So I thought I would keep a running commentary here so you can all see the nightmare that I have been going through. (Names etc edited to "protect the innocent".)

4/12 ME: ASIN: X and ASIN: X have been stranded as of 3AM this morning to my surprise - the reason being that the products require approval to sell. When requesting approval I am told you are not accepting approval for the restricted category rp_3p_offer

As a result my FBA inventory is stranded and I am missing sales in the highest selling period of the year.

This issue has happened to me before a month ago with ASIN: X (all 3 ASINS are variations of the same family of kitchen knifes) and it was resolved after interventions from the leadership team and forum moderators.

The result of suspending these ASINS arbitrarily without prior contact or conversation or the opportunity to provide any documentation is catastrophic for my business. Thousands of pounds in advertising, air freighting product to have it in stock before the holiday sales period, and the loss of sales rank (BSR) whilst my competitors continue to sell their products, are all tantamount to a grossly unfair treatment. I have done nothing wrong, I have complied with every request and I am now left with significant damages to my business. I will be escalating this to the board of Amazon, UK and US, because I see no reason why this has happened to me.

This is a series of products that customers love, top 1% sellers, with a solid 5 star customer review rating since launch. Why is Amazon doing this to me?

4/12 AZ: We understand that you have query about Listing with ASIN X is stranded . In this regard, please be informed that you need to follow the guidelines to activate the listing. Click Request approval to apply to sell this ASIN.

4/12 ME: It is not possible to request approval to sell because when requesting approval I am told you are not accepting approval for the restricted category rp_3p_offer. Why is Amazon introducing retrospective approvals once sales are already in ongoing and stock is in FBA? Do you realize the cost of PPC I have sunk into these products? I have already had approval in case nr. 10468296052 - why is this issue being revisited?

4/12 AZ: In this regard, please be informed that you need to follow the guidelines to activate the listing. Click Request approval to apply to sell this ASIN. Additional documentation may be required in form of invoices or letter of authorisation.

4/12 ME: Dear seller support,

Please read the notes on this case carefully:

1. THERE IS NO WAY TO REQUEST APPROVAL (so stop telling me to follow the guidelines as they do not work). The answer I get is Amazon is "NOT ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS TO THIS CATEGORY"

2. It is unfair and illogical that you are susspending my listings, without prior compliance issues or communication, without a viable route to resolve the issues AFTER it has been selling for 6 weeks successfully.

3. This issue has been dealt with previously under case Nr. 10468296052, why are we doing this again during the highest sales season of the year? I have now written a letter to the Amazon executive team so they can see the lack of support provided by seller support and the damage being caused by these arbitraty suspensions. I attach the letter here so you can review it as well. Please escalate this to the leadership team and request that I receive a callback as soon as possible.

4/12 AZ: To maintain a safe and trustworthy shopping experience, certain products cannot be listed or sold on Amazon or may be subject to additional requirements because of supply chain authenticity risks. Your account does not currently meet the criteria required to list these products due to account metrics, distribution pathways of the brand, or other factors. If your account becomes eligible to sell this product, you will see "Apply to sell" next to the product in the "Add products" feature in Seller Central.

4/12 ME: This is completely preposterous I am sorry to say.

ASIN: X and ASIN: X are part of a 3 kitchen knife set together with ASIN X . I have had the same issue a month ago with ASIN X and it was resolved in case nr. 10468296052 Now the two above asins are the issue.

I have developed this brand X for sale exclusively on Amazon and it has been very successful thus far. What is Amazon proposing I do now? I have paid for stock, for airfreight, for development, for advertising on Amazon thousands of pounds, and now you are telling me I can sell ONE of my knifes (X ) but not the other 2 (X and X) because my "account does not currently meet the criteria" to sell my own branded products? These products have been 1% BSR and a solid 5star products since launch. Can you see how crazy this sounds?

Please escalate this issue to your leadership team and get one of them to call me back with a prompt resolution plan as soon as possible or I will continue to write to the executive team every day as long as it takes.

