazon's philosophy there is to at least get some commission on their competitors sales.

After you're reinstated, I believe that you'll be going along and at some point get shut down permanently over ridiculous feedbacks or claims. Then they'll hold your money for 90+ days.

In summary, I think the only way to succeed on Amazon, out of the book category, is to be very small or have a busy, successful website.

[Alanc]

I think that Amazon has a lot of ulterior motives that aren't public. Bezos is really big on secrecy.

I think the main reason that they invite people to sell on their site is to appease their "community". Amazon doesn't expect their smaller sellers to make much money.

Something they've done lately is to try and get everything on their site listed by a UPC number. The reason they gave for this was to remove the clutter and duplicates on their site.

I think the real reason is so that Amazon can track the sales of all items. If they're good sellers, Amazon picks up the line and starts selling it.

I have a friend that was selling lines and was just about the first and only person selling those lines. Their volume increased and they were doing well.

Amazon contacted them and told them that Amazon, themselves, were going to start selling those lines of goods, competing against them. Amazon offered my friend to be a "drop shipper" for them. My friend took most of the products off of Amazon. and sells them on their own website.

[ovidiu]

The single most important thing you can do to prevent negative feedback is to include a little card with each and every order, reiterating your commitment to their complete satisfaction, and making it easy for them to get a hold of you should they have any questions. The result? 2.5 years: 900 orders, 1 neutral, 1 negative feedback, .15% defect rate, two a to z disputes. You cannot simply ship your item and then sit on your laurels. You have to be proactive about manipulating your customers into great feedback.

[westronics]

Agreed, a card will go a long way. Currently an email stating this is sent on every order automatically. But something in the buyer's hand as they open it would be far better.

Otherwise I have read the comments in good detail and appreciated the thoughts, ideas, and interesting concepts very much.

[ovidiu]

As I understand it, two or three violations in a short time will get you canned. Doesn't matter what your overall feedback or defect rate is.

[0804]

i had similar issues with the OP. There's no way around it otherthan play low and small. Once you grow big, that's the time amazon will kick you out of their joint. Also I normally pricematch with amazon's price. Now, i have second thought on such a move.

[westronics]

As a follow up - We have since spoken to the office of Jeff Bezos, been assigned an account manager and passed up to featured merchant status. In the end it appears to have all gone well.

[0804]

Originally Posted by westronics

As a follow up - We have since spoken to the office of Jeff Bezos, been assigned an account manager and passed up to featured merchant status. In the end it appears to have all gone well.

Great to hear!! Do you mind telling us how you done that? Thanks.

[ovidiu]

So far, I got two suspensions and successfully appealed both. Going up the ladder definitely helps on Amazon.

[nobody999]

Originally Posted by westronics

As a follow up - We have since spoken to the office of Jeff Bezos, been assigned an account manager and passed up to featured merchant status. In the end it appears to have all gone well.

who were you able to speak with?

[nobody999]

Originally Posted by ovidiu

So far, I got two suspensions and successfully appealed both. Going up the ladder definitely helps on Amazon.

how do you get to speak to anyone at amazon?

[ovidiu]

I didn't...I just wrote emails to the Seller Performance Team. I've heard of cases where the suspended seller started blogging about his unfair suspension and was offered reinstatement by Amazon. They didn't like the negative press.

[nobody999]

Originally Posted by ovidiu

I didn't...I just wrote emails to the Seller Performance Team. I've heard of cases where the suspended seller started blogging about his unfair suspension and was offered reinstatement by Amazon. They didn't like the negative press.

you didn't blog about it anywhere?

[ovidiu]

Not me, I just wrote an email or two.

[nobody999]

Originally Posted by ovidiu

Not me, I just wrote an email or two.

was this your first suspension for amazon?

[ovidiu]

No, I was suspended twice.