Reasons Amazon Can Suspend Your Seller Account And How To Fix It
Using Amazon is a hassle-free way to sell products online, but there is an elephant in the room that a lot of people are ignoring.
As a seller, and especially if you are an FBA merchant, your business either lives or dies at the whim of Amazon.
Amazon can, at their discretion, temporarily suspend or just outright ban any seller account.
It doesnt take a genius to know that an over-reliance on a platform like this isnt ideal, but the benefits of having your products fulfilled by Amazon are hard to pass up.
To be honest, the trade-off is fair. You get access to millions of customers and all you have to do is stick to the rules.
Sounds simple right?
It is, as long as you understand those rules!
Luckily Amazon is pretty open about the dos and donts for sellers on their platform.
Even though they can ban or suspend you for no reason at all, most of the time they have identified a clear breach of their TOS when taking action.
Lets go ahead and take a look at how to avoid getting your Amazon seller account banned.
Clear Cookies Flash Objects And Browser Fingerprints
From the browser environment, Amazon tracks you using cookies, Flash objects, and via browser fingerprint. Cookies are tiny bits of text stored on your browser by browsers, which can be used for persistent login and other applications out of which is tracking. Flash Objects are just like cookies, but they store more data and not easy to delete. Browser fingerprinting is a new way of tracking users by exploiting the uniqueness of their browsers by collecting tiny bits of information such as plugins installed, HTTP headers, system fonts, etc.
There are many ways of taking care of these 3. However, it can be stressful, and mistakes can be made. This is because the steps required to take care of these 3 are different you need to clear cookies using CCleaner software, delete Flash objects from the Adobe Flash Player Settings Manager, and make use of techniques to make browser fingerprinting difficult. The best option to escape the tedious task of taking care of these 3 is to make use of a Virtual Machine. The VMware Workstation Player is a free Virtual Machine you can use for working on a new slate. You will be accessing Amazon from the VMware Workstation. .
Logging In From Different Locations
It is not that hard to detect account activity from different locations using a different IP address. If so, Amazon triggers its security system. When there are orders being placed in your account from different IP addresses, Amazon thinks that your account might be stolen or hacked, so there is a big chance for your account to be locked in order to verify that is you.
So be aware of sharing your amazon account with people, working from somewhere around the globe.
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Product Not As Described And Negative Feedback
Are you tempted to let your imagination run wild in the listing, to describe even non-existent product benefits and to hide certain information to make the listing even more attractive? Be very careful, this way you can damage your business and get your account blocked!
The order defect rate is very important to Amazon and if it is above 1%, a block on the account occurs. ORD increases when:
- the product receives negative feedback
- there are claims under the A to Z Guarantee which could not be resolved at the customer service stage
- the credit card is charged back
Under Amazons rules, sellers must keep their ODR rate below 1% to drive sales. If violations occur, the platform usually sends a Performance Notification first, giving the seller 72 hours to submit an action plan explaining why the statistics were exceeded. If the plan is accepted, Amazon will remove the account blockage, but will monitor it more closely thereafter.
Draft New Profile Information
From the steps above, all the information related to your computer and browser being tracked by Amazon has been wiped and changed. The next step now is to draft new personal information. You arent going to be using your personal detail or details anyone else have used on Amazon before. If you do, Amazon will consider it a duplicate account and block it. You are going to come up with a new name, address, phone number, and email address.
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Full Name
I know you will be thinking can Amazon link accounts based on account name? the answer to this question is no. Name alone cant be used as a good number of people share the same name. However, you will want to make use of a name that is different from yours, the one you can have documents to verify.
Verification is rare on Amazon, but you wouldnt want to hit the end of the road when you run into an unfortunate situation that warrants that. If you want to create an Amazon stealth account that can scale through any form of verification, then you have two options either using a friend or a family members name or register a DBA/LLC name.
The reason I recommend using the name of a friend or family member is that you can have access to documents and IDs, such as the Social Security Number,when they are required however, make sure you seek their consent first. It is also important that such a person does not have an Amazon seller account. The other option is using a DBA/LLC name.
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Billing Address
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Email Address
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Phone Number
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This Amazon Site Handles Your Biggest Bulkiest Purchases
Instead of trying to continue fighting them head-on, he started devising ways around the ban.
