Notifications, Violations, and Suspensions… Oh My

If there is one thing that I know about Amazon sellers, it's that they like to talk about selling. They enjoy gathering to discuss the most cutting-edge methods for obtaining product reviews. They want to ask each other questions, hoping to fill the gaps they know they are weak in. It's quite humorous when you find yourself among a group of sellers and take a step back to observe. Sellers are a ruthless breed, all moving 100 MPH attempting to siphon as much value as they possibly can from one another before moving on.?

If you want to earn the nickname "Buzz Killington" quickly, all you have to do is bring up the topic of Account Health. I can assure you that everyone will go silent, and all eyes will awkwardly start staring at you. It's human nature to watch the football team that puts over 50 points on the board per game. People?love?offense - move move move - plan plan plan - score score score. That is, until the 4th quarter - tied game - and their running back fumbles the ball with two minutes left on the clock.?

Everybody's feelings about the defensive coordinator quickly change when they find themselves in such an unfortunate spot. There is nothing he can do at this point, however. A commitment to excellence on defense starts in training camp. It requires devotion, discipline, and consistency. Is it something that people find desirable, or typically?want?to focus on? I do -- but it is safe to say that I am in the very low minority.?

With that said, a much more appropriate question would be, does a seller's level of ambition to focus on a particular area have?any?relevance at all when it comes to decision making??

Hell No.

The downright entitlement that some sellers display is mind-blowing. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual mean wage for a full-time or salary worker in the United States is $53,490. Many sellers bring in that sort of revenue every week.

There is no doubt that some successful third-party sellers paid their dues and fought through the tough years of starting to sell on Amazon.?On the other hand, the platform is also flooded with third-party sellers who, in one way or another, "fell" into the successful multimillion-dollar enterprise that they're currently enjoying the fruits of.

Although they often forget, they know deep down that if they hadn't taken that trip to China to tag along with their cousin and had a manufacturer slap some logo from Fiverr onto 5,000 units of a generic jade roller, they would currently be working at Home Depot.

I entered the Amazon consulting space in 2015 for one reason: to make as much money as possible providing a service that I had become uniquely qualified to perform. That all changed after working with two sellers. I saw the overwhelming demand for a company that suspended sellers could rely on to help them get reinstated. What I failed to anticipate, though, were the strong connections that would be formed with these clients who were facing the most monumental challenge they'd ever encountered in their business, and sometimes, in their entire life.

I never imagined that I would be on the phone with grown men frantically crying and rhetorically asking how they were supposed to care for their families now. Money quickly took a back seat when I realized the gravity of the situation.

If I come off as a bit passionate about this topic, it's because I very much am. For every new seller that we have worked with since 2015, I've created a new Dropbox folder to ensure that anything related to their suspension was kept in one spot. For "repeat offenders," I keep a sub-folder in that seller's original folder. As I write this article, there are 463 unique Dropbox folders in my account. We went to war for each and everyone one of them.?

Many Amazon sellers who have gotten suspended in the past few years are successfully selling on the platform today because we assisted them.?Much more importantly,?some of them are not. Some of them have fallen into terrible situations because their account simply could not be reinstated. So, when I say that I couldn't care less if a seller makes the conscious decision to disregard protecting their account, please understand the reason behind it. It's because I've witnessed too many lives that were ruined by a suspension that could have been prevented if only the seller had understood?just how expendable they truly were?on the Amazon seller platform.?

Part 1: Prevention

All too often, we get frantic sellers who reach out to us for help with violations or suspensions that could have been so easily prevented. Like we said before, Account Health is the e-commerce equivalent of Buzz Killington.

No one wants to pay any mind to account health until they wake up one day and their best-selling ASIN suddenly reads “CONTAINS KETAMINE SALTS”. So, let’s suck it up and talk about how to prevent some of these catastrophes before they cause such a drain on your bank account that you can’t afford more inventory.

Read the rule book and don’t ever fall under the impression that you’re above the rules

In any other industry, there are manuals, SOPs, and guidelines that have to be followed if someone wants to continue to operate in that field. If a doctor, for example, fails to follow the guidelines, they will lose their license to practice medicine. There is no license to practice e-commerce, but you cannot expect to avoid violations if you don’t even know what actually causes a violation to happen.

