What to Do If your Amazon Account Gets Suspended?

Author: Vintek System

Approximately with 2 billion monthly site Visitors, Amazon strictly controls sellers to maintain the high quality of its marketplace. Most sellers have no setback following these policies since they’re keen to access Amazon’s 2 billion site visitors shopping for products each month.

As we know, Amazon’s rules are quite strict thus even the best of sellers have had their Amazon Accounts Suspended.

Fortunately, suspension is not the end of the world. Sellers can have their rights restored by submitting an appeal.

For a successful appeal, sellers have to show Amazon that they undoubtedly know why they were suspended, and that they have a plan for resolving the issue and improving their selling practices.

Why have my selling privileges been removed?

You won’t be able to resolve your issue if you can’t recognize it, so the first step in getting your privileges reinstated is completely understanding why you were suspended. Amazon will state the reason for your suspension in their notice email to you, but you will wish to know in detail how Amazon defines these reasons to form a well-informed appeal.

Poor Performance

Sellers on Amazon can be suspended for failing to meet Amazon’s performance targets, which are considered with 3 metrics:

  • Order defect Rate (ODR): This metric signifies the percentage of a seller’s orders that have received negative feedback (one and two star ratings), an A-to-Z guarantee claim (a buyer reporting an issue with their order), or a service credit card chargeback (when a buyer disputes your order as a credit card purchase).

Amazon suggests that sellers maintain an ODR that’s less than 1% to avoid suspension.

  • Pre-fulfillment cancellation rate: This metric signifies the number of order cancellations initiated by the seller before the shipment is confirmed divided by the total number of orders in that time period of interest. High pre-fulfillment cancellation rates are regularly a result of poor inventory management.

Pre-fulfillment Cancellation Rate = Cancelled Orders/ Total Numbers

Amazon suggests that sellers maintain a pre-fulfillment cancellation rate that’s less than 2.5% to prevent suspension.

  • Late-Shipment rate: This metric signifies the number of orders that are confirmed for shipment after the ship date divided by the total number of orders in that period of interest. A large number of late shipment rates frequently lead to customer dissatisfaction since shipments that aren’t confirmed by their ship date can’t be tracked.

Late Shipment Rate= Orders with a ship confirmation that is completed after the ship orders/ Total numbers.

Amazon suggests that sellers preserve a late shipment rate that’s less than 4%.

Violations of Amazon selling policies:

Amazon considers in maintaining a secure and pleasant experience for buyers with clear rules, so the company will suspend sellers if you violate any of their five community rules:

  1. Respect your commitment to buy or sell.
  2. Preserve current account information.
  3. Do not open a new selling account if your selling rights have been removed.
  4. Give thoughtful feedback about your transaction partners.
  5. Do not fake yourself.

Amazon keeps these guidelines big to cover a lot of situations sellers could encounter. Some of these rules are pretty clear though, such as not faking your identity or selling counterfeit goods, and should be simple for most sellers to follow.

Violations of Amazon Restricted Policies:

Rather than one set of product rules, Amazon has specific product restrictions for each of their product categories:

Supplying restricted products is grounds for Account suspension, thus sellers should examine the Restricted Product Pages to make clear that their supply is suitable and whether their supply categories need additional action, like getting pre-approval from Amazon.

What may I do to keep selling on Amazon?

To persist selling on Amazon, you’re going to require to submit an appeal to Amazon Seller Performance.

Amazon provides sellers 17 days to submit an appeal, which can be delivered through the link given in the suspension notice email. Submitting an appeal doesn’t assure that your seller privileges will be restored, though Amazon does guarantee to review each appeal carefully.

Amazon inquires that sellers appeal with a "Plan of Action" that details how they imagine to improve the issues that led to their suspension. It’s very significant for sellers to put a lot of time and effort into their first submission because there’s no assurance that Amazon will give you the opportunity to submit a second revised plan. Some sellers reports being given a chance to give more explanation after a rejected Plan of action, but others have not been given another chance to appeal, leaving their accounts permanently banned.

Do not take this chance. Boost your chances of having your selling privileges restored on your first attempt with a stellar Plan of Action.

Writing a Successful Appeal:

To get back Amazon’s trust after your account has been suspended, you have to clearly define in your Plan of Action the issue(s) in your selling and/or inventory management practices and what actions you will take to resolve that issue.

Recognizing your reason for suspension

The excellent place to start in writing your Plan of Action is to return to the notice that Amazon sent to notify you of your suspension. This email must note whether your selling privileges were removed because of a performance issue or because you violated a seller policy or product rule.

Performance Issues: If Amazon’s notice specified that you were suspended because of bad performance, verify your Account Health Dashboard below the "Performance" tab of your seller account to verify which metrics are not meeting Amazon’s targets.

The suspension notice must indicate whether the performance issue is a high order defect rate, a high late shipment rate, or a high pre-fulfillment cancel rate, but it’s a best idea to verify the Account Health Dashboard so that you can note the accurate metric amounts to include in your appeal.

Seller Policy Violation: If Amazon’s notice signify that you were suspended because of a seller policy violation, you’ll require to believe whether your selling practices are consistent with Amazon’s community rules.

Their rules are somewhat extensive, so you’ll require to believe how your individual selling practices might fall under each guideline.

