We e-commerce sellers had a great last few years with Amazon, not going to lie. The sales continued to set its own peek, until recently.
Along with the increase in sales, there’s also been a steady increase in the number of Amazon account suspensions – and that’s definitely not a step in the right direction.
I have been personally using Amazon for years now. By now, I suppose you can call me a veteran. I have battle-scars to prove – piles of frozen money and innumerable account limitations. Not too long ago, I had thousands frozen in my Amazon’s seller account and that is when it dawned on me that I am not the only one in this position. At that moment, I thought it would be great to write a blog post on this matter, just to make sure no one else needs to go through this tyranny.
Learn The Difference
- Denied – this isn’t a big deal. It only means your application was denied, but you still have a shot to resubmit it with a different plan of action.
- Suspension – means you still have a chance to appeal, if you come up with a relevant plan of action.
- Banned – You don’t want to be banned. This means that there’s nothing you can do to get back into business with them – and Amazon will no longer respond to your appeals either.
on how to get your banned account reinstated - and how you can easily and safely open a new Amazon account. I thought I’d just create another account. I mean it’s not hard, right? Hmm, not so fast. Remember it’s against their terms and conditions to open another seller account? If you were unfortunately banned for literally nothing, then doing this is only going to make things worse.
The worst part about being banned is that we are losing money every second. It is annoying how you can’t simply pick up your cell phone and dial them up to get it resolved. Sometimes it can take from weeks to months to get our account reinstated.
Three Reasons Why Amazon Removed Selling Privileges
- You have violated their policies. Don’t forget it is Amazon’s house and they get to have the final say.
- Amazon cares about their customers a little too much due to e-market competition. You take a dip in performance and you face the consequence.
- You are selling a restricted product.
How would you know if your Amazon account has been suspended ? As a formerly banned seller, I received a notification that read “Your Amazon selling privileges have been removed” with a bunch of ASINs that Amazon feels I have violated their policies. You can also find out the reason by checking your Performance Notifications within Seller Central.
If your Amazon account was banned due to low performance, you are going to get a notification something like this:
“We have removed your selling privileges because of complaints about the description or condition of items they (customers) received from you.”
The Safety Guide for Amazon
Using Amazon without getting banned is quite similar to using PayPal without your account getting limited. This doesn’t come off as a surprise to me because PayPal is owned by Amazon. The only difference I see is their functionality. Amazon is to sell and buy products while Paypal is to send and receive funds. So without further due, let us get started with the most common suspensions on Amazon.
When you are new to Amazon and get MC999 Suspension when you are trying to list your first item.
So you just created your first Amazon’s seller account and list the first item. After 24 hours of posting, your item gets pulled followed by a notice when you sign back into your account. However, this is very common so no need to panic – as this happens to 20% of the accounts that first sign up (& list).
Solution: Within 2 days of getting MC999 Suspension notice, dial Amazon up directly. You can find the number on their site. Go ahead and ask the customer service representative why your account got suspended. You will be asked some question to confirm your account details. Generally, these are the questions you are going to be asked:
First off, the customer service representative is going to transfer the call to an account specialist.
The questions asked will go something like this:
Do you own this item (say yes)
Is someone else helping you list (respond with no)
Do you have the item in possession or are you drop shipping it (tell them that you already have this item. They can’t know you are drop shipping, even if that’s your sole purpose of using Amazon)
And that’s pretty much it. They will take a couple minutes out of your time to review the account and can come with any of these three responses:
Possible response #1: If you have an item listed that’s of relatively low risk (like non-branded), then they are immediately going to remove limitations on your account and you are good to go.
Possible response #2: If you are selling an item that is extremely high risk (i.e a brand protected by VERO – verified rights owner program), then they would tell you that you selling items of high risk and may not continue to do business with you. At this point, they might even permanently ban your account.
Possible response #3: If you list a high-risk item, they will want you to verify your identity by faxing in your ID and some personal info. Of course, if you have “stealth” your way into Amazon, you would not be able to provide the documentation. This brings us to another most common suspension.
- You are selling items of HIGH RISK!
Most people tend to think they can sell pretty much anything when it comes to Amazon and mind you that’s a big mistake. You whether like it or not – on Amazon, there are items of either low risk or high risk. Brands like Dre Beats are high risk whereas other uncommon brands like Fitch and Abercrombie you can simply walk away with. If you listing a high-risk item and you happen to be a newbie, then your account will be permanently suspended, but if you’ve already been working there for some time, you will not be permanently banned right away as they’ll give you a strike. However, three strikes will result in a perma-ban.
The Key to Amazon
When you are first starting out, start by selling items of low risk until your account is well established with great customer feedback.