Amazon review: blocked my sellers account for no reason 76

I have purchased by paying thru my credit card on 19/02/2006 for CD pack of STAR TREk. They have till date not sent me the same. They were supposed to deliver by 04th may '2006. I do not know how and whom to contact as I stay in India. I suggest to be very careful ordering from Amazon.com if you live in India.

I got my shell mastercard bill and it has a $63.95 charge and I have no idea what it was for.

The sent me a flier advertizing a price of $1264 for a work bench and when I clicked the item less than 24 hrs later it was $1899! This is advertising a fake price!

I had an Amazon account and did really well with it. Over 10K a month. My son decided to open one up too. Within one week they closed both our accounts down. My son is 24 and I had no idea two from the same household could not have an account. It is stupid as he is an adult. My GF opened and account and they closed her account saying it was related to another account and she is in Sacramento. I guess when I was up there I used her comp. one time. It is terrible how Ebay and Amazon treat their customers and effect their lively hood. I have heard many stories about both these companies.

"Amazon.com Inc is trying to survive the economic crisis".

It looks like not only major financial companies are trying prevent themselves from going down while financial crisis is showing its power, but also Amazon.com looks like showing all the signs that deep recession or may be early depression is on its way.

Sellers on Amazon.com are frustrated because every action leads to suspension of their accounts on Amazon. And what’s even worth, sellers find out that their money are reserved by Amazon for 90 days without any right to get them back for that period of time. Every Amazon policy is written in the way that leads to suspension of your account without any serious reason. Amazon blocks sellers accounts and reserves thousands or may be millions of dollars for 90 days without any valid reason. For example, a statement like: "You have 5% of your orders cancelled or refunded, and we suspend your account because of your low selling performance", looks suspicious to me. Don’t the buyers have the right to cancel the order? Or we cannot cancel or refund the order just because Amazon doesn’t want it? Or maybe it wants us to do so in order to block our accounts and hold the money?

It looks like a good way for the company like Amazon to loan money without any interest in this tough economic situation. Do you think Amazon is trying to boost up its bottom line by reserving people's money? Good strategy but looks quite fraudulent.

The government really needs to check Amazon's activities. Companies have no right to reserve people's money for such a long period of time (90 days) or have no right at all. According to Amazon the reason why they reserve your money on their account is that in case if there are any claims from the buyers they will give their money back. Don’t they have 30 day return policy? So what about the rest 60 days?

The rest 60 days is enough for Amazon to invest your funds and make money or probably just cover their losses. Can you imagine what they can do with your money during 90 day period? They can invest many times in inventory or many other things and make it look like a healthy company. But there is no place on their financial statements that shows that this or that amount of money is the actual amount that was reserved (taken) from the sellers without their permission. I think they should be forced to have a section on their 10-K reports showing the amount of money (cash) that is a reserve amount that belongs to sellers on Amazon. Otherwise it makes their financials look good and their potential stock buyers are fooled.

I think their shareholders have the right to know what is going on inside the company. They just cannot continue boosting their earnings by taking people's money without any permission.

Amazon’s “service” that allows others to sell on their website have to be terminated or BLOCKED, like they call it. Because what they are doing it is far from being ethical. I think this company is doomed to be exposed one day like any other company with practices like that.

My recommendations for Amazon stockholders: SELL, SELL, SELL. And to potential buyers: DON’T BUY. Avoid risk as this company doesn’t pay for the risk associated with its actions.

I have reviewed Amazon seller guidelines 100 times and I am not sure that this seller guidelines works equally for everyone, I know many seller up there and I know exactly what they sell, Amazon simply profile people. I know many sellers has more than one account
Most video game seller has import games, import video games supposed to not list on Amazon
Galactic and bargainstations operated by one republican women
CDromUSA and Geekwhosaler operated by Korean people
Inetvideo and hubbagames operated by one Jewish guy
Hitgaming sell %90 import games

For example if you are selling a book which talks about Israel negatively, most likely your account will be locked, Jeff Bezos will not allow anyone to sell this book or you get lower search
(for example Jim carter )
Jeff Bezos is big Jewish and he specifically target Muslim seller on Amazon
Amazon has technology that can check your ancestry
If you have problem Amazon just go ahead file a case with American arbitration association
Finally there are no rules or regulation for seller on Amazon selling on Amazon depends on your religion and your ancestry

Just had the exact same thing happen to me... I am soooo upset... I feel violated!

The company is in trouble in my opinion which is why they took steps to close BUYER accounts (you know, people who buy from them and make their company exist) recently. Now it seems like they are really starting to close down seller accounts in an attempt to use their money to keep the operation running. Based on my own opinion you are at risk if you have good feedback and high sales. The good feedback means people will buy from you. If you have stumbled upon this post while researching Amazon after they put you under review my suggestion is to cancel all listings, refund orders which have not shipped out and do not process any orders. Your account suspension is coming in a few days and they will hold whatever funds you have for 90 days. You don't get a chance to represent your case, their decision is final.

one more in the boat. I never had a seller account on amazon.com. All they say my account is blocked and is related to a previously blocked account that violated their policies. It seems they have significant evidence about it and I have no clue.

