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The dreaded Amazon Seller suspension.
Getting your seller privileges suspended by Amazon because of a product compliance policy violation is an ordeal (believe us, we’ve been there), and getting your account suspended during the 4th quarter is an even worse situation to be in as it prevents you from benefiting from the most profitable season of the year.
Suspensions do happen at any time of the year, so it’s very important to know what to do in case your account gets suspended. In this blog post, we will be giving you important tips in validating your supplier/s to Amazon, a very important step in your Amazon suspension appeal.
What to Do When Your Amazon Seller Account Gets Suspended?
Don’t panic. It’s not the end of the world.
Keep in mind that despite all the precautions you may take, a suspension is not that far-fetched from happening. That’s why being prepared for a suspension is very important.
As a matter of fact, we ourselves experienced getting suspended back in 2018. We were fortunate enough to have overcome the initial wave of panic, and through careful research, we were able to craft an Amazon suspension appeal that allowed us to recover our selling privileges after four working days.
We discussed the steps we took in this blog post. Here, we discuss policy compliance violations that can get your account suspended and what to do in the next 24 to 48 hours after your suspension. Also, if you need help in writing your Amazon suspension appeal letter, you can download a copy of the one we sent to get our account reinstated and use it as a guide. We’ve also included downloadable copies of other emails we sent to Amazon to successfully address some policy compliance violations.
The Tricky Part: Validating Your Suppliers to Amazon
Sometimes, even if you provide complete and proper documentation in your appeal, Amazon will reject it and send you a letter like this one:
Don’t get frustrated. Keep in mind that Amazon has its customer’s safety and protection in mind, so it will demand solid proof that that your product is compliant and meets all verification categories. All you need to do here is to exert extra effort in providing them with the proper quantifiable data.
To get Amazon to validate your suppliers, try to do the following:
Annotate Receipts and Invoices
When presenting your receipts and invoices to Amazon, it’s very important that they can easily see and review the specific pieces of information they are looking for. You may check our previous blog post to know what pieces of information you should highlight to make it easier for Amazon to review your receipts and invoices.
There are free tools like Skitch by Evernote and Snagit by Camtasia to make this task much easier.
Use Reader-Friendly File Names
Here’s something that’s often overlooked by sellers submitting an Amazon suspension appeal.
Do not, we repeat, attach and submit the image files of your invoices and receipts using file names made up of random strings of letters and numbers (something like AS33XY.JPG).
Rename your files using text that one can easily understand.
We like to use the format:
ASIN + Invoice Number
For example:
ASIN XXXXXX Invoice #123121.jpg
Also, in the case that you have several product ASINS to address in the appeal, group the ASINS into folders.
Provide Complete Information
A significant number of sellers often complain about how difficult it is to communicate with Amazon. What most of them don’t realize though is that communication is a two-way street, and part of the responsibility of facilitating effective communication falls on our end. Always assume that the representative reading your appeal has no idea what you are talking about. Use this mindset when presenting information pertinent to your case.
We suggest going the extra mile when it comes to presenting information to Amazon. For instance, if a product is not itemized clearly in your receipt or invoice, provide another image which shows that the store item number or product code of your item matches the UPC number of the ASIN Amazon has on file. Also, make sure to mention this in your Amazon Suspension Appeal letter.This makes a huge difference in getting a favorable response to your appeal, so exert a lot of effort in providing all the information they need.
We hope that you were able to get great information from this blog post. If you have any questions, concerns, or personal experiences on submitting an Amazon suspension appeal to share, light up our comments section. We’d love to hear from you!
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