Authorisation to sell alcohol
good morning all.
I have a wine shop. I was hoping to open a store on Amazon for bulk orders and they, rightly asked for a personal and premises licence. No problem, I’ve uploaded them. The first was declined and no reason stated. The second was declined and stated that I needed to upload a valid personal and premises licence… which I thought I already had. The third was declined for the same reason… and now my applications are being automatically declined by AI. 3 times I have asked what I am doing wrong or what I need to do, but have never had a clear response (and the responses I HAVE had, I could not reply to. One of them told me to reapply in a couple of days and change the name of the uploaded files… which was wild).
Seller support told me that the team that looks at applications are uncontactable and I must wait for them to look at my appeal… but I should have had a reply 3 days ago and I’m still waiting. Support told me that there’s nothing they can do… so to me, it looks like I’m just in limbo, with no route in or out… this can’t be right, can it?! I’ve been trying for almost 4 weeks!
I wouldn’t mind so much but I’m literally paying for a store that, if I can’t sell wine through, is completely pointless… coz I’m, ya know, a wine shop. What should I be looking for? What’s the obvious thing that I’m missing here?
26 replies
Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh
Do the personal and premises licence addresses match the address you have on amazon?
Seller_k2X0L9mVRT0pW
is the alcohol license in exactly the same name and address you have registered on Amazon ?
Seller_mS10UjVYuuGor
Not sure what you mean by bulk orders, most Amazon customers buy by the bottle or two. Big names such as Virgin and Naked wines sell cases on here but most independent sellers have to take single bottle orders.
As for getting verified does the address of your premises licence, VAT certificate and companies house registration all match exactly with each other and with your seller central details? Note it does need to be your own premises licence if you dispatch from LCB/EHD/Coterie Vaults or any other storage facility Amazon will not accept the licence. If your just uploading the licence summary page try uploading the whole licence instead or vice verca.
Is the personal licence holder (presumeabley also DPS) named on your seller central account? i.e. had their home address verified by Amazon to match that of their personal licence. Are you uploading the certificate as well as scanned images of both sides of the card?
Seller_mS10UjVYuuGor
It does for Amazon.
The good news is we now know the problem, the bad news it will take a few actions to fix.
To sell wine (or any alcohol) on Amazon your companies house registration, VAT registration and seller central business address all need to tally with your premises licence address. Amazon rules exceed what is legal to trade.
The personal licence should be at your home address so that is fine.
Before you reapply you'll need to move the addresses to your premises licence address and get new documents, there are no guarantees after that but at least all documents will meet Amazon rules.
Good luck getting it sorted.
Seller_SlzTh3rIBjgi9
I’ve solved this issue now. For anyone that was interested: I changed my address to my shop address, which is on the premises licence, as opposed to my personal licence and business registration address. I then sent a message to seller support, attaching my documentation again. It took about 13 days to get a response, 7 days longer than they suggested it would. But we got there.
Thanks for all your help.
