Forum

Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

Received a message today saying...

"Hello,

Your Amazon Seller account has been temporarily deactivated and your listings are no longer active. Funds will not be transferred to you but will be held in your account while we work with you to address the following issue.

Why is this happening?
We received complaints about the authenticity of the items listed at the end of this email. In order to ensure that customers can shop with confidence on Amazon, we take “inauthentic” complaints seriously. The sale of counterfeit products on Amazon is strictly prohibited."

They want invoices for 2 ASIN's and a plan of action.

I do have a supplier but as this is a stealth account my name is not going to match up with the real invoices.

It seems the advice here is that they DO call your supplier so i have a choice of asking my supplier to recognize i have am known by a different name on Amazon (and please acknowledge that when they call) or to tell Amazon i order from my supplier under a different name/address then registered with them. I'm thinking the former is better?

I have just noticed my supplier doesn't offer a phone number...just a US address and email contacts. Will this be a problem?

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

I would try your first option and tell your supplier that your trading name is 'X' and that Amazon may get contact them to check the legitimacy of your invoices.

Amazon wont like it if you tell them you are ordering under another name and address, they will just see it as suspicious.

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

If it was an automatic request for invoices from amazon you have a good chance they won't be calling the invoice #

If it was competitors flagging your listings, then there is a higher chance they will call to verify invoice

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

It may have been customer complaints which presumably is even worse?

One item was a return request from 2 days ago and the customer wrote it was inauthentic in his return request. I agreed to have item sent back but he may have taken it to Amazon rep or bots may have picked up on his complaint wording.
The other item was from months back (long since removed) and I never knew where the complaint came from.

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

I would be on the safe side and have a contact at your supplier and inform them, so they can cover you. I had Amazon call my supplier on random invoice requests, I dont believe there is a rhyme or reason now always for calling....Or just hope for the best....

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

Worked out that this is a customer complaint. As he ordered over 3 months ago he either works away or has been in prison!
I've asked him to return the item for a refund but (as with many cutomers on Amazon) there has been no reply to the messages i sent.

I'm tempted to reply to the Amazon notification saying it's a malicious claim from someone wanting their money back (arguing that 3 months has passed and he's had his use from the item).
Not sure if Amazon like this though? May be better to go with invoices and 'plan of action' response to just give them what they want to hear?

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

I clicked on the Appeal button and can see where i fill out and submit my 'Plan of Action' but nothing about uploading the invoice they asked for.

Do i just reply to the email they sent with invoice?

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

Ok, they replied within 10 minutes to my submissions saying they wanted greater detail in all respects of the Plan Of Action.
I covered the areas of concern in a few lines for each topic (as i read that short statements to the point are better than rambling on) but it seems they want a mini essay?

They also want more detail on the invoice and have added 2 other ASIN's that weren't requested before.

I'm thinking they have already decided on deactivation and are going through the appeal formalities.

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

De-Activated seems to be the new word for suspended....

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

After a second rejection of my Plan Of Action (need greater detail) i finally got reinstated.
I did add more detail but i think the main improvement was i addressed the problem ASIN's directly in detail so the Amazon rep could get the full picture.

You have to assume they know nothing about the case and you are giving them a full report of what happened with the ASIN's that caused the authenticity complaint. You then obviously go into some depth about how you will prevent complaints in the future.

I deleted my inventory and pledged to start again from scratch. With about 3k at stake and 2 unsuccessful appeals i wasn't going to take any chances.

My invoices were creative. They were from genuine suppliers i've used but i had to add stealth details and extra products.
I'm certain they didn't call them up although it's likely these suppliers would not be confirming customer details over the phone to anyone anyway.

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

Congrats are in order though

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

Congratulations! What was your plan of actions in brief?

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

You need to explain whats happened (the complaint, the following Amazon suspension) to them as if they have not already read it about it. Don't assume they have done any checking or reading about this case, explain it as if they know nothing.
What went wrong, why it went wrong, how you will fix it now and in the future. Why it should not happen again.

Don't necessarily take the blame but do accept you need to make changes and detail these in some depth.
A few paragraphs won't do. Specifically answer their requirements one by one and write approx 150-200 words for each answer.
Refund the buyer if there is any question of fault on your part. If it's a low amount refund regardless.

Tell them about changes you have already made and changes you will be implementing so this never happens again.

Commit to providing excellent service in the future and keeping your customers happy.

Edit to add: I also agreed to dump all listings and start again. They were holding a fair amount (3k) and i really didn't want to lose my money.

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

Awesome! Thanks mate

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

nice to see you got reinstated, good work!

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

That's awesome, congrats on getting reinstated.

Just FYI, now amazon asks for your Buyers info (Buyer as in the person doing the buying for you). I believe this may be opening some new doors for us to list names of "employees" who did the purchasing of the inventory and thus match the actual invoices we have. The only downside to this, of course, is if the name of the Buyer was already suspended on Amazon, but I find it hard to believe they can link an account just based on first/last name. Normally they will need either SS or address/phone or something else to link accounts so that may work for some people.

Re: Amazon Account temporarily deactivated pending Invoices
 

Congrats on getting reinstated!