If you have been selling stuff on Amazon for a while now, the word SUSPENSION is definitely going to ring the bell. It is feared more than enough for sellers to get nightmares of it. The question is why? Why is the process so twisted? Despite several appeals, why does reinstatement of the Amazon account seem like a bleak future.
The answer lies in the Amazon itself. But before we examine the reasons why getting an Amazon account reinstated is an uphill battle, let us look at the general procedure of reinstatement.
After you get your account suspended, the first thing you need to do is examine the issues that Amazon highlighted. From then on, you need to submit the required pieces of evidence which may include any sales invoices or exchanged emails.
Along with that, you also need to submit an important document called a Plan of Action (POA).
A POA is sort of like a declaration that you make to Amazon about what are the next steps you are going to take to improve the condition of your store for your buyers. (Now beware this is where most Amazon sellers get it wrong- So the wise ones seek professional help like Mr. Jeff.) After that, you just upload the entire document on seller central and then hope for the best.
What makes waiting for account reinstatement so tiring is that not only are you losing sales (because of a suspended account) but there is no way you can contact the decision-making team directly.
Over the years, Amazon has made it harder for people to reach out to them. There are several reasons for it but one that stands out the most to me is that Amazon does not want to be held accountable for punishing innocent sellers by mistake.
Add to it that as a company itself, it allocates lesser resources to sellers than to its buyers due to its customer-centric (read buyer-centric) policy. In that case, sellers may feel like they are sandwiched between a cliff and an ocean.
Eventually it becomes a quest to find ways to ensure reinstatement that actually work. In fact, most of our clients (before reaching out to us) turn to Account Health Services (AHS). These are a group of people that Amazon claims are ready to “service” any problems that you may face as a Seller. But often (as you will see), they complicate the case if not spoil it completely.
If you have dealt with a few suspensions, you must be aware of how template-like Amazon Performance Notifications can be. It’s hard to interpret what they want (sort of like trying to find a needle in the grass. If you can’t figure out what you did wrong (which is hard to do as a first-time seller), how would you know what corrections to do, and more importantly, how would you write a Plan Of Action that Seller Performance will escalate for a decision?
And if you don’t submit the right stuffs that Amazon wants, you just get rejected. And this is when you ring up the rep on Account Health Services (AHS). I see AHS as a wall between the Seller Performance Team and Amazon Sellers. You have a 5-minute chat where much of it is spent building up your morale as a seller. And when they do offer advice, most of it is ineffective and you may still end up with rejections. This is exactly what happened to dozens of our clients before they decided to seek professional help.
Now any sensible seller would reapply, albeit after the probationary period is over. And oftentimes, people submit more documents than required (which doesn’t help their case) because over submission for some reason tends to anger Amazon even more. It is not about submitting more documents; it’s about submitting the right document.
So ultimately, the question falls on what is the right way to get your account reinstated. It turns out, there is no one way to go about this. Many people just mail it to an email address that the Seller Performance team provided. (But I don’t think that email exists anymore because you can hardly get a response on it.) And as AHS has no way or right to escalate your proposal, some sellers just submit their proposals directly to Jeff (Not Jeff Bezos but a premium service line that fast tracks your complaints). But you only get one shot at it and without a well-written POA, it is generally not recommended.
In that case, it is better to work with a professional who knows the ins and outs of account reinstatement. Introducing Mr. Jeff (Hey! That’s me ;)). I was an Amazon seller just like you who got fed up with repeated suspension notices. Over the years, I learned to understand the secret message that Seller Central whispers and found a winning strategy that can get accounts reinstated 90% of the time. I have done this for hundreds of my clients and I can do this for you as well. Click the link to get detailed info.
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