What I received from Amazon on May 1,2025 via email:
Hello,
We noticed some unusual reviewing, rating, or voting activity associated with this account. As a result, we removed all of this account's reviews, and the account is no longer able to contribute reviews, ratings, votes, customer questions and answers, and other related community content.
Why is this happening?
Customer reviews, ratings, and votes are meant to help customers make informed purchase decisions through unbiased product feedback. Reviews, ratings, and votes that violate the Amazon Community Guidelines and Review policies are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:
-- Reviews that are influenced or from a reviewer perceived to have a close personal relationship with sellers, publishers, or other reviewers.
-- Accounts created for the sole purpose of causing harm to sellers with reviews, ratings, or votes
-- Unauthorized party access to accounts to write reviews, ratings, or votes.
To learn more about this policy, please visit our Community Guidelines and Review policies:
-- https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201929730
-- https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G3UA5WC5S5UUKB5G
This account can no longer contribute content for the following reasons:
-- Elements of the account indicate a relationship with sellers, publishers, or other reviewers on the reviewed products.
-- We believe that the account was created for the primary purpose of writing reviews, ratings, or votes that violate our policies.
-- An unauthorized party may have accessed this account to write reviews, ratings, or votes.
Have your community privileges been deactivated in error?
If you believe there has been an error, provide information about this by replying to this email. Your explanation should include the following information:
-- Evidence or examples that demonstrate your account complies with our Community Guidelines and Review policies.
I replied to the email on May 2nd with:
"I have not submitted any reviews on Amazon.com lately. Can you share the ASINs that showed this purported activity?
Further, I do not see any place on the Amazon.com website where I can see reviews I have made. So, I am in the dark regarding the specifics of this accusation. I use 2-step login authorization so I do not see how my account would have been accessed by anyone else. Lastly, being I have not submitted any reviews, positive or negative, in months, maybe years, I think there was an error made by Amazon with this accusation. Please check the source of your information for errors."
Amazon did not respond to my reply. They did have someone call me twice but only after I re-verified my contact information which had already been verified regularly with Amazon. Within 4 minutes, that person left 2 voicemails, the 1st message stated they were trying to reach me, the 2nd message was that they have unfortunately been unable to contact me. Both messages were left in very rushed speech.
The next day I found where I can see the reviews I posted, but it was empty. Amazon emptied it when they made the accusation. So I cannot defend myself by showing I have not written any reviews at all, good or bad, for any product in the past year or two. But I can't prove that because Amazon took away my ability to prove that when they removed the reviews from my account. This action showed bad faith on Amazon’s part in helping to get this accusation resolved. Amazon states they want to help in their emailed responses, but that claim is not true in this case, this action was the opposite of help and hobbled my ability to respond to the accustation.
After submitting an appeal through a special portal they have for Account Health Appeals, I received this in an emailed response:
"Working with or influencing customers to leave negative product reviews to damage or abuse other sellers, their listings or their ratings is a violation of our Amazon Selling policies and Seller code of conduct. As part of the code of conduct, sellers must not attempt to damage or abuse another seller, their listings, or their ratings. For more information, go to the policy."
About me and my product:
5 years ago, I designed a new product, patented it, tooled it, sourced it, tested it, refined the design, funded inventory, created a seller account on Amazon, paid for a Vine review, paid for sponsored listings, achieved Small Business status, spent 4.5 years of nights and weekends assmebling the product, packaging, shipping, and all the other things required to launch a new product into the marketplace. My product recently became the number one seller in my sub-category. It is highly rated at 4.2-4.3 stars, and my seller account has nothing but positive feedback. I very rarely contacted Amazon for support. Year-over-year growth was 40%. I finally reached a point where my cash flow was enough to buy an impressive amount of parts from my suppliers and I was designing an automated assembly machine (I have been an engineer in manufacturing for 30+ years). Business was going great. I was doing everything correctly and thought Amazon was amazing for providing a platform for small businesses to compete with large companies. I would tout Amazon as a great company to anyone who would listen. Then one day I received a deactivation warning. It was 10 days after I had heart surgery. My Amazon purchasing account was flagged for leaving a malicious review on a competitor's listing, and I was warned my account would be delisted if I didn't take care of it through an Amazon appeal process. I checked my reviews page and could see I haven't posted any reviews. GREAT I thought. I will send screenshots of that and also my wife's account reviews page to show no reviews were left from our account. Amazon's reply to the appeal was:
"We received your submission. Your submission did not include the information as requested on your Account Health page for this warning. We do not have enough information to remove the warning from your account at this time. To remove the warning, view the policy warnings on your Account Health page and follow the steps next to the policy warning to submit the required information.
