Account review limbo - what's the deal?

[sabbiman]

So...was put on review for a seller's account. I answered the review.

They sent me a note saying that I had not sufficiently answered, that they needed me to address more of the problems.

I answered again.

They sent the same email back.

And so on and so forth, about six times back and forth.

Finally, I wrote and kindly said, please do not ask me to send the SAME information again. I am not sure why you are doing this, but it is extremely frustrating. Please reinstate my account. You have all the information you need.



But here's the thing. I think I am just in limbo. The 90 day clock doesn't start until they kick me off. Right?

So, they have my money. They aren't answering my queries about whether they are going to reinstate me.

How long can this go on? And is this on purpose? Are they doing this so they can hold me at bay indefinitely, or will they eventually answer me?

Anyone?

[Taking The Micky]

Is the account suspended?

[sabbiman]

No.
This is what I received...

Hello,

Recently, there have been some problems with your orders. Your order defect rate is higher than the goal of less than 1%. As a result, you currently may not sell on Amazon.com. Funds will not be transferred to you but will stay in your account while we work with you to address this issue. If you have any open orders, please ship them.

To sell on Amazon.com, please send us a plan that explains how you will address this problem. For help creating your plan, search for "Appeal the Removal of Selling Privileges" in Seller Central Help. When you are ready to send us your plan, click the Appeal button next to this message on the Performance Notifications page in Seller Central (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/...fications.html).

Once we receive your plan, we will review it and decide whether you may sell on Amazon.com again. If you do not send an acceptable plan within 17 days, we may cancel your listings and hold any funds in your account for up to 90 days.

[ASA]

Once we receive your plan, we will review it and decide whether you may sell on Amazon.com again. If you do not send an acceptable plan within 17 days, we may cancel your listings and hold any funds in your account for up to 90 days.

Maybe your plan of action is not enough to convince them, you may post the plan here so the forums can help you with it. And since they said 17 days, you probably will get your money after 17 days + 90 days, but it means your account will be suspended for good.

[sabbiman]

Got back on.

Wrote Bezos and he broke the silence.

Seller support is out of control. They need to be broken.

[Theblakdavid]

Originally Posted by sabbiman

Got back on.

Wrote Bezos and he broke the silence.

Seller support is out of control. They need to be broken.

How did you contact Bezos?

[sabbiman]

If you have problems with an Amazon account and find that Seller Support or all those other departments that act like they are braindead... send an email to:

jeff@amazon.com

When they came under scrutiny for their sweatshop-like atmosphere in their various centers, Bezos went public and said, "If you have any problems with Amazon, email me." And he gave out that email.

THe people that shut down accounts often do so without much oversight. If you have a case where they have done stuff that is not fair, definitely email them ... they will respond in time. And very often, they cut through the nonsense.

I have had great success on several accounts.

[galigusso]

The same happened to my account, except it was not a 1% defect rate. There was a $9.99 item customer didn't like, a buyer complained about this product via phone, (it is funny considering that this was the cheapest I've sold in 6m, also 100% authentic as all my products backed up by real "authorized" invoices)... So AMZ decided to review the account because of this item.

In general - very strange things happened to this account through the year. It was suspended, then reinstated, suspended again, reinstated, they had a processing problem with real credit cards, they had a code problems on their end..etc. (bad karma account :-) )

You can email Jeff and they will probably reinstate you, but this doesn't eliminate the problem (and you will be "under review" again and again, and this is not the most comfortable situation when amz reserves 20% of your disbursement).

If you are selling a product that is completely authentic, with invoices and stuff, but the product has a high number of F@kez and AMZ remove all listing from this SKU from time to time.. that's a very bad sign (this product is considered "high risk item" and will cause problems in the future). Yes, you can send your invoices to the performance team once the listing was removed, but in my case this resulted in additional wait and review...

It's all about their algorithm. What is important - amz will consider the age of your account.. older accounts are more durable.
The same accounts selling the same products but were created with 1 year interval are completely different in terms of what they could be allowed...

So it may be a good idea to age and preserve some of your accounts by keeping them in a standby mode (selling 1-2 items per month). After 1 year this account will have a better "credit history". (The "credit history" of the account was discussed many times on the forums,
and it really works).

I think we need to understand why algorithm is moving us under review... that's probably the most important.

[bettahman]

i am going through the same thing and after deleting entire inventory in frustation and what else to do? what left? jeff if this doesnt work its out of hand right now

[Kelly441]

Originally Posted by sabbiman

If you have problems with an Amazon account and find that Seller Support or all those other departments that act like they are braindead... send an email to:

jeff@amazon.com

When they came under scrutiny for their sweatshop-like atmosphere in their various centers, Bezos went public and said, "If you have any problems with Amazon, email me." And he gave out that email.

THe people that shut down accounts often do so without much oversight. If you have a case where they have done stuff that is not fair, definitely email them ... they will respond in time. And very often, they cut through the nonsense.

I have had great success on several accounts.

I was considering contacting Bezos Ive had my account for nearly 4 years with excellent metrics and it has been under review now for almost a month and I submitted an appeal the same day. I contacted them a few times and they basically said don't contact us, we will contact you. How soon after contacting him did they reinstate your account?

[sabbiman]

If they feel you have been mistreated...or are falling through the cracks of their third world bureaucracy, since it is obvious they have ceded their customer service for Seller Support to non-English speaking zombies reading a script...

...they will come to your rescue.

Takes about 7 days to get an answer, sometimes longer. I have had great results. They will cut through the red tape.

Especially if you are getting jerked around.