Craig
Gedey has seen just about every conceivable reason for having an Amazon SellerBan. Geed is the managing partner of Thompson and Holt, a company that
specialises in getting deactivated accounts back on line as quickly as possible.
Using his vast experience, here he covers five of the most common causes for
receiving an Amazon Seller Ban.
1.
Receiving inauthentic complaints
“This is one of the
most common causes that we see for being handed an Amazon Seller Ban,” Gedey explains. “It’s something that
Amazon rightly takes very seriously, stating in their guidelines that ‘If you sell
counterfeit goods, we may immediately suspend or terminate your selling
privileges and destroy inventory in our fulfilment centres without reimbursement’. Because it is
such a consumer-driven platform, they are always keen to protect the customer
in every way possible. But what we have also seen in recent years is a rise in
baseless claims against Sellers, either by unhappy customers or rival businesses.
To avoid that you need to be proactive and prepared for any such instances by
having all the relevant details of your product from your supplier, which will
help you respond accordingly you do receive an Amazon Seller Ban.”
2.
Be found to be selling restricted products
“Amazon’s policy is very
clear on the prevention of the sale of illegal, unsafe or restricted products,
including those only available by prescription,” Gedey says. “If you sell any of
those items, you immediately risk an Amazon Seller Ban. It pays dividends to
familiarise yourself with Amazon’s policies and lists of prohibited
items. If you are ever notified that you’re selling a prohibited product,
remove it from your listings immediately. If you do receive an Amazon Seller
Ban, outline clearly in your appeal how you will avoid a repeat of the
situation in future.”
3.
Running multiple Amazon Seller Accounts
“This is an issue
that Amazon enforces strictly,” Thompson
and Holt’s Gedey explains. “Sellers must not
operate multiple accounts without Amazon’s prior approval, or they can find
themselves land with an Amazon Seller Ban. Amazon’s guidelines state: ‘Operating and
maintaining multiple Seller Central accounts is prohibited. If you have a
legitimate business need for a second account, you can apply for an exception
to this policy.’ Yet we still see
examples of Sellers ignoring this. They can be detected by identifying the same
IP address, using the same bank information, tax ID or address. If you are
caught doing this you’re facing an
immediate Amazon Seller Ban it simply isn’t worth it.”
4.
Failure to address intellectual property complaints
“This is an issue
that we have seen a rise in leading to Amazon Seller Ban in recent years,” Gedey continues. “Intellectual
property law deals with the enforcement of patents, trademarks and copyrights.
What usually happens is that when a rights owner makes a claim against a
Seller, Amazon first notifies the Seller of the complaint. Amazon will often
remove the listing for that product and instruct the Seller to work out the
complaint with the rights owner. Make sure you deal with the issue at that
stage, because ignoring those warnings could quickly lead to an Amazon Seller
Ban.”
5.
Being hacked
“This less common,
but something that can happen through no fault of the Seller and still result
in an Amazon Seller Ban. At Thompson and Holt we have seen an increase in cases
where Seller accounts are hacked, bank account information is changed, and
funds are transferred to an overseas bank account belonging to the hacker.
Amazon has the ability to suspend the account on its own if they notice any
suspicious activity, while other times, Sellers themselves will notify Amazon
of the unusual account activity. That can then lead to an Amazon Seller Ban
until the company can verify account details with the Seller. Funds may also be
put on hold to protect the Seller further.”
No comments:
Post a Comment