Getting your Amazon seller account suspended is a nightmare. The ability to be able to sell your products on their platform is a privilege. You can reach hundreds of millions of people from all over the world to get them to buy your product listing.
E-commerce has boomed over the past several years, and that is all thanks to Amazon.
For those lucky enough to be part of this business, it takes a lot of dedication and hard work. Amazon as a company prioritises its customers above anything else, and they have set specific rules and regulations in place for all of their sellers to follow.
There are many different reasons why a seller account can get suspended. Whatever the reason your account got suspended for there is still hope in getting it reinstated.
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Top Reasons You Had Your Amazon Seller Account Suspended
If you want to know how to get banned from Amazon, these are some surefire ways! If you don’t want to lose your selling privileges, steer clear of doing the following:
- Selling a brand your not authorised to sell.
- Using another seller’s pictures.
- Violating a trademark.
- Selling used items as new.
- Listed product is not as advertised.
- Duplicate accounts without permission.
- Bad customer feedback.
- Selling counterfeit products.
- Unfulfilled orders.
- Late shipment.
- Violating Amazon’s terms of service.
The list goes on, but these are the top ways to land yourself with an Amazon suspension. You get notified via email, and when you attempt to login to your seller account, you will see a pop up stating that your account has been suspended.
Who reported your Amazon seller account?
There are several different ways this happened to you. If you did something on the list above, Amazon could have caught your mistake themselves and suspended your account.
You may have been reported to Amazon by an unsatisfied customer. Maybe the item they received was not as advertised, a product was listed as new but was in fact used or if the item was never shipped. These are primary reasons a customer will report you to Amazon customer service.
Being reported by a competitor also happens quite often. Competitors could claim that you stole their listing’s pictures without their consent so that would be a violation of copyright law.
Be careful when describing your products, try to be as thorough as possible. For product pictures, do not copy photos from other sellers, use the generic images of the product or better yet take your own pictures with your camera for authenticity.
How to Get Your Suspended Amazon Seller Account Reinstated
If your account gets suspended, there is a process that you can go through to get your account reinstated. Execute the steps to correctly submit an Amazon suspension appeal, and do it right the first time.
The more times you submit an appeal, the longer it takes for your account to get reviewed and hopefully reinstated.
Appeal the removal of selling privileges by submitting an Amazon appeal letter
Get started by clicking on the Performance notifications dashboard, click the appeal tab. Send in a well thought out Amazon appeal letter with a thorough answer to each of the following points. Make sure to use a professional tone when writing the letter and be straight to the point as well.
When writing this appeal, you need to keep in mind who will be reading this. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the seller performance team. Each of these people probably goes through hundreds of these appeal letters a day. Your letter needs to stand out, be concise, direct and genuine.
Write each of these steps as a subheading on your appeal letter, list supporting bullet points under each heading.
Step 1: Admit your mistake
When starting your Amazon appeal letter, write a root cause of the problem. Indicate the specific reason that got your Amazon seller account suspended. You can find the reason for the suspension on the email you received.
Arguing with Amazon and making it seem like you are innocent or oblivious to their rules will not help at all.
Ignorance is not an excuse. Making it seem like you are clueless or pushing the blame to someone else – like the customer – is one of the worst things you can do.
The best thing that you can do is to own up to the mistake. Explain to seller performance that you completely understand the infraction. Make it clear that you know what you did wrong and try to include your thoughts during that incident.
If it was an honest mistake, it would give them a better understanding of what was going through your head at the time. Your transparency will show seller performance that you are trying to be genuine and not just giving them an edited copy of a template you found on the internet.
Step 2: Plan of action
Indicate a list of all the immediate corrective actions you and your company will do to rectify the current issue. Make sure to include any and all pertinent information about the current reason for the suspension.
It is critical to highlight the list of all the resolutions showing how you have fixed the current problem. This will prove to Amazon that you do indeed understand what happened and that you have taken the appropriate steps on your end to resolve the matter at hand.
Step 3: Corrective long-term solutions
The third heading should indicate the long-term corrective changes to prevent future issues. What you want to list are all the long-term solutions to ensure the incident will not happen again. You need to try your best to assure Amazon,get them to trust you again, and lift your Amazon suspension.
These answers should specifically address the current problem. Be realistic when listing the changes that you will be making to your business as you can bet that Amazon will make sure you honour your word in making those said changes.
Step 4: Add a conclusion
Make it short and sweet. Something like how you take full responsibility for the satisfaction of Amazon’s customers and respectfully request the reinstatement of your seller account. A nice thank you in advance will be an excellent final note.
Prevent An Amazon Suspension
The best thing you can do is prevent your Amazon seller account from getting suspended in the first place. Do everything that you can to provide quality products, brilliant customer service, and to provide your products in a timely manner.
Put the time into Amazon product research to ensure that you can offer the best kind of product. Learn how to remove negative feedback on Amazon if you should get any, but you should do everything you can to avoid it in the first place.
Also learn how to spot fake reviews on Amazon in case you are victim to Black Hat competitor tactics.
Now, To Get Your Amazon Suspension Revoked!
Getting your Amazon seller account suspended can be a real hassle. Do not reply to the notification email without going through the motions. Getting emotional is never the answer, it will cause you more grief.
Execute an appeal as soon as you have completed your appeal letter. Go through the steps above to write an excellent appeal letter.
Be concise, thorough and genuine. Own up to the mistake, show your solutions, include any pertinent or required information and write long-term plans to assure Amazon. That’s all there is to it.