Hello, I am relatively new to Amazon and have been selling for six months. This morning I woke up to my account being deactivated. I just had a phone call about my ODR and immediately assumed it was that and filled out the form sent to reactivate it incorrectly. I then reached out and began talking with Amazon Seller Support, who let me know that this was not the issue. Instead, the issue had been an application to sell a new brand, and that something was deemed to be falsified in the paperwork submitted.

I have been unlocked in many categories with no issue but have gone through the learning curve of getting approved. I have worked tremendously hard on my account and have thousands of items dedicated to FBA for the holidays. This is my first forum post, and this news was unfortunate, and I’m reaching out for advice. I appreciate all positive or negative feedback, as I’ve not posted but have read some responses (albeit many warranted).

I will post the background of the issue and the events leading up to this morning for context, and if there are any questions, I will respond as I deeply care about my account. I would hate to see it go to waste. I can also provide pictures of my numerous successful ungating and the POA I drafted (not great), but I feel it’s inadequate and may be confusing. The background I share here is very similar to the Events leading up to section.

Thanks again, and I am genuinely grateful that this forum exists. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Take care, and I will continue this topic and seek a resolution. I will clarify any confusion or questions and pre apologize for the long post! Thanks all

Background and context of the situation
Root Cause of the Falsified Document -

On 10/30-10/31, I was contacted by Amazon support about my order defect rate and issues with my account. I was informed that my account was being reviewed and had an open dialogue with the representative. At the end of September, I told him that I had health issues as I came down with what I believed to be an infection that I later found out to be Covid. I had significant problems with some of my shipping as I got the virus pretty bad along with members of my household whom I needed to take care of. It was a rough month, but I am much better and informed support. So today, when I checked my account and saw this deactivation, I assumed it was about this.

My resolution for solving my order defect rate was to send all items to FBA until I was able to get up to speed. However, what I found was that my inventory levels exceeded the 1000 item level for standard items. I did some research and found that I had a lot of capacity left in the other categories. I also began to lower my prices to competitive prices immediately and was able to do roughly 8k dollars in sales the last three days to clear out some of the inventory to begin to send in my FMB items.

At this time, I contacted a consultant and confidant whom I have known to have a lot of success on Amazon. I decided to let this person help me as I was just trying to get all my affairs back in order after COVID. I informed them of the situation and that I only had oversize capacity left, and that the only items I have in my physical store that meet those requirements are some star wars ships and 100s of large lego sets. I also informed the person that I had trouble getting ungated in lego about 3-4 months prior. I was asked about my documentation and told them that I believed I had all the documentation to be ungated along with the required ten pictures of the items. The issue I thought was I was told that I had a packing slip, not an invoice. I was told to send all the documentation I had as he was an expert in getting ungated. With this information, it would not be a problem. He told me that if I were ungated, I would be allowed to send all my large lego items in, and they would be accepted before the Holliday because they fit the requirements for large stock.

At this time, I set up a tentative draft to re-apply to sell item b07wqw3xz - A lego battle pack to get ungated. I was asked to send all the information I had packing slips, order receipts, documentation, as well as pictures for my lego items I had in stock and that they would be able to get me ungated, allowing me to get the things in before holidays. I was under the impression that he came up with a draft and would not be sending anything in without my consent. I was not informed of an official application going in for the items and was surprised to hear about an official application going in at 4:31 am on November 1st. Support gave me this information and advice. I contacted this person right away to see what happened. I asked them for a copy of what was sent as I cannot see what was attached to any application for the ungating.

(I would also like to add that I have gone through this process around ten times for different brands and items I sell on Amazon, so I am familiar with this process and have always provided pictures).

After getting off the phone with the support I immediately reached out to this consultant/”friend” to find out what happened. I told him of the situation and that my account was suspended, and I was told the documentation sent was not authentic. After an exchange, I was informed that he submitted the necessary documentation to get ungated and that this might of been an Amazon error. I let him know that he had no authorization or consent to send in an official application without my permission. After another heated exchange, I was told that I sent him enough information and that he was doing me a favor in helping me get ungated. However, I don’t believe this and would like to compare the documents I sent him to what was sent to Amazon as I don’t know what you guys received. What I do have is all the documentation and pictures that I sent him.

I believe that this is where something has occurred that may be falsified and fall under section 3 of Amazon’s policies aka(falsified documentation). I want to believe there was not the case. Still, after speaking with Amazon today, I have concluded that some misrepresentation of my documents must have been compiled in an inauthentic manner, albeit redacted or added information. As noted, I have been through this process myself numerous times and have never had any issue like this with being unlocked in a category. I also believe that the person may have thought they were acting in my best interest and knows how many large lego items I have at my physical store. Either way, it does not matter, as there should never have been an application submitted without my full consent under any circumstances. It is my fault for asking for consulting help, and the root of the issue was trying to get oversized items into Amazon for the Holliday.

I would like to see what was sent, but in Lui of that, I have attached all the information I have on file for the item b07wqw3xz, which I believed was used to falsify or try to pass off documentation to be ungated. Please clarify what was sent because I would like to hold the party responsible as I only knew about a draft and that the ungating was being worked on. I was just in panic mode after calling about my account status and wanted to get things moving with Amazon and thought I was doing the right thing by getting some outside help to get back on track and reduce my physical inventory at my store. Before this situation, I was the only person with access to my selling account and had no issues. For this reason, I know that allowing access to my account was a mistake. That is the entire root causing of the actions that have taken place and must be the foundation of the problem I am currently dealing with. I seak to find an equitable solution as I did not authorize any official application and was just trying to get more items into FBA that fit the oversized stock requirement as I had space there. This past month was extremely hard with the family and covid. I had purchased thousands of items for the Holliday season for Amazon and panicked when my limit was reached and just wanted to generally get back on track as I was concerned about my store.