If Amazon has restricted your seller privileges, it can feel devastating. You need not despair, though.
Managing the Amazon appeal process well can get you solidly back in the game.
This post details the key reasons for Amazon account suspensions, how to reinstate Amazon Seller accounts, and the proactive strategies you can employ to prevent future suspensions.
TL;DR – How to Appeal Amazon Termination
Here’s a detailed step-by-step guide to help you get your Amazon account back up and running:
- Acknowledge the violation
- Explain what led to the violation
- Outline corrective actions
- Outline controls to ensure the issue doesn’t reoccur
- Commit to comply with Amazon policies
Follow these 5 steps to write a compelling appeal and convince Amazon to lift the suspension.
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Key Reasons for Amazon Account Suspensions and Terminations
Amazon’s customer obsession principle means it will always prioritize guaranteeing a good customer experience for its shoppers over making sellers happy. Most of the account issues you’ll face involve not meeting Amazon’s benchmarks for customer experience metrics.
Also, the company is committed to protecting sellers on its platform using its in-house counterfeit prevention tools. You’ll likely face a suspension or termination if Amazon feels you are infringing on another seller’s rights, especially intellectual property rights.
Therefore, Amazon usually suspends or terminates accounts for the following key reasons:
- Shipping defective products: When your Order Defect Rate (ODR) exceeds 1%, Amazon will likely restrict your selling privileges.
- Manipulating product reviews: Offering money in exchange for reviews, diverting negative reviews elsewhere and positive ones to Amazon, and manipulating your competitors’ reviews will cause Amazon to suspend your account. You can learn how to increase reviews on Amazon organically.
- Account linked to a suspended account: If your Amazon Seller account is linked to a suspended account, Amazon can apply the suspension to the second account, too.
- Infringing on Intellectual Property (IP) rights: When you infringe on another seller’s IP rights by selling counterfeit products, you run afoul of Amazon’s policies and may face an account suspension or deactivation. Amazon has counterfeit prevention tools to detect inauthentic products on its platform.
- Late Shipment Rate (LSR) above 4%: For seller-fulfilled orders, An LSR above 4% will result in your selling privileges being withdrawn. The policy only applies to seller-fulfilled orders.
- ASIN inconsistencies and misuse: Amazon may suspend your account when you misuse ASIN variations as they confuse customers into making wrong purchases. You should also not change parent ASINs after creating child variations. Familiarize yourself with Amazon’s ASIN creation policy.
- Selling restricted items: Listing prohibited products will likely lead to an account deactivation.
- Account performance issues: High return rates, excessive negative reviews, and high cancellation rates indicate you can’t deliver a good customer experience. Amazon may suspend your account as a result.
- Misleading product listings: Selling used products as new or getting ‘wrong item/not as advertised’ feedback can lead to an account suspension or deactivation.
While most Amazon account suspensions are warranted, the process isn’t perfect, and they give sellers opportunities to appeal.
Essential Documents for Your Amazon Termination Appeal
When you’re facing an Amazon account suspension, you should provide data and documentation to support your case, which includes:
- Customer communication logs: Take screenshots or links to show positive customer reviews and feedback. Have proof of communication with Amazon support and suppliers to show your proactive problem-solving skills.
- Invoices and receipts: You should have detailed invoices and receipts from legitimate suppliers showing that you purchased the items in question. Ensure the invoice details match the products you’ve listed on your Amazon account.
- Purchase orders: Besides invoices, provide purchase orders to show the source of your inventory.
- Shipping records: Present the tracking numbers, shipping labels, and delivery confirmation to prove the products were shipped and received.
- Supplier agreements: Validate your business relationship with suppliers by showing contracts and agreements. This proves the authenticity of your products.
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How to Appeal an Amazon Account Termination
Instructions for reinstating your suspended Amazon account will be in the Performance section of your Seller account.
Go to Performance > Account Health > Reactivate Your Account and follow the instructions to begin the Amazon appeal process.
An application for an account reinstatement can include filling in an appeal questionnaire, submitting a plan of action, and submitting documents to support your claim of compliance or as evidence of the corrective actions you’ve taken to address the situation.
To craft an appeal with a high chance of acceptance, you must first do the following:
- Research and understand the reason for the suspension: Amazon will usually reference the reason for the account suspension. You should read the relevant policies or guidelines on Seller Central. Fully appreciating the reason for the suspension will inform how you approach the Amazon appeal process.
