Remedies for a Suspended Amazon Account your Questions Answered

1. Dependable Outsourcing Since 1999 interview Q&A Remedies for a Suspended Amazon Account: Your Questions Answered SUSPENDED AMAZON ACCOUNT Here's an Interview with Ravi Kant, V.P., eCommerce Division, SunTec India, and an Amazon Seller Central Consultant and Expert, focused on accurately listing and managing your products on Amazon, merchandising your product pages – photos, descriptions, etc., Amazon Sponsored Ads and product promotions management, competitor analysis, account health optimization, building Amazon store inventory, FBA services, and overall improving your conversion rates on Amazon. Answer Question Although, Amazon never shares any reasons, selling privileges are commonly removed for: What are the most critical reasons leading to suspended seller accounts? Poor performance, in terms of customer metrics (order defect rate, cancellation rate, late shipment rate, policy violations, on-time delivery, contact response time). Amazon sends a notification if they find any discrepancy and ask store owners to resolve the issue. Failing to resolve the issue often results in the suspension Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved. Violations of Amazon’s Selling Policies Violations of Amazon’s rules about Restricted Products Adding personal information in the description may lead to account suspension. Uploading copyrighted images (pictures that sellers have not taken themselves) to an Amazon.com product page without permission from the image owner Knowingly selling forged copies of products SunTecIndia.com 01

2. Interview Q&A Remedies for a Suspended Amazon Account: Your Questions Answered If a retailer opens more than one seller account under the same person's/enterprise’s name without Amazon's permission If Amazon finds out that the seller account is associated with a previously suspended Amazon seller account, for instance: Same business address, and/or Same Social Security/Tax ID number, and/or Same checking account number, and/or Same IP Address with a previously suspended seller account If you are new on Amazon, probably this is going to be the most confusing question you might have to deal with. It is worth noting here that there is no mercy shown by Amazon’s Seller Performance team for reasons such as: What should be the next step for a seller whose Amazon account has been suspended? I will work harder from now on I accept there was a mistake on my part (but no explanation about why the mistake happened) I am not sure of what went wrong, but will try harder now Whatever reasons you have, Amazon will always need an explanation on what had actually caused the problem. It will also require you to explain what all actions you are taking, targeting the root cause so that the problem does not occur again, as well as what are the steps you are taking towards the affected customers. In order to recover your suspended store, you must “Appeal” against the “Suspension”. While doing this, you must ensure to follow these points: Make your appeal on the formal letter head Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved. Mention if you are working with a solutions integrator or an outsourcing partner for managing your inventory feeds, etc. Identify the issue as to what led to getting your listings suppressed, originally Outline all the quality processes that you have in place currently, and the ones that you plan to incorporate in future to ensure good buyer experience on your Amazon Store Maintain positive and professional tone SunTecIndia.com 02

3. Interview Q&A Remedies for a Suspended Amazon Account: Your Questions Answered What we suggest to all the suspended sellers who know that they are at fault – Admit it, and provide an explanation as to what all steps or measures you are taking to correct the situation on an immediate basis. Amazon’s Seller Performance team will definitely need an assurance from your end that you are indeed serious about solving the problem so that it never occurs again. What should be the course of action for suspended sellers who know that they are at fault and those that do not know? For all those suspended sellers who don’t know the root cause of the problem, we would suggest that you be clear that you don’t understand the reason why you were sent performance notification. It is best to ask for more details from seller performance team. However, Amazon’s seller performance team in most cases does not offer enough specifics to enable you to completely diagnose a complicated situation, and most of the time you will end up guessing the root cause of receiving Amazon notification. Once you gain more experience as a seller and start following Amazon seller blogs you will get more insights on how sellers like you have been addressing such issues. When you are crafting a response it is always best to be as specific as you can be. This may include saying things such as: How should a response be framed for Amazon seller performance team? What are the major considerations, while framing a response? We have hired a personnel whose sole responsibility is to double check all the outgoing shipments, so as to ensure that all the shipments have ship-confirmation on them. We failed to act on notifications sent to us earlier because we did not have a dedicated resource specifically assigned with the task of going through and taking steps based on these notifications. But, we have changed the practice now. We have hired 2 staff members who are assigned the task of reading the notifications and making immediate rectifications, if required in order to be compliant with all the necessary requirements. Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved. We did not have adequate cataloging process in our warehouse therefore we ended up shipping wrong products to our customers. Now we have outsourced the cataloging system development to consultants and it will be ready in 3 weeks time. Till then we are contacting all our customers who received wrong products and offering them full refund as compensation. If you are in possession of any document that supports your claims for reconsideration, scan and attach it along with your response to the performance team. SunTecIndia.com 03

4. Interview Q&A Remedies for a Suspended Amazon Account: Your Questions Answered You are allowed to appeal your suspension, but there is no guarantee that Amazon will reinstate you. How long will it take for Amazon’s seller performance team to respond to seller’s emails? Once you have sent an email to seller-performance@amazon.com, it will be unlikely that you will get a response from Amazon unless they require more information from you or want to not hear from you again. Therefore, it is best to send response with all the explanations all at once. Yes, it might feel like explaining situation to a wall in the beginning, without any human interaction from Amazon, but this is how Amazon functions. It is worth noting here that seller performance team can be wrong, so you always need to have proper evidence supporting your claims. If there is anything that doesn’t seem right to you, try understanding what is going on, or might be going on, and then rule out the possible cause. This is how Amazon functions and you need to correspond with them on similar lines. If you have been doing something on Amazon that you are not allowed to do, then you probably have a long way to go before Amazon allows you as an active seller on Amazon. So, it is best to stay out of all forbidden stuff to have a long, prosperous and hassle free selling experience on Amazon. What if the seller is suspended for selling banned products? Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved. SunTecIndia.com 04