It’s a nightmare scenario that has befallen many – too many – Amazon sellers and brand owners: the dreaded account shutdown email. Titled simply “Your Amazon.com Selling Account”, no matter the perceived transgression, this cryptic email offers little of use in terms of what happened and how to reconcile the issue. It’s the seller’s responsibility to figure it out, and that can be tougher than it looks. To make matters worse, an incorrect appeal can result in permanent account loss, even if there was in fact no offense committed. In this four part series we explore the four main causes of account suspension and share what we did for our clients in each of these situations to get them back online.
The Back Story
One day, out of the blue, our client received a warning from Amazon that they had harmed another seller. This alleged harm took place in the Canada market, which was odd because they only sell in the US.
As is often the case, the notice they received was vague. It took hours of crawling the Account Health dashboard to get a sense of the real issue. Amazon believed that our client had purchased goods in Canada from another seller, with the intention of harming that seller.
What’s important about this is that the client does not actually sell their goods in Canada. They have remote fulfillment but they do not ship goods to Canada. So if someone was shipping FBA within Amazon.ca territory then the products were definitely counterfeit, and not actually the client’s products.
Somehow, a random seller in Canada managed to convince Amazon that our client, the owner of the listing, had harmed them.
How The Scam Works
The perpetrator lists against the mark’s existing ASIN, in a marketplace where the mark does not sell. So there is no Prime offer in the new market, in this case Canada. It’s remote fulfillment from the US, but no Prime inventory. When the perpetrator ships direct from China to Canada, they’re able to sell their fake product in Canada, and with the Prime badge no less.
The perpetrator produces a knockoff product and all the original reviews stay on the listing. Then they sell this counterfeit in another country. This is happening right now to one of our biggest US clients in the Japan market. Several Chinese factories are selling against our client’s listings in Japan, and it’s all counterfeit product. That client has the same problem in Australia. We have another client with Chinese knockoffs on his listing for a Turkish-made product. The genuine product is manufactured in Turkey. The sellers are clearly shipping from China, and Amazon can see that, and they won’t take it down.
“Amazon simply will not enforce in other markets. Based on the information in the current listing, they will allow counterfeiters to operate in other countries. It’s absolutely bonkers.” – Rachel
Is This Legal?
Is this just another example of the old (tired) tech company narrative of “we just own the sandbox and can’t be responsible for what happens in it”?
Interestingly it’s a legal argument which is that if you do not have the rights in the country the item is being sold in, if you do not have a trademark, then you have no legal protection in that country either. The client selling a Turkish product in the US, doesn’t have a US trademark for that product. So legally speaking, he can’t actually do anything to these counterfeiters.
And so Amazon’s stance, in spite of their insistence that they’re customer obsessed, just points to the letter of the law and continues to collect their money.
Bottom line, our client couldn’t control anything happening in Canada because there was no Canada trademark registered. They weren’t able to take these guys down.
The Plan
The client did a few test purchases to see what the interlopers were selling. They also bought from a couple of competitors to see what they were selling. This was basic market surveillance research to find out what exactly they would receive, and to compare their quality against competitors.
The burden of proof was on us to show that the interlopers were the scammers, not our client. We provided the test buy findings along with a whole case to prove to Amazon that this was a scam and in fact our client was the victim, not the perpetrator.
The Result
Ultimately the client didn’t have their account taken down. But it’s important to understand that what they received was a Section 3 warning. You won’t always have your account taken down for a warning like this, but you must always respond appropriately and get that warning removed from your account, or else it stays on your permanent record as a seller. If something else happens down the road, that Section 3 will come back to haunt you.
“You have to enter your ‘not guilty’ plea, and be acknowledged by Amazon as such. If you don’t, and something else happens, that may be the end for you.” – Rachel
Essentially, if you don’t acknowledge a notice that Amazon sends, they assume they were correct to send it. This was discussed in Part 2 of this series. So the first warning might not be enough to get you shut down, but if there are two, and you’ve ignored them both, that’s a big red flag to Amazon.
You can appeal both at once, but it really doesn’t look good. The first thing they’re going to want to know is why you didn’t address the first notice. And as you know from Part 1 of this series, this should be a one and done proposition. So you’d have to have the knowledge and understanding of how Amazon works to address that first one in your appeal too. Since most don’t, you’re unlikely to get far.
“You can’t let something like that stand,” says Rachel. “Basically you’re being accused of illegal activity, you can’t simply not address it. But this may be another case, like the ones we talked about earlier in this series, where a seller reads a notice like that and thinks it’s just so ludicrous that it can’t possibly be serious. But don’t make that mistake. Answer them quickly and professionally, every time.”
“I did that on my own seller account just this year,” she continues. “I got a warning for ‘variation abuse’ and I literally laughed out loud, it was such a ridiculous warning. It’s a color variation. I did it correctly, so I ignored it. Then I got a warning for the same exact thing a couple of months later, so I finally sent back a detailed response. I basically had to do their job for them. But I did the same thing that so many sellers want to do: just move on to something that’s real. A lot of times we don’t realize the potential impact of the warnings.”
