I am negative 15000 and Amazon DELETED MY ACCOUNT. PLEASE HELP!!!!

[Survivor1983]

This is my story.

I have been selling on Amazon for six months.

Everything Legal but I drop shipped.

I passed the account review and was a featured merchant.

My account in great standing and no issues what so ever.

This account is REAL and my first with them.

yesterday I had 22 pending sales. They never went through. Today I woke up to a deleted account. I got no emails or anything from them.

I have $15000 plus in my account and its literally all I own.

I called and they said to contact seller performance. No response so far.

I AM SO SAD AND FEEL LIKE THIS IS SO UNFAIR. I WORK REALLY HARD TO KEEP THE CUSTOMERS HAPPY AND TO RETURN TO AMAZON.

Are they against drop shipping? thats the only red flag I can think of.


PLEASE PLEASE SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW. MY BROTHER IN LAW IS A LAWYER AND SAID THEY CANT TAKE MY MONEY

[jeffweico]

Amazon seems to be doing this more and more. It used to be that you would receive an email stating your seller account was suspended and that they would hold your money for 90 days, then release it to you minus any refunds or chargebacks.

Now, however, when they see something they don't like, you simply cannot log in. When you try to contact them, there is a brick wall of silence.

A few people I know of received their money, but most do not.

Your brother in law is most likely correct, in a legal sense. However, don't expect them to release your funds voluntarily. You may have to take them to court to get your money back.

If it were me, I would have an attorney (maybe your brother-in-law can do this for you) contact Amazon's legal department and complain about this to see what they say. Calling Seller Performance is not an option, as they will just tell you there is no phone number available for that department.

I would have my attorney follow it up with a certified letter threatening to file suit unless they release the money. They CAN hold it for 90 days as that is what you agreed to when you signed up to sell on Amazon. However, unless you have their assurance that the money will be released in 90 days, I would not wait to get a lawyer involved - especially for $15k.

As long as the merchandise was not counterfeit, you should be fine. Amazon frowns upon drop-shipping, but it is not illegal.

I wish I had better news for you.

Good luck!

PLEASE NOTE: I am not an attorney.

[sax4]

Hope you sort it out survivor.

[they_screwed_me_too]

i do wholeheartedly believe that these type of suspension are category based, or dodgy accounts to start with (sometimes both)

i sell on amazon and have done for many years, i sell in a category that has no "issues"

i have had many suspensions but i know the reasons behind them

[Survivor1983]

I am selling Baby gates and Home Goods...what is so illegal about that. My account was under review for a month and I have not changed my inventory since than.

I just cant not believe how bad they treat people.

They is disgusting to me

[Gamefreak]

a buyer probably reported you, all it takes is 1 customer who contacts amazon directly and BAM your done! I had first hand experience with that not too long ago. 1 direct complaint to amazon by customer and I lost my account.

[slapped]

I Know that the amount of Money that is involved is a littly freighting,,However Jeffweico is 100% Correct, is the account is in your Real Name you really have no Problem, Yes it will Take a Lawyer to make a Call and send a letter or two but you will get your money, NO Matter what you were selling. So Just chill, and get a Lawyer to make some noise on your behalf,,,

[jeffweico]

I think that Slapped may be on to something here. Not that we can prove it one way or the other, but maybe THAT is Amazon's rationale - stopping stealth users from profiting by using Amazon???

Maybe they are looking for accounts using ⊗⊗⊗⊗ names? It fits. Amazon could make the argument that since "Roger Jones" does not exist, they cannot be sued for keeping "his" money.

Not that the money would be their motivation - these amounts of money are chump change for Amazon. They probably are thinking if they stop Stealth users from profiting, they will go away.

[slapped]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

I think that Slapped may be on to something here. Not that we can prove it one way or the other, but maybe THAT is Amazon's rationale - stopping stealth users from profiting by using Amazon???

Maybe they are looking for accounts using ⊗⊗⊗⊗ names? It fits. Amazon could make the argument that since "Roger Jones" does not exist, they cannot be sued for keeping "his" money.

Not that the money would be their motivation - these amounts of money are chump change for Amazon. They probably are thinking if they stop Stealth users from profiting, they will go away.

I have been saying that this for a while now,,The way I look at it, This is a near 0 Risk for Amazon, They in essence, get a REAL weapon to fight Stealthers, they get to keep their money with virtually NO Repercussions.

