How To Write The Perfect Amazon Suspension Appeal Letter

Selling on Amazon is as much a boon as it is a hassle—the money’s great, but the competition’s intense, and the performance standards are grueling. These considerations often keep vendors walking on a tight rope, where even the smallest disbalance can send you spiraling right into a suspension email courtesy of Amazon. To make matters worse, Amazon doesn’t even clearly describe why you were suspended, and pursuing this issue with the company could get your banned permanently.

So, what do you do when you’re suspended from Amazon and your profits are at stake? You try to appeal the suspension yourself. But what do you write in your Amazon suspension appeal letter? The suspension email doesn’t give you a clear reason for the suspension—what do you even say to Amazon at that point?

Thankfully, there are people in the industry who have worked for years on Amazon who’ve gotten their accounts reinstated and help others do the same. According to these experts, it’s a fairly simple exercise to get an account reinstated if you follow these steps:

Step 1: Establish The Nature Of Your Suspension

Among Amazon experts, it’s generally understood that the company has good reason for being vague with the reasons for the suspension. It’s because they want the vendor to closely examine their business and pinpoint exactly what went wrong—because that’s the only way you can fix the underlying cause.

Thus, the first step in writing a great Amazon suspension appeal letter is to read it carefully and think deeply about why Amazon sent the letter. Typically sellers are served with two types of suspensions:

a)   Selling Privileges Suspensions

Amazon can suspend you for failing to maintain the standards they’ve set. Your selling privileges are suspended typically in situations where you have too many negative reviews, too many late deliveries or repeated intellectual property violations. Some people are also banned for failing to provide the appropriate documentation for their accounts.

You should keep track of your account health to check how many violations you have under your name and take steps to avoid repeating similar offences. If you don’t, Amazon will serve a suspension letter, no question asked. Afterward, you can’t sell on Amazon unless you can convince them to reinstate your account.

b)   Product Listing Suspensions

This is where one of your products is suspended from being sold on Amazon. If you’re selling prohibited items or have violated some of Amazon’s restricted product policies, Amazon will suspend that specific product. If you don’t take steps to prevent these violations, the company can suspend your account altogether.

Step 2: Make Sure To Offer A Precise Explanation Of What Went Wrong

Whatever the nature of your suspension, there isn’t much difference between what the following steps are. You must tell Amazon, as clearly and precisely as possible, what exactly you did wrong. This means telling Amazon about what went wrong and why it went wrong.

In Amazon’s eyes, any shortcomings in your performance result from internal business problems that you aren’t paying attention to. The suspension email is supposed to force you to assess your business processes to pick out the root cause. Thus, your suspension appeal letter must speak of the exact path that led to your poor performance on the eCommerce platform.

You cannot ever say that Amazon has made a mistake or that you disagree with that decision because it will likely get you permanently banned. So, think long and hard about what to say and how to say it.

Step 3: Write Out A Plan Of Action

In the final step, you must list down all the steps you will take to ensure the same problem never occurs. The best plans of action offer a systematic analysis of the root causes of the suspension. For example, if you were suspended because you of a high Order Defect Rate, your appeal letter should answer the following questions:

• What kind of defects was the most common?
• Why was the defect found?
• What problems arose during the quality assurance process that caused such a product to be sent forward?
• What steps you will take that will prevent each of these problems in the first place?

Try to go as deeply into the problem, using as simple a language as possible, draft a plan that convinces Amazon that you truly recognize what the problem is. Then tell them that you are taking the appropriate measures to prevent repeated offenses of the same kind.

Once you’ve followed through with these steps, you’ll find that Amazon is more charitable than most vendors give it credit for. They’re just looking for vendors who possess the business acumen to thrive in the marketplace and keep Amazon’s customers happy.

Step 4: Review Your Appeal Letter And Submit

Leave no stone unturned while inspecting your letter—read and re-read it to ensure everything is in order and that the appeal is flawless. The guiding principle should be “If I don’t understand this, then how can I expect Amazon to do the same?” If you feel unsure of what you’ve written, then make the appropriate corrections before submitting the appeal.

Once you’re fully satisfied, send it over to Amazon and hope that it goes through. If not, then you can always give it another shot.

Important Things To Remember

The steps to writing the perfect Amazon suspension appeal letter are simple enough, but many sellers make crucial mistakes that get them banned permanently. These small mistakes are really easy to avoid if you know what they are; so, let’s go through the list, so you know exactly what you’re not supposed to do while writing your appeal letters.

1)   Be Patient When Writing The Appeal

Most Amazon sellers panic when facing a suspension and rush the process or send so many letters to Amazon that the company refuses to listen to them ever. So, when you’re analyzing your suspension email—take a deep breath and try to absorb as much information out of it as possible. Remaining calm is just about the best thing you can do because it helps you write appeals that will satisfy Amazon.

2)   Look For Possible Supporting Evidence

An initial reading of the suspension email will give you a rough idea of why you were banned. Once you know what that is, go through all potential pieces of evidence to support your judgment. Go through your receipts, customer reviews, double-check whether you submitted all the right documents, and even review how your team has been managing order fulfillment.

If you go to the relevant sources, you’ll find the problems Amazon has picked on—use this information to draft your appeal letter.

3)   Never Blame Amazon

If you’ve received a suspension email, then understand that Amazon is the judge, jury, and executor in this process. You cannot ever tell the organization that they have made a mistake—and they rarely ever do.

Therefore, instead of taking an aggressive approach in the hopes of bullying them into reinstating your account—take a humble stance and admit your faults immediately.

4)   Be Proactive With Your Correspondences

When you’ve submitted your appeal, Amazon may ask you for supporting documentation and information. If you wait for the appropriate time to respond, the concernced authorities will likely refuse to entertain future requests. So, be quick with your responses and inform them if it will take you some time to fulfill their request.

5)   Don’t Be Surprised If You First Appeal’s Rejected

It’s pretty common for people to send a couple of appeals first before Amazon reinstates their accounts. So, don’t worry if your first appeal is rejected and see what you missed in the first one. However, this doesn’t mean that you keep sending Amazon repeated appeals because they will refuse to entertain further correspondences related to your suspension.

If you’re on the second or third round of appeals, follow the same steps as those listed above. The only reason Amazon rejects appeals is if they feel that either you haven’t understood why you got your suspension email or that you haven’t addressed the underlying issues properly. So, stick to it and try to improve on previous appeal emails until you get it right.

Conclusion

Writing a convincing Amazon suspension appeal letter is a sensitive matter—but it’s not impossible to write one out. Almost all Amazon vendors will be suspended or get their accounts reviewed at least once, and it’s best if everyone knows how to draft a proper appeal letter.

As long as you convince Amazon that you’re sincere in your efforts to deliver the best service, and take the right steps to get there, you should be good to go. While drafting your suspension appeal letters, don’t try to outsmart the organization or fake interest in the issues they’ve raised. That’s probably the best advice anyone can give you—if you’re honest with Amazon and help them grow as an eCommerce platform; they will look out for you. That is the guiding principle you should use to write the perfect Amazon suspension appeal letter.

Author Bio

Vanessa Marshal is an Amazon suspension appeal consultant working with Seller-Performance. She is an ex-Amazonian herself, with over 10 years of experience selling on various Amazon marketplaces.