Amazon Temporary Review... ugh

[quantum]

Grrr... got a temporary review notice below, probably a velocity limit from a sales spike. Anyone have any good experience with these lately? This is an 8 month old stealth account so I'm a bit nervous. Account is still active, but I'm considering vacation mode for now. Suggestions on what to send to expedite the review?


Your Amazon seller account has been placed under temporary review. This review period will provide us time to confirm delivery of your recent seller-fulfilled orders. The review period should not exceed 30 days, but we will inform you if additional time is required for your temporary review. While your account is under review, funds will remain in your account, but you will not be able to receive any disbursements during the review period.

Once we confirm delivery of recent seller-fulfilled orders, you may proceed with funds disbursements according to your normal disbursement schedule. If you have outstanding un-shipped or open orders during this time, please continue fulfilling these. Evidence of delivery will help expedite the review of your account.


How do I expedite the review of my account?
If you believe there has been an error or you would like the review process expedited, submit an explanation to selleraccount-review@amazon.com. Your explanation should include the following information:
-- Updated tracking information for recently shipped seller-fulfilled orders or verify that current uploaded tracking information is correct. Tracking information may be provided in the Manage Orders section of your seller account. If you are an Amazon Easy Ship seller, confirm that you use this service for your seller-fulfilled orders as part of your submission:
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/...rnal/201817070
-- Evidence of delivery of recently shipped seller-fulfilled orders. This may include buyer confirmation of receipt or proof of delivery documentation. If you have not already done so, you may request feedback from your buyers. When contacting a buyer, it is prohibited to pressure a buyer or offer incentives for feedback. Read the "customer product reviews" policies for more information:
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/...RKB5RU3FS5TURN
-- If your account has unfulfilled orders and buyer claims or complaints that they did not receive the order, provide supporting documentation that explains the reasons for non-fulfillment of these orders.
-- If you are facing logistics issues that are causing delays to the fulfillment of your orders or resulting in non-fulfillment and proactive order cancellation, provide reasons and supporting evidence associated with these for consideration during your review. Supporting evidence may include copies of communications from the provider, invoices, bank statements, contracts, or any other evidence useful to explain what caused the delays.
-- The address (URL or physical store address) of other stores (including other Amazon accounts) where you sell similar products and can demonstrate proof of delivery.
-- Evidence to support the identification of your business and history of positive buyer-seller transactions. This may include business website, email, or company bank information. Ensure all applicable business information is up to date in your Seller Central account. Although this is not mandatory, this can help expedite the verification of your business and the account review process.

[yobar]

Essentially, you must send invoices, with exact quantities sold. or the ones you have available..
If Amazon requests other documents, send them.
and I suggest you stop selling

[quantum]

looks like the account got deactivated bc they linked it to one of my old suspended accounts. I really tried to keep it under the radar, but as soon as it cracked 20k in sales for the month, I got this review message.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by quantum

looks like the account got deactivated bc they linked it to one of my old suspended accounts. I really tried to keep it under the radar, but as soon as it cracked 20k in sales for the month, I got this review message.

is it now permanently deactivated/suspended?

[quantum]

From my experience, when it's linked, it's as good as gone.

I was 8 months into this account. When it crossed over the 6 month mark, I started feeding old ASINs which resulted in more sales which triggered the review. Probably safe to assume that linked the accounts somehow.

This was a stealth account, every detail is stealth, except the business address. To my knowledge, Amazon does not track business address unless something has changed in the past few months. Maybe it's a combination of ASINs and reused business address.

Thoughts anyone...?

[leamprotan]

Can you give a bit more info on the products? I am doing something similar right now and expect the sales to scale up to around the same as what you went through. Would like to avoid this in the future if possible. Starting to feed in the old ASINs they are PL FBA Fulfilled but not brand registered or authorized reseller products.

Are you selling PL through merchant fulfilled? I am wondering as it says they are waiting to verify your orders are delivered if you are shipping directly, I don't know if you'd have this issue if it was sold FBA.

[quantum]

What's PL?

[leamprotan]

Private Label, your own unique products that you have made/branded. You would have had to create new listings for these products in Amazon's system.

[quantum]

These are not PL listings. Big brand, existing listings. FBM

[leamprotan]

The way the suspension letter is written it makes me think its just related to order delivery and tracking rather than account linking. What makes you think its an account link? How are you feeding ASINs in? What Ratio?

[quantum]

There was a account link deactivation notice that was sent 1 week after the temporary review notice I posted.

I don't think the initial bulk upload with old ASINs triggered anything initially as I had plenty of new ASINs listed already from the months prior, about 3,000. I bulk uploaded around 100 ASINS I believe.

My theory is a sales spike triggered a manual review which led to a bot or a human to connect the dots relatively easy.

[leamprotan]

Well based on that, yes, I would assume the account would be unrecoverable.