This has happened to a lot of sellers (and according to this board non sellers). We are trying to start a class action lawsuit. There is an attorney in mind but we want to have lost of sellers that Amazon has wronged and held their money.

Please contact us at amazonclassaction@yahoo.com

I had the same situation too. I never had a seller account on amazon.com. How could be the violation of their policy?

I know you are wrong. Prices on the page fluctuate often. I bought an ipod last week and watched it everyday its price for a week and its price was different every day.
Sorry but it was bad luck bud!

Amazon and eBay both are using flash cookies technology, these cookies are somewhat like the normal cookies but the great advantage of these cookies are that user cannot find them easily in their computer.You can have more than 50 or may be 100 accounts with them.The only thing you need to make sure that you always delete these flash cookies from your computer or any unknown computer to minimize the risk of account linking.Please make sure to take 3 to 4 steps before accessing any account on any computer which make your life trouble free.There is no technology in this world who can link your account if you do these tricks.
1.Always delete cookies and flash cookies from your computer you can find out flash cookies by “%appdata%macromediaflash player#sharedobjects”.
2.Try to avoid using your id from multiple computers like from office or internet cafe because of simple reason that you may be able to delete the cookies but you will not be able to change the WAN ip which is the second terminology to link your accounts by ip address.
3. Use diffrent profile in win xp with different mac address.
4.Last but not least please make sure to restart your modem or router to get different wan ip address each time to access your account.To find out your computer wan ip simple click on http://www.whatismyip.com/automation/n09230945.asp

I hope this article will help you guys to make sure to not mistake in future.Forget about last account start with new accounts with these tips.

Happy selling on eBay and Amazon

Hi Narvinder,

Great tips. Many Thanks for them. Just one question, can you please explain point 3. I believe mac address is only one and is unique to every computer. How can one have different mac addresses?.

Really appreciate the help.

Thanks,

Akshat

There are also non-computer ways they link that will have to be dealt with:
Phone number (pre-paid phone card)
Credit Card (gift card)
email (new gmail account)
I've even read on the net that they canceled the account of some guy who bought the inventory off someone with a canceled account, so they must have some way of comparing inventory. Does anyone know about this and ways to get around it?

I am in the UK and started an amazon seller account at the beginning of October to fulfill my Halloween face paint sales. On starting the account we were amazed with the orders flooding in and ordered more inventory in order for us to continue listing items and getting this huge volume of orders. On Sunday out of the blue I received an email saying my account was under review, Halloween is THIS saturday - the UK postal service strikes on Weds, Thurs and Friday and amazon have pulled the carpet from under my feet, potentially leaving my business in severe problems, with stock that will not sell after Halloween!

I have sent continuous emails and tried calling and can never get any response from anyone except them repeating the same email saying your account is under review. Can they do this? What can I do?

Stop selling same thing happen to us; after the revie your account will be locked down for 90 day's. We have 8K euro stock there till Mid January. Don't get fooled.

Crazy legs the same thing has happened to me last sunday I received the blocked account e mail. They state that they have suspended my account for 30 days as my sales volume or inventory level is not supported by sufficient buyer feedback or established sales history. I have been selling on Amazon for 2 months now and it can't be helped if customers don't wish to leave feedack. I'm sure customers would soon let me know of any problems, then I would understand and fully appreciate amazons concern. I tried e-mailing them and got the same response. They also won't allow me to withdraw my money for 30 days. It really is a liberty that they are ale to do this but what can we do about it. Imagine the amount of money they have in their system if they are constantly randomly doing this to their 3rd party sellers. It turns them into a bank especially if they are investing our money. When the 30 days is up I've decided to withdraw my funds and close my account with them, I'll revert back to e bay. They seem to be a law unto themselves and there is nothing we seem to be able to do about it I'm afraid.

Absolutely agree with this complaint against Amazon...THE EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME THIS WEEK, and I was a 100% positive feedback seller for the past 3 years. I've never opened an account under ANY other name or alias. My only guess is a former roommate, who I may have shared an IP with 2 years ago, was blocked and then later they somehow linked that to me (different states now, only shared an IP for a few months back in 2006, etc.). Crazy!

I used to say that Amazon was so much better than eBay/PayPal because eBay did something like this to me as a result of a PayPal dispute...but Amazon is no better than eBay and they do the same thing with their customer service (farm it out to India and refuse to have a human being acknowledge your requests for more info).

