Suspended From Amazon – What Can You Do?

So many sellers have been making a lot of money selling on Amazon. However, what happens when out of the blue you are suspended?

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Having that really sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, your reputation and livelihood are on the line.

Your job security, the security of your employees are flapping in the breeze when your Amazon account is all of a sudden shut down!

We feel your pain and truly want you to succeed as an Amazon contributor and want you to sleep well at night, not toss and turn. If you have been a subscriber with Amazon and been in good standing, we applaud you! On the other hand, you might want to look over your shoulder and reconsider your weaker points involving your listing – to warehouse – to the customer process and the risk you might face.

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If you have been suspended from Amazon, please, take a deep breath and allow us to guide you through the entire nightmare and back out into the sunshine. Firstly, you must understand what brought you to suspension and what you can do to turn this around.


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Understand What You Did Wrong:

Have you read the Policies and Agreements set down by Amazon and have you abided by these terms? If you still have access to Amazon’s Support, place a ticket requesting more information on the suspension.

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How And What Did You And Your Business Do To Break The rules?

Once you have read over the Policies and Agreements, it’s time to find out exactly what you did that lead to your suspension. Go to Seller Central and check out performance and metrics. Dig into your customer services and the various processes that identify the issues that buyers have experienced. Always check your inventory and make sure you have not violated any of Amazon’s terms.

Create A Plan Of Action To Address These Issues:

Once you have come to terms with what you did to create this suspension, you should be ready to make sure you avoid these situations in the future. Agreeing and be willing to correct these issues are important steps in your appeal and we are here to elaborate even further on what to do:

You Need To Create An Effective Plan:

Give your plan of action a great deal of consideration . You must own up to your past mistakes and develop a believable plan to avoid any incidences in the future. Just saying you are sorry is just not good enough.

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Be Professional:

You should never state your complaints or frustrations. Your plan is not being read by robots! Real people at Amazon are reading this. Stay far away from sarcasm and confrontational behavior because the will shoot you down.

State Your Position With Specific Intentions:

Can you change your business practices in order to prevent these issues in the future? Be very detailed in every aspect and step. You should ask yourself if there is anything else you need to address or communicate with Amazon, if so, include it. Do not try to side-step any issue, it will look like you are trying hide issues.

Express how you believe the incident occurred, your violation might have mitigating circumstance that could possibly shed light on the entire incident. Express and show how you will prevent any further incidences happening in the future.

Before submitting your appeal, look into other issues that were not connected to the suspension, but through your seller’s history could have contributed to the overall problem.

Review your feedback over the last 12 months and read all claims and Order Defect Rate component issues. All this can be found under Seller Central>Performance>Customer Satisfaction>Performance Over Time>Show Order Defect Rate>Download. Once you have reviewed every aspect, you will be ready to address all these issues within your plan.

You May Request An Appeal From Amazon:

Once you realize the mistakes you have made, you must submit an appeal to the Seller Performance Team. You do that through the Seller Central, then click on Performance and then Performance Notifications.

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You will find the Suspension Notice, click on the Appeal button in order to submit your plan of action. The Amazon team will peruse your submission and make a decision. This process will usually take around 48 hours. They will contact you through your email and state their decision of reinstatement or leave you suspended.

For further information on the appeal process, visit Amazon’s page on how to appeal removals of selling privileges.

Use number and time frames that also includes dates where possible. Never use terms such as “a few”, “many” or “sometimes”. These terms show vagueness and an inability to handle the situation.

As you have failed to comply in the past, your staffing process probably needs a serious upgrade. Show Amazon you are willing and able to invest in a higher level of compliance in the future.

Stress that you have thought through your plan of action and have identified areas of redundancy along with checks and balances. Show different solutions to maintain maximum coverage. Show your technology processes for improvements, including how regularly your team will review all the new steps of your plan.

You might want to consider using Amazon’s fulfillment program (FBA). Sellers with suspensions that came from shipping issues might find FBA a tremendous strategy for the future, which is looked at very favorably by Amazon.

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Make sure you share this plan with your team such as customer service and shipping. Should you become reinstated, your team must deliver with the expectations set down before Amazon. Everyone must be on board with this one.

Reinstatement:

Get everyone ready and prepared for reinstatement. If you are reinstated, this will be the last chance you will ever have to stay in good graces. Before submitting for reinstatement, be sure all your listings are deactivated. Once reinstated, you will have to update all your inventory to assure your stock levels are accurate.

What If Reinstatement Is Denied?

There are cases that reinstatements have been denied due to various practices. This usually happens when sellers turn around and open a new account after the original account was suspended. Another tough hurdle is repeatedly selling restricted products because policies and agreements were not read in full and abided by.

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Should you be rejected, it’s probably time to find other avenues with broader e-commerce opportunities. There are an abundant of opportunities out there, so don’t kick yourself, just move on. Do some serious research online and find e-books and other opportunities to get involved in. Whatever enterprise you jump into, learn from you past experience. Always read the policies and agreements and follow them strictly.

Policies and Agreements are in place for a reason and it’s your responsibility to follow them to the letter.

Resources:

http://fortune.com/2015/08/03/walmart-amazon-toy-guns-ny/

http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/28/investing/amazon-cash-flow/

http://time.com/4011139/amazon-mothers-workplace/