Just opened my account, brand new, was immediately suspended after sign-up

#1

Dear Amazon Seller Forums community,
Hello everyone.

My seller account was immediately suspended after registration approval.
I registered as an Individual for the Professional selling plan, and I completed the registration process and provided identity verification information to the best of my knowledge.
Also, I am a non-US person, and I have no listings at all.

Please see the emails below:

  1. I receive this suspension email:

Hello,

We are reviewing your Amazon.com seller account. During our review, you will not be able to sell on Amazon.com.

Please ship any open orders. If you have funds in your account, they will be available after any amounts paid for A-to-z claims or chargebacks on your orders have been deducted. This usually takes about 90 days, but funds may be held longer.

You can see your balance and settlement information in the Payments section of Seller Central. If you have questions about those, please send an email to payments-funds@amazon.com.

Please provide the following documents and confirm there is a valid credit card on file:

–Utility bill with name and address visible
–Business license, if applicable
–If you have active listings, include copies of invoices, receipts, contracts or delivery orders from your supplier issued in the last 90 days.

You can send files in .pdf, .png, or .gif format. These documents must be authentic and unaltered. You may remove pricing information, but the rest of the document must be visible. Please submit your documents by following this link (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/cu/contact-us).

Once we receive your documents, we will review them and decide whether you may sell on Amazon.com again.

When you are ready to send us your plan, please submit your plan of action by following this link https://sellercentral.amazon.com/cu/contact-us.

Sincerely,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com

  1. I followed the link https://sellercentral.amazon.com/cu/contact-us and sent the following… (Note that I registered as an Individual, and I am a non-US person, so Business License is not applicable, and also that I have no Listings at all, so invoices, receipts, contracts or delivery orders from supplier are not applicable):

Dear Amazon Seller Performance Team,

Please see attached the applicable requested documents (attachment “XXXXXXX–Utility_bill_with_name_and_address_visible”).
Also, hereby I confirm there is a valid Visa card on file (you may see attachment “XXXXXXX–Valid_Visa_card_on_file” for reference), which has already been charged.

I’m looking forward to your comments.
Thanks in advance for reviewing my account.
Sincerely,

XXXXXXX

Attachments:
XXXXXXX–Utility_bill_with_name_and_address_visible.pdf
XXXXXXX–Valid_Visa_card_on_file.pdf

  1. After 10 days of no response, I notice there is an “Appeal” button, I click it and submit the following:

Suspended for poor selling performance

N/A — No selling performance history

Suspended for policy violation

N/A — No policy violation

Suspended for related account

N/A — No related selling account

Additional information

Dear Amazon Seller Performance Team,
Hello from XXXXXXX, I hope you are doing well.

My account got immediately suspended upon creation, and I understand that you are reviewing it. As requested, I already provided the applicable documents and confirmed there is a valid card on file, 10 days ago, and I have not heard back from you. Please see Case ID XXXXXXXXXX for reference. If there is anything else that you would like me to do, provide and/or clarify, please let me know, I will be more than happy to comply.

I am looking forward to your reply.
Thanks in advance for reviewing my appeal.
Best regards,

XXXXXXX

Contact phone number

XXXXXXXXXXX

  1. Lastly, 9 minutes after the latter, their reply:

Hello,

We reviewed your account and the information you provided, and we have decided that you may not sell on Amazon.com.

We may not respond to further emails about this issue.

Sincerely,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com

Have I just been banned for life without even starting?
Can anyone shed light on this? @Living_In_a_Van @Caan @Lake @MAV-DAK @The_NSFE_DOES_SUCK @SEAmod ?
Any assistance would be very much appreciated…
Thanks in advance to anyone that tends to my request.
Yours very truly,

nitup

#2

This is a normal part of the authentication process for new sellers. The only way to get your account reinstated is to provide them with the documents they require.

You may want to start by reading this.

#3

Almost every case I see involves issues with 3 things

ID
Credit Card
Utility Bill

  • Didn’t supply all 3 items
  • Addresses don’t match up
  • Screen shots instead of pics of actual documents
  • Foreign non-translated doc.'s
  • Using someone elses credit card
#4

I have the same problem, but I recently discover that we have a seller account created a year ago and is suspended since day 1. What do you mean by foreign non-translated doc´s? I am from colombia, are we supposed to translate utility bills and credit card bank statements?

#5

As Oneida pointed out, you need to review the documentation that you sent and make sure that everything that was requested was submitted.

I would try to get clarification and resubmit the docs making sure nothing in them could shut the door on you forever.

I would email seller-performance@amazon.com and cc: jeff@amazon.com

If you receive the same response then you can consider your prospects of selling on this site as grim and gone.

Best of luck to you!

#9

Dear @No_NSFE_For_Me, @The_NSFE_DOES_SUCK, and @Living_In_a_Van, hello.
Thank you all for being so kind to take the time to reply to my post. I appreciate your thoughts and good wishes!

I found your suggested reading very enlightening, thank you for sharing it with me.

I submitted every applicable documentation that was requested, namely my passport, bank statement, and utility bill, following their requirements to meet.
However, I didn’t submitted a business license nor invoices, given that I registered as an individual rather than a business (so no business license applicable) and also that I have no listings at all (so no invoices applicable). Anyhow, I could get a business license from my government, but then would I need to change my legal entity from an individual to a business?

