Shockingly abysmal level of customer support
I have recently returned to Amazon as a seller, after many years. I'm in the process of updating my 'outdated' info and am completely and utterly shocked by the poor level of customer service. This cannot be reality? It's almost as if Amazon is trying to chase sellers away with the ridiculous lack of service provided by the un-communicative, uncaring, untrained, and unaccountable tech support and customer service reps they have seemingly outsourced their service to. I used to run call centres and we did a lot of outsourcing. There's nothing with outsourcing AS LONG as there is clear and constant oversight and accountability. Once that is lost....forget it!!!
Anyhow, my issue is that after coming back to Amazon, I need to update my banking info. Seems simple right? When I log into my seller account, I see a prompt to update my account. When I click on 'Assign Bank' I get taken to another screen that tells me to approve the message sent by Amazon to my phone number - and it lists the last four digits of my phone number. The problem is, the message I'm supposed to approve, never arrives. I do not get the texts. I will click resend, and still not receive it. It has nothing to do with my phone number as I get all of the OTP's that Amazon sends me in order to log into my account. So we know my phone provide hasn't block Amazon.
This has now been going on for over a week and everytime I contact Amazon, I need to start back at the beginning. The new agent I am speaking too, seemingly has no idea about the issue as they apparently don't make adequate notes on the account to update the next agent. It is absolutely frustrating to have to once again start at the beginning and tell every customer service agent I come in contact with, what my issue is and answer the same questions repeatedly.
How can a billion dollar corporation have such a shameful customer service infrastructure? How do I resolve this issue so I can resume my selling? Does somebody.....anybody....have a suggestion?
Shockingly abysmal level of customer support
I have recently returned to Amazon as a seller, after many years. I'm in the process of updating my 'outdated' info and am completely and utterly shocked by the poor level of customer service. This cannot be reality? It's almost as if Amazon is trying to chase sellers away with the ridiculous lack of service provided by the un-communicative, uncaring, untrained, and unaccountable tech support and customer service reps they have seemingly outsourced their service to. I used to run call centres and we did a lot of outsourcing. There's nothing with outsourcing AS LONG as there is clear and constant oversight and accountability. Once that is lost....forget it!!!
Anyhow, my issue is that after coming back to Amazon, I need to update my banking info. Seems simple right? When I log into my seller account, I see a prompt to update my account. When I click on 'Assign Bank' I get taken to another screen that tells me to approve the message sent by Amazon to my phone number - and it lists the last four digits of my phone number. The problem is, the message I'm supposed to approve, never arrives. I do not get the texts. I will click resend, and still not receive it. It has nothing to do with my phone number as I get all of the OTP's that Amazon sends me in order to log into my account. So we know my phone provide hasn't block Amazon.
This has now been going on for over a week and everytime I contact Amazon, I need to start back at the beginning. The new agent I am speaking too, seemingly has no idea about the issue as they apparently don't make adequate notes on the account to update the next agent. It is absolutely frustrating to have to once again start at the beginning and tell every customer service agent I come in contact with, what my issue is and answer the same questions repeatedly.
How can a billion dollar corporation have such a shameful customer service infrastructure? How do I resolve this issue so I can resume my selling? Does somebody.....anybody....have a suggestion?
27 replies
Seller_DdmPiA1p1S2Wu
Yep, sadly that is just how Amazon Non-Support is. Many here feel like they make it so bad on purpose to try to just get sellers to go away and not bother them. Contacting support is the absolute last resort for me, I know it will just drive me crazy if I try to do so. On Amazon you're pretty much on your own to figure out solutions. Sometimes a mod can step in and help here in the forums, but the actual Amazon Support is horrendous.
Seller_xo4Akj7FBBnfC
From Amazon’s perspective, Seller Support is functioning perfectly.
Here's a relevant thread about Amazon sludge. It describes the intentional strategy of burying sellers in delays, dead ends, and circular replies—not because Seller Support is broken, but because it’s working exactly as designed.
The goal isn’t to resolve issues—it’s to minimize the cost of trained, competent support personnel and reduce concessions and refunds by routing sellers to untrained call centers that deflect, deny, and stall until the seller finally gives up.
My latest example: yesterday I spent over an hour compiling documents to open a case after Amazon suspended our FBA shipment creation—due to an obvious warehouse error at LAN2. Someone reported a 23 Lb overage on a 45 Lb box—despite our standardized packing, Amazon's partnered carrier confirming and billing the correct weight, and the physical impossibility of the error based on the contents and box size.
As I said in another thread, it feels like Amazon regards sellers the way McDonald’s regards cattle—essential to the business, yet completely expendable and undeserving of any real consideration.
Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv
The “Captive Team” is a small group of US-based Seller Support reps
That's really interesting. Why are they called "captive" and are they meant to be a special escalation channel like you've described, or they typically serve a certain type of seller (for instance, revenue over $Xm)?
Seller_roNdLQpqbVoOH
Days? Days??
Most of my cases - and I sometimes open a few a week because of the idiocy that exists on book pages - involve not even weeks, but months!!
Days would be delightful! 😜
CR_Amazon
@Seller_SkHF2lsSMGB7B
Hi there, CR here and wanted to hop in here. First of all, I'm incredibly sorry for the frustration you've experienced to this point and want to see if I'm able to get some information from you here. Please do know that I'm not a member of the Seller Support team and don't have the same tools or visibility into your account that they do but want to see what I can assist with.
It sounds like this issue is still persisting for you, correct?
Would you mind sharing the most recent case #'s you have opened with Seller Support? I'd be happy to take a further look at your issue there and review the correspondence provided to you to this point.
I'll hang tight here for your response and will do a few other checks on my side in the meantime.
CR_AMazon
CR_Amazon
@Seller_SkHF2lsSMGB7B
Hi again. CR back here.
I took a quick peek at your account and it appears you have a prompt within your 'Account Info' page from your settings to 'Verify Account'. Have you clicked this teal button which takes you to another page to verify your identity? This is done with photo or video. It appears that is a next step here for you to complete if you're able. The image looks like this:
I'll remain here for your reply.
CR_AMazon
Seller_0qyRtqm32cQSi
This is unfortunately the new norm. I'll never forget 11 years ago when I was first setting up our store a member of the catalog team took an hour and a half to walk me through the entire category listings report and teach me how to use it. I talk about it to this day, I wish I could get their name, it was a human and truly supportive experience. He wanted me to succeed and I felt it, if not for that interaction we wouldn't have scaled to where we are today.
Fast forward to 2025- I open cases to resolve what would have been simple issues, spend an extra 2 hours preparing onerous amounts of documentation which shouldn't even be needed only to be shut down by canned responses that are no different than the original error message! Why even entertain us with seller support if they can't actually support? They literally just make me wait 24 hours and then copy paste the original error message I'd received which was the purpose of the contact! Is there no exception handling at all happening anymore?
So now after banging my head against the wall for the past 2 weeks I acquiesce and come to the forums, at least we can commiserate here, hopefully a mod can help.
