Account suspended due to "forged or manipulated documents", they are not but Amazon won't reinstate me
Hello Seller Community,
I have been a seller on Amazon for 8 years without any issues as a female owned small business, until 2 months ago when Amazon asked me to provide "compliance" documents. I thought this should be no problem and I have provided the requested documents from my vendor which is a factory in the US.
However, Amazon is claiming these documents are "forged or manipulated" and has suspended and deactivated my account. I have tried to explain this situation to them but they are refusing to reinstate my account. They are being very vague with information and are not even explaining to me why they think these documents are supposedly "forged". I have already sent an appeal explaining the situation and my side of this story. Amazon however has rejected my appeal and are only saying " We completed our evaluation of your submission. We do not have enough information to remove the violation at this time." and that is the last I have heard from them for over a month.
Unfortunately, this has turned my life upside down as Amazon has been my primary source of income and I have been forced to rely on my rapidly dwindling savings. I have tried repeatedly to reach out to Amazon but they are now unresponsive. Meanwhile Amazon is holding my funds and inventory and there doesn't seem to be any way to get it back.
I am just reaching out to the Seller community to ask if anyone else has dealt with a similar situation and if there is any way I can actually speak to someone from Amazon and actually have a real person look at my account.
Thank you all in advance and for any help!
Account suspended due to "forged or manipulated documents", they are not but Amazon won't reinstate me
Hello Seller Community,
I have been a seller on Amazon for 8 years without any issues as a female owned small business, until 2 months ago when Amazon asked me to provide "compliance" documents. I thought this should be no problem and I have provided the requested documents from my vendor which is a factory in the US.
However, Amazon is claiming these documents are "forged or manipulated" and has suspended and deactivated my account. I have tried to explain this situation to them but they are refusing to reinstate my account. They are being very vague with information and are not even explaining to me why they think these documents are supposedly "forged". I have already sent an appeal explaining the situation and my side of this story. Amazon however has rejected my appeal and are only saying " We completed our evaluation of your submission. We do not have enough information to remove the violation at this time." and that is the last I have heard from them for over a month.
Unfortunately, this has turned my life upside down as Amazon has been my primary source of income and I have been forced to rely on my rapidly dwindling savings. I have tried repeatedly to reach out to Amazon but they are now unresponsive. Meanwhile Amazon is holding my funds and inventory and there doesn't seem to be any way to get it back.
I am just reaching out to the Seller community to ask if anyone else has dealt with a similar situation and if there is any way I can actually speak to someone from Amazon and actually have a real person look at my account.
Thank you all in advance and for any help!
9 replies
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
" I have provided the requested documents from my vendor which is a factory in the US."
You mean you purchased directly from the brand? And you have a wholesale account with them? And a LOA authorizing you to sell their brand on Amazon?
Atlas_Amazon
Hello @Seller_f4Ot0kzdrXL76
"Amazon is claiming these documents are "forged or manipulated" and has suspended and deactivated my account."
Thank you for the information provided regarding the issues you have seen with your account. I understand that our team has concerns over the originality of the documentation you have provided. You mention having attempted to explain what occurred, could you provide context to the thread on what led to this issue?
Did you acquire this documentation from the brand or manufacturer? Did you send the product off for independent testing? We will require additional details regarding the specific situation to be able to better provide guidance on how you will want to proceed.
This type of concern will require providing disputing evidence showing that there was no concern. If you are stating that it was due to a technical error, then you would need to provide evidence for this alongside a document that can meet the original requirements.
Please continue to provide your information to this thread for support.
Best,
Atlas
Seller_NotnKhr6w2vLQ
@Seller_f4Ot0kzdrXL76Hello, have you resolved your issue? Because I have had the same problem for almost 3 months now.
Seller_hvgnoBuVEwxit
@Seller_f4Ot0kzdrXL76 We had the same exact issue with our account and private label supplements. I would reach out to the lab that did the testing and ask them to authenticate the COA that you provided to Amazon. If they can authenticate the document you can ask then to provide an LOA. If the document was manipulation or forged in anyway by the manufacture, the lab will let you know it is not an authentic document. You can request the original report by providing them them the report #. If the private label supplements and the CoA have any inconsistencies; date, SKU, Lot #s are different from the original report from the lab, it will be considered forged or manipulated. The manufactures cut corners and will use the same reports for different customers by changing the SKU and or Lot #s. This may get your listing approved temporarily, but if Amazon asks the lab to authenticate the CoA and they can't you will get shut down.
Seller_oaVhHDPyVKYSz
This is a situation nearly identical to mine, happening at nearly the exact same time (August/September 2024). I am a senior raising a young grandchild, woman-owned small business, depending on Amazon sales to pay my bills. I have paid an outside company (which I cannot really afford) to help with the appeals a few weeks ago, but the situation has not changed, as they are asking for something that cannot be provided as evidence. It seems like Amazon is just trying to rid themselves of the smaller sellers. Has anyone had any luck with appeal reactivation fighting this "forged/manipulated" issue? The weird thing is that the item in question comes in several styles/colors and identical item was APPROVED back in April using the EXACT same test report compliance document!