Amazon Jail - Amazon wants me to admit something that I NEVER DID and I have proved that. Now they want me to lie....
So here it is, as it appears many received this violation recently, our account (10+ years old) also got warning for allegedly Drop Shipping violation. Long story short - at first there was simple review and they asked for explanation how we operate and after a month and numerous correspondence, we are being FORCED TO ADMIT that we violated Drop Shipping policy and we need to provide POA to regain access to our FBM listings (we were never suspended/deactivated). What is happening right now...
Long story:
- We do not know why Amazon is pushing our long-term selling account into admitting that we violated Drop Shipping policy when we provided all possible evidence (authentic, signed etc.) that we have suppliers and we do not drop ship?
- Why they want us to press that selections "I acknowledge violation" or "the issue has been resolved" when WE DID NOT VIOLATE this policy and there is no issue to be resolved?
- WHY is nobody reviewing our proof that Amazon itself was asking at the beginning? We are and we were a Seller of Record for over 10 years, how we could have survived that if we would have been braking all those policies?
We contacted seller support but they keep pointing to only one direction - is just write appeal to Seller Performance Team. But they don't read and keep asking us for "more detail causes and steps going forward".
We DO NOT need to send this POA or appeal - we clearly proved to Amazon that we ARE NOT DROP SHIPPING and never did.
This review is beyond ridiculous because:
- Amazon has started a review because due to lack of knowledge bot decided that we must be drop shipping only because our suppliers sometimes use Cainiao trackings. They use USPS, Canada Post, Lasership all the time and sometimes Cainaio. We have provided proof that it's completely unrelated and almost all suppliers in China and some in USA alreaedy use Cainiao as fastest shipping method. We were in very long talks (almost a year) with SS trying to solve an Cainiao tracking issue and we are sure that our sincere help has lead us to this review.
- in review we were asked to demonstrate how our account complies with Drop Shipping policy - we did that. Step by step.
- later we were asked for more proofs such as Invoices, supplier agreements, business licenses etc. - we did all of that, proofs were signed by suppliers, authentic suppliers with much longer business activity then ourselves.
- eventually our account was completely opened clean and review ended. After half an hour we got "funds on schedule", closed listings and we were asked to provide steps and causes of Drop Shipping violation.
Our appeals keep getting denied in 5 minutes after we write to press "reactivate your account" cause they need GREATER DETAIL. So now we understand that Amazon wants us to lie and invent things that never happened and do not exist? Any thoughts how to get around this dictatorship? Mods always asks for case ID, (17128205841) but it doesn't help this time cause they all point back to Account Health.. nobody cares, nobody helps, there is only one magical team called Seller Performance Team which first ask you for one thing and when you prove it they just change their mind.
Amazon Jail - Amazon wants me to admit something that I NEVER DID and I have proved that. Now they want me to lie....
So here it is, as it appears many received this violation recently, our account (10+ years old) also got warning for allegedly Drop Shipping violation. Long story short - at first there was simple review and they asked for explanation how we operate and after a month and numerous correspondence, we are being FORCED TO ADMIT that we violated Drop Shipping policy and we need to provide POA to regain access to our FBM listings (we were never suspended/deactivated). What is happening right now...
Long story:
- We do not know why Amazon is pushing our long-term selling account into admitting that we violated Drop Shipping policy when we provided all possible evidence (authentic, signed etc.) that we have suppliers and we do not drop ship?
- Why they want us to press that selections "I acknowledge violation" or "the issue has been resolved" when WE DID NOT VIOLATE this policy and there is no issue to be resolved?
- WHY is nobody reviewing our proof that Amazon itself was asking at the beginning? We are and we were a Seller of Record for over 10 years, how we could have survived that if we would have been braking all those policies?
We contacted seller support but they keep pointing to only one direction - is just write appeal to Seller Performance Team. But they don't read and keep asking us for "more detail causes and steps going forward".
We DO NOT need to send this POA or appeal - we clearly proved to Amazon that we ARE NOT DROP SHIPPING and never did.
This review is beyond ridiculous because:
- Amazon has started a review because due to lack of knowledge bot decided that we must be drop shipping only because our suppliers sometimes use Cainiao trackings. They use USPS, Canada Post, Lasership all the time and sometimes Cainaio. We have provided proof that it's completely unrelated and almost all suppliers in China and some in USA alreaedy use Cainiao as fastest shipping method. We were in very long talks (almost a year) with SS trying to solve an Cainiao tracking issue and we are sure that our sincere help has lead us to this review.
