I just give up | No withdrawals to the account | Account status vaild | the reason is completely unknown!
I regret to inform you that my experience as a seller on Amazon over the past several years has led me to conclude that Amazon is a highly toxic company for sellers. I have encountered numerous situations that are difficult to comprehend, with issues being addressed by either bots or customer service representatives who seem to lack an understanding or feign ignorance of even the most basic problems. Despite enduring such circumstances for years I accepted these things and somehow managed in this business, until today….
A problem arose ten weeks ago where I suddenly stopped receiving withdrawals to any of my Amazon accounts (UK, FR, NL, SE, etc.). Despite no messages indicating any issues with my accounts, the entire value of sales from the last few months has been reserved as “Account Level Reserve,” and the net proceeds remain at “ZERO” after ten weeks. In the “Account Health” and “Account Info” sections, everything appears to be in order except for the payout section, which shows a message with only the dates changing every two weeks:
" Your next scheduled transfer initiation date is 23/05/2023*. However, if your available balance remains £0.00, no transfer will be initiated on that date. "
I have attempted to resolve this issue through Amazon cases, email, chat, and phone calls. However, the responses have been absurd and unhelpful, with representatives either providing copy and paste replies that do not address the issue or admitting that they do not know what is happening and transferring the problem to another department or leaving the “case” open. Currently, I have numerous “cases,” which have been open for many days without a response.
The lack of communication from Amazon is frustrating, and I feel like I am talking to an algorithm or someone who has a limited understanding of Amazon’s selling policies. As a result, I have stopped selling on Amazon because everything I sold ended up in the “Account Level Reserve” category. I am feeling defeated and would like to recover my money, which is a significant amount for me, before seeking out an alternative job.
It is disheartening that such incidents can occur in a Western country, where an individual can be degraded and mistreated like garbage. Several years ago, due to unfortunate circumstances, I experienced depression and insomnia, and unfortunately, this matter has caused my old health issues to resurface. I am in need of guidance on how to resolve this matter and recover my funds. Thank you.
Maja_Amazon
Hello!
@KarmaT - I can confirm that the email you received from compliance-verification@amazon.com on 27th of February was a genuine one.
I would suggest you to reach out to the team directly by contacting: compliance-verification@amazon.com.
Please keep us updated!
Best,
Maja
62 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
is your bank account still verified on those sites ?
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Yeah I think it defaults to @gmail.com, so if you registered on Amazon with googlemail.com it won’t recognise your account.
Do you login with gmail or googlemail?
Seller_uxPpjEfW12AkZ
@Maja_Amazon @The_Little_Shop
The email response I got from compliance-verification@amazon.com below:
Hello Karma Trade,
Thank you for contacting Amazon Compliance. This request is from Amazon’s Compliance team, and we require your assistance to comply with U.S. regulatory requirements.
Please reply to this email if you have any questions related to this specific request.
Thank you,
Amazon Compliance
Reference Number: 059e69e3-4cec-4585-b227-35363b314724
I didn’t get any link or request for documents, I asked again via email for verification and details.
By the way, I anticipate the question, yes, I have an account on Amazon.com (US), the account is fully active, no problems are visible.
Interestingly, payouts works there! Maybe because they are small amounts and there were not too many funds to hold…
For this reason, I am afraid to believe that this is not the reason for my problems on the European Amazon
Just to be sure, I also closed the sale on Amazon US,
Seller_BY6am3f4UqvVy
Sounds like you are one of many. There is another thread where similar has happened - has over 400 entries on it now. Same happened to me on the 28th March. Disbursements witheld. No proper or clear communication from Amazon. Asking for proof of business location and other absurd things. All provided by me and in order. Account deactivated yesterday. Same email then asking me for the same things I provided over a month ago. Like you, I have built up a large sum of money (and they have all my FBA stock) so I need it back. It appears they may be doing this to thousands of businesses. I suggest you write to the UK business and trade secretary like I have. Explaining that I and potentially 24000 other sellers are in the same boat. That’s a lot of UK business lost and a lot of money in taxes lost for the UK. Amazon have provided no clear explanation of what the issue is. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I might even think they were trying to push me out of the market so they can have my business…
Seller_aOWOKiIbTyeDT
I am having a similar experience with them. I feel your pain.