He opened new accounts using different email addresses or credit cards. Amazon eventually figured out those accounts were Mark’s, too and shut them down, likely by keeping tabs on his shipping address and computer’s IP address, he said. He eventually switched to eBay and other sites.
One of the emails ‘Mark’ got from Amazon about his account closure.
Then came his ah-hah inspiration. After moving to a new apartment, Mark tried many of those earlier tactics all at once.
He set up an account with a different name, email and shipping address, and added a VPN to his computer to hide his IP address. He was back up and running on the site.
About a year later, he created another account using his real name but without the VPN. That worked, too. He’s now a regular Amazon customer, without any cloak-and-dagger tricks.
“I don’t know what the length of time is, but when they ban you, it’s not forever,” he said.
You may not want to jump through this many hoops if it happens to you. Besides, Amazon would probably prefer that you petition the company to get reinstated. In one case, the Journal said a customer repeatedly contacted customer service and emailed CEO Jeff Bezos to successfully reopen his account.
Asked what his advice is for other Amazon customers, Mark suggested not returning multiple items at the same time. He thinks that practice flagged Amazon’s systems.
How To Avoid Being Suspended
When you receive the warning email, you should immediately check your Amazon account to find out unusual account activities. If you return too many items lately, you should have good reasons and dont forget to take some pictures if the products are defective or different from what you ordered. Then you should reply to and explain what went wrong with your orders.
In case you are abusing the system and returning items without legit reasons, you should stop immediately and also send them an email saying you will be more careful buying products in the future. Try to keep the return rate lower than 10%. Some banned users reported that Amazon also terminated their accounts after the return rate overcame 10%, so it is best to keep the rate as low as possible.
After sending them an email, I received a polite response from Amazon and seemingly my account will be alright.
Many people assumed that online shopping is similar to in-store shopping, which means you could try on items and return in case you are not satisfied. Amazon makes it easy and free to make the returns You can either mail them back or drop off at Whole Foods, Kohls or a UPS Store. However, their system analyzes your purchase history and will mark your account as Concession Abuse. They will stop accepting returns for all of your future orders and if you somehow keep abusing the policy, your account will be permanently suspended.
Have you got any issue with your Amazon account? Share with us in a comment below.
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How To Avoid Amazon Account Suspension/closure
First off, No matter how hard you try, amazon can still close your account arbitrarily. The policy is even harsher on certain countries such as Nigeria due to the high rate of scam and fraud.
Notwithstanding, these tips apply only to Amazons personal accounts for sellers. You can actually reduce the chances of Amazon closing your account if you do the followings:
What Can You Do To Speed Things Up
Professional sellers can shorten this time frame. They can offer tracked delivery and then upload the tracking numbers on Amazon asap. For US sellers, its mandatory, in fact. But bear in mind that it can take Amazon some time to update delivery records.
They can also set their accounts for daily disbursements, if theyre eligible. As long as they ship quickly and time their disbursements for faster payment, it shouldnt take more than 2 weeks to get paid. But for most sellers, the only real option is to switch to FBA.
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Has Amazon Blocked Your Account
There could be a number of reasons that can lead any seller account to a loss-promising suspension. Any mishandling, whether intentional or unintentional can invoke Amazon to block your account. Before discussing how to overcome the problem, lets discuss some of the common reasons that can lead any account to the state of suspension.
Blocking Vpns Is Easy
Its common for websites to locate and track users based on their IP addresses. IP tracking is an easy way to increase account security, build targeted advertisements, and show users different content depending on the country in which they live. This practice of IP tracking is one of the main reasons why people use VPN services, but its also the reason why blocking VPN access to a website is so easy.
A VPN service owns a limited number of IP addresses. And since most VPN servers use IPv4 , its difficult to generate unique IP addresses, and a pool of subscribers are often sharing the same IP addresses for months or years at a time. Websites that want to blacklist VPNs simply need to use services like ipinfo to block IP addresses that have been used by multiple different users.
There are two other ways that websites can blacklist VPNs, but these methods arent as common as IP blocking. One method, called port blocking, requires websites to figure out the exit ports that VPNs are using for all of their IP addresses. Port blocking is easy and effective because most VPNs use the 1194 OpenVPN port. Another method, called deep-packet inspection, checks users metadata for cryptography signatures. These signatures are like the fingerprints of VPN services, and hiding them is difficult.
