Dear Amazon

First, I must ask: Where is the security and fairness that Amazon vows to uphold for sellers who have dedicated over a decade to abiding by your platform’s rules? I am a Chinese seller who has operated on Amazon’s U.S. marketplace for nearly 10 years—since 2016—building a reputable store with a focus on quality products and exceptional customer service. Today, with profound despair, I write to you not just as a seller, but as a small business owner whose livelihood, team, and future have been decimated by an unconscionable, unexplained $215,000 deduction. This is not merely a financial loss; it is a betrayal of the trust we’ve placed in Amazon as a partner. Below, I detail our ordeal, the systemic failures we’ve endured, and the urgent need for accountability.

Current Status: Our store remains technically “active,” but our business is in ruins. Prior to this deduction, we had zero policy violations, a 4.8-star seller rating, and a loyal customer base. Today, we cannot pay suppliers, settle logistics fees, or compensate our 15-member team (many of whom have worked with us since 2016). Last week, we were forced to disband our team—employees who had dedicated years to building our brand now face unemployment, all because of an unexplained charge we did not authorize, justify, or even know existed until it was too late.

The Unjust Deduction: A Timeline of Confusion and Abandonment

On May 8, 2025, our store was hit with a $215,000 deduction categorized as “Other.” The notification was brief, cryptic, and devoid of context—no explanation, no evidence, no opportunity to respond. Panicked, we contacted Seller Central Support within hours, only to be told the deduction stemmed from an “offline federal court claim” linked to an order (ID: 113-5136421-0361026,) placed on March 22, 2020.

To investigate, we scoured every possible channel:

Seller Central: No records of the claim, no transaction disputes, no performance alerts, and no case files. Amazon’s own platform showed nothing.

Registered Email: Only one blocked message from “a-to-z-claims@amazon.com” (dated December 12, 2024), which we missed due to email filters. This message referenced a claims adjuster named “Sedgwick” and a claim number (4A2310J8VV6-0001), but there was no attachment, no context, and no way to verify its legitimacy.

Third-Party Records: No court filings, no legal notices, and no communication from the buyer or any court. For five years, we operated in good faith, unaware of any dispute—until Amazon silently deducted $215,000 from our account.

To this day, we have no answers. No case number, no court documents, no explanation of how a 5-year-old order suddenly became our financial responsibility. We are not just financial victims—we are left in the dark, treated as an afterthought.

40 Days of Desperation: Attempts to Seek Justice, Met with Silence

For 40 days, we exhausted every avenue to resolve this:

Seller Central Support: We opened 4 cases (IDs: 17725705331, 17719482161, 17711485831, 17709975041 17719482161 ). Each was marked “Forwarded to Internal Teams” and then closed with no follow-up. When we asked, “Who are these internal teams?” we received no response.

Account Health Team: Case ID 17741595161. They expressed “sympathy” but offered no solutions—only a generic script about “policy compliance.”

Seller Growth Program Manager: Asked to escalate our case, they replied, “No records found,” despite our store’s clean history.

Operational Collapse: The deduction froze our payment processing. We missed 3 credit card payments, lost access to critical tools (inventory management, advertising dashboards), and could not fulfill urgent customer returns. To stay operational, we replaced 5 credit cards—each time, only to face new blocks. Meanwhile, our suppliers threatened to cut off inventory, and our former team members, once loyal, now question if we’ll ever recover.

Our Demands: Accountability, Transparency, and Justice

We are not asking for charity. We are demanding the respect and fairness Amazon claims to guarantee its sellers:

a. Transparency: As the party bearing this financial burden, we deserve to know why. What is the case number? What “harm” are we allegedly responsible for? Why were we never notified, even after 5 years? Amazon owes us the basic decency of an explanation—before we lose everything.

b. Fairness: Amazon mandates commercial insurance for sellers starting September 2022. Our order dates to 2020, before this requirement. If the claim is valid, why should we bear 100% liability? Where was Amazon’s protection then?

c. Accountability: For 5 years, this “claim” went unreported—no court notices, no emails, no warnings. How was this case “adjudicated”? Who was the defendant? Why did Amazon ignore the possibility of buyer fraud? This isn’t just about our store; it’s about the erosion of trust in your platform. Sellers like us drive Amazon’s success—we deserve better than to be sacrificed to unclear, unproven claims.

d. Restoration: Reverse the $215,000 deduction immediately. Reimburse us for losses incurred while fighting this (legal fees, credit card replacement costs, operational downtime). Compensate our former team for the income they lost due to Amazon’s silence.

The Bigger Picture: A Threat to Amazon’s Reputation

This is not just about one seller. It is about the reputation Amazon has built as a trusted marketplace. When sellers like us—small businesses who play by the rules—face arbitrary deductions, silent treatment, and no recourse, it sends a dangerous message to the global seller community: Amazon does not protect its partners.

Our collapse will not go unnoticed. Suppliers, logistics partners, and customers will ask: “If Amazon can abandon a 10-year seller over a mystery charge, what happens to us?” This incident risks undermining the very ecosystem that makes Amazon successful.

We urge you, Amazon Leadership Team, to:

Immediately investigate this deduction and provide a full, written explanation.

Reverse the $215,000 charge and compensate us for damages.

Implement safeguards to prevent similar injustices—ensuring sellers are notified, evidence is shared, and appeals are heard before funds are deducted.

We have spent a decade building a business we loved. Today, we beg for the chance to rebuild—and for Amazon to uphold the values it preaches.

Sincerely,