Be diligent with your staff and freelancers

An Amazon seller account is like a significantly less adorable puppy – it must be catered to 24/7 if you want it to survive. So, if you’re delegating and outsourcing your account management to entry-level warehouse workers or freelancers, make sure you have SOPs they can follow if they run into any issues, and be very strict about who’s responsible for what tasks. It doesn’t hurt to stress the importance of something as simple as buyer-seller messages to your staff, either - even though every entrepreneur knows that no employee will ever care as much about the business as you do.?

Pay attention to what the buyers are saying

Yes, we all love to commiserate about how the buyer is absolutely always wrong. I can’t argue that, but in the eyes of Amazon, you must be obsessed with the customers. If you want to maximize your proactive efforts in avoiding violations, you have to suck it up and tune in to the correlations in your buyer messages, the notes on return requests, and the comments in your seller feedback. Don’t just focus on getting the negative feedback removed, and don’t try to blame it on FBA. The harsh truth is that the majority of account suspensions are a direct result of a buyer complaint.?

Understand what you can and can’t say in a product listing

Read the style guide and study the guidelines for your product category. For example, if you’re selling supplements, understand what exactly a health claim is and why you can’t use this type of wording. There are nuances and minor details in the verbiage of your listings that can and undoubtedly will screw you over if you don’t know what not to say.?

Know what you’re selling and make sure it matches the product listing

If your supplier ships your products directly to FBA, you still need to know that your listing details won’t cause your customers to say “WTF is this?” when they receive it. If you have a listing on Amazon for a product that you’ve never seen in real life, you’re asking for trouble.?

Have a website for your brand

Amazon wants serious sellers who care about their products. Having a website not only solidifies this, but that brand website will save you a ton of headaches if you run into a violation as a result of a competitor attack or some other completely unwarranted issue.

Make the buyer happy at all costs

Losing the funds from a few orders is far more favorable than losing all of the funds in your Amazon account balance – even though, yes, the buyer is probably wrong. It doesn’t matter. Like I mentioned earlier, the majority of account suspensions are a direct result of a buyer complaint, so it is always, always in your best interest to make sure buyers are satisfied, no matter how outrageous their requests are. There are plenty of sellers who will read this and completely disagree. Sorry - charge it to the game. It’s just another price of running your business on Amazon, so if you can’t wrap your head around this concept, don’t call us when your account inevitably gets suspended.?

Study Amazon’s core values and use them.

This is especially true when you interact with Seller Support – having a fundamental understanding of why Amazon takes action on certain issues will help you and the support agent on the phone empathize with one another, and it will make them want to resolve your issue.

Part 2: Violations

ASIN level violations are far more common these days than they used to be. The upside on this is that we’re seeing less full-blown account suspensions, but obviously, the downside is that a blocked ASIN can cause just as much damage to your wallet as a fully suspended account.?

Attempting to work with Amazon to fix these violations can be infuriating. Trust me, I understand the rage that ensues when you are explaining to a seller support agent that you’ll have to fire three staff members if your ASIN doesn’t get reinstated in the next 48 hours – and all you can hear is the agent’s three dogs barking incessantly while they continue to place you on hold to check what the “internal team” has noted.?

Now, I urge you to hear me out and keep an open mind on what I’m about to say: Seller Support is NOT out to get you. In fact, Seller Support wants to help you. It is their job to help you – even though it sure doesn’t seem like that’s the case most of the time. Unfortunately, the problem is not with the human being you’re speaking to on the phone. The problem is the convoluted system Amazon has implemented that makes it astoundingly difficult for both of you to resolve certain problems with your ASIN.?So, the truth is, both you and the seller support agent actually have the same problem when you’re on the phone troubleshooting a blocked ASIN.

“Great negotiation is about great collaboration. It's about several people faced with different aspects of the same problem. The adversary is not the person across the table. The adversary is the situation. The person across the table is a counterpart that's struggling with some aspect of the same problem that you are. Work with them and solve that problem together, and you're both better off.”?

– Chris Voss, “Tactical Empathy”

Tactical empathy is an incredibly powerful strategy. I’d strongly recommend studying Voss’ MasterClass and deploying this strategy in virtually every situation that requires collaborating with others.?