Man vs. Machine
One key thing to remember, as a brand and as a seller, is that ultimately Amazon is run by humans. There is a ton of automation, and though these are automated notices with very robotic sentiments that sometimes make no sense, and you may feel like it’s being received by a bot at the other end, it actually is not. Humans are making the ultimate decision for you, though the initial ‘decisions’ are often made by bots now. You’ve got to make those humans happy.
“There are human touch points that you have to make sure that you’re on top of. Because if you’re not, now they think that you are the problem. The system is built to support that view.” – Rachel
And, as we discussed earlier in this series, in some ways, they’re not wrong. Amazon wants to work with businesses that are professionally run, and will contribute to their ledger in the positive. They don’t want to work with businesses that don’t want to do the work. That is a very robotic and machine driven kind of perspective, very Amazon, but the underpinnings of the entire business are all human. If Amazon is suggesting that you are the problem, you must communicate that indeed you are not.
Don’t Make Amazon Liable
True, they don’t want to work with unreliable sellers, but it’s also a liability issue. Consider your affect on Amazon. Much of the reasoning behind how systems are set up is they simply do not want to have issues. They have regulatory bodies looking at them all the time: the CPSC and the FDA, to name a couple. Like we discussed in Part 1, regarding restricted products… think about the possibility that you’re creating a liability for Amazon, and understand that they will not let that empire fall on account of you.
“Amazon is constantly in the news, right or wrong, and dealing with issues concerning various governmental agencies, and then on top of it there are sellers putting them in the line of fire? No, that’s not going to be a thing.” – Rachel
Find A Consultant Who Will Help, Not Hurt
In Part 2 of this series we talked about how we no longer take new client reinstatements at Troveres. If you are an ongoing client, we can help you. But if not, we can’t. There is just too much background to sift through.
Sellers must understand that oftentimes they are in trouble because they did do something wrong, though they may not realize that what they did was not allowed, or they don’t realize how it could come off. If you do need help, and you’re on the lookout for an Amazon consultant, be thorough in your research. Don’t choose someone who doesn’t know what’s going on… it will absolutely cost you.
For one of our newer clients, we are currently working through some real damage done by their previous consultant. This consultant spent just one year at Amazon, in the retail department, and then he left, which suggests that he burned out or something else went wrong. Plus, that was the only department he worked in during his tenure. No additional skill sets, no understanding of how any other departments operate, or how it all fits together, and frankly, not enough time in retail to pick up all the nuances of the job he did do.
Yet he has a business as a Marketplace consultant, though has no experience with how Marketplace works. He is misleading people about his capabilities. He doesn’t understand half the things that he is doing. We are fixing basic set up and login issues, which is embarrassing for him and dangerous for the client. Relying on a consultant who will make you look bad to Amazon is a great way to get your account permanently shut down. Though it’s far below our pay grade to be fixing these elementary account issues, we’re so glad the client made the move and that we can help him fix things before there are problems.
“If you are familiar with Amazon culture, you already know that the term ‘peculiar’ is part of the company’s culture and vernacular,” says Rachel. “The thing is, Amazon itself really is peculiar. They don’t like to follow standard industry practice because that may not be what’s right for them. I actually asked once in a meeting, what standard industry practice was, and was told ‘that’s not relevant… what we want to know is what process will work for us.’ Amazon doesn’t really care what standard industry practice is. So when you come from a company like Amazon, and you’ve worked there for a while, you understand where they’re coming from. The uninitiated will apply a standard business practice that’s often wrong. You can’t just apply what you think is relevant because at Amazon everything behind the scenes comes together in a way that you probably don’t expect. People want it to be easy, they want it to make sense in their mind, but they have no context to understand how it fits together so they go for what feels right but that’s often the wrong answer.”
Set Yourself Up For Success And Avoid Costly Missteps
Navigating Amazon’s complex and often unforgiving platform can be overwhelming for even the most experienced sellers.
As we’ve explored in this series, understanding the nuances of Amazon’s policies is absolutely critical to maintaining a healthy, compliant seller account. Missteps in appeals or relying on unqualified consultants can put your entire business at risk, leading to irreparable damage to your account standing.
For sellers facing the daunting task of reinstating or defending their accounts, it’s crucial to approach every communication with Amazon thoughtfully and professionally.
At Troveres, we leverage deep insider knowledge to guide our clients through these challenges, helping them build secure, resilient operations. The right expertise can make all the difference—ensuring sellers have a strong foundation to face Amazon’s demands and ultimately thrive in this high-stakes marketplace.
Learn from the best in the business – FREE!
At Troveres we help brands articulate their story in unique and beautiful ways that utilize strategic, data-informed steps that drive engagement and increase conversion rates. Our content strategy was developed by former Amazonian of eight years Rachel Johnson Greer, who was part of Amazon’s private label team for more than two years, developing and maintaining brands with hundreds of products across dozens of product lines. Click here to download Rachel’s guide to Content Marketing That Converts for free.