- in review we were asked to demonstrate how our account complies with Drop Shipping policy - we did that. Step by step.
- later we were asked for more proofs such as Invoices, supplier agreements, business licenses etc. - we did all of that, proofs were signed by suppliers, authentic suppliers with much longer business activity then ourselves.
- eventually our account was completely opened clean and review ended. After half an hour we got "funds on schedule", closed listings and we were asked to provide steps and causes of Drop Shipping violation.
Our appeals keep getting denied in 5 minutes after we write to press "reactivate your account" cause they need GREATER DETAIL. So now we understand that Amazon wants us to lie and invent things that never happened and do not exist? Any thoughts how to get around this dictatorship? Mods always asks for case ID, (17128205841) but it doesn't help this time cause they all point back to Account Health.. nobody cares, nobody helps, there is only one magical team called Seller Performance Team which first ask you for one thing and when you prove it they just change their mind.
14 replies
Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv
Is there anything that you said here that could be open to interpretation? Is it possible you are remotely fulfilling product and the 3PL is not doing something they should, such as failing to include documentation or branding identifying the seller of record (you)?
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
You gotta go to the core of drop shipping.....
Has at any point, packaging been used that may have had markings from other stores (such as Home Depot boxes)
Have your packages been consistently dropped off in your zip code?
That sounds like you ARE doing drop shipping? If this company ships for you, have you provided Amazon with a contract that details they are following Amazon's drop shipping policies? DO THEY?
April_Amazon
Hello @Seller_PNwUQLkqFLu1F,
Thanks for using the Forums to get in touch with us.
I understand your frustration regarding this drop shipping situation. I am going to provide some general guidance today. For a more detailed review with our partner teams, could you please share a relevant performance notification or case ID?
Drop shipping is allowing a third-party to fulfill orders to customers on your behalf. When you allow your supplier to ship directly to your buyer, this is a drop shipping model. The Drop Shipping Policy explains the basics for a greater understanding. Where a violation may occur could be if the supplier and or shipper of the item included their business information in the package instead of your information. Per the policy:
- Shipping orders with packing slips, invoices, external packaging, or other information indicating a seller name or contact information other than your own is also strictly prohibited.
This may also provide insight: Drop shipping overview
A few questions to consider: Do your suppliers ship directly to your buyers? How many suppliers do you have? Do you have contracts with these suppliers? Have you experienced tracking issues? Do you have multiple warehouses?
Thank you @Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv and @Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EIfor supporting the community.
Please reach back out with the relevant performance notification to allow more thorough research.
I look forward to your response. The Forums and I are here to support you.
April
Seller_PNwUQLkqFLu1F
In this post or in forums overall? Because this post was written after all things happened already. And in forums overall - the only thing I tried to solve was non-working Cainiao trackings. Like I said before, I am almost 100% sure that someone decided to start a review on our account when me and Dayhan from SS were solving Cainiao mystery, because according to Amazon, if you are using Cainiao then you must be buying from Aliexpress. I can't believe how narrow is Amazon if they connect this together, every supplier in China uses Cainiao and it's only increasing worldwide.
I don't think that's possible. We are working here 10+ years, if such problem would have existed, we wouldn't have survived this long. Authorized suppliers knows this very well.
You gotta go to the core of drop shipping.....
Has at any point, packaging been used that may have had markings from other stores (such as Home Depot boxes)
Have your packages been consistently dropped off in your zip code?
I know Drop Shipping rules perfectly. Everything, absolutely everything is being done according to all rules of Amazon. There have been many many sellers who got suspended immediately after trying to dropship against rules - we were not even suspended because it's clear that Amazon wants something from us but they know that we didn't break the rules. We are still open but the review is on-going.
Our suppliers are in China. So no, there are no markings from any store, the boxes are new.
I said, we are not drop shipping against rules, we are NOT drop shipping how we are being accused of. We are seller of record, all invoices are signed, we have contracts with suppliers etc etc etc. EVERYTHING is flawless, you can count on that. The problem is that one day Amazon wants just an info, then later they want invoices with business licenses and when we present all of that, they then decide they want POA! how can we present POA if we proved that each and every single part is according to "acceptable Drop Shipping policy"?
So YES, we have provided Amazon with contract proof.
Like I said before, CASE ID17128205841, but basically all responses there are useless because they are all telling to write directly to Account Health and appeal with POA, when I told them many times that we DO NOT need to write POA because we already proved myself.
Where a violation may occur could be if the supplier and or shipper of the item included their business information in the package instead of your information. Per the policy:
- Shipping orders with packing slips, invoices, external packaging, or other information indicating a seller name or contact information other than your own is also strictly prohibited.
