Account suspended for inauthentic items. No authorisation letter. Help with POA please!
Hi,
Please click here for full backstory.
In short:
I’m a new seller, I recently started selling some branded products that were purchased directly from the manufacturer. A few days later I received an email saying my account has been deactivated/suspended on suspicion of selling inauthentic products and asking for copies of my invoices etc.
I sent the full invoice showing that I had legitimately purchased all products including the 3 ASINs they asked me to verify. I then got a response saying that I also need to send an authorisation letter to show that I am authorised to sell these products.
Unfortunately, my supplier is refusing to give me an authorisation letter and is now saying I am not allowed to sell their products on Amazon.
So I have now removed all of these products from my inventory and I need to write a Plan Of Action to get my account reinstated. I’ve never written a POA before but I’ve looked through the forums to get an idea of what’s needed, and here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
Dear Amazon,
Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to appeal the suspension of my selling privileges. I present my Plan Of Action to resolve this issue and regain my selling privileges.
The root cause of the issue:
- I listed products for sale that I was not authorised to sell on Amazon.
- My account was suspended on suspicion of selling products that were inauthentic and I was asked to verify the authenticity of my products.
- Although my products are authentic and were legitimately purchased from the manufacturer, I was not authorised to sell them on Amazon.
- I was therefore unable to provide a valid authorisation letter from my supplier.
- As the seller I take full responsibility for not taking the time to fully learn Amazon’s policies regarding branded goods, and for not obtaining the required permissions.
Actions I have taken to resolve the issue:
- I have closed and deleted all my listings for products which I am not authorised to sell. I have submitted removal orders to remove my inventory of these products from Amazon’s FBA fulfilment centres.
- I have reviewed Amazon’s policies regarding brand ownership and branded goods, and recognise the importance of having full authorisation to sell my products.
- I have contacted my suppliers to clarify where I am permitted to sell their products.
Steps I have taken to prevent the issue in the future:
- Before listing any new products, I am now extremely careful to ensure they are authentic and that I have the necessary authorisation to sell the products on Amazon.
- I will ensure that I have full invoices, authorisation letters, and supply chain documentation for any products I offer for sale on Amazon, and will submit them to Amazon when required.
- When purchasing new products and listing them for sale on Amazon, I will refer back to Amazon’s guidelines regarding branded goods to ensure that I do not violate any of Amazon’s policies.
I believe that my plan of action effectively and sufficiently addresses the issues that led to my account being suspended, and will prevent any reoccurrence of these issues. I look forward to my selling privileges being restored.
Thank you for your time,
Kiwi_Tools_Direct
Can someone with more experience please advise if this is any good? Is there anything I should add/change?
How likely is it that my account will be reinstated, and how long can this take?
Any help at all is very much appreciated!
Thank in advance!
1 reply
Seller_jmI4qW7rhQlsT
Here some recommendations to rewrite the plan. In general its good but I would offer you some help so that it will be excepted without any problem.
The plan of action should be very detailed and should provide the following information. I would recommend you to divide the plan of action into the 3 parts/titles and write in a fluent text, not in bullet points:
1. Root Cause of the issue (WHY, WHAT, WHEN)
2. Immediate steps you took to stop the issue (what have you done, and what did you change within your business model or processes to eliminate those root causes?)
3. future remedies to assure, that this will not happen again (Provide a timeline. Think long-term)
Here some general tips for all while creating the plan of action;
- First, you must acknowledge that you have identified the problem and that you now know the cause.
You must confirm that you have deleted the problematic offers and then please explain the root cause of why this happened at all. Please refer to the relevant directive for that root cause. (Please avoid ambiguous expressions once you have identified the root cause.)
Even if you think that the buyer/complaint is not fair, please try to understand what causes customers to doubt the authenticity of the products. (e.g. packaging, chemical composition, etc.)
2.Please describe all the steps you have taken so far to solve the problem as concretely as possible. Overall, how do you ensure that your inventory complies with our policies and that no policy is violated?
-
Please explain any preventive and proactive measures you can take to ensure that similar complaints are not repeated in the future. I suggest that you read our Amazon guidelines in detail. (Please review your account as a whole to determine if there is another offer with similar issues, and remove it as well).
Please explain in more detail how you will always ensure in the future that your suppliers are always reliable, how you carry out spot checks/quality checks, how you check and control the product detail pages/packaging/products. -
Please submit invoices. If it is not possible, please explain why you cannot submit an invoice and ensure that the action plan is strong and effective enough.
Please note the invoice requirements (they should be issued in the last 365 days before the relevant warning):
