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Has Amazon Taken $$$ Out of Your Bank After Suspension?
 

Weird thing happened to my girlfriend. We both sell on Amazon, but under separate accounts using all real info.

About a week ago, she received a notice from Amazon that her account was under review for poor performance. She was allowed to continue to sell, but had to submit a plan to reduce any customer complaints. She DID have 1 chargeback for $150, but the buyer never requested a refund, and actually left POSITIVE feedback. Other than that, there were no issues that she is aware of. She was not selling anything that she should not be - 100% legit and above board, no brand names or media, etc - just housewares. She has had the account for years but only began selling in Januay 2010.

Her last disbursement was a little over a week ago for just under $800. She has made 4 sales since then, for about $600. She withdrew $500 from her checking account after the disbursement, leaving $318 in the account.

Last night at about 8pm she received a letter stating that her account had been blocked for poor performace. Of course, this came with the famous 90 day hold.

This afternoon, she treid to place a charge on her debit card tied to the checking account. It was declined, We checked the balance and it is $18. The only thing we can see is a $300 pending transaction, but no details as of yet.

Could this be from Amazon? I checked the user agreement and it has 2 sections relevant to this:

Section 5(k): We may obtain reimbursement of any amounts owed by Seller to Amazon by deducting from future payments owed to Seller, reversing any credits to Seller's Account, charging against gift certificates held in Seller's GC Account (if any) that were purchased with Payment Transaction funds, charging Seller's credit card, or seeking such reimbursement from Seller by any other lawful means. You authorize us to use any or all of the foregoing methods to seek reimbursement, including the debiting of your credit card or checking account.


The thing is, Amazon currently owes her money due to the hold. There are no other refunds, and the chargeback was the ONLY refund ever made on the account.

Section 5(m): We reserve the right, upon termination, to set off against any payments to be made to Seller, an amount determined by us to be adequate to cover chargebacks, refunds, adjustments or other amounts paid to Buyers in connection with Marketplace purchases from Seller's Account or GC Account for a prospective three-month period. At the end of such three-month period following termination, we will disburse to Seller any amount not used to offset chargebacks, refunds, adjustments, or such other amounts paid to Buyers, or seek reimbursement from Seller via any of the means authorized in Section 5.k. above for any additional amount required to offset chargebacks, refunds, adjustments, or other amounts paid to Buyers, as applicable.


Reading these two sections, it seems to me that Amazon is reserving the right to recoup any losses by debiting her account and/or any credit cards or gift cards she has on file. However, there are, as of now, no losses.

I read through some threads on this, and one person says Amazon will do this, but someone else said that is false.

Has anyone else experienced this? She only uses this account for her Amazon sales and does not have any recurring charges set up. I asked if this could be for anything else, and she gave me a look that could kill and told me 'didn't I think she would REMEMBER a $300 purchase?

Any info appreciated.

If it's Amazon, then this is certainly new to me...and a little scary. Since they suspended her account with money still in it, then any refunds would be taken out of the money that Amazon is holding for 90 days. Even if they aren't holding any money and she gives a refund, then Amazon will not attempt to charge her bank account the owed fees until the next disbursement date, which is every 14 days. So, it would be unlikely that Amazon did this...although you never know with these companies. I'll say that from my experiences with Amazon this sort of thing has never happened before and I would be calling the bank tomorrow to see what the deal is. Unfortunately, if it is Amazon you will most likely get zero satisfaction from them. At least Ebay has a phone number and customer service reps you can cry to. Amazon is nearly impossible to reach over the phone and will only send you bs form emails in response to your problems.

They should use the funds held in the account first, instead of going straight ahead and charge the card on file.

Call the bank and find out who placed the debit charge. You should be able to sort it out. I think you can even dispute it if it's still on pending status.

OK.... So we csalled the bank and the money is back in the account. It WAS Amazon, however. They submitted a pending charge then cancelled it. Maybe it was a mistake on their part? I could see a newbie employee making a mistake like that...