Account Suspension
Back in November 2019 our account was suspended due to late shipments.
As a business we work Mon to Fri 9 to 5 and these orders came in over the weekend, pushing the late shipment metric rate over the % threshold.
Since then we have been messaging Amazon and submitting a Plan of Action, each POA is more detailed than the last. Each time there is never enough information, despite being told by two associates on the phone that what they advised us to say would pass the performance tests and our account would be reinstated.
I have now no option to submit a POA through the account health section, but this is what I am told to do.
I now have to raise a case, but when I do raise a case I get no answer, the case is closed and I get nowhere.
Any help and advise would be great.
Account Suspension
Back in November 2019 our account was suspended due to late shipments.
As a business we work Mon to Fri 9 to 5 and these orders came in over the weekend, pushing the late shipment metric rate over the % threshold.
Since then we have been messaging Amazon and submitting a Plan of Action, each POA is more detailed than the last. Each time there is never enough information, despite being told by two associates on the phone that what they advised us to say would pass the performance tests and our account would be reinstated.
I have now no option to submit a POA through the account health section, but this is what I am told to do.
I now have to raise a case, but when I do raise a case I get no answer, the case is closed and I get nowhere.
Any help and advise would be great.
37 replies
Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO
You’ll need to post both the message from Amazon and your PoA if you want some guidance.
Seller_hC0hNVDuILaKO
When Amazon say “Greater detail” they don’t necessarily mean “more detail”, but literally 'greater" as in better.
As advised, post the notices and POA for advice. 
Seller_cedsnRIkO32W2
Have you stated in the POA that you’ll set your account to holiday mode when you can’t fulfil orders over weekends but otherwise will extend operations to fulfil orders over weekend through the use of third-party distributors or FBA?
Might be worth including something like that.
Seller_IwweoP9xXVR2P
Hello @Riverside_Confection,
From your post, I understand your account has been deactivated for late shipment rate issues and that you have been trying to appeal with no resolution. This is definitely not an experience we want our sellers to have.
Based on the comments from our selling partners on your post, I have few suggestions which would help you in the account reinstatement.
When an account is deactivated for a performance issue, the seller performance team looks for a plan of action that contains 3 key points. They are:
- Root cause: Try and understand the “why, what, who, where and how?”
As recommended by @Adrian, try and understand to see if there were any additional root causes that could have gone unnoticed but were controllable.
- Corrective Measures: What have done about it?
- Once you identify the primary root cause(s), what could you do or have already done to fix it?
- What have you done, and what did you change within your business model or processes to eliminate those root causes?
- Preventive Measures: How can you control it? Think long term!
- Think about the changes you can make that will help you avoid similar issue in the future.
- Mention the steps that you can actually implement in your business.
Altering handling time is fine but isn’t a strong preventive measure. What if you are unable to manage the order volume and are unable to dispatch even in 3 days?
You are stating that you will implement FBA in the long term when you have enough sales but what have you thought about in the meantime? How will you plan and make sure your merchant fulfilled orders do not get affected due to any controllable reason.
Think about the greater changes you can make in your business as suggested by @Adrian-- When Amazon say “Greater detail” they don’t necessarily mean “more detail”, but literally 'greater" as in better.
In order to properly appeal the removal of your selling privileges, please follow the below instructions:
- Sign into your Amazon Seller Central Account
- Click the following link: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/performance/dashboard
- Select ‘Reactivate your account’ to submit your appeal
Once you send the details, our seller performance team with review and help you accordingly.
Thanks
Elena
Seller_FtEBVznd3HJ1j
Hello there is a key error in your poa.
- You cant use weekend as an excuse because order coming in the weekend Amazon will give you extra handling time.
2)You should said correct handling time has been set in each listing rather than “state our handling time is increased”
3)I know this may not be the case but you should mention you will gradually convert all listing to fulfilled by Amazon
- Mention how you deal with customer who affected by the delay.
Hope this help
Seller_SeyZVopmpquHF
Where you are going wrong is you are explaining why you couldn’t act faster instead of telling them what you’re going to do to act faster.