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Submitting Documents Online To Your Account
This is a relatively straightforward yet genius trick without actually having a conversation with the management.
Unfortunately, this method is not for Amazon Seller accounts.
Nevertheless, here are a few steps that you can follow to submit your documents online to your Amazon account.
Solution : Log In To Your Account And Upload Documents Directly
The first method you should try to fix the Amazon account locked issue is to upload the documents directly. Here is how to do that:
Step 1: Find your last order shipping confirmation email and click the link to access your account.
Step 2: Open the product page and try to purchase. The page should display an error message – Your Amazon account has been locked and orders are on hold.
Step 3: Click the Add Document button and upload all required documents.
Tip: Please make sure to log in with your dispatch email account. Otherwise, you will not be able to upload any documents.
Then, you can check if the Amazon account locked issue has been fixed. If not, try the next solution.
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Tips To Avoid Blockage From Amazon
Instead of wondering how to unblock your account on Amazon, try to avoid it from happening. Weve prepared some useful tips for you.
Having an account blocked on Amazon is quite a problem for a seller. Knowing the current selling rules and following them greatly reduces the risk of this happening. Although a blockage doesnt always mean that your selling experience on Amazon is over, its definitely worth saving yourself the nerves and not wasting your time!
Use Your Credit/debit Card To Buy Costly Electronic Devices While You Use Gift Cards For Cheap Non
As a rule of thumb, if you want to avoid amazon account suspension while using gift cards to shop, then you must not be fond of buying phones or high-end devices with your gift cards. Alternatively, when you want to buy electronics, use your credit card/atm to buy it. Even if your account is banned when using your ATM, your bank will help you get back your money.
4. Contact Amazon support via chat if you want to perform any action that you are unsure of its consequences.
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The Amazon Disbursement Timeline
How long it takes for your funds to be sent to you is not entirely up to Amazon. As a new seller, you have the option to request daily disbursements into your bank account. This can help offset the effects of the reserve.
Unfortunately, this doesnt always apply to older, grandfathered accounts. They tend to come with automatic disbursements every 2 weeks. But on the upside, they dont usually have reserves, unless they were suspended at some point.
So, disbursements and reserves balance each other out. Whether the funds are tied up in a reserve or waiting to be disbursed, isnt the issue uncertainty is. To a seller, the only real difference is that disbursements are guaranteed because the balance is available not so with reserves.
But the most important factor affecting this timeline is, in fact, the tracking number. When sellers upload it as soon as they ship, they tilt the scales in their favor. Amazon would then replace the EDD with the actual delivery date, and start the reserve countdown right away.
For people selling internationally, the total wait can, hypothetically, take over 50 days, if they dont send tracked shipments. Thats 28 days to the end of the EDD, 7 for the hold, up to 14 until the next disbursement The name of the payment Amazon maMore, and a few more days for the transfer to clear. And they never know if or when the reserve will be lifted.
Amazon Failed Login Attempt Scam: How To Avoid
If you receive one of these order verifications look at it closely. Are there misspellings? If not, these are good indicators that the email is fraudulent. Also, even if the domain name seems to be belonging to Amazon , this could be easily done by scammers by using proxy servers.
To protect yourself, if you are in any way concerned about the validity of email verification from any online retailer, contact their customer service department they will be able to verify if the communication came from them. Shopping online is a convenient way to do business however, make sure to take the proper precautions to protect your identity while doing so.
Beware of other common schemes such as GiftReward.net Scam, Shopify scams or OfferUp scams.
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Copyright Violations Lack Of Authorisation And Rights To Sell The Product
Copyright and trademark violations are some of the most serious violations on Amazon. By engaging in such practices, you are not only violating the terms of service, but you are also creating unfair competition for those who have the proper credentials, certifications, and licenses.
The blockade may occur when:
- you sell non-authentic products
- you do not sell products of a particular brand and you do not emphasise that these are substitute/compatible products
- you violate copyrights and trademarks
Failure in appealing properly, sending documents and providing explanations will result in an account block that is difficult to reverse. Keep in mind that you need to act quickly, but also comprehensively even if the account blockage was imposed in error, you need to prove it.