How long does it take for amazon.co.uk to review a seller account
Hi,
We are a US based seller, selling books which are zero rated. We do not hold any inventory in FBA or independently in EU/UK. We ship directly to customer address from outside EU/UK. Our annual sales are below the threshold limits.
We had contacted amazon.co.uk seller support twice in the past 3 months and we had been very kindly reassured that even if we have not yet filled up UK VAT number, our seller account will be intact, since we do not hold any inventory in UK/EU and our turnover is well below the threshold.
Our seller performance metrics are in excellent shape. Despite the assurances directly from Seller Support Reps, our seller account on amazon.co.uk has been suspended for the past two weeks. We have appealed providing all the needed information.
How long does it take a review to be completed. Is it normal for the account to be suspended despite direct assurances from Seller Support in the recent past?
Fellow sellers please advise and amazon.co.uk seller support members, please do restore our seller account. Thanks in advance.
14 replies
Seller_EJIX7rqDNQJi2
Yes, advice from the Seller Support is useless and can be completely ignored.
They will always tell you whatever you want to hear to get you off the phone/ resolve your case even if following their instructions could get your account suspended.
Sellers occasionally have to undergo unexpected account reviews or verifications. What kind of account review do you have? There are ways how to expedite the process.
Could you post the original suspension notice and any appeals which you sent for feedback?
Seller_OC4AKQTpHwKwL
As Kika has said whatever you are told can still get you into trouble - even if you have the information in an email.
Unfortunately you are at the mercy of Amazon. Even though without sellers the company would fail, they don’t care.
If you ask for help in any way, your sales will fall - I can’t prove it here. We do approx 30 sales a day. When we ask for anything we find our sales are maybe 4 or 5 a day for 3/4 days. We are a professional seller, we pay £30 a month for the “privilege” of selling on Amazon, then a further 20% on every sale. This can have an impact on cash flow, obviously Amazon lose out on sales as we are the only sellers of some items on the platform - it is complete madness.
We are winding down our account & focusing more on our own 3 websites. Good luck with selling on Amazon
Seller_evOcuEWJcxdCy
If you really want a quick decision, write and email to Managing Director managingdirector@amazon.co.uk try this hope this works for you.
Seller_hpGI2LpF1vsVX
The threshold is revenue of 85,000 in a 12 month period - https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/when-to-register
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
I am not 100% sure on this however please consider the following which I believe to be true. You may need to take tax advice on it…
What could be complicating the issue here is that in order to sell on the UK marketplace your sales must be inclusive of all duties and taxes (Amazon’s rule).
That means that shipments must be sent DDP. When you ship items DDP the shipper becomes the importer of record.
If you sell goods overseas to the UK and then import those goods into the UK you must be registered for VAT, threshold zero.
an overseas seller selling goods as a business activity where those goods are located in the UK at the point of sale, or where the goods are sold to a UK customer and then imported into the UK by the seller (there is no threshold). Register online or by post using a VAT1
Like I said, it is a murky area but if Amazon and HMRC consider you the importer of record for your sales then it is very likely that you’ll need to be registered for VAT… I don’t profess to be giving you a legal answer here, but an avenue to explore.