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/performance/account/health/policy-warnings
Calling Amazon support and speaking with a Mr. Manohar resulted with an email summary about our call and what documentation should be provided for the appeal. Here is the complete list, cut and pasted:
Order-specific evidence:
Transaction records
Communication logs
Shipping confirmations
Delivery proof
Customer correspondence
Business documentation:
Relevant policies
Process documentation
Training materials
System screenshots
Any other supporting evidence
Submission Guidelines:
Include all evidence in one comprehensive appeal
Ensure documents are clear and legible
Organize materials in a logical order
Provide brief explanations for each piece of evidence
To Submit Your Evidence:
Log in to Seller Central
Go to Account Health
Locate the violation
Click "Appeal" and upload all documentation
We understand this process can be challenging, and we genuinely want to help you succeed. Our team will carefully review all evidence you provide and give your case the attention it deserves.
Please take the time you need to gather comprehensive evidence, but try to submit within the next 7 days for timely resolution.
We remain hopeful that this matter can be resolved positively and appreciate your patience throughout this process.
Sincerely,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
I have submitted around 6 or 7 appeals so far, each time after speaking with an Account Health specialist. Each specialist provides us with contradictory information when compared with the last person. To speak with upset sellers all day long seems terrible, and I suspect they just tell you what they think will get you off the phone. The email response, usually 2 days after submission, is always the same now:
"We received your submission. Your submission did not include the information as requested on your Account Health page for this warning. We do not have enough information to remove the warning from your account at this time. To remove the warning, view the policy warnings on your Account Health page and follow the steps next to the policy warning to submit the required information.
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/performance/account/health/policy-warnings"
If you are wondering, the link does not contain helpful information on next steps.
My wife or I have been on the phone with Amazon Account Health support for hours and hours at a time. It is affecting our day jobs and mental health. What I found so far, from an Amazon account health specialist (who says he gave me too much information):
Someone, not me or my wife, in my contact list bought a competitor's product and left a negative review. They confirmed the review did not mention my product. They said it was purchased around the holidays. I am assuming Christmas, and the review was left sometime after.
Amazon's algorithm flagged the issue. Amazon will not provide information on who posted the review, what it said, what date it was posted, or anything else that would be helpful in resolving what happened and how. A conclusion I have reached from going through this process is that Amazon's protection of their algorithm's methods for catching policy violations is far more important than helping a Seller resolve a possible mistake made by the algorithm. Providing a seller with information would reveal their algorithm's methods. Better to get rid of the seller.
We have contacted the few people in our Amazon contact list, and no one knows what Amazon is talking about. The people in my list would not buy this product because they do not participate in what this product is made for. These few people are doctors, engineers, business owners, and mostly family. Not the type of people who would try to game Amazon's system for us or maliciously try to get us in trouble behind our backs. They do not have time for this drama in their lives. Please go back up this post and read the list of items Amazon wants submitted in the appeal. It is vague and appears to be designed as a way to break the spirit of the seller and let them know they are submissive in this relationship. I have given up on the appeals process. It is pointless to try to prove you didn't do something. The Account Health specialists are not helpful by design.
The next step is to pursue an outside firm specializing in resolving this type of issue. From discussions with these services, it costs around $1500 to get going, and 90 days before Amazon reads the letter sent by the service. What that process looks like or the end result, I do not know yet, but I do not expect Amazon will reinstate our account. $130K in annual sales per year is not significant to Amazon.
Please let my experience be a reminder to all that the relationship between Amazon and a seller is "At Will". Either side can terminate it at any time. Amazon reserves the right to keep all of your accrued funds and dispose of your inventory simply by claiming a policy violation. They do not need to provide you with anything to support that claim. It is a completely one-sided contract we all clicked "Accept" on. Selling on Amazon is not an actual business. You are just an employee of Amazon without benefits or worker protections. Amazon can choose to destroy all of your hard work and product simply by sending you an email, and my experience shows that is exactly what they are willing to do if their algorithm tells them to do that. In summary, being an Amazon Seller is a serfdom system. A metaphor that comes to mind is, "the king heard that someone I know said something he did not like and sent soldiers to destroy my wares and steal my money to teach me and anyone around me a lesson." There is no "Due Process" in this world.
What shocks me is that with all of Amazon's supposed technology to catch bad actors, they haven't taken the simple step of disabling the ability of sellers and their contacts to leave reviews or comments on a competitor's listing. Why not do that? At least let the seller opt into that limitation. If Amazon took a proactive approach on eliminating ways sellers could get in trouble, they could save money spent on handling the appeals and phone support for these issues.
Amazon, please do better. We were a great seller with a great product. Please take a proactive approach and improve your systems to better protect sellers from getting into situations like this. It was unnecessary to treat us like this. It was and is cruel.
Pinned by community manager