- Take corrective action to address the issue: Amazon wants to know that you are committed to solving the problem and have instituted controls to ensure it doesn’t reoccur. Problems such as defective products and packaging issues can be corrected even if you don’t have access to the Seller Central platform.
- Gather documentation and evidence: If the suspension is an error, you must submit all the data and documentation proving you’re compliant. Otherwise, provide evidence you understand why you’ve been suspended and have taken steps to address the issue.
After doing the above, you can create a good Plan of Action (POA) or Amazon appeal letter, which can make or break the appeal.
In your POA, you should do the following:
- Acknowledge the violation: You want to show you understand why Amazon suspended your account. Do not be evasive if you are in the wrong.
- Explain what led to the violation: If an inadvertent circumstance led to a breach of the Amazon policy, you want to briefly explain what happened while giving evidence.
- Outline corrective actions: If the issue can be corrected without account access, you should take corrective action before submitting an appeal. Otherwise, outline the corrective actions you intend to take once you regain seller privileges.
- Outline controls to ensure the issue doesn’t reoccur: Explain the long-term controls and strategies you intend to employ to ensure the problem doesn’t reoccur. You can detail when and how you plan to implement these controls.
- Commit to comply with Amazon policies: You should communicate that you are committed to complying with all Amazon policies going forward.
Once you are done, submit the appeal and do not open another ticket if the process takes longer than expected. You can always see the status of your appeal from your Seller account.
Check in frequently to ensure you don’t miss any communications from Amazon if they want more data or documentation.
Tips on How to Win an Amazon Termination Appeal
We’ve compiled a list of tips for every stage of the process to help you reinstate your Amazon account:
Develop Your Action Plan
You should structure and detail your appeal to get your account back. Here are some tips to help you:
1. Identify the issue: Read Amazon’s notice carefully and identify the cause of your termination and the specific policies you violated.
2. Address the root cause: Your action plan should include a plan to admit your mistakes to Amazon and apologize sincerely. Do not blame Amazon or your customers.
3. Detail long-term preventive measures: Demonstrate your commitment to improving your account performance, such as reducing cancellations. You should also explain how you’ll adhere to strict compliance to prevent further violations.
Writing Your Appeal
Once you have your plan of action, you should use these tips to write a concise and persuasive appeal:
4. Use clear and persuasive language: Avoid technical jargon and make your appeal easy to read and understand. You should also use compelling language to support your case.
5. Address each specific issue: You should address each mentioned in the termination notice. Don’t leave any issue out in your appeal; provide a detailed action plan for each issue.
6. Be professional: Avoid excessive emotional explanations or attacking Amazon’s policies. Instead, keep your appeal professional and solution-focused.
Submitting Your Appeal
After you’ve written an appeal, use the tips below to submit it to Amazon:
7. Provide compelling evidence: Support your appeal case with concrete evidence that proves your claims.
8. Organize your documents: Although having the right documentation is essential, you should also organize it properly. Group similar documents together; for example, all shipping records should be in one section.
9. Arrange your documents chronologically. Arrange your documents by date to clearly show the timeline of events. Also, clearly label your file names for each document.
10. Submit on time: Ensure you submit your appeal within the timeframe Amazon has provided. Remember that missing the deadline might result in your appeal being denied.
11. Follow the right format: Follow Amazon’s formatting requirements—start with a subject line and a clear introduction, and end with a conclusion and signature. Aim for 1 to 1.5 pages while avoiding unnecessary fluff.
12. Be patient and stay calm: The Amazon appeal process takes time, so don’t submit multiple appeals for the same issue.
13. Monitor your Amazon’s response: Be ready to provide additional information when requested.
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Proactive Strategies for Avoiding Suspensions and Terminationsa
Take the following steps to avoid Amazon account suspensions and terminations in the first place:
- Understand Amazon Seller policies and guidelines: Many people start selling on Amazon without reading all the platform’s policy statements. Amazon strictly enforces its policies – not reading them sets you up for failure.
- Adhere to Seller Code of Conduct: There are standards of conduct Amazon expects you to observe. It states that you shall give shoppers and Amazon accurate information about your products, not engage in unfair competition practices, not defraud Amazon or its users, not maintain more than one account in a region, and not manipulate your own or competitors’ reviews.