My name and address between the information entered in my account and the documents I submitted differ in spelling and formatting:

  • The name on my VISA, submitted utility bill, legal entity, and deposit method (U.S. bank account through Payoneer, verified) contain only my first name and first last name, whereas the name on both my submitted national ID (passport) and bank statement (from my home country) contain my first name, second name, first last name, and second last name.

  • The address on both my submitted bank statement (from my home country) and utility bill are literally identical and spelled in Spanish, however, their formatting and spelling aren’t literally identical to the address entered in my account spelled in English.

Exempli gratia (not real information):

  • Name: “Juan Perez” vs “Juan Ramon Perez Lopez”

  • Address: “Panama Bella Vista, Calle 48, Edif TAO Apto 16B” vs “Bella Vista, Calle 48, P.H. TAO, Apt. 16B, Panama City, Panama”

Perhaps this is an issue? Should I change/update the name/legal entity and address entered in my account?

By the way, I am not sure with what do they want me to do regarding “please […] confirm there is a valid credit card on file.”

The charge method that I supplied is a VISA debit (not prepaid) and says “Active” in green, and was also successfully charged with the $39.99 fee. I guess I will have to change this to a VISA credit?

Very wise. Can you please advise on how or with whom may I get clarification? Perhaps a staff? @SEAmod @jake_sellersupport?

Mea culpa if my reply is overwhelming…
Best regards,

nitup

#10

Every document, must be identical, to the information, you registered with, when you opened your account, as mentioned here Info: Why was my account suspended, immediately after registration?

#11

i have the same problem, got registered on 23th August until now still suspended, no idea

#12

Dear @Rushdie, hello.
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate you commenting.

I’ve read your post and found it very useful in content. Kudos to you.
Should I, then, change/update the information —id est, spelling/formatting of my name/legal entity and address— entered in my account? Can you, or anyone, advise on this?

#13

Legal entity in your account should at least match the name on your ID and bank account. Your seller account information is the easiest to edit/change. I would start there.
My seller account contains my full name as legal entity, but charge and deposit methods have only my middle initial. I did not have any issues when they verified my account/identity.

#14

Dear @No_NSFE_For_Me @The_NSFE_DOES_SUCK @Living_In_a_Van @Rushdie and @2BeFixt,
Thank you all for your kind replies!
Based on your feedback and contributions, and posts from @bunga_bunga @Style and @Lake, I have prepared the following appeal letter, for which I would like to hear your comments… Thanks in advance for your time, I really appreciate it!

Dear Seller Performance Team,
Thank you for reviewing my account.
I am responding to my recent suspension for failing to provide consistent information for seller verification.

After carefully reviewing my account and the information I provided, I have acknowledged my mistakes that led to failing the seller identity verification process, and I concluded my plan of action.

A. Mistakes that caused the issue:

  1. I provided an UTILITY BILL that is not consistent with my address and passport name.
  2. I registered my LEGAL ENTITY in a format that does not match my passport name.
  3. I registered my ADDRESS in a format that does not match my utility bill.
  4. I added a CHARGE METHOD with a debit card.

B. Actions I have taken to resolve the issue:

  1. Provided a new UTILITY BILL that is consistent with my address and passport name. (Please see attachment)
  2. Corrected my LEGAL ENTITY to match my passport name.
  3. Corrected my ADDRESS to match my newly attached utility bill.
  4. Added a new CHARGE METHOD with a valid credit card.

C. How similar issues won’t happen again:

  1. The actions that I took under point #B will prevent the issues under point #A from ever happening again.
  2. If any other information is to be provided in the future, I will make sure that it is consistent with what is on file.

Thank you in advance for responding to my email.

Sincerely,
name
phone number

#15

My apologies, for missing your older post, but it seems you nailed it down, very nicely.

Email to seller-performance@amazon.com, from your Amazon registered email address, with the Subject line, “Re-submission of Documents / Appeal”.

Perhaps, someone else may want to add something, but I think, it’s perfect.

Let us know if it works out for you.

#16

Thank you for opening this topic, as I encountered similar fate.

I noticed that some new seller was charged with $39.99 after opening an Amazon Seller account but thing was different to me, my credit card was charged only $0.01, which charges or ways is correct?

By the way, I’m a newbie without much knowledge, but I’m here to learn from you guys.

Please comment

#17

@nitup Did you solve the problem ?
This is really a problem for new sellers, my friends also have problems like you. They did not resolve and abandoned the sale on Amazon. That is a sad thing !

#18

Hi there @Bach_Xuan_Dao!
Unfortunately no… no yet. I am still waiting for a response from seller-performance@amazon.com (they have not replied to my email).

Indeed, it is a sad thing.

I will let you guys know if it works out for me.

#20

@nitup any luck? I’m in the exact same situation as you.

#21

The same thing has happened to me as well. So sad. Im wating on a response from seller performance

#22

@nitup

Was wondering if seller performance has responded to you

#23

Hello everyone. Got suspended Seller Account right after application and documents submission. Now Seller Support have stopped replying to my e-mails and Amazon has deducted the Professional Seller Fee of $39.99 from my credit card. I have submitted all the documents needed. What steps should I take now?

#24

Hello,
I just opened my account and same thing happened!
And seller customer support no answering, no phone number , nothing.
ANY LUCK?