Account temporarily suspended but they don't answer
Hello everyone,
I have been selling on Amazon since 2012 (one product only) and I must admit they have always created problems to me, but this time it is completely hostile and unjustified and I do not know what else to do.
I am an independent Producer and in 2012 released a documentary on DVD (all my own work and intellectual property), which was also sold here under my name on my account. This went on for several years, at one point the {Moderator Edit (Jessica) Inappropriate comment removed} at Amazon even questioned my identity and ownership of the product - as if they never heard of filmakers in this day and age??? You have no idea of the rage in me, it’s like someone doubting your name or of being a father to your own son, absolutely infuriating.
Anyway to cut a long story short I ceased being a sole trader over a year ago (as in running a business registered with HMRC) but I still had a few of my DVDs in the FBA inventory so I changed my selling category from Business to Indvidual, as obviously I was no longer a proper business but selling the remainder of my property (may I remind you that when you cease to be a sole trader all inventory and assets are passed to you as an individual, in this case just 4 DVDs).
Well completely out of the blue on March 25 some {Moderator Edit (Jessica) Inappropriate comment removed} in some obscure and evil Amazon office decided to temporarily suspend my account because according to them I “selected the wrong type of business”, suspension which automatically removed my listing and made the last 4 DVDs in my FBA inventory “stranded” - remember those DVDs are mine, I made them, I didn’t buy them from anywhere and they have my name on it.
Their first letter said:
Dear seller,
We have temporarily deactivated your Selling on Amazon payment account and removed your listings.
[…]
Why is this happening?
You incorrectly selected the ‘Individual’ legal entity when you registered. We have explained the different legal entities below.
[…]
Use the following information to select the correct legal entity:
– Individual: You must only choose this legal entity if you do not sell for profit. Individual sellers may list unwanted personal items, such as old DVDs or books." <=WHICH IS WHAT I ALREADY WAS!!!
So I immediately wrote back to Seller Support and of course it bounced back:
“We have closed this case because Amazon has deactivated your account. Refer to your Account Health Dashboard to learn more about the status of your account.”
I went there and basically I was supposed to plead guilty to something I never did by doing their idiotic and totally unapplicable “plan of action”, I instead wrote to them saying they had deactivated my account in error, and also re-submitted the previous identity information (the only thing I could do, since it was not editable anyway, Amazon are very good at masking or greying out what shouldn’t be).
Their response was an email with a load of inapplicable questions regarding my “new business”, which I answered to essentially stating there was no longer a business, and another separate one saying "Thank you for contacting us about your Selling on Amazon account and for sharing with us your concerns in relation to
- the request to provide additional documentation and information.
- your Selling on Amazon account suspension.
[…]
We will be sharing your concern with our internal teams for further investigation."
THAT WAS ON MARCH THE 30TH, ONE {Moderator Edit (Jessica) Inappropriate comment removed} MONTH AGO.
On the dashboard it also says “Your case has been forwarded to another Amazon team. You will receive a response to your question shortly.”
They also sent me an absurd warning that I hadn’t completed my bank verification (which is a total lie since I did it last Semptember and it still appears as verified on the account), and they keep telling me my stranded inventory will be destroyed (at my cost!!!) in the next 60 days if I don’t do something about my suspension (me??? It’s them not doing anything!!!)
In that time, I wrote three times, using the “submit additional information” stupid button, because it is the only way for me to communicate with these animals, to answer to those unfounded threats and to solicit a quick response, but nothing happens.
Seriosuly, I could do nasty things to those people.
Of course there is no phone number to call, contacting Seller Support and opening a case is no use (I get an automated answer and the case is instantly closed), and I have no way of communicating with someone to clarify and fix this awful, nightmarish situation.
Can someone give me some information or advice, someone to contact, an email address or a phone number??? Time is passing by, it is utterly frustrating and especially I don’t want my items to be removed.
Any help very much appreciated, and sorry for the long story.
39 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
so whilst i can fully understand that you are angry, in fairness amazon are just abiding to the law - you should have removed your items from FBA warehouses before downgrading to an individual seller - after all, you were still making a profit from any sales you made. which is what deems you as a business in the eyes of the law, and on amazon, you can only sell as ‘used’ as a private seller, not New
Seller_0Amk0hnQkPWMH
Businesses inc sole traders sell items which they have bought and/or made and which are classed and listed as “new”.
Individual sellers are selling off their old unwanted used stuff which are listed as “used”.
