Amazon is the leading market place online. Simply put, Amazon is a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything.
So many people get excited at the prospect of becoming a seller on Amazon, a major attraction being the fact that the extra cost of owning an actual shop is eliminated. All a user needs to do is open an account with Amazon, take pictures of the product being offered. The sales start, income is being generated, everyone is happy until the user wakes up one day and discover they can no longer access their account. They got banned.
The next thing is to think of reasons why they got banned, and also to apportion the blame to a third party, be it the customers (buyers) or the Amazon staff. While it feels good and makes it seemingly more comfortable to push the blame on others, chances are the fault lies with the seller. Amazon can ban users unexpectedly and without explanations, and there are a number of mistakes made by sellers which can lead to them being banned. The top five possible reasons will be discussed below:
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Negative feedback
Feedback is a form of report from which statistics are generated about reactions to a product, a person’s execution of an assignment, etc. which is used as a basis for amendment and step-up. Most online trading sites have provisions to get feedback from buyers so as to judge the quality of goods and services being provided by the registered sellers, and Amazon is no exception. Whenever you make a transaction on Amazon, you can leave a feedback about your experience. The feedback about sellers could be positive, neutral or negative, and eventually sellers acquire reputations built on people’s feedbacks and ratings. The platform Amazon has a system of calculating the rating of its sellers using the feedback score. If a seller has more negative feedbacks than positives, their rating drops and if this continues unabated, the seller may get banned.
Counterfeit goods
There is no way to ascertain the quality of a product before purchasing it from a seller. It is expected that whatever is being listed is of good quality and is an original product, in fact, Amazon has a policy about this. However, there are some fraudulent sellers who will deliberately misrepresent products, and innocent buyers will fall prey. This is in no way the fault of the buyer as the only proof of the existence and authenticity of the products are pictures of the said product and the seller’s assurances. When complaints are lodged with the Amazon staff, and such complaints are substantiated, the seller stands the risk of being banned.
Too many chargebacks
Payment for business transactions on online trading sites are made using credit cards or debit cards. While this has the advantage of being cost effective and time saving, there is also the issue of chargeback. A chargeback, also known as a reversal, is a form of customer security offered by the card issuer, which makes it possible for a buyer to reverse a transaction after it may have been completed. It allows cardholders to file a complaint regarding fraudulent transactions.
A number of things could lead to a chargeback: technical problems, fraudulent transactions, non-receipt of items paid for, items not matching the description, and if the credit card was used without the permission of the owner. The most common of these being cases of fraudulent transactions.
When a chargeback is made, the amount is deducted from the seller’s account and further bank charges are also deducted. Most buyers will go on to post comments on the Amazon community, thereby reducing the seller’s credibility and on confirmation by Amazon staff, it will lead to the seller being banned. There have been instances of buyers filing chargebacks when their buyer protection has run out, they’ve been denied buyer protection, or they have an uncooperative seller, suggesting that the transaction might not have been fraudulent. However, too many chargebacks to one seller’s account will lead to a ban on that seller, the reasons nonetheless.
Fake customer reviews
Customer reviews are a form of customer feedback employed by online shopping sites. It is a review of a product or service made by a customer who has purchased the said product or service. This is very important in online shopping, as reputations have been built and torn down based on this feature alone. When buyers view a product they want, they can always read the reviews posted by other buyers of similar products and perhaps from the same seller. Some shopping sites even have the product under review being linked to its seller, thus the volume and quality of sales made by a seller is closely linked to the reviews left on their products. This prompts some sellers to post reviews by themselves using different accounts, thus improving the rating of their products and subsequently boosting their sales. If such an act is discovered by the security systems put in place by an organization like Amazon, the user will certainly get banned.
Selling prohibited items
There is a long list of prohibited and restricted items on Amazon, and all prospective sellers are advised to go through the list before listing any items for sale. Such items include among others; adult only content, alcohol, counterfeit currency and stamps, Animals, used clothing, cosmetics, credit cards, gift cards, fire arms, weapons, government documents, and so on. A comprehensive list can be found in the policy agreement all new users agree to when they open an Amazon account. The sale of any of these items will lead to a ban.
There are many things a seller can do wrong by using a platform like Amazon, but the stream of dissatisfied customers is the major factor that leads to a ban.
When a user gets banned from Amazon, opening a new account will not provide a solution as the account will also get banned week, days or even hours after its creation. This is due to the fact that Amazon has a large database that links together every information on every buyer, including their name, address, network service provider, bank account information, familial relationships, types of goods being sold, and other proprietary systems that are even more efficient.
The solution is to contact Amazon directly and ask about ways to resolve the outstanding issues on the account and trade openly on Amazon once again.
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