This does not apply for our case. This policy has been studied very well many years ago, basically when we started our business 10+ years ago. Nothing changed, nothing. The only thing that triggered this review was our sincere wish to solve Cainiao trackings issue. You can also see our almost YEAR LONG case with SS, Case ID 15439900721.
Yes, suppliers ship directly to buyers - it is allowed if everything is being done according to strict Drop Shipping policy, exactly "by the book". We have 2 suppliers, provided with signed supplier agreement. No tracking issues, despite the fact that each and every Cainiao order, even though they are all delivered, are still not being tracked on Amazon system (we use many different carriers, USPS, Canada Post, Lasership etc). No multiple warehouses, only those who are listed in provided proof for Amazon review.
First notification, "Your Amazon.com seller account has been placed under temporary review in accordance with our Drop Shipping Policy. The review period should not exceed 30 days. If more time is needed for the review, we will let you know. While your account is under review, funds will remain in your account........ How do I speed up the review of my account?" --- and all that documentation was gathered and sent to them.
Second notification when apparently our provided info was not enough, "We received your submission but do not have enough information to transfer funds to you at this time. Funds will not be transferred to you during the review but will stay in your account. To expedite the review of your selling account, please send the following information: -- Evidence and an explanation that demonstrates how your account complies with our Drop Shipping policy. -- If you are facing logistics issues that are impacting proper fulfillment of your orders, provide reasons and supporting evidence associated with these for consideration during your review."
Then we provided even more info with additional business licenses and supplier agreements and more. After that, the very same notification came as second time, it felt like nobody was even reading what we provided.
Then, few hours later, a very promising notification came: "We reviewed your account and removed the hold on your funds. Any funds that were held as part of the review are now eligible for disbursement as per your disbursement schedule. As a reminder, drop shipping is not allowed on Amazon unless you comply with our Drop Shipping policy:"We reviewed your account and removed the hold on your funds. Any funds that were held as part of the review are now eligible for disbursement as per your disbursement schedule. As a reminder, drop shipping is not allowed on Amazon unless you comply with our Drop Shipping policy"
and some minutes after that bad notification came, as if Amazon changed their mind again: "Your seller-fulfilled offers have been deactivated and your listings have been removed in accordance with the Amazon Drop Shipping policy. You may still accept Amazon-fulfilled orders. Although your offers have been deactivated, we still consider you an active seller in our stores"
We responded to that again with all proofs, but all next notifications from Amazon kept coming the same: "We received your submission but we do not have enough information to reactivate your seller-fulfilled offers at this time. To reactivate your seller-fulfilled offers, please send the following: -- Greater detail on the root causes of the Drop Shipping policy violations. -- Greater detail on the actions you have taken to comply with Amazon Drop Shipping policy. -- Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent violations of Amazon Drop Shipping policy going forward. -- Greater detail on evidence or examples that demonstrate that your account has complied with our policy."
And this never ends. We can write some POA but what to say there if we were selling for decade ACCORDING to drop shipping policy? We are not some one-month newbie who just want quick profit. We provided absolutely all the things we were asked for, with addresses, contracts, signed invoices, supplier contracts etc.
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
If they ship from China.....
HOW do they come with YOUR address as the sender? (Since you say you know policy perfectly well)
Are you in China?
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
Maybe you want to read drop shipping polices...
having that third party ship directly to customers, if the shipment does not identify you as the seller of record or if anyone other than you (including the third party) appears on packing slips, invoices, or external packaging, it is strictly prohibited without exception;
I can't see how they ship something from China coming from YOUR US name and address.
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
or if anyone other than you (including the third party) appears on packing slips, invoices, or external packaging
or external packaging
or external packaging
or external packaging
or
or
or
You came for answers. Not liking them doesn't make them any less answers.
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
Because flags were raised and once raised, your account gets the full review for compliance
Seller_PNwUQLkqFLu1F
Yes, I think that so.
But imagine this: if we were accused of this and they wanted some explanation - we provided that. Then they decided they wanted to see invoices, supplier agreement, business licenses and all those things from long list - not a problem, we provided all of it from our legitimate and old-partnered suppliers. And when we gave Amazon absolutely everything they asked for, then they finished asking us for docs and still want us to admit something we haven't even been doing - so how can we draft that POA, based on some futuristic ideas? Like telling that we will always be a seller of record on packaging slip when we were already? Telling that only we will appear on invoice when we were the only ones all the time before?
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
I can't fight with your reading comprehension any further....