When you downgraded your status from a business to an individual, did you retrieve your remaining stock, delete the listings and relist them as “used”, in line with your new selling status and Amazon policy? Probably not, which is why Amazon have picked up on you now being an individual but selling “new” items. That’s the issue you need to address in your POA
Seller_5iXIFMdaFkFpG
As other members here pointed out, Amazon FBA is platform for businesses, not for individual. By law in UK you are classed as a business or sole trader if: you made(your case), imported, or bought goods with intention to sell it for profit - clearly your case and so Amazon is treating you as a business individual trying to sell goods while having individual account which is against rules here. eBay has completely different business scheme and operation. We would advise you to recall goods from Amazon warehouse and sell it somewhere else if you like.
Seller_NoMNQDGnEW5Bx
Even though in hmrc terms you’re no longer a business, in amazon terms you are. You are still selling a new item with the intent to make a profit and that makes you a business. The £1000 limit hmrc put it doesn’t apply on amazon so as far as they are concerned you had to stay as a business whilst those items were still on sale.
Seller_x8tNggQo5nqG5
Hello I just wanted to update that writing to the MD produced a bit of a shake but the result is as frustrating as before: lack of clarity and explanations, insistence on the same questions over and over to which I give the same TRUE answers over and over again.
In the meantime I have removed the remaining FBA inventory (4 units, duhr), so there really is nothing there to sell that may be classed as new as some members here suggested would be the source of the problem, but it doesn’t seem to have made an iota of a difference.
They still go on about verification, they still insist I am not an Individual, they still insist on having details of a new business - when I must have told them 10 times there isn’t one - and especially they insist on having the exact date I stopped trading, which in the case of a Sole Propietor (that is, a non-public company) is personal and confidential data that they have no right to demand and I have every right to withhold. I have told them the year but they want to know the exact date, I ask them why and they don’t answer and ask the same question again and again.
It’s completely and totally hopeless, utterly frustrating and possibly the worst experience I have ever had with an online entity. The amount of time that has been wasted on both ends is ridiculously huge, and I don’t really know what else to do. They are expecting information that simply does not exist (like a new business) or that they have no right to know without motivation. I wanted to keep the account for possible future use and it does annoy me that my own DVD has its own listing page on Amazon yet I cannot change or update its description, with my photo and my name on it!!!
Why does Amazon have staff responding to similar threads in the Account Health section and not here?
Seller_x8tNggQo5nqG5
Just a final update after 5 months since the beginning of this awful, appalling nightmare.
Despite completely emptying my FBA inventory in April, soliciting a response several times and even writing to the MD, the final act was the usual obnoxious, robotic and infuriating communication by the Amazon Seller Payment team that apparently I “failed my verification process” (after 9 years as a seller complying to every regulation) because I told them the truth, that is that I had ceased trading yet they decided that I didn’t qualify as an “Individual” seller, without ever telling me why, which is probably the most irritating thing for me.
So in the end my account will be permanently deactivated, including my ability to even log on to my account on Seller Central, as if I were some fraudster or criminal. “This decision is final and not subject to appeal.” Apparently I cannot even open a new account under new name - why would I want to do that? - as if I had been marked as some kind of public enemy: the whole thing is atrociously absurd, wrong and unbelievable.
The arrogance, ignorance and complacency of this department should be worth a class-action suit by all sellers who have been wrongly abused by the nazi-like attitude of these office thugs.
I would also like to add to the genius who was accusing me of technically “flogging” new items as an individual, that clearly that was not the matter of contention, since completely clearing my inventory did not change an iota to the whole issue and its final outcome. The issue about new items, sourcing, invoices etc. did not matter one bit, since they always and only insisted I would tell them the details of a new business I had started, despite I kept telling them there was no longer such thing.
What is most appaling in this whole story, as it has often been with this obnoxious Seller Payment Verification team, are their terrible pre-written communications, often quite aggressive, and always elusive and lacking comprehensive information as to what exactly was the source of the problem and how to resolve it, even when directly pressed by my questions. Additionally, the lack of a direct contact with a person or a phone number in order to properly and quickly address the issue one way or another, as well as the lack of intervention by some Amazon staff in this forum to provide some guidance, contrarily to what I have seen on other threads.
So, until I start trading again, and decide to do it also via this double-faced company, this is the end of the road for me as an Amazon seller, and thank God I never needed it for my livelihood.
I pity those sellers who have to make a living out of these gestapo clones, always in fear of being wrongly picked up and kicked out because some algorithm has decided so…Worth the plot of some sci-fi movie.
I suggest you find alternatives to selling on Amazon, for your own peace of mind.