And as far as the Amount of money involved, It may indeed be "Chump Change" to Amazon, but Im sure that it is a fair amount and that it helps them Significantly in Devolping even more sofisticated "Bots" and systems to further Police the site

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by slapped

I have been saying that this for a while now,,The way I look at it, This is a near 0 Risk for Amazon, They in essence, get a REAL weapon to fight Stealthers, they get to keep their money with virtually NO Repercussions.

And as far as the Amount of money involved, It may indeed be "Chump Change" to Amazon, but Im sure that it is a fair amount and that it helps them Significantly in Devolping even more sofisticated "Bots" and systems to further Police the site

Cheers, you caught it before I did. I think for safety's sake, that is the assumption we need to operate under. Luckily, I have not lost too many accounts and have needed to create few new ones (accounts selling books don't seem to get as much scrutiny - although I DID lose one new one) and I don't let too much money accumulate in any one account. Certainly, I would never even CONSIDER allowing it to go to $15k. That type of a loss, while it wouldn't wipe me out, would set me back a ways.

That is something the OP can take away from all of this - spread your sales over many accounts and don't let any one account represent a large percentage of your money. I'm sure they would much rather be looking at $500 held, rather than $15k. That is one of the basic stealth principles.

[Survivor1983]

Please do not judge me for having that much money in there.

Everything I do is so legal and I would never in a million years guessed this would happen.

I had no option of taking out any money because they allowed me to get paid every two weeks. Unless there is other options i didnt know about. How do some people get paid daily?

[Survivor1983]

and they deleted my account the morning I would have gotten paid

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by Survivor1983

Please do not judge me for having that much money in there.

Everything I do is so legal and I would never in a million years guessed this would happen.

I had no option of taking out any money because they allowed me to get paid every two weeks. Unless there is other options i didnt know about. How do some people get paid daily?

I was not judging you. This happens to a lot of people. That is why stealth teaches us to spread sales over many accounts. This is just because of the way that eBay and Amazon operate, it does not mean that you did anything wrong.

[tura910]

Originally Posted by Survivor1983

and they deleted my account the morning I would have gotten paid

They always do that. It's as if they knew a week prior that they were going to do it anyway. Makes me wonder if requesting an early disbursement (say 7 days) would even make a difference.. They'd probably just ban sooner. It makes sense for them economically to wait to ban you until right before the pay period.

Still waiting on my 55k lol XD
Only umm 30 days left I think..

[jeffweico]

Tura910 is correct. Usually, the bans come 1-2 days before you are expecting the money to actually be in your bank account. Amazon notifies you of a payment about 4-5 days in advance. But the money does not actually transfer until 24-48 hours before it hits your bank. So that is their "last chance" to get grabby with your money bofore it leaves their account.

ALSO BE AWARE: Amazon CAN AND DOES dip into your bank account to pull back money. So, once Amazon transfers money and it hits your bank, you should move it into an account that is unknown to Amazon.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by Survivor1983

and they deleted my account the morning I would have gotten paid

You must/should/ for your OWN peace of mind take legal advice.

This is what you need to concentrate on right at this moment

What has happened to you as happened to many others.

Amazon works like this.

[tura910]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

ALSO BE AWARE: Amazon CAN AND DOES dip into your bank account to pull back money. So, once Amazon transfers money and it hits your bank, you should move it into an account that is unknown to Amazon.

Thank you for this info. Once I get my large sum, I will be taking your advice!

[sax4]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

Tura910 is correct. Usually, the bans come 1-2 days before you are expecting the money to actually be in your bank account. Amazon notifies you of a payment about 4-5 days in advance. But the money does not actually transfer until 24-48 hours before it hits your bank. So that is their "last chance" to get grabby with your money bofore it leaves their account.

ALSO BE AWARE: Amazon CAN AND DOES dip into your bank account to pull back money. So, once Amazon transfers money and it hits your bank, you should move it into an account that is unknown to Amazon.

I haven't had Amazon pull back money yet, because I move it straight away and then the balance is Zero. They have tried, and my bank statements show they have tried, but as the balance is 0 they do not succeed.

[anon5o1]

Yes, that is correct. My account disbursement was released, and two days later Amazon pulled back the money.

What was the reason of your deletion? How was your customer metric prior to ban?

[anon5o1]

@Survivor1983 Do you have an update with retrieving your funds? I would think they would hold your funds for 90 days as it states in Amazon's policy.. Not indefinitely holding your funds..