- Improve your performance metrics: Amazon performance metrics such as Order Defect Rate (ODR), Return Rate, Cancellation Rate, and Customer Feedback tell Amazon how well you serve your customers. Pay attention to these metrics in your Account Health section and take steps to ensure they never fall below Amazon’s minimum thresholds, which can trigger the restriction of selling privileges.
- Get a reliable manufacturing partner: When your supplier consistently meets product quality benchmarks, you’ll reduce the risk of your account being terminated because of frequent returns and customer complaints.
- Work with a reliable FBA prep service: Aside from labeling and packaging products as per FBA requirements, many FBA prep companies also offer quality control services to remove defective products from the sellers’ inventory. Such a service will significantly lower your ODR.
- Managed growth: Amazon international expansion has pros and cons. Rapid expansion can lead to several operational issues, including repeated late shipments for those using seller fulfillment. Scale your Amazon business sustainably to avoid problems that can harm customer experience.
Dealing with an Amazon appeal process can be stressful, and spending time without seller privileges can lose you a lot of money. Prevention is better than cure; invest the time and money required to execute the proactive measures above to reduce the risk of account suspension.
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Common Mistakes to Avoid During the Amazon Appeal Process
To increase the chances of a successful appeal, you want to avoid the following common mistakes during the Amazon appeal process:
- Not monitoring your appeal status: Amazon may request additional data/documentation or clarification. If you aren’t monitoring your email or Seller account, you may miss such communications, which may cause the process to drag on unnecessarily.
- Submitting a wordy appeal letter or POA: Amazon representatives likely handle several appeals daily. Yours should be simple and concise. You may want to draw attention to key issues by using bullet points.
- Not addressing underlying policy violations: Using evasive language when you are noncompliant won’t help. Acknowledge the underlying policy violations, show the corrective actions taken, and commit to compliance going forward.
- Not providing all relevant documentation: You want to submit all the evidence that can help your case. Documentation like delivery records, shipping receipts, correspondence records, invoices, proof of original product design, IP documentation, and licenses, among others, can prove valuable.
When to Consider Hiring an Expert for Amazon Termination Appeals
While you can directly resolve some issues with Amazon, others require professional help. Here are some that would be best handled by an Amazon termination appeal expert:
- Account Suspensions Without a Clear Explanation: If your account is suspended, especially without a clear cause, consider contacting an experienced professional to help you understand why Amazon has suspended your account—performance issues or suspected fraudulent activities.
- Repeated Policy Violations: If you face repeat policy violations, you should talk to a professional to assess the situation and advise on your options. An Amazon professional will also communicate with Amazon on your behalf.
- High Stakes in Your Suspension: If your suspension has a potentially huge financial impact, you should talk to a professional to help protect your investment and minimize losses.
- Complex Matters: If your suspension involves intellectual property, contracts, and regulatory compliance, an experienced expert will guide you accurately and contact Amazon.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Looking for more information on how to navigate the Amazon appeal process? Below are the answers to some commonly asked questions:
How Long Does an Amazon Termination Appeal Take?
Amazon does not give a definite timeline for how long appeals take to resolve.
Depending on the complexity of the matter and whether the representative handling your case requests more information, the appeal can take days or weeks.
What Happens After the Appeal is Accepted or Rejected?
Amazon will notify you of its decision regarding the appeal.
If the appeal is accepted, you’ll regain selling privileges and can proceed with your business as usual. If the appeal is rejected and your account isn’t deactivated, you may re-appeal.
Can I Submit Multiple Appeals for Different Issues Simultaneously?
You can submit one appeal addressing different issues if your account is suspended for multiple policy violations.
However, if you are dealing with different violations and Amazon communicates them separately, It is best to have a structured Amazon appeal process where you address each problem separately.
Conclusion – Amazon Termination Appeal Process
Navigating the Amazon appeal process well is key to getting your Amazon account reinstated. Amazon wants to know if you fully understand the reasons for the account suspension and whether you are committed to doing what’s required to avoid the issue reoccurring.
If you are unsure of your ability to navigate the appeal process, consider using an independent Amazon appeal service.
Also, if you need expert guidance filing claims for Amazon FBA reimbursements, we at Getida can help. Getida audits seller accounts to uncover reimbursement opportunities.
We have claims management experts, including ex-Amazonians, who will manage the entire claims process. On average, our customers see 166% more in Amazon FBA recovery when they work with us than when they do it themselves. Sign up with Getida today.
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