Victoria received word from Amazon that it had shut down her seller account due to poor performance. She says her record was relatively clean and is mystified as to why she’s been booted from the system, and Amazon won’t give her straight answers.

She writes:

I have a seller account on Amazon, but I rarely list anything for sale. I’m a college student and so the only time I ever list anything for sale is maybe at the end of the semester when I’m trying to get rid of my books. I haven’t tried selling anything since about a year ago.. last December. I log on to my buyer account pretty often to shop, but that’s about it. About a week ago, I logged on to the seller portion of my account to sell some of my text books. When I logged in, I found an alert, “Amazon has suspended your account. Please refer to email from Amazon to learn more about the status of your account.” Okay.. so I clicked read more and from April 23 of 2010 (this is how little I check the seller account), it says my account has been suspended due to poor seller performance. I looked into my performance a little bit. From my maybe ten sold orders that I’ve ever had with Amazon, I’ve only had one negative comment from a buyer (from a $5 purchase of a student access code). I was able to appeal the decision, so I sent an email to Amazon with my “new plan of action” as they call it, and I received an email denying my appeal.

“Hello from Amazon.

After reviewing your seller account and the information you have provided, we have decided not to reinstate your selling privileges. Negative feedback, late shipments, pre-fulfillment order cancellations, refunds, and claims reflect a seller’s overall performance. High rates in one or more of these areas generally indicate that buyers are experiencing unsatisfactory transactions. While we appreciate your interest in continuing to sell on Amazon.com, the removal of your selling privileges is a permanent action. Any new selling accounts you open will be closed as well.
Regards,

Seller Performance Team”

I was given absolutely no reason as to why they decided not to reinstate my selling privileges. I was able to appeal it once again, so I sent another email. This time, I got another denied response.

“Hello from Amazon.

Thank you for writing. After a review of your account by an account specialist, we have decided not to reinstate your selling privileges. We regret we are unable to provide further information on this situation. Further correspondence regarding the closure of your selling account may not be answered. The closure of this account is a permanent action. Any subsequent accounts that are opened will be closed as well.
Regards,

Seller Performance Team”

They are unable to inform me of any information and all questions will not be answered. How nice. I am able to appeal the decision once again, but I am wondering if it is even worth it. I am at a loss of words at this because it is so stupid. I’m not sure what other steps I can take here, but I’m really disappointed with Amazon. I will still buy stuff from the website often because of how much cheaper it is than in stores, but it’s a huge inconvenience to not be able to sell my books any longer. I’ll have to result to using eBay (sigh) or have a family member or friend sell my books on an Amazon account of their own.

If you’ve sold items on Amazon, what sort of feedback have you received from the mother ship?

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