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Amazon Case Study
 

30 day old Amazon Account was suspended this past Monday. Funds to be released in 90 days. Account was selling sport jerseys with official tags. Roughly 12 items were sold with the first disbursement going throughout without a problem. Amount was $6xx.xx that reached the bank account fine. Seller upgraded to Seller Pro Merchant account to avoid heavy fees. Over the next two weeks, new sales reached $7xx.xx and 5 days prior to disbursement, it was suspended. Out of 25 transactions, 3 posted positive feedback, all with 5 stars. Two refunds were issued roughly the same day the order was placed due to non-inventory. Buyers were notified immediately. Bank account info is new and never used before. Account was accessed via VPN. All personal information was also different, including name, address, contact phone number, etc. No SSN was entered.

Possible reason for suspension?

Only possible cause I can think of is going over the 28 day/ $750 seller limit.

What was the e-mail you received when suspended?

________________________

Hello from Amazon.

We are writing to let you know we have removed your selling privileges, canceled your listings, and placed a temporary hold on any funds in your seller account. Any new selling accounts you open will be closed.

We took this action because your seller account failed our seller account review process.

Per the terms of the selling agreement you entered into with Amazon Services, we reserve the right to limit or remove selling privileges as we deem appropriate.

We encourage you to take appropriate steps to resolve any pending orders. Note that any amounts paid as a result of A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks may be deducted from your seller account.

After 90 days, the hold will be removed and any remaining funds will be available per your settlement schedule. In addition, balance and settlement information will be available in the Payments section of your seller account. If you have questions about these funds, please write to payments-funds@amazon.com.

While we appreciate your interest in selling on Amazon.com, the removal of your selling privileges is a permanent action.

_______________________


Any help is appreciated.

Of course VPN wouldn't enter into it would it?

I wouldn't know. This is my first stealth account which I though I followed relatively well. As far as Amazon Stealth goes, VPN is one of the suggested methods.

Hmmmm - not from me it isn't!!!

Have you had any accounts suspended that would make you believe it was VPN related?

I think this is the problem.

These refunds were issued roughly 8 days prior to the suspension coming in. The time difference, I believe, would make it less likely of a reason. Again, this is y first account so I am very open to the suggestions and experiences of those who are better versed.

Did you check your seller account metric to see what problem is

The only thing that might be of concern is teh refund rate which stands at 6.9% over 90 days for 30 orders.

they LOVE to close accounts close to pay dates huh

I guess so haha. Any clue on the reason why?

VPN might be the issue.

Could you explain why they might have an issue with VPN?

Definitely has nothing to due with the Velocity limit, the email would have been different and your account would have been in 'review' not suspension.

You have several things going wrong for you. Just one of things is reason to get your account suspended.

1. Using a VPN to access your account. This is not advised for Amazon.

2. Issuing 2 refunds for non-inventory. Amazon does not like it when accounts cancel orders before they are shipped. Only list what you have!

3. Velocity limit. You sold way too much in the first thirty days. I know you said this was your first account so you were unaware. From now on keep it under $750 and try to spread that across the month. Don't just sell $750 of stuff in like 2 days.

yeah, VPN is definitely a reason.

Here's a question, I thought that clothing wasn't open to new sellers anymore?

Thanks a lot for your help. Here are some possible solutions Im thinking about as I try to create a new account:

1. Using dial-up connection. I know that the IP address would change everytime and because I am using dial up, there is no issue with MAC addresses as it does not exist when using a dial up connection. I plan on creating multiple accounts by creating a virtual machine for each account I want to create. Each account would connect via dial up. What do you think about this?

2. You are 100% right about only selling what I have. I was selling on eBay too so I lost track of inventory. You're right and it won't happen again.

3. I am going to try to stay around $500 for the first month. Do I get an email that my account is under review or does Amazon notify me only when something has gone wrong in the review?

As I said before, your guys' help is greatly appreciated. I am very new to all of this but I am open to suggestions and ideas from those who have been in this for much longer than I have. Thanks again to everyone lending a helping hand.

Also, for how many months should I stay under the $750 limit? I tried searching for this but I couldn't find a definite answer.

any recommendations on what I outlined?

