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Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Hi guys,

So Mid Jan I was suspended of Amazon. Around £12k GBP held by Amazon

After appealing, I was not allowed back on. Another appeal and told they won't reply to me anymore. No worries, I'll just wait and get my cash in 90 days.

I continue to reply to my customer emails etc as I always do, logging in twice a day to make sure they are replied to in a timely manner.

But... around 3 weeks after, all of a sudden, I cannot access my account anymore. Never happened to me before, so I am quite confused and worried because there is a hell of a lot of cash being held.
I contact Amazon live chat and am told I will get an email in 24 hours... This went on for a week and each day I was told '24 hours' Useless.
Seller performance, verification etc won't reply to me. But the payments team did eventually reply saying my money will be released on 14th April. A sigh of relief, at least I'll get my cash.

Today, 24th April... Still nothing. Payments team won't reply to me, no one at Amazon is replying. I've emailed every email address I have on file (around 9-10) and not a single reply or acknowledgment from anyone...

Has this happened to anyone on here before? Can/Will Amazon keep the cash... Forever? Can they really treat you like you don't exist?

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

I had this, after the 90 days had passed couldn't log in at all. I sent an email threatening legal action if they continued to hold my money. I didn't get any response however a week later the money showed up in my account.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

It sounds a lot like your account has been deleted. That means the money is gone I am afraid.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Never ever leave anything like that much money in accounts on any of the platforms, this forum is packed full of the reasons why that should never be done.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Yes, amazon has kept funds of sellers whose accounts have been deleted.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Buddy, amazon UK you can disburse everyday, why did let the cash build up. It looks your your account is deleted by what you have said. The reasons amazon do this is multiple linked accounts or counterfeit. If this is the case you have more than certainly lost your money. e mail jeff@amazon.com with your story. This will get passed to "specialist" at amazon.co.uk.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

thanks for this.

I've already emailed Jeff... No reply unfortunately.

I always assumed that if I go for an early disbursement, then it might raise some eyebrows at Amazon and on a stealth account, that's the last thing we wanted. First time it has happened to me. I have had an account suspended, but got the money at the end of the 90 days but in this instance it looks like I've lost out... Big time.
Will take more care in future and ensure I do at least a weekly disbursement.
It was supposedly 'copyright' on a listing which was never available for sale and never had a single sale. So not sure how someone can report that. It always had 0 stock but was on our inventory file.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Sorry to hear of your situation OP - you might need legal assistance...12k is a lot

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

you cannot necessarily disburse every day on Uk az, it depends but it will be at least weekly if not more, if your account is in good standing...they will always hold a certain amount back rolling- but 12k, how did that happen?

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Not all accounts in the UK allow for daily disbursements, it's only the newer or very old ones. And op is right, it can and does trigger a review on some accounts.

Im not sure why you are emailing Jeff tho if this is for UK Amazon?

You want to email Christopher North the Amazon UK MD.

managingdirector@amazon.co.uk

Although breaching copyright is unfortunately one of the reasons that Amazon will keep your money for. Worth a try tho, that email has helped me out in the past.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

One think I do if I was suspended. I don't appeal at all when there is still money in the account. I only appeal after I can cash all my money.

Once suspended, I just leave a account and try to log in once, twice a week to see if I still able to log in and keep my finger cross :)

I also take a lot of screenshot in case I need it

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

If you e mail jeff@amazom.com it is picked up by the same team and a specialist from amazon.co.uk writes to you. As you say its the newer accounts within the last 18 months have the daily disbursement and older ones. Raise a flag why? Its an option that amazon give you and I do it on my accounts with no problems.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

If the account has passed a review or has been built up slowly you are normally ok. But requesting a decent amount of money on a new account can often trigger a review. I don't know why but it happens.

If you email jeff@amazon.com you 100% do not deal with the same teaM as managingdirector@amazon.co.uk.

I'm not sure why you'd say that but I've spoken to them both and they are not linked other than working for the same company. They may or may not forward the email but what's the point in guessing when you know you can email and get a response from the UK seller support and a direct line to an escalations specialist.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

I'm not sure if this applies in the UK, but in the US, the language that allows Amazon to take your funds permanently can be found under the "How Do I Get Paid" section of their website:

If we determine that a seller account has been used to engage in fraud or other illegal activity, remittances and payments may be permanently withheld.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Barry, both mailboxes go to a call/e mail centre in the Philippines. They are dealt with there or escalated either to the UK or US. UK escalation handles all EU accounts.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

So AZ keeps the money.

This is robbing....sick people

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

You know it's already mentioned that sellers who sign up to use amazon AGREE to their T&S.

At present these allow amazon to do what they fit with accounts they consider to be failures under their terms.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

That's simply not true. The UK mailbox is for the office of Christopher North the UK MD and I have spoke to them on the phone.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

I have been going through their T&C's and had a couple close friends (qualified solicitors) go through it.
We picked up on one part of their T&C's (I won't mention the clause etc publicly as I am sure Amazon keep track of this and may change it) but according to the condition which refers to them holding funds, it is quite clear that they cannot hold it for more than 90 days without providing a further explanation (according to there own terms). So they are in breach of their own T&C's here. I haven't been able to pick up anything so far which states they can keep the funds indefinitely.
After 90 days, either they release the funds or provide an explanation as to why they are retaining the funds for longer.
At this stage, we think the next course of action is emailing Chris North directly (thanks everyone for mentioning this, I wasn't sure if it would be worth a shot but it seems I might get somewhere). Failing that, I think a complaint to the PRA (similar to FSA).
In regards to copyrights (after this complaint) I set up a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ 'copyright protection agency) and reported an original item I sell on one account to Amazon as copyright. Without any investigation I got the copyright email. I then retracted my complaint (from the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ copyright agency) the next day and was back to normal selling. So it was clear from this that anyone (even competition) can set up a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ copyright business and file complaints.

In regards to why there is around 12k held, the account was doing around 30k per month in sales (our best account) before Amazon kicked us off. It had been fully verified, and trading as built up slowly as I do with any account eBay or Amazon. I also had an 'Account Manager' to ensure my velocity limits were raised and these did not cause problems. Although these guys are no help when an account gets suspended.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Also, the copyright complainant has not replied to any of my emails. I know myself that the item was not an infringement and the fact that the complainant has not replied to any of our emails leads us to believe that the claim was also false. Possible competition trying to get rid of us...

Just a pity Amazon does not have proper checks in place to protect it's sellers in situations like this.

But defending ourselves in court could, cost a lot of cash and time. I read of someone who lost 200k (USD I believe) in the same manner, spent 6 months fighting his case through the courts and had racked up a legal bill of 60k before throwing in the towel.

Maybe if all us small time sellers got together and hit Amazon with thousands of claims, our voices might... just might be heard.
Maybe we can all get together and slap them with loads of cases through the small claims court and see if they have the power to keep up :p

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Best of luck zaidy88 - I know few people who have lost upwards of your amounts....few years ago and still nothing.

Re: Suspended - Blocked - Will I get my cash?
 

Zaidy, first you have to take Court action in Luxembourg which in itself will cost more than you have lost. To do this you need a UK lawyer and a Lux lawyer. Amazon have it covered. Easy to say, take the loss and get on making money, its the only way.