Seller_00MQH8pupd5I8
Same here. No reimbursements for 24 days now. Cashflow problems is now a big risk for our company. We had a case redirected to credit department, hopefully this will resolve the issue.
Seller_s3YzLfkQHSyU2
HI, It may not be anything, but I remember we had anissue a whiole back, with the charge method, for some reason, it just wouldnt accpet the charge method from the company, as it was under the company name rather than my name, which is the primary contact on the account, so I had to use my personal card which is under my personal name, as the charge methid for all marketplaces other rhan the .pl one, and that fixed the issue. Like i said may help may not.
Thanks
Seller_bXhqMVxi8Z422
Using our money to earn interest for longer that’s one of reasons to withhold our money
Seller_uxPpjEfW12AkZ
It seems my documents have passed the verification process. Thank you, @Maja_Amazon for your help, and also @The_Little_Shop and everyone else involved.
Digital cert of Government Certificate Registration Of Business Name
latest settlement from the Irish tax office
Recent bank statement (Matching my account connected to Amazon)
As a sole trader based in Ireland, I submitted the following documents. Of course, sellers from other countries and types of businesses, such as LTD companies, will have to provide different documents.
Overall, I’m a happier person now, and I hope to stay that way for longer. However, I have a lot of resentment towards Amazon for treating sellers disrespectfully, looking for problems where there are none. By the way, this was my third verification within six months!
The problem was multi-faceted.
Firstly, since selling on Amazon (about five years), I have never received a verification request via email that directed me to an external suspicious domain like “Amazon.co.jp.”
Previously, verification could always be done directly on the Amazon platform, not via an external link
Secondly, everything looked correct on my platform - “Account health perfect,” “account status valid,” and nothing was yellow or red.
Interestingly, my sale was active, I could continue to sell, but all funds landed on Amazon’s side without the possibility of withdrawal … In the end, I turned off the sale myself when I realized that I could lose all these funds.
Thirdly, when I contacted Amazon seller support numerous times to ask about the lack of withdrawals from my account, I received a reply each time that the link I received looked fake, and I should ignore it.
They also assured me that everything was OK with my account and that there were no problems. As a result, I was bouncing off the walls for days.
Fourthly, the verification was apparently due to my Amazon US account, and it was the US team that gave me this unnecessary stress. The best thing is that the account on the US account had no problems. Withdrawals to the US worked, but withdrawals to European Amazons were blocked, wherever there were larger funds. It was all very strange.
Finally, the fifth problem was that a few days ago, I found out that the suspicious verification request I received on February 27th was genuine. It turned out that the link they sent me was faulty due to Amazon. Then there was a game of ping-pong, as I kept receiving faulty links even after requesting a new one. Probably after Maja’s intervention, they finally sent a link that worked and matched my email!
Lastly, I wanted to add that as sellers, we have to deal with a lot of problems. We give 15% to Amazon and even more in taxes. Despite the fact that most customers are normal and great people, we all know that there are “difficult” customers, and there are also specialized thieves who literally steal our goods using the “A to Z” system etc .
we have to deal with them somehow. Sometimes we deliberately give our money, knowing that we shouldn’t, just so we don’t lose our Amazon account!
I understand that there are also dishonest sellers, and they need to be isolated from the rest. But I completely do not understand this sheer zeal and continuous and frequent verification of sellers. In my case, as I mentioned, it happened three times within six months. It seems as if too many people work in the verification department. I also have the impression that a person who can destroy many businesses by blocking the account due to some typo in the address, etc., will never suffer any consequences. But if they let one dishonest seller through, they will suffer significant consequences. As a result, no one wants to “risk” it, and they reject many sellers for any reason. Likely It’s not the fault of these people; it’s the whole system.
What I have learned is that you cannot run your business 100% on Amazon because it can end badly.