Have you first considered picking up the Am az on ghost guide?

I actually have. Thats where I got the idea for VMware and dial up haha. I just would like to know if anyone tried this method before and ran into any problems.

I used dial up all the time with AZ - did not bother with VMWare - worked quite well in general. I would suggest avoiding the use of VCC - unless the VCC does not expire for a long time.

They seen through your vpn

Thanks for the comment. I actually have a real cc attached to the account. one thing i noticed is that Amazon doesn't check for the billin gaddress to be correct. Not initially anyways. They charged my cc for $1 with a different billing address without a problem.

Are you sure that $1 is completed or still pending?

There is no way that anyone can charge the CC with wrong billing address.

That also could be a reason

As someone who spent almost a quarter of a year on Amazon and have dealt with suspensions here are the possibilities.

1. The VPN you used is very common therefore Amazon will notice it. I would find one that is less common with a 128 bit encryption ssl, https, http, etc or use dial-up with AOL or NetZero

2. Never give any refunds during your first month. It shows a bad sign on the account.

3. For VCC, instead use a real physical gift card (preferably NOT Walmart Gift Cards). They last long as long as you got a minimum of $2.

4. (Optional) Sign up for Pro Merchant and create a new logo after 2 weeks of registration date and add the Tax information which doesnt have to be real (Why? First, as a Pro Merchant, there are less fees and they wont ban you instantly like an individual account. Second, the tax information needs to be entered. Whether real or @#$# it just has to. I dont know why but it has allowed 3 of my stealth accounts to live.)

Don't want to do that.

Its still on my account activity as pending when I log into Discover. If Amazon is unable to charge it, wouldn't they ask me to re-enter my billing address? Or would they go straight to suspension?

Thanks a lot for this help. Heres what I did:

1) I gave up on VPN. Now I have dial-up, and although its slow, I'd rather have it this way than run the risk of another suspended account because of VPN.

2) You are 100% right. It was my mistake for selling on eBay and Amazon at the same time without keeping check on the inventory. Won't happen again, for sure.

3) That is exactly what I'm going to do. I thought I would just continue to open up these prepaid debit card addresses but its becoming a little bit hectic with all these accounts. Im going to stick to prepaid visa gift cards as teh credit card information. What billing address would I put for a gift card?

4) What do you mean Tax information doesn't have to be real? I should just enter any TIN number? I have actually never even clicked on the "Add tax information" so I'm oblivious as to what the process is. I actually had registered for Amazon Pro Merchant yet they still suspended me. This was the same account that the original post is in reference to.

My only stumbling block right now is what to put for the address of a visa or mastercard gift card. If anyone would be as so kind to help me out with this, I would be super appreciative.

Thanks again, gcrusader, for the help. I hope to repay you oneday.

1) Good choice.

2) I see you figured it out.

3) You can put any billing address for this one. You can even make up one as long as it's the same one when you registered the address for the visa gift card.

4) Well, I sent in the Tax forms that didnt have my real info and it's over 4 months now and they havent complained or asked me to re-send them.

3) I'm planning on using the Walmart Gift Card. I understand that they have online activation where you put in your address and etc. I read somewhere on this forum that you don't have to put in a social security number, you can just skip the stop. Is this still valid? Otherwise, i don't know how to go about this. I figured I would go to staples and just buy one of the prepaid gift cards hanging next to the counter. Obviously there are many kinds so each one would have a different process for activation. My understanding is that they ill generally ask you to activate onine and proide you with an account number as well as a routing number? I read that Vanilla Visa is one of the more popular ones for this.

4) Oh wow, you actually have to send forms in? I figured they would just ask for your SSN or something. When I get up to that point, I guess I'll know more about it.

Thanks again gCrusader92, your advice has been priceless.

When that pending expired, your account will be deleted.

any advice or suggestions for #3?

Ive been using AMEX for years..

Since when can amazon check the address. they just check if the card is valid..

either way having account issues nowdays

I dont know, that's the only thing I was worried about, the billing address of the card. What do you mean "either way having account issues nowadays"?