Amazon is now on one of my 'most hated' corporations, along with eBay/Paypal. It's one thing to catch me doing something wrong, and penalize me for it, but this is draconian, extra-heavy handed, AND DOESN'T EVEN GIVE ME ANY INFORMATION TO RESPOND TO OR DEFEND MYSELF. It's absolutely Amazon's choice to treat us this way, but as their customers, we all need to fight back by keeping as MUCH business away from them as possible...I can't believe they're doing this, but they're choosing to boot a ton of valid customers/sellers (apparently). AMAZON CAN EAT MY ###!

Visit http://www.amazonstealth.com/ for a complete guide on how to get back on Amazon after getting suspended. Guaranteed new account with the AmazonStealth eBook!

- Also there is more things that Amazon tracks besides cookies on your computer. Find out more by reading the eBook! Plus you can even get it for free on their site!

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I also have been suspended for violating the "community rules". I appealed and it didn't take long for them to write back with their final decision saying the I was suspended indefinitely. I acted like a new seller to find these rules and couldn't find them. I finally did a search for community rules anmd followed link and finally found thesen rules about 3 or 4 pages in. What that shows me is that they have the "rules". they just have them hidden.

Besides joining into the class action lawsuit, I am reporting them to the Better Business Bureau and their phone humber is [protected] or you can go to www.bbb.org and file a report. I am also contacting the Attorney General in their state and that telephone number is [protected] and the Congressman in that state is Congressman McDermott and his telephone # is [protected].

I would like to think they are NOT too big to fail, but if we all join together, we can at least MAKE THEM HURT.

If anyone has any other thoughts on vother enues for selling oproducts, please contact me at horsetales1@aol.com

Visit http://www.amazonstealth.com/ for a complete guide on how to get back on Amazon after getting suspended. Guaranteed new account with their eBook!

- Also there is more things that Amazon tracks besides cookies on your computer.

Find out more by reading the Amazon Stealth eBook! Plus you can even get it for free on their site!

Amazon did the same to me. Kicked me off for zero reason! No problems, issues or complaints and now I have to wait for 90 to get 6+ grand. It's a total scam on their part.

Yet another victim here. We invested in a great deal of technology, infrastructure (warehousing etc) and three staff to scan and stack book stock. we listed a couple of thousand books and sold 100 units in our first 3 days and then Amazon swithced us off. I now have 60, 000 books of stock, a warehouse space I don't need and have to lay off the three people I had employed for this business unless it is resolved asap. Next step is the lawyers I'm afraid but I really don't want to go down that route $$$

WE too just had our account closed. We had a late shipment rate that was due to a bad lead time in our feed file. When we asked for help we were told to make a new file and that took us 2 weeks, meanwhile the late shipments piled up and when we finally fixed it they went to 0% -- they still closed the account after the "review" because we had 100+ sales and no feedback. They are holding 9K hostage on us.

Had my account suspended because my brother which lives in the house hold. I've tried to reach them numerous time but every time it comes up as what seem to be a computer automated response and there is no way of reaching the so call seller performance team. Tried to contact the corp number that I got online still no help. and they are withholding funds for 90 days. I say we all start a class action suit to show them who is the boss. so this does not happen to any one else. My email is therightprice@gmail.com

some thing happen to me few days ago. I was a new seller at Amazon. The first few days I got a huge sell, and I though amazon is a great place to start my online business. therefore, I ordered lots of inventory for the future business. However, suddenly, one day morning, I received an email from Amazon states that my account was related to an account that ... (some story), then, my account was blocked. I supposed to receive my this month's payment from amazon. I was planning to use this fund to cover my inventory cost. it's about $4xxx.xx. Now. amazon gonna hold my money for 90 days, and I am stuck. I have no extra money to pay off my payment. I emailed Amazon many times, even called them, no help. I really think Amazon has not right to hold my money for 90 days. I'd read some previous articles, I agree. Amazon can use our money to make their financial statement looks good. However, all of those money should belong to us, not Amazon. Fortunately, my reorder amount wasn't too big. but I have no way to sell all my remaining stock.

This is a very bad experience for me about amazon. I always thought how successful the amazon business is, even my professor used to say the same thing to us. Amazon is a great company. But the way Amazon treats our innocent sellers, and the way tries to steal the money from sellers, is it wrong. I think Amazon should be the one get hurt and be penalized, not our innocent, helpless sellers.

I have no way to go, and I have to wait for 90 days to get my money back. Once I have my money back, I will not sell anything at Amazon. ever.!

I cannot find a way to communicate "live" either chat or a tele number to call when site access fails. Did I miss something?

Yes, Amazon.com is a very dishonest company; I might almost say demonic. A lot of the terrible things that happened to a lot of the people in this blog also happened to me.

Amazon have done the same to me. Kicked me off for zero reason! No problems, issues or complaints and now I have to wait for 90 days to get my money. It's a total scam on their part.