At the similar time, there are various rules, like whether your account information is updated, that can be simply checked on your seller account.

Product rule violations: If Amazon’s notice specify that you were suspended because of a product rule violation, you’ll require to ensure your inventory and inventory intake process to find out which parts of your supply are prohibited and require to be removed. Amazon may specially note the prohibited item type in their notice, in which case you won’t require to review your entire inventory.

What you’ll do to resolve the issue

There’s no set method for explaining how you will resolve your issue since the actions you list will depend on your unique seller issue. Having said that, there are some general tips to keep in mind when listing your action points in your appeal:

  • Be specific. Amazon declares that they value accuracy in Plans of Action, so be as comprehensive as probable when explaining your solution points. Beyond impressing Amazon, writing detailed action points with clear steps will set you up for success if your account is reinstated.
  • Keep it brief You desire your action points to be comprehensive, but that doesn’t mean each has to be an essay. Amazon obtains plenty of seller suspension appeals, so they’ll be thankful if you can convey your points with shortness. As a guideline, effort to keep each point to less than a paragraph, and at most two.
  • Don’t get emotional. You made a fault as a seller, but that doesn’t mean your appeal should be the deepest apology. All Amazon requires to know in order to feel comfortable reinstating your privileges are the actionable steps you plan to take, so keep your points objective and logistical.
  • Don’t be defensive. If you make a statement in your Plan of Action about how you believe your suspension is unfair or why this issue isn’t your mistake, you’re failing to recognize your issue as an Amazon seller, a key part of the Plan of Action. Amazon has already found that you made a mistake as a seller, so you’re better off accepting this as reality in your Plan of Action instead of trying to demonstrate why you’ve been falsely accused.

Puzzled about how these tips all come collectively? To help you start your action point writing, here are some examples of action points based on different seller issues.

  • A seller is suspended due to his high pre-fulfillment order cancel rate, so he reviews his inventory management practices and discovers that his cancellations are due to listed items being out of stock. His Plan of Action could specify how he reviewed his practices to form this conclusion, and how he plans to schedule a daily inventory check to make clear that all listed items are in-stock and available to ship instantly.
  • A seller is suspended because his supply of light bulbs doesn’t meet energy efficiency standards, a violation of Amazon’s product rules. His Plan of Action could detail how she has switched to a supplier that gives energy efficient light bulbs, and how he has scheduled time to often check whether his inventory meets Amazon’s standards.
  • A seller is suspended because he has obtained too much negative feedback, so he reviews his buyer’s comments to decide that they are dissatisfied with his slow response time. His Plan of Action might comprise information about how he reviewed and responded to the buyer’s comments and recognized that the common issue was his slow response time. Moreover, he could clarify how he will avoid the issue in the future by scheduling a daily time to respond to buyer comments and by downloading the Amazon seller app, which will let him to respond quickly.
  • A seller is suspended because of his high late shipment rate, so he reviews his shipments and order fulfillment details to conclude that he has been sending orders out late because his order volume has radically increased in recent weeks. His Plan of Action might comprise how he reviewed his shipment and order history to reach this conclusion and how he has revised his management strategy to accommodate his higher volume of orders.
Common practices for avoiding suspension

If your appeal is successful and your Amazon seller privileges are reinstated, you’ll wish to do the whole thing you can to keep away from suspension in the future. Here are a few points that will help you track whether you’re meeting Amazon’s standards for sellers or require to improve your practices.

  • Check your Amazon reports on a normal basis. The data in your Return, defective Orders, and Feedback reports will give a clear sense of whether you’re time after time meeting Amazon’s performance targets.
  • Keep eyes on your order shipping. Unless you’re an FBA seller and Amazon handles your shipping and delivery, you’ll wish to make clear that customers are reporting on-time shipments and appropriately packaged goods to prevent negative feedback or a high late-shipment rate.
  • Double check your listing descriptions. Misrepresenting your supply is a seller policy violation, so make clear that you are correctly describing your items in your listings.
  • Download the Amazon seller app for fast communication. The earlier an issue is addressed the easier it is to solve. Answer to seller account notifications and buyer messages immediately with the Amazon Seller App.
  • Analysis Amazon’s product rules before adding new items. Ensure the restricted product rules for the items you wish to add to make clear that they are not in violation of Amazon’s policies.
  • Have an inventory management system in place. If you’re continuously running out of inventory and canceling orders, you may wish to think to get inventory management software like Sellbrite that will help keep your pre-fulfillment cancellation rate small and reduce negative feedback.

Learn from the Experience:

Amazon knows that its achievement counts on great sellers, so they won’t keep you suspended if your Plan of Action is convincing and shows them that you won’t make the same mistakes. That said, there is no assurance here — Amazon has permanently banned sellers before, so boost your chances of suspension removal by taking the time to craft the best appeal you can submit.

If your appeal is received and your selling privileges are reinstated, take measures to prevent suspension in the future. Amazon sets up their seller standards to guarantee the satisfaction of buyers, so following their rules won’t just let you to keep selling— it will also help you make positive Customer experiences which in turn encourage your company’s growth.

Amazon is a flourishing, but strict marketplace. Preserve a clear understanding of their policies, and you’ll be able to steer clear of suspension by constantly checking whether you’re following the rules.Our Website:-https://www.vinteksystem.com/amazon-reinstatement-services/