An Amazon suspension is a seller’s worst nightmare usually resulting in lost sales and a lot of stress! And, the bad news is that suspensions are becoming more and more common. Our friend and top Amazon seller Kev Blackburn was recently suspended. Read his story.
When you’re suspended, you’re losing money so getting your account back up and running ASAP is vital.
Amazon constantly update policies and procedures. Recently, they’ve changed the suspension appeals process. And, it looks like this is good news for sellers!
Before Amazon requested that sellers sent a detailed appeal letter whilst their seller account was suspended. Many sellers complained that the process was lengthy and frustrating.
Now, Amazon is asking sellers to complete a questionnaire when they receive an account suspension and reinstates seller accounts typically within 15 minutes.
So, the new process is much better in principle. However, it appears that the new process only occurs for first-time offenders of the Late Shipment Rate seller metric.
What do we know about the new process?
The form is composed of four simple questions that require a tick.
It should take 15 minutes after you submit the form using the “Reactivate your account” to get your account reinstated.
Tips for writing an appeal letter
If you’re suspended for another reason and you do have to communicate with Amazon’s seller performance team, here are some tips to follow.
1. Mention the customer
Amazon values its customers very highly so ensure you include them in your Plan of Action or appeal letter.
We understand that Amazon customers expect a certain level of service when shopping at Amazon and by not meeting that we are directly accountable…
2. Make it easy to read
Amazon teams receive lots of appeal letters each day so ensure you make yours easy to read by using formatting such as spacing.
You could follow the sections below as a guide.
- What is this appeal about.
- Why this happened.
- Your Plan of Action with proactive measures.
- Why Amazon should reinstate you.
3. Spend time doing it right
It’s common for Amazon to ask sellers for a stronger Plan of Action so ensure you take the time to get it right first time.
Example response from Amazon
Hello,
We appreciate the information you have provided. We have decided to reinstate your Amazon.co.uk selling privileges while we conduct a review of your account. During this review, the funds in your seller account will remain on hold.
We have reinstated your account as you provided the following plan of action:
- You will adjust your order management system to import stock level file every hour, which minimizes the potential for discrepancy between your system that updates your Amazon listings and your supplier’s actual stock levels on hand.
- You will arrange with your supplier to double the packaging material and make sure products reach customers in perfect condition.
- You will now upload products with quantity of 0 and manually check each one of them before setting Active.
Please abide with the above plan of action that you have provided in order to avoid further enforcement actions on you selling account.
For performance improvement tips, search on “Seller Best Practices” in seller Help. Please note that if your performance does not improve, your selling privileges may be permanently removed.
You will be notified by email when our review of your account is complete. Welcome back to selling on Amazon.co.uk; we wish you the best of luck.
Sincerely,
Amazon Payments
Seller performance measurement
Amazon places high importance on maintaining the trust of their millions of satisfied buyers. They have established performance targets for third-party sellers on its marketplace.
All sellers should be working towards achieving and maintaining a level of customer service that meets the following seller performance targets for every product they sell. Failure to do those may result in the loss of selling privileges.
1. Order defect rate (ODR)
Sellers should maintain a order defect rate < 1%
This is the percentage of your orders that have received a negative feedback, an A-to-z Guarantee claim or a service credit card chargeback.
- A seller who maintains a low percentage of negative feedback reflects Amazon’s customer-centric philosophy.
- A seller who works proactively with customers to resolve order problems will avoid most A-to-z Guarantee claims.
- When a buyer disputes a purchase charged to their credit card with their bank, it’s referred to as a service chargeback request.
2. Pre-fulfilment cancellation rate
Sellers should maintain a pre-fulfilment cancel rate < 2.5%
This is the number of seller-fulfilled orders cancelled by a seller prior to ship-confirmation divided by the number of seller-fulfilled orders in the relevant time period. To calculate this metric, Amazon considers all order cancellations initiated by the seller for any reason.
3. Late shipment rate
Late shipment rate: < 4%
This is the number of seller-fulfilled orders with shipments that are not confirmed by the expected ship date divided by the number of seller-fulfilled orders in the relevant time period. Orders that are ship-confirmed late may lead to increased customer contacts and negatively impact the customer experience.
Related: What to Do If Your Amazon Account Gets Suspended
