Account Deactivated after failing Identity Verification! 5 Years with Perfect Account Health!
Seems Amazon are focussed on kicking out third party sellers, what with the recent re-gating and masses of Section 3s.
Not only do I sell on Amazon (and follow the rules to the letter), I train people to set up accounts on Amazon and rigourously ensure they comply with all aspects of Section 3. My account has always had a perfect health score.
So out of the blue I get "Your Amazon Seller account has been deactivated in accordance with Section 3 of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement".
Did a long midnight verification with the US, loads of questions answered off memory - correct answers - had a list of documents and data to send which I did the next day and apparently I've failed my identification!
Next few responses were: "After reviewing the information from your virtual identity verification, we believe or our controls identify that your account has been used to engage in deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity. As a result, your account will not be reactivated."
But this is ok because, as Amazon always say, "We are here to help".
So instead of working with me to a) prove I am the legitimate owner of the account and b) help me secure my account if indeed anyone has tried to use my account for fraudulent purposes, apparently I am the villain and the Amazon bots are never wrong.
Whilst this is not my only income stream, it is for many sellers, and I have already approached several media channels to explain how Amazon makes and breaks their own rules on a daily basis.
I am currently pursuing this with John Boumphrey's office (UK Managing Director) and I will continue to do so until a human at Amazon reaches out to me. I have 4 VAs who have been with me from 2-4 years. If any of them has (inadvertently) done something wrong I want to know so I can address it and prevent it from happening again. But as I suspect, there is no evidence.
This will cause many sellers to leave or avoid Amazon totally - any competition to Amazon will see a surge of new sellers, and they will have alienated the very people who help to pay their salaries.
Has anyone ever come back from this situation? Anyone just gone through this? I'm more than willing to organise further action to protect the small business owner. It starts tomorrow with the media but won't stop until I speak to someone at Amazon who actually cares.
Account Deactivated after failing Identity Verification! 5 Years with Perfect Account Health!
Seems Amazon are focussed on kicking out third party sellers, what with the recent re-gating and masses of Section 3s.
Not only do I sell on Amazon (and follow the rules to the letter), I train people to set up accounts on Amazon and rigourously ensure they comply with all aspects of Section 3. My account has always had a perfect health score.
So out of the blue I get "Your Amazon Seller account has been deactivated in accordance with Section 3 of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement".
Did a long midnight verification with the US, loads of questions answered off memory - correct answers - had a list of documents and data to send which I did the next day and apparently I've failed my identification!
Next few responses were: "After reviewing the information from your virtual identity verification, we believe or our controls identify that your account has been used to engage in deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity. As a result, your account will not be reactivated."
But this is ok because, as Amazon always say, "We are here to help".
So instead of working with me to a) prove I am the legitimate owner of the account and b) help me secure my account if indeed anyone has tried to use my account for fraudulent purposes, apparently I am the villain and the Amazon bots are never wrong.
Whilst this is not my only income stream, it is for many sellers, and I have already approached several media channels to explain how Amazon makes and breaks their own rules on a daily basis.
I am currently pursuing this with John Boumphrey's office (UK Managing Director) and I will continue to do so until a human at Amazon reaches out to me. I have 4 VAs who have been with me from 2-4 years. If any of them has (inadvertently) done something wrong I want to know so I can address it and prevent it from happening again. But as I suspect, there is no evidence.
This will cause many sellers to leave or avoid Amazon totally - any competition to Amazon will see a surge of new sellers, and they will have alienated the very people who help to pay their salaries.
Has anyone ever come back from this situation? Anyone just gone through this? I'm more than willing to organise further action to protect the small business owner. It starts tomorrow with the media but won't stop until I speak to someone at Amazon who actually cares.
2 replies
Seller_RmIyXW5nWDShg
We are having a similar problem with our account having been deactivated after failing a verification process.
This was triggered by us changing our business bank account, we have provided two separate letters from the bank that comply with the requirements but these were rejected with no explanation and we now keep receiving standard messages to say we cannot sell on Amazon and this decision is final etc.
We are also trying to get someone to review this manually or even just advise us what the problem was with the documents (both are authentic and were requested from the bank for this exact purpose).
Please let us know if you manage to get anywhere and if so how you managed it!
Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn
Have you tried Mediation.
Have a look at the Mediation policy and see if you can use this. You have to commit to paying half of the mediation fees and Amazon pay the other half.
What though happens in practice is that Amazon often fix the problem before any Mediation fees are payable. I believe that someone with some authority and most importantly is human looks at the case and makes decisions based on your submission.
Often account issues which Seller Support and the Managing Director Escalation team can't (or won't) fix are fixed by Mediation.
There is no guarantee though but I know others it has worked for.
You may not get the answers you are looking for as to why your account failed verification but you may get your account active again.
