Reinstate Amazon Seller Account quickly and effectively! Now before we get your hopes up, there’s no special contacts or magical formula to obtaining the reinstatement of your Account. Just sound, practical proven advice that if utilized with a pinch of luck should have your account up fast. Additionally these practices will help to protect your business against future issues/suspensions.
Review Amazon Notifications
Amazon Notifications, Account Health and Seller Support messages. These three areas of your seller account should be checked habitually. Building a daily routine, early in your day dedicated specifically to this area of your business will save you time, money and headaches.
After the new Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement went into effect, the majority of Amazon Notifications came with a ticking clock. So before an account is suspended Amazon tends to give you a timeframe, typically 48-72 hours to provide an appeal before further action is taken against your account. So if you are new to Amazon or just not in the habit of checking your notifications daily (or multiple times a day) you could be losing valuable time.
A Seller’s Account Health Page contains a wealth of valuable information, and the metrics provided seem to increase every time I look at them. More often than not the metrics on the Account Health Page will correlate with the notifications you receive from Amazon, however not always. So reviewing the content here can help make you aware not only of issues currently affecting your account as well as issues that could affect your account in the future. From Suspected Intellectual Property Complaints to ODR metrics, there are problems that can be addressed prior to Amazon requesting information.
Commiting to putting these daily practices into place, will likely decrease the time spent worrying about reinstating your amazon account. Be proactive not reactive. Know Amazon’s Policies and Guidelines as well as any other aspect of your business.
Drafting Your Appeal
Even the most successful businesses on Amazon will be subjected to Amazon’s Appeal system from time to time. The not so secret “secret” to dealing with appeals is to make the most of your first appeal every time. The more successful you are at this aspect of the Amazon platform, the more time you will have to focus on growth.
Making the most of your first appeal means taking the time to research what went wrong and who did it affect? Was this strictly something Amazon picked up on? Was there a buyer complaint, if so how many? Where there negative reviews to consider, A-Z claims, etc.? Identifying the core issue properly is 90% of the process. This will allow you to follow Amazons format of What Went Wrong, How Did You Correct It and finally How Will You Prevent It. If you don’t truly understand all aspects of the issue you are setting your appeal up for failure.
If you need assistance in proper formatting of your appeal to optimize your changes please check out our article on Drafting Your Amazon Appeal Letter.
Gather Supporting Documents
Now that you have created an appeal it’s time for the finishing touches, supporting documentation. The devil is in the details, so when submitting documentation to support your appeal be sure you provide Amazon what they are asking for. Ive seen sellers not provide documentation to Amazon simply because they have provided it previously or feel Amazon “Can look it up.” For you new sellers out there, spoiler alert, they won’t.
When providing additional documentation such as invoices, sales history, shipping verification, double check your documents and then triple check them. Be sure the file sizes are within Amazon’s limits. Be sure all information even if seemingly insignificant is legible on all documents. Verify the documents are being submitted in formats approved by Amazon.
These small details can be the difference between your appeal be accepted or rejected. Your account from being reinstated or suspended. So be sure you are submitted all requested documents, legibly in approved formats and file sizes that are acceptable.
Submit the Appeal and Wait
This naturally is the part most sellers have difficulty with, the wait. Once you have submitted your appeal the best thing you can do is wait. There is no need to send follow up emails to confirm they received your appeal. There is no need to contact multiple departments to follow up on your appeal or to try and call Amazon to discuss your appeal.
Unless Amazon specifically sets up a call with your or reaches out to you the best thing to do for the first 48 hours after an appeal is submitted is to wait. Now this comes from the experience of myself and my colleagues and our work with hundreds of sellers on the Amazon platform. It is not a hard and fast rule but a guideline I have used for years, successfully.
Amazon is by no means perfect and neither is the appeal system. Appeals fall through the cracks without response from time to time. If you after 48 hours you have not received a response, sleep on it and if in the morning there’s still no notification, resubmit your prior appeal.
Additional Request for Information/Appeals
Not every swing is a homerun. Not every appeal wins on the first try. When seeking the reinstatement of your seller account or suspended ASIN there is typically a bit of a back and forth. So make the best of your first appeal, but know all is not lost should Amazon come back with a request for additional information or the same notification you received prior.
If you receive a similar notification or an outright denial you may need to rework your appeal. This can often be where formatting becomes a big part of the appeal process. Be sure you have identified the information Amazon is looking for. Just as importantly be sure the person on the other side of the appeal is able to identify it. Adding titles to separate your appeal into sections, using bold to ensure key points stand out can make a big difference.
If additional information is requested be sure to use the same guidelines as before to ensure your appeal is successful.
Identifying the Loop
Knowing when to bail on a Seller Performance team and move on to a different team for assistance is honestly a bit of an educated guess. There is no hard and fast rule, each case is different and often depends on the case itself. Is Amazon continuing to respond to each appeal with a request for additional and new information? Or are they providing generic responses? How many appeals have been submitted? Is the current issue different from the original issue? Is the Account suspended or still active?
You have to look at this data and maybe some other things come into play and make an educated guess. Is the next appeal going to be the one that works? Do I move on to escalations and if so will I be able to resolve this with one appeal or am I likely starting over? I’m not going to provide an answer or outline to this question because there are so many factors that come into play. Instead I would suggest you either discuss the matter with a professional in the field or see if you can find some reliable assistance in the forums.
In our next installment we will be discussing Amazon Appeals Service, be sure to check back to find out what you should look for when hiring an Appeal Provider.
As Always, It Never Hurts To Ask For Help
Have you received an Amazon Account Suspension or Notification? We here at Amazon Account Rescue are here to discuss these matters with you.
Should you have any additional questions or wish to discuss this or any other matter please feel free to contact us at 1-800-757-0282 or at info@amazonaccountrescue.com.