

Amazon permanently closed my seller account, no warning, no questions. - Mikelots

After selling low-priced consumer electronics on Amazon for less than a month, Amazon shut down my Merchant Account on March 23, 2012.  Things started off great and I was excited about making Amazon a focal point of my business.  As I spent hours learning the Amazon interface and listing methods, my appreciation for the site grew.  My listings gradually grew in quantity and I was able to maintain 100% positive feedback with no customer complaints of any kind.<p>With plans to increase the listing count dramatically I turned on my computer one morning to find the following note from Amazon (emphasis mine):<p>Hello from Amazon.<p>We are writing to let you know that we have removed your selling privileges, canceled your listings, and placed a temporary hold on any funds in your seller account.<p>We took this action because our records indicate that this account is related to another selling account that was closed by Amazon. Once selling privileges have been removed, sellers are not allowed to establish new accounts.<p>Due to the proprietary nature of our business, we do not provide detailed information on how we determine that accounts are related.<p>We encourage you to take appropriate steps to resolve any pending orders. Note that any amounts paid as a result of A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks may be deducted from your seller account.<p>After 90 days, any remaining funds will be available per your settlement schedule. Once the hold has been removed, balance and settlement information will be available in the “Payments” section of your seller account. If you have questions about these funds, please write topayments-funds@amazon.com.<p>While we appreciate your interest in selling on Amazon.com, the closure of this account is a permanent action.<p>Regards,<p>Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com<p>No questions.  No “hey we gotta problem here” phone call.  No names.  They linked my account to a previously closed account?  I’ve never sold online in my entire life before, so it’s impossible for me to be related to any other account.  A permanent closure?  Thinking this was a mistake I set out to get it fixed.  I quickly discovered that my only next step was to file an appeal, which is setting off red flags in my head.  Why an appeal?  Why not a 2 minute phone call with a real person?<p>The appeal was a gem.  Since Amazon couldn’t be bothered to explain the logic behind their decision, they asked me to tell them why I thought they did it and how I was going to ‘fix’ it.  How do you respond to a mystery accusation?  Not only do they assume my guilt, but they refuse to tell me the charges and place the burden of proof on my shoulders…all without ever talking to me.  All communication has come through auto-generated emails.<p>This is their response to my appeal:<p>Hello from Amazon.com.<p>Thank you for writing. We are unable to provide detailed information on how we link related accounts.<p>However, we have thoroughly reviewed our records and confirmed that we have significant evidence that your account is related to another previously blocked account.<p>Your seller account will remain accessible to you. Please take steps to resolve your pending sales.<p>Any remaining funds may be reserved for up to 90 days from the date the account was blocked. After 90 days, the funds will be disbursed, provided we do not receive charge-backs or A-to-z Guarantee claims against your sales.  If you have further questions about your disbursement, please email payments-funds@amazon.com.<p>While we appreciate your interest in selling on Amazon.com, please understand that the closure of an account is a permanent action. Any subsequent selling accounts that are opened will be closed as well.<p>Regards,<p>Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com<p>Total frustration.  By now it’s feeling like a lost cause.  I’ve learned of dozens of  other seller accounts that have been closed in the same manner, with the same auto generated emails.  Feeling like I had nothing to lose, I responded with a professional yet firm email in the hopes that I’d get through to a real person.  No such luck.<p>Here was their response:<p>Hello from Amazon.<p>Thank you for writing.  After a review of your account by an account specialist, we have decided not to reinstate your selling privileges.<p>We regret we are unable to provide further information on this situation. Further correspondence regarding the closure of your selling account may not be answered.<p>The closure of this account is a permanent action. Any subsequent accounts that are opened will be closed as well.<p>Regards,<p>Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com<p>So that’s it.  It is now painfully obvious that Amazon isn’t interested in justice.<p>I hope my story is useful to you if you are thinking about selling on Amazon.  Don’t underestimate the power they have.  With a single mouse click at 2am, they can shut down your entire business with nary a reason.  Diversify your selling sources.<p>Mike Littau
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paulhauggis
The same thing happened to me a couple of months ago. After the first appeal,
they just put your email address on auto-ignore. You won't get anymore
responses.

They treat marketplace sellers like garbage and they make up 30%+ of their
yearly profits.

Customer is king, which means that if they file an A-Z claim (Amazon's dispute
system), they win in 99.9% of the time. The customer gets a refund and gets to
keep your product. I was scammed by a few customers and lost about $500.
Amazon (unlike Ebay) also won't allow you to ban users from purchasing. You
can cancel their orders, but they will just leave bad feedback, which will
eventually get your account suspended.

You are required to have a 30-day return policy (which is perfectly fine), but
if a customer wants to return something 6 months after they purchased it, they
will win an A-Z claim if they file it.

I know a seller that lost a claim a year after the fact. I can't imagine Best
buy accepting a return on a book a year after it was purchased. Amazon doesn't
even do this themselves. That's the funny thing...Amazon would have been
kicked off of their own site years ago.

They've taken the Google approach and run their entire seller help center
using automated responses with nobody actually on the other end.

It's sickening that they can keep this position. They treat their workers and
sellers worse than anyone, yet people just don't seem to care.

Ebay, with all of their problems, is actually much better. They are much more
fair to their sellers.

~~~
Terretta
> _I can't imagine Best buy accepting a return on a book a year after it was
> purchased._

An legendarily liberal returns policy works for Costco (though they did have
to tone down the electronics policy after abuse). Books have been written
about Nordstrom's supposedly accepting someone returning a tire. Walmart gives
90 days. Home Depot gives 6 months. Amazon is competing with them, not with
you.

A safe shopping experience and excellent customer service are why Amazon's
shoppers are there. You want to sell there because it has shoppers. For that,
you take their policies that built that audience for you, and you _love_ them.

Otherwise, go back to eBay or start your own store.

~~~
paulhauggis
"A safe shopping experience and excellent customer service are why Amazon's
shoppers are there. You want to sell there because it has shoppers. For that,
you take their policies that built that audience for you, and you love them."

The policy is 30 days as stated on the site. The also make no mention of the
fact that they don't actually have people supporting their sellers.

Maybe Amazon needs to show the realities of their policies instead of allowing
small businesses to base their business there and then abruptly shutting down
their account with no recourse.

Oh, and the best part is that they froze >$5K for over 3 months.

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mark-r
Unfortunately, justice doesn't scale. Or at least they haven't found a way to
automate it yet.

I get the feeling from what I've seen online that they just decided to accept
a certain rate of false positives. From their point of view one less seller
doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Obviously things look different from
your end.

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ig1
Pretty much everyone who deals with fraud has to accept a certain percentage
of false positives. And if you reveal too much about how you detect fraud then
the fraudsters start to adapt and become harder to detect, supplying extra
information has a very real cost.

There's also a reasonable chance that even if they wanted to tell you they
might not be able to do so. More and more this sort of detection takes place
using machine learning algorithms which use hundreds of factors to evaluate
risk rather than just being a simple rule which they can inform you about.

Whenever you use a platform for financial transactions you should always
consider what risks the platform is taking in letting you conduct that
transaction and how they mitigate that risk.

------
jingxu
even ebay's seller policy is bit more fair, their watchdog paypal is worse.
They will freeze your fund for 6 months, which is definitely punitive abuse of
power.