I just got canned as well. Amazon is holding $2, 500 of my money for 90 days. Will they pay me the interest accrued on the amount in 90 days? I don't think so. Are they allowed to do this? They set their own rules and we have no choice. The problem is that everyone is too small to afford to hire an attorney. And they know it. They probably have a huge legal department to scare off the little guys like us. I was selling on Amazon for 2 years and because some people did not know that they should send me an email complaint BEFORE filing the famous A-to-z Guarantee Claim, I get penalized! 3 A-to-z Guarantee Claims within 2 months (only 1 was held against me, the other two were in my favor) and I still have had too many complaints from clients so they closed the account (permanently, after appeal) yesterday. If you're thinking about selling on Amazon, think twice. I don't even know if there is anyplace better? Fleabay/Paypout is no better. Now I have to dump my inventory or find a new sales channel.

Hi,

Does Amazon annoy you? YES. Does Amazon need to respect their sellers money better? YES. Should they remove the seller hold on my money? YES. However, Amazon is Amazon, and we sell on their site because of their high traffic and the level of confidence their buyers have when they purchase an Amazon related product. So, yes there are other alternatives to Amazon, BUT they all "suck" compared to Amazon. You will not be able to make as much money, GUARANTEED.

With that said, don't worry if your Amazon account is SUSPENDED, there is a SOLUTION! Just go to http://www.AmazonStealth.com, purchase their ebook for only 49.99, and you will be ABLE TO CREATE A BRAND NEW, FRESH, AMAZON ACCOUNT. No getting suspended or linked back to your suspended account ever again.

Give them a try, you won't be dissapointed. Quit wasting time browsing through the web on how to get reinstated, and start selling today!

I had been a seller on Amazon.com for many years. I only had few complains but Amazon.com bolcked my account forever. They never give sellers a second chance. They act like spy: if they find any related account they will block it forever!

Amazon is an excellent site, I assure you they are doing nothing illegal, you can forget about any class action law suites, they got their ### covered in the EULA you MUST agree to in order to sell there. The only reason you guys are ### about it here on these forums is because you all made an ### load of money on Amazon in a very short period of time and you can find NOTHING that even matches it or comes close online. If this were an ecrater account and it got suspended, you'd think "### it, who cares, it didn't make ### anyway". But when you can make 10k in one ###ing month, NOBODY wants to get kicked out, and once you do get kicked out, you want to bash the bad ### company that made you a ### load of money. NOTHING is foolproof, you should direct your energy towards getting back on. I already mapped out a contingency plan in the beginning. Your answer to the problem is even in a response on this thread. It costs money, but if you aren't willing to pay for it, then you don't really want to be bothered with making 10k a month.

BTW none of my accounts are suspended, but I got prepared because as you can see, it happens alot.

Everyone who needs to get back on Amazon, and wants to do it right, grab the Amazon Stealth ebook. Simple as that. No need to blame Amazon and post on here your hatred for them. Just get back on with Amazon Stealth and make yourself the hard earned money you deserve!

Go to AmazonStealth dot com.

I have never seen any service team from any known company as stupid and irrational as the Amazon Seller Account Service Team.

My seller account was blocked in Jan. 2010 simply because I bought one item ($489 Kindle DX) for a friend who might have an issue with Amazon. I had no idea about that person's seller account status, and his seller account should have nothing to do with my seller account because I was not selling anything for him. In fact, I asked Amazon to cancel my order ($489 Kindle DX) in order to keep my seller account and told Amazon that I would not order any item for that friend in the future. I wrote several emails to Amazon and called the service team including the manager to formally request Amazon to remove suspension of my seller account. Unfortunately, Amazon not only refused to remove suspension of my seller account but also ignored my request to cancel the order for Kindle DX. Amazon shipped one Kindle DX but charged my credit card twice for the total amount of $978 (2 x $489). Amazon has not yet given me the $489 credit back after four months.

I purchased many items from Amazon.com and only sold 2 items from my seller account last year. I actually don't need to sell anything through Amazon.com and had already closed all my accounts with Amazon. However, it was ridiculous and unacceptable to block any customer's seller account without any warning, especially for those customers who have never violated any of Amazon's stupid policies.

Where is there a telephone number for this wonderful Amazon?
I will never again buy anything from them.They should have an easy access to a number .

For some reason, I cannot log in to my account. I used the correct username and password that I've been using for a year in this website. I am really frustrated and amazon.com will not give me an explanation. I had to create a new account since I shop on amazon.com regularly.

Thanks for the website.

I have heard about Amazon getting in trouble lately... personally I think they chose a low stock at a 'to my belief' bad time...

ANYHOW; have you emailed jeff? at Amazon dot com ? that is his email address. First call customer service, of course.

One bad sell out of a hundred to a new buyer without a history and my account gets put in suspension. This lady claims she never received the book and yet she never demands a refund. Phoey on Amazon.com!