My Story | Please Help
Hello Amazon Seller Community and Mods,
I hope you are all doing well. I have never made a post like this before but I feel like I have to because I am lacking direction. My name is Vance, I am a 20 year old Amazon seller based in Tennessee. I began my selling journey in March of 2024. I started small but didn't get far as I got hit with a deactivation almost immediately after opening. About a month later I won the section 3 and continued selling again. I wanted to improve my business model and transition into the wholesale department. At the time, my friends had been working with an Amazon agency called Amazon Engineers. I signed with this agency in May of 2024 to aid in Amazon operations. Before signing with them we had a legal agreement and understanding that every business operation would be done in accordance with local laws and Amazon policies. After signing, I sent $10,000 for product costs on the brand Estee Lauder. They then requested access to my account in order to manage shipments and appeals. Due to the legal agreement and understanding we had in place I had the assurance that everything would be done correctly. After adding the emails they then shipped the products to Amazon using my store. All seemed to be going well, the products were selling, customers left good reviews, the return and NCX rate were low. The initial $10,000 had nearly sold out so I sent $26,090 through July 11th - 26th. Just 3 days after I had sent the last payment, my account was deactivated due to inauthentic complaints. I initially thought it would be easy because in our agreement and conversations we had an understanding that everything would have the proper documentation. A few weeks went by and I was constantly asking about the status of the deactivation, they continued to reply with "We are working on a POA". Being a new seller, I believed them, however, weeks turned into months. I began to get suspicious of them and removed their access to my account to prevent any further damage. Eventually, the bubble burst and information got out that Amazon Engineers was sourcing from a Chinese company. I had gotten scammed, losing both my account and nearly $30,000. Since then I have been fighting for my account to prove my innocence. I have been doing everything in house and strictly working directly with brands. There is one brand in particular that would like to go exclusive but I am unable to due to the status of my account. I acknowledge what happened on my account and I respectfully request that Amazon hears my story and gives me a second chance.
P.S. This scam impacted 30+ sellers and resulted in $300,000-$500,000 in funds stolen.
My Story | Please Help
Hello Amazon Seller Community and Mods,
I hope you are all doing well. I have never made a post like this before but I feel like I have to because I am lacking direction. My name is Vance, I am a 20 year old Amazon seller based in Tennessee. I began my selling journey in March of 2024. I started small but didn't get far as I got hit with a deactivation almost immediately after opening. About a month later I won the section 3 and continued selling again. I wanted to improve my business model and transition into the wholesale department. At the time, my friends had been working with an Amazon agency called Amazon Engineers. I signed with this agency in May of 2024 to aid in Amazon operations. Before signing with them we had a legal agreement and understanding that every business operation would be done in accordance with local laws and Amazon policies. After signing, I sent $10,000 for product costs on the brand Estee Lauder. They then requested access to my account in order to manage shipments and appeals. Due to the legal agreement and understanding we had in place I had the assurance that everything would be done correctly. After adding the emails they then shipped the products to Amazon using my store. All seemed to be going well, the products were selling, customers left good reviews, the return and NCX rate were low. The initial $10,000 had nearly sold out so I sent $26,090 through July 11th - 26th. Just 3 days after I had sent the last payment, my account was deactivated due to inauthentic complaints. I initially thought it would be easy because in our agreement and conversations we had an understanding that everything would have the proper documentation. A few weeks went by and I was constantly asking about the status of the deactivation, they continued to reply with "We are working on a POA". Being a new seller, I believed them, however, weeks turned into months. I began to get suspicious of them and removed their access to my account to prevent any further damage. Eventually, the bubble burst and information got out that Amazon Engineers was sourcing from a Chinese company. I had gotten scammed, losing both my account and nearly $30,000. Since then I have been fighting for my account to prove my innocence. I have been doing everything in house and strictly working directly with brands. There is one brand in particular that would like to go exclusive but I am unable to due to the status of my account. I acknowledge what happened on my account and I respectfully request that Amazon hears my story and gives me a second chance.
P.S. This scam impacted 30+ sellers and resulted in $300,000-$500,000 in funds stolen.
2 replies
Seller_NbYSGJ8Tehgbv
I can give you a concrete answer if this were Amazon related. Unfortunately, its not. But its still a very important story and I can offer you, at the very least, my suggestion. Its not a concrete answer but you can give it a try.
I would look into the agreement you have in place with this management company you were working with. I cannot tell based on your post but it looks like that management company gives the impression that they have supplier connections for popular brands but they are, actually, working with knockoffs that originate from China.
I have seen these type of knockoffs in person and I know its a real danger. There is a very nasty culture in China where its actually a normal thing to make counterfeit copies of a famous brand on Amazon and sell it online. I have seen Chinese suppliers lie to the masses and say that they own the design....only to have hundreds of Amazon accounts suspended due to their unethical actions.
If your agreement mentions misleading statements that the management agency you were working with will provide you with supplier connections and ends up connecting you with suppliers creating counterfeits in China, that sounds pretty illegal to me. I see here that you already spent 30,000 USD. I would assume you do not have a problem with working with a lawyer or even reporting this scam to the FTC.
As far as this
Amazon tends to not do this. This is also the forums. Amazon corporate does not communicate via the seller forums. Only moderators and regular sellers like myself do.
If I were you, and my account were suspended, I would send as much information as possible about my enrollment with this scam management agency...how much I paid....the agreement....what happened....absolutely everything.
And I would hope that the person reviewing this knows I got scammed and I will not be doing that again. And hopefully they reactivate the account.