So, with this concept in mind, let’s circle back to that Seller Support agent with their extremely obnoxious dogs. Even though what I’m about to say is the absolute furthest thing from your mind when your business is in jeopardy, make conversation with that other human being on planet earth while they are researching your blocked ASIN. Ask them about their dogs. Make a joke about how common it is that you hear dogs barking in the background when you call Amazon. Ask them if this is actually why blocked ASINs show those obnoxious dog photos.?

Regardless of how you go about this, take a personal approach – remember, these people deal primarily with very angry sellers all day long who simply call them and demand that their ASIN be reinstated NOW. First of all, that’s not possible, and secondly, it’s just rude as all hell. It may take every ounce of strength you have, but tell that agent that you understand that their hands are tied as far as what they can do right now, and express your gratitude for their efforts. Do this, and I promise you, they will do everything in their power to make sure your problem gets resolved by the team with the authority to resolve it.?

The last time I used this concept of “Tactical Empathy” with a Seller Support, two things happened. First, the Seller Support agent thanked me for being so understanding, since it’s very rare for him to talk to any seller who doesn’t scream at him, and told me he felt like he had been talking to a friend for the last half hour while we worked on the blocked ASIN.?

Oh, and the second thing? That ASIN was reinstated within four hours.

Paper Trail Everything

Keep track of everything that occurs while your ASIN is blocked.?When you speak to seller support, make them add notes to the case or send you an email about important details you discussed. Document everything – this way, you’ll be able to refer back to a specific case ID or email that includes specific information.

Know Your Documents

Understand what specific documents you need for your product category, and keep them on hand and easily accessible. These documents can include Certificates of Analysis, Material Safety Data Sheets, Children’s Safety Certificate, UL Certification, Manufacturer Agreements, and others, depending on your specific product and category.?

Don’t Demand a US-Based Seller Support Rep

The rep is not giving you a problem because they are not from the US. They’re giving you a problem because you are giving THEM a problem and refusing to hear them out on any possible solution they attempt to offer.

Keep All Your Invoices Handy. Know What Amazon Considers a “Valid” Invoice?

If the invoices you have from your supplier don’t include their contact information or your contact information, ask your supplier to add any missing information. DON’T add it yourself.?

Do Not Open Dozens of Cases?

This only confuses the internal teams, and it actually increases the time it takes for your issue to get resolved. Have some self-restraint and keep the correspondence under the same case ID.

In the Very LIKELY Event You Get “Pesticided”?

Don’t Panic – This is the order of business for fixing pesticide issues, with few exceptions. 1) Get the flagged contribution removed via flat file; and 2) Escalate the case to Product Compliance so they can review it, find that your neck pillow is actually NOT a pesticide, and approve the ASIN for reinstatement. These two things must happen before your ASIN goes live again, no matter how absurd, ridiculous, or outlandish that pesticide claim is.?

Part 3: Suspensions

So, you’ve failed to implement any of the tactics shared in the first section that would have protected your account, and you dropped the ball on resolving the initial policy violations. Your day starts off just like any other day: you wake up, go through your morning routine, do whatever you typically do, etc. Then, you check your emails or sign in to your seller account and see the infamous and dreaded phrase:

“Your Amazon.com selling privileges have been removed.”

The news that your seller account is suspended knocks you back with a force equivalent to a right uppercut from Mike Tyson. The struggle is very real, ladies and gentlemen.?

You have now entered the Thunderdome. The first thing to do is take a deep breath. Take a few minutes to understand why your account has been suspended. The worst thing a seller can do upon learning that their account is suspended is panic and fire off a Plan of Action that would never in a million years get any account reinstated. Not only is it pointless to send in an appeal that stands no chance of being accepted – even worse, each failed attempt only further reduces your chances of reinstatement. Don't use up one attempt in a furious rage. If you misfire enough times, eventually, the responses begin to read "We may not respond to further emails about this issue."?

