Top Five Reasons Why Amazon Sellers Get Their Account Suspended
Imagine waking up one day and finding out that you have been banned from selling on Amazon.
Not only is it the ultimate horror story, but also will it have a catastrophic impact on your income. While Amazon treats buyers and sellers relatively fair, it’s very easy to get suspended without warning for being in violations with Amazons.com’s terms and conditions.
Here are some of the most common Amazon seller suspension reasons:
1. Selling prohibited/ illegal products
Before posting items and products for sale, it is important to confirm whether Amazon allows it or not. Amazon’s restricts many products sold on their site for legal or ethical reasons. Where some products might be legal under the law, they still could be restricted on Amazon.com. Just because another seller is selling it doesn’t mean it’s allowed either. In some cases sellers are able to stay below the radar for an extended period of time.
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2. Intellectual property rights infringement
This is one of the fastest ways of getting your Amazon seller account suspended; this includes trademarks, copyrights and patent violations. Amazon takes intellectual property complaints very seriously and sellers should address the issues as quickly as they can. Always make sure you have invoices with your name and address of the goods you are listing for sale to ensure you are prepared in case someone falsely claims you are in violations of their intellectual property.
3. Inauthentic product complaints
Sometimes shrewd buyers will file an inauthentic complaint against you, hoping to get a refund. Once these buyers are caught, which does not always happen, they are automatically suspended. As a seller, the best way to deal with them is to be prepared by having your supplier invoices ready to proof that your goods are 100% authentic.
4. Phishing
With the advancement of technology, hacking of Amazon seller accounts is on the rise. Seller’s accounts are automatically suspended if suspicious activity is noticed e.g. the change of bank details from a suspicious IP addresses or if the sellers themselves report that they account could have been compromised.
Retrieving a hacked account is difficult, so sellers should have security measures in place (e.g. 2 factor authentication) that are strong enough to protect them from hackers. Amazon tries more or less successful to assist sellers and buyers whose accounts have been hacked.
5. Having multiple and related seller accounts
This is one of Amazons most serious platform rules. Amazon sellers are only allowed to operate one seller account, should they require another one, they have to get permission first. If an Amazon seller is found to have more than one account they will get suspended immediately.
Other reasons that lead to account suspensions are failures to address buyer complaints, getting reviews illegally, selling old products as new ones, not having the payment details confirmed and selling products that are not safe and are of poor quality.
In many cases it is possible to recover a suspended Amazon seller account. However, it is advisable to use professional help such as BizzExpert as there are many rules to follow when appealing the suspension.
While sometimes the reason for getting your Amazon.com seller account suspended is not your fault, there are always ways of getting your selling privileges reinstated.
Resources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/12/amazon-sellers-removed-before-prime-day-two-bad-choices.html