They are not the least bit interested in your reasons for slow confirmation no matter how justified they are. You could tell them you were having a heart attack at the time and that would cut no ice. They just want to know what you’re going to do in future. In the case of heart attack tell them you are now on medication so a heart attack is no longer likely.
Just tell them you will employ more staff over the weekend, automated upload systems, go on Amazon prime, anything that will get you reinstated.
Seller_DXdNeV8CXfQ6b
As mentioned, the weekend does not count as ‘Ship Now’ days, so the ‘Root Cause’ is not correct.
You need to hands-up explain that you exceeded your order velocity and had more orders than you could ship (or mark as shipped), then make arrangements to either reduce the received orders or look at alternative dispatching or fulfilment solutions and methods. IMHO
Seller_GGzDKOkzQyKkd
Hi,
Can I just ask here if you have a cut off time of for example 2 pm for getting orders out each day Monday to Friday, set up on your Amazon account? I cannot understand why you would be expected to dispatch over the weekend, as Royal Mail don’t do collections over the weekend our orders after 2 pm on Friday all go out on Monday there is no other way for us to send them. As soon as an order arrives after our cut-off time of 2 pm it shows that the order is due for dispatch on a Monday, so why would Amazon expect you to send out mail on a Saturday or Sunday?
If your Friday orders up to 2 pm or whatever time you have set up are all sent out by Friday, then the orders that come in after that time are not due to be sent out until Monday and should show that as the expected dispatch date.
Also when you dispatch your orders check to see if Royal Mail are scanning in the tracking on the day you post them. We had major issues with one of the largest Royal Mail centers dumping our bags in a corner and not scanning them in to their system until the next day, sometimes it was 2 and 3 days later. They did not care at all and we had to contact and have a meeting with Royal Mail Area Manement to get it resolved.
It was only when they did an indepth investigation into what was happening that it was discovered. We were told that our manifests and parcels should be scanned in within 2 hours of arriving at the mail centre on the day of collection or drop off and that was not happening. Amazon were treating it as late shipping when it was not, our parcels alwasy go out on time. But the Amazon system treats the shipping date as the date Royal Mail scan the parcel into their system, that is what shows up on your account, not only the date you post the items. If there is a difference between these two things then you have a problem with Royal Mail or your courier.
The issue was with Royal Mail and it has happened occasionally again because they are so busy and short staffed right now. There is the occasional parcel that seems to be missed when they are scanning them in. I can have 22 in a sack and only 21 get properly scanned. That is not the sellers fault and something over which I have no control. But it took months to get it sorted out and for Amazon to be able to see what was actually happening with Royal Mail. The Amazon support staff simply could not see that I was sending the parcels on time on their system because Royal Mail were not scanning them in. I eventually was forced to contact the managing director email and it took a lot of messages back and forward for them to understand and see what the issues were.
It was one of my most difficult times selling on Amazon and a complete nightmare because nobody at Amazon would listen to what was causing the problem. Doing a plan of action is fine but you need to work out if in all this Royal Mail were not scanning your parcels in on the day you dispatched them. Well, that is if you use Royal Mail or if you can see what happened with the parcel scanning with whatever courier you use. If they are not scanning them in on the day you send them this will just keep happening again and again until you sort it out and force them to do the job they are are supposed to be doing.
Seller_NoLYurmb006tq
Its probably not going to matter if you have already been warned previously and then not acted on it there is only 2 options really if your not able to ship that I can think of I would make sure I cleared everything down as late as possible Friday obviusly Friday shipments would need to go out on a quicker delviery monday for Tuesday delivery to customer but then for the weekend thing you can either go into holiday mode or simply update shipping on a friday afternoon to 3-5 day ship and send out mondays.
Seller_SeyZVopmpquHF
Selling on FBA means that all future sales on FBA will have negative feedback voided. That’s all the assurance Amazon needs that there will be no more poor performance. Amazon handle the delivery and if anyone leaves a negative for whatever reason on an FBA item it will get wiped from the metrics.
Ever wondered how some sellers have tens of thousands of sales but not a single negative? Because all their listings are FBA