You do have the option to work with a company that has vast experience working with sellers through the arduous process of reinstatement. I will be the first to say, though, this is most certainly not required. In order to get reinstated, Amazon is looking for an appeal that contains a few key points: a detailed explanation of the issues that caused the suspension, the actions you’ve taken to correct those issues already, and a very thorough plan that assures the Seller Performance Team that if they choose to reinstate your account, the issue won’t happen again. Also, they need to know that you understand the policy that was violated and why that violation caused your account to be suspended. If they don’t have this reassurance, they will, by default, assume that you will inevitably violate the policy again if you’re reinstated.

Sellers are just as qualified to communicate these things in a written appeal to Amazon as any service provider. One thing that I highly recommend?not?doing is hiring a lawyer to handle your appeal. You don't need an attorney to handle your suspended account. You need someone who knows how to appeal an account suspension – or you need to learn to do it yourself. Hiring an attorney to write a plan of action is like asking a monkey to fly an airplane. It's just outrageous.

There are two Amazon-specific situations where sellers can benefit from retaining a lawyer: Arbitration and Intellectual Property issues. Aside from these two select areas,?based on my experience,?hiring a lawyer to write a POA for you is paying a small fortune to have a former ambulance-chaser assist you with something that they have no experience in, and know nothing about.?

Universal POA "No-No's" Worth Noting

1. Do not apologize for anything. The suspension and reinstatement process is rigid by design. Place yourself in Amazon's shoes for a moment: "That's great that you're sorry and all, but do you even understand why you have been suspended, and have you taken the necessary actions to bring your operation up to the standard needed to sell on the platform?"
2. Do not attempt to justify anything or make excuses. It would not surprise me at all if Amazon simply stopped reading a POA the moment they realize that a suspended seller is refusing to accept any accountability at all.
3. Refrain from the sob stories. Amazon has no interest in hearing about the hardships that you have going on in your life as a result of your suspended account. All they want is for you to assure them that you've fixed the violation.
4. Don't play games. Amazon has some of the most robust technology on the planet, some of the brightest minds in the world on staff, and systems that were developed over many years. Is it possible to get away with submitting a bogus invoice or lying about things that can easily be verified on their end? Sure - it's possible. But do you really believe that it's wise to get in the ring with an 800-pound gorilla? I don't.

Utilize Amazon's Account Health Services Team

There isn't exactly a plethora of help that Amazon provides to suspended sellers. However, working with the Account Health Services (AHS) Team can often be extremely beneficial. When an account is suspended, it's not even possible to open up a case to seek more insight on what was wrong with your appeal. Upon completing an appeal, you have the option of having an AHS associate review it and provide tips on how to improve it. It would be misleading to portray them as saviors - at the end of the day, the decision isn't in their hands. With that said, they often are able to provide some crucial information. They do not have carte blanche access to any internal account notes, but they certainly have more visibility than any other team, and they're actually willing to speak with you. In some cases, they may only have a few minor suggestions. There have been other times, though, where they have been complete miracle workers. There's no guarantee that you'll get valuable insight from the call, but if you're suspended, you have nothing to lose by speaking with AHS. To get in touch with them, you can use the link below to request a call.

→ https://sellercentral.amazon.com/cu/contact-us/cmn/QUALITY/

Final Thoughts

There’s no doubt that we could write an entire book on this topic with instructions on how to make your account an Amazon version of Fort Knox, in-depth explanations of how to resolve policy violations and suspensions, and what the most effective methods for success are. Because of how often these complex matters seem to end up on the back burner, it’s important to make sure that account health is not completely disregarded.?

It wouldn't be feasible to go down the massive list of issues that Amazon sellers face every day and outline exact steps of how to resolve them. Sellers should know every detail about using a Listing Loader flat file to yank an ASIN that’s been flagged as a pesticide, but covering all of these details in one article is simply impossible. That’s why the Account Health specialists on our team, in collaboration with other experts, have decided to begin creating a thorough wiki that includes all these valuable insights and much more. This wiki will be public and available for any seller to access when they encounter the problems we’ve touched on in this article.?

There’s no industry more cutthroat than selling on the Amazon platform. Regardless, we believe that all sellers can compete fairly in the marketplace with some creativity, discipline, intelligence, and the right resources. Furthermore, sellers can work together to keep one another from falling victim to the multitude of landmines they might encounter along the way. We’re all living through some crazy times right now, and especially in our industry, we believe that interdependence can be the most valuable asset for all Amazon sellers across the globe.?