Amazon paused account suspension “purges” for a short time during Q4, so we saw very few mass suspensions for one main reason during the few peak holiday weeks.  Now Amazon appears to be back to the cycle of account suspensions. We’ve seen them suspend batches of sellers for specific offenses all in one sweep. It’s easier for them to group up sellers for one batch of suspensions, knowing that any false positives can be dealt with as soon as sellers start appealing. Unfortunately, that pushes the burden on to you.

Making matters worse, Seller Performance often doesn’t reply to appeals at all. Or, response times are longer. Once numerous sellers start submitting POAs (Plan of Action) all at once, performance teams bend under the weight of them all.  Then, Account Health Services teams field calls from sellers wondering why they’re not hearing back, wondering what is going on.  They’ve already gone back to calling sellers to give them 72 hours to send in a POA just to maintain selling privileges.  Then you’re on the clock and looking for help to understand why you received messaging from Seller Performance in the first place.  Hopefully, AHS can tell you that.

In terms of overall account suspensions, here are our main observations on current trends. We see the usual good news, and bad news.  

• Amazon messaging keeps changing, yet it’s not improving.   Messages often miss crucial info like complaint ID’s, ASINs, or any specifics on why you’re under review.
• Are they going to tell you HOW you violated a policy? Is Amazon willing to vet buyer or brand complaints better or will they continue to assume that each one is valid, from the outset? 
• Account Health reps seem to understand that current suspension notifications lack the details you need to appeal, even as they ask for a POA from you that includes details.  
• Will appeal denial messaging ever be more informative? Account Health has improved their ability to tell you why an appeal has been denied, but only just barely.  With more experience reading account annotations, they may get better.
• Amazon sellers understand better that they must focus on long-term not short term solutions to problems that attract Amazon’s evil eye.  Account suspensions won’t hit you like sudden surprises as often, given everything we’ve said for years about Amazon’s seriousness in closing accounts.  

So, what’s the Good news? 

1. Sellers who are given 72 hours to write a solid POA just might avoid losing their account to a temporary deactivation.  You could still lose your account if Amazon rejects your appeal. And in our experience, sellers don’t seem to take the pre-suspension appeal process as seriously as they do an actual suspension. A weak POA won’t be accepted, and will result in Amazon suspending your account, so make the first one count.  

2. You do get more than one shot at this.  If you need to revise the POA and submit one closer to what they expect, a Revised POA should get a proper review and possible acceptance.  If you rework the second one well, then you have a better shot.  Keep in mind that you can’t expect immediate responses, and just sending one in and may mean waiting several days (in some cases, weeks) for them to review it.  

3. Now that sellers understand the role AHS plays, there may be more transparency around WHO judges your POA and makes the ultimate decision to accept or reject.  But if performance teams take several days to weeks simply to get back to you, then they know AHS will be underwater with calls after pre-POAs and full suspension appeals go in. Keep up the pressure on Account Health Services to indicate when you might expect a response. If they’re continually unsure, then make sure you press them to submit the POA on your behalf.   Amazon trains some reps to deny that this is a possibility but we’ve done it enough times to know.  

4. And what about all those murky suspension messages that don’t say anything.  Is Amazon finally more motivated to clarify WHY the account was suspended to avoid the kinds of public complaints that came at Jeff during antitrust hearings? We certainly hope so after years of complaints, and increasingly undecipherable messaging about suspensions.  

You would hope that if they’re going to ask you to provide a detailed POA and make significant changes to your account’s performance and compliance that they could at least do you the honor of providing some basis for the action they’re taking.

5. Asking you to produce a pre-POA to maintain their selling privileges will give you motivation to take improvement seriously.   Fewer sellers ignore ASIN suspension, policy warnings, or “out of range” metrics if they know Amazon monitors their accounts for a potential suspension.  You shouldn’t have to wait until they’ve pushed you to defend your selling account within 72 hours, though, in order to identify trouble spots.  Keep an ongoing rundown of warning signs and flag them for review, increased due diligence, and perhaps even major changes in quality control, sourcing, or management of the account.  Quality control and due diligence fixes are the core of what every Amazon investigator seeks in a Plan of Action.  

They want professional-grade, competent sellers, who perform well and adhere to their standards of compliance.  Despite what you may have heard, this is no place for amateurs to get started.  

If you’re facing performance shortcomings, they want to hear how your operations have been permanently improved. Or if they keep warning you for policy violations, they want to see new compliance procedures that will follow their listing rules. They’re just as serious about ensuring the best buyer experience as they ever have been, and never shy away from dropping new requirements on sellers. 

Is there any Bad News?

• The more resources Amazon gives you, like account health dashboards and reps to talk to the less blame Amazon will accept for murky communication. Even if that extra communication leaves a lot to be desired and they refuse to clarify on their end.
• Amazon still denies POAs for reinstatement without enough specifics, leaving you to interpret POA deficiencies yourself.  A POA needs to address “what went wrong” with references to specific problems in the “Root Causes” section, and they won’t tolerate seller’s protests that no problems exist at all. You can’t just assume you have to “make something up” to get reinstated.  Sellers are expected to take responsibility for past deficiencies, gaps, oversights or mistakes.  And if you get the causes wrong, they may refuse to read it at all, expecting the rest of your POA to speak to issues they never wanted you to address.  
• In terms of the solutions expected by Amazon, sellers must understand how to solve problems they identify in the root causes and they must present those solutions in detail so as to avoid the incoming suspension if their POA gets rejected.  You’re not just promising things, generally, and making a vow to fix things up.  You need specifics. 
• How many denials are too many? If you have to ask, then you’re already there.  Too many rejections are bad news, and not just because it means less revenue for the month.  You may kill any chances of retrieving the account at all, if you keep appealing poorly and they stop replying.
• Managers and  VP level Amazonians may not fully appreciate how unprofessionally written Amazon messaging is, or may not ever sit down to read the various permutations like we do.  Amazon teams are notoriously “silo’d” from each other and known for passing the buck by transferring the contacts
• Marketplace management also need lots of help putting improvements to tools, teams, and overall processes into place, and could lack the kinds of integrated support they need internally. They’ll need some encouragement from the ever-growing population of sellers, who have a basis to escalate cases to them or push complaints about mishandled account investigations under their noses.  We’ll have to see if Amazon considers other pressures to be worth the investment in operational improvements.

What does Amazon want, anyway? 

They want professional-grade, competent sellers, who perform well and adhere to their standards of compliance.  Despite what you may have heard, this is no place for amateurs to get started.  

Unfortunately we still see some sellers who only take real action or make painful choices when they are actually suspended. A warning that they MAY be suspended may not be enough motivation if they are accustomed to making excuses, or blaming Amazon or competitors.