Rolling Reserve? What does this mean?

[phson01]

Today I received an email from Amazon saying:
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Hello from Amazon.

We are writing to let you know that we are conducting a review of your selling account. During the review, a rolling reserve will be applied to funds in your seller account.

The reserve will be equivalent to your gross sales amount for the preceding 14 days. Based on your order volume, the amount of the reserve may change daily.

You can view your account balance and reserve amount in the Payments section of your seller account. When your account balance exceeds the reserve amount, funds will be available per your disbursement schedule.

Account reviews are intended to ensure the timely shipment of orders and compliance with our selling policies. Please continue to fulfill orders and list only items that you are able to ship by or before the Expected Ship Date.

For information on how you may be able to expedite this review, search on “Velocity Limits and Account Reviews” in seller Help.

We will notify you by e-mail when our account review is complete.

We appreciate your patience and cooperation.
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Does it mean that I can't do manual disbursement and my fund will be disbursed based on their disbursement schedule?

I have 52 feedbacks (95% positive) and my sales volume for this account reached $5000 yesterday.

Thanks!

[ovidiu]

What new abuse will they think of next? Do they never stop?

[jeffweico]

Rolling reserves are normal with merchant accounts. Looks like Amazon is implementing them.

The way I read the letter, they are calculating your average daily sales for the past 14 days and then putting a hold on that amount of funds. This gives them a cushion, should items not be shipped.

The looks like Amazon's version of the 21 day PayPal hold.

[phson01]

So when do I get the money? It sounds like I will receive the money on 30th for the money I made during 1st-15th of this month?

[ninjavega]

Originally Posted by phson01

So when do I get the money? It sounds like I will receive the money on 30th for the money I made during 1st-15th of this month?

This depends on how the review goes.

If the review is still in progress, no money will be released for 14 days from the first day of the review.

On the 15th day, the money from the first day will be released.
DO NOT start taking it out that day, it will only be one day worth of sales released and it will make them even more suspicious.

Every day, 1 more old day worth of sales will unlock while your new sales go into the reserve amount.

Thus a rolling reserve amount that keeps your past 14 days worth of sales.

Let the open amount grow for a couple of days before you start releasing it again.

The rolling reserve will not go away until Amazon finishes reviewing your account (which can take months) or they decide to ban/block you.

If the review goes in your favor, the reserve goes away and your velocity limit is increased (they dont tell you to what amount) and you will have a bit more room for sales per day before triggering another review.

If the review goes badly and they decide to block you, ALL of your money will be held for 90 days and they will keep any amounts they decide to for refunds on any complaints (even if they are not valid complaints)

After the money starts to unlock and you disperse, it is still subject to their normal "5 business days" before it shows up in your account.

In other words, the best case scenario is you are pretty much not getting money from Amazon for at least 3 weeks (the 2 week rolling plus dispersal) and possibly never. (if they decide to refund all your orders, even if they were shipped)

If Amazon suspects you of selling bootlegs, they can refund all your orders whether the customer asked for it or not.

[jeffweico]

I have to say that I have never seen Amazon do a mass auto-refund. They also do not email all of your buyers the way that eBay does.

I have also never had Amazon hold my funds past 90 days. And the refunds amounted to about 5% of the amount held, which is a little high, but within the range of normal.

Then again, it could be different if you are selling phakes.

[phson01]

Thank you ninjavega, that is a very informational post. Its time to make a new account, I feel like this account would be dead soon.

[ninjavega]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

I have to say that I have never seen Amazon do a mass auto-refund. They also do not email all of your buyers the way that eBay does.

I have also never had Amazon hold my funds past 90 days. And the refunds amounted to about 5% of the amount held, which is a little high, but within the range of normal.

Then again, it could be different if you are selling phakes.

They wouldn't neccesarily mass auto refund every different item, but they will on a specific item if its been proven to be bootleg, all of that item would get refunded. If its the only thing you were selling, you could lose everything.

The other items would get refunded only with complaints.

Amazon has ⊗⊗⊗⊗ buyers that purchase things for quality inspection.

As for holding beyond the 90 days, it depends on if they still have refunds or complaints pending. They shouldn't, but it can happen. And even if you hit disperse on the 91st day when the money was released, it can still take the standard Amazon 5 day waiting period to get to you, so it really ends up being at best around 96 days until the money is in your hands, sometimes longer.