4/12 ME: (long discussion with sales support = convince them to escalate to leadership team)

4/12 AZ: We understand that you would like to speak to our manager regarding the ASINs: X and X. We have alerted our manager to your issue and have forwarded your case to their attention. Please expect a response within 4 hours.

5/12 ME: Hello Amazon Team, Is there any update on this? If it is being worked on in the background that's fine I just wanted to check in. Thank you.

6/12 ME: hello Amazon team. We are now 48 hrs without a reply. Is anyone able to help please?

7/12 AZ: To maintain a safe and trustworthy shopping experience, certain products cannot be listed or sold on Amazon or may be subject to additional requirements because of supply chain authenticity risks. Your account does not currently meet the criteria required to list these products due to account metrics, distribution pathways of the brand, or other factors. If your account becomes eligible to sell this product, you will see "Apply to sell" next to the product in the "Add products" feature in Seller Central.

7/12 ME: 1. I have requested that a member of the leadership team contact me to discuss this issue directly as this issue is costing a lot of money - that was promised to be within 4 hours 48 hrs ago, and still I have received no contact. (see below)

2. Please stop telling me that my account is not eligible to sell my own brand's products as that sounds ridiculous, and . These 2 ASINS are part of a variation listing of kitchen knifes, all my own products as the OEM, all my own registerred brand. How can it be possible for me to be allowed to sell 1 variation of a kitchen knife, but not the other 2? What kind of account parameters can there be to determine that 1 kitchen knife is OK and the other 2 are not? Is this some kind of ploy to boost amazon sales at my own sales expense? Do you realise I have stock in FBA, I have spent thousands on advertising for the holiday sales period? Who is going to cover these costs?

3. If you want to introduce an approval process to sell kitchen knifes - that needs to take place before a listing is created and stock is deployed in FBA not 8 weeks after during the highest sales period of the year.

Please can someone from the leadership team contact me as per the promise below.

7/12 AZ: This is X from leadership team.

We understand your concern regarding ASIN: X, X. With regards to your concern, we would like to inform you that In response to your question about approval to sell these listings, we are currently not accepting applications to sell these items. We will not be able to provide any further information at this time. Please note that we have thoroughly investigated the issue before providing the final outcome.

7/12 ME: So what you are telling me is that after I developed a series of products, created the listings, brought the product into FBA. and 2 months into the selling season, you as a member of the leadership team concur with the process where without any prior warning, 2/3 of my items are removed from sale without explanation, or cause. And if I want to continue selling the items I need to wait until such time (at present undetermined) when I can re-apply to sell my own items. Is that a correct summary of Amazon's position, and are you happy to accept the financial consequences that stem out of this outcome, which you are forcing upon me? I just want to ensure I understand the position clearly.

7/12 AZ: We understand your concern but we are currently not accepting applications to sell these items. Please note that we have thoroughly investigated the issue before providing the final outcome and while we understand the financial impact this has on your business, we are unable to alter the outcome since we cannot deviate from the current policy and guidelines.

7/12 ME: Thank you for coming back to me. For clarity I am not asking for you to circumvent any policy or guidelines, I am pointing out that the correct process could not have applied to my circumstances, because the sales approval process as documented and published is not intended to be used after a listing has been created, stock received in FBA and sales are in progress. The listing approval process is there to gate the listing from going active at the start. Once the listing is active and product is shipping you cannot - should not - stop a seller from selling by disabling the asin, then ask the seller to seek approval, only to then tell the seller that you are not accepting applications to sell. This is equivalent to denying the application to sell after the fact. This would be breach of contract and misrepresentation. I relied in good faith on Amazon's processes as published only for Amazon to apply a process incorrectly which is causing my business damage.

What level of reliance can I place on Amazon's processes when they are deployed in this eratic - uncontrollable manner?

7/12 AZ: We understand your concern but we are currently not accepting applications to sell these items. Please note that we have thoroughly investigated the issue before providing the final outcome and while we understand the financial impact this has on your business, we are unable to alter the outcome since we cannot deviate from the current policy and guidelines.

The fight continues...

@Roberto_Amazon @Spencer_Amazon @Simon_Amazon