Amazon is holding over 4.2 million dollars during a pandemic, suffocating our business!
Can someone please help us here?! My partner and I have been selling on Amazon since 2013 with outstanding metrics. Our average net sales are over $1 million/month and we are by no means new or small sellers.
We started shipping a lot more than usual Merchant Fulfilled orders because of the situation with FBA, so the system flagged our account for a “velocity review” and they are now holding all of our funds — over $4.2 million dollars. We’ve sent Amazon multiple emails to multiple departments, pleading for help, including a spreadsheet of 200k+ orders with the associated tracking, all delivered on time with no issues.
They are refusing to disburse my funds while encouraging me to continue to sell and ship all of our orders on time. We cannot stay in business with all of our funds tied up suddenly and having to front everything. I sent emails to every department that I know of and have not had any success at all.
Why would Amazon, in the middle of a pandemic squeeze a business such as ours so hard that we cannot get ANY of our funds for goods sold or to pay our people. I understand risk mitigation, but this is over the top. Please mods, help us!
407 replies
Seller_2sSWhvyZsq56v
With those kind of numbers have you thought about a paid account rep??
Not sure if they can help, if not cancel.
Seller_tNSvCjiOBuiLN
With this kind of money, why isn’t a lawyer involved?
Seller_xnrQOCNby3UdX
Wow, that is crazy… I cannot fathom how they can hold that amount of money without a personal contact. Unbelievable. Keep us posted. This is good for all of us to know. I hope it gets resolved quickly.
Seller_Svctui4diZK2I
Get rid of that rep.
Hire a lawyer ASAP. Get one that specializes dealing with Amazon.
The sooner the better.
Seller_ogR3hTUPYGbob
I am having the same issues with AMAZON.
I AM SICK OF AMAZON SUSPENDING ACCOUNTS THAN TAKING WEEKS FOR A RESPONSE.
HOW ABOUT AMAZON SELLER SUPPORT IS HELD TO THE SAME METRICS AS SELLERS PROVIDE TO CUSTOMERS ? 24 HOUR RESPONSE TIMES.
Customer <- Seller (1 DAY REPONSE TIME) <- seller support (haha minimum 4 weeks if we even decide to respond LOL).
Seller_jw3HRo32wY2Hk
That hold was likely triggered due to the velocity increase. The Amabots will kick in no matter what. TBH the timescale for resolution would be unknown, so make sure you don’t hit a cash flow crunch. If you ship orders for inventory purchased on credit from suppliers, there is no guarantee Amazon will have disbursed by the time payment is due. Honestly these days after the fake account attacks affected Amazon, running a business full time on normal business conventions isn’t that sustainable.
Personally I’d take a step back and think of long term. Probably you’ve been enjoying the higher sales volume, but if you have a cash flow crunch it could all be over. So maybe set account on vacation and wait for the disbursement. Just my .02
Seller_bLRuMbjggHxc3
I am just flabbergasted at the amount of amazon sellers making 12 million plus a year. Every month there is atleast 5 saying there is issues with amazon and they rake in millions upon millions a month. I thought our business was well off with the size of our operation but obviously we are doing something wrong…flip side to that is somehow all these sellers that are making trillions a month, keep getting in hot water with amazon and the rest skate by 
Not high jacking OP just an observation.
Seller_oewHJOFDM7eyN
So it seems your ROI is not so good. Agreed that the Velocity Review is BOT and triggered by the increase in orders.
With those kind of numbers it seems you have not been pulling out the “Rainey Day” fund which is six months of income and expenses and instead have been totally reinvesting in products.
Amazon is not your partner but a selling platform.
I really do sympathize and hope this is over quick but your paying $5K a month for what? SAM I Am?
Seller_MU8ehgZgMJ9K0
It seems you relied too much upon FBA and not enough on FBM before this.
Seller_ogR3hTUPYGbob
Everyone is so quick to criticize your business operations but the fact is AMAZON consistently bans accounts (automatically) or manually for NO reason. And then does not respond or review their bans for WEEKS.