In the future, FBA, if possible, would be a way to avoid these sale spike reviews but if that isn't an option you'll just have to scale the account slower to avoid review, 5k for a few months, 10k for a few more months, 15k etc...

[yobar]

Originally Posted by leamprotan

Well based on that, yes, I would assume the account would be unrecoverable.

In the future, FBA, if possible, would be a way to avoid these sale spike reviews but if that isn't an option you'll just have to scale the account slower to avoid review, 5k for a few months, 10k for a few more months, 15k etc...

When you use stealth accounts it is a total mistake to go very fast with them, stealth accounts need to go slow if you hurry...
The next one takes your time, earn less but safer.

[quantum]

8 month old account. Was this too fast? Seems pretty reasonable to me, but If it is, let me know. It's difficult to control the pace, especially when buy box is given to a particular category.

month 1 - 1k
month 2 - 2k
month 3 - 5k
month 4 - 10k
month 5 - 15k
month 6 - 20k
month 7 - 29k
month 8 - deactivated, but on track to do 36k for the month.

[Mr_Blue_Sky]

Originally Posted by yobar

When you use stealth accounts it is a total mistake to go very fast with them, stealth accounts need to go slow if you hurry...
The next one takes your time, earn less but safer.

It's got nothing to do with stealth versus 'real' or the rate at which the account sells, it's the ratio of sales to delivery confirmation which triggers this kind of review.

As a poster above said, the best way to warm up any account is via FBA if possible.

[SaiJin]

Originally Posted by quantum

8 month old account. Was this too fast? Seems pretty reasonable to me, but If it is, let me know. It's difficult to control the pace, especially when buy box is given to a particular category.

month 1 - 1k
month 2 - 2k
month 3 - 5k
month 4 - 10k
month 5 - 15k
month 6 - 20k
month 7 - 29k
month 8 - deactivated, but on track to do 36k for the month.

The $ amount itself is rather high and risky to run on just one account.

Can you split the sales in the future into multiple accounts?

[agent006140]

Where are these items being shipped from?

[quantum]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

The $ amount itself is rather high and risky to run on just one account.

Can you split the sales in the future into multiple accounts?

I am. This is one of a few accounts. This amount is relatively small compared to what I'm use to running.

[quantum]

Originally Posted by agent006140

Where are these items being shipped from?

One single address... It's not a dropship violation if that's what you're digging for.

[agent006140]

There are a lot of theft,shoplifting going on in large retail chain stores,warehouses and distribution centers,you said you are selling name brands,that could be a problem,esp if you are selling them cheap.
A new U.S. law designed to protect consumers and small businesses will become effective on June 27. The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act, known as the INFORM Consumers Act, is a federal law that requires online retailers to collect, verify, and disclose identifying information about high-volume third-party sellers.
Amazon supported this bill before it was passed last year because we believe establishing a standard, nationally consistent expectation for the entire industry is a positive development that will help ensure small businesses selling products online do not have to manage an unworkable patchwork of state-level regulations.
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We are working diligently to support our selling partners in meeting the new INFORM compliance obligations. While the new federal law is much better for small businesses than having to comply with many different state-level regulations, it still requires businesses to do some work. The INFORM Consumers Act requires regular verification of certain seller data on a determined set of thresholds and timeline, which should prove helpful for retailers, marketplace service providers, and customers.
To ensure sellers go through the proper steps and to help them comply, Amazon began contacting the sellers covered by this new law several months ago. We have been communicating regularly with instructions and resources, and we have a large group dedicated to calling sellers to walk them through the verification process and answer any questions.
Since long before the INFORM Consumers Act, Amazon has maintained and continued to innovate on a robust set of processes and tools for vetting and monitoring sellers in our store. This is a critical part of our ongoing commitment to customer and seller trust, and our processes go beyond the new federal law’s requirements.
For example, the INFORM Consumers Act requires transparency around seller contact information—something we have published for sellers in our store since 2020, so any customer can see the business name and address of an independent seller that they are considering purchasing from. For many years, we also have provided customers with a way to contact sellers (and vice versa) through a managed messaging service. This provides a direct communications channel that it is protected from fraud, abuse, spam, and other harmful activity.
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We have found other effective means to thwart bad actors as well. Our verification processes, coupled with continued advancements in our machine learning-based detection to proactively and continuously monitor our stores, are deterring bad actors from even attempting to create new Amazon selling accounts. The number of bad actor attempts to create new selling accounts decreased from 6 million attempts in 2020 to 2.5 million attempts in 2021, to 800,000 in 2022.
While Amazon has been working with our selling partners to ensure compliance with the new INFORM Consumers Act, we are excited about

[SaiJin]

Originally Posted by quantum

I am. This is one of a few accounts. This amount is relatively small compared to what I'm use to running.

You should perhaps teach me how to sell that much ^_-

my personal rule of thumb is no more than $5k per account. And that account need to be older and seasoned.