hypodiabetic.co.uk to The Amazon!

Some of you may know I run a web store selling Diabetic Products called hypodiabetic.co.uk

To free up my time to promotion the brand and pass on all the boring order management I have decided to move the site to Amazon Webstore and FBA (Fulfilment By Amazon). Ill be making a few posts about my move to Amazon Webstore and FBA - these will be short for my own notes and I hope helpful to others!

 

Not a great start... Christopher North to the rescue!

First step was to sign up for a Basic Sellers account to get a feel what it is like to sell on Amazon, this went reasonably well and a few days later I sold one of our Carbs & Cals books.

Happy with the experience so far I upgraded to a Pro account and started to review the feature set for Amazon Webstore - then I received the following email...

Greetings from Amazon.
We are writing to let you know that we have removed your selling privileges, canceled your listings, and placed a temporary hold on any funds in your seller account.
We took this action because our records indicate that this account is related to another selling account that was closed by Amazon. Once selling privileges have been removed, sellers are not allowed to establish new accounts.
Due to the proprietary nature of our business, we do not provide detailed information on how we determine that accounts are related.

 

Oh, that was unexpected! I had no outstanding orders or complaints on my account - clearly an error and I typed a brief email back letting know my plans for hypodiabetic.co.uk and listing the accounts I have for all Amazon services clearly stating that I do not own any other Seller accounts - as far as I was aware!?

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk,
Your Amazon.co.uk seller account has been closed, as it has come to our attention that this account is related to a previously blocked seller account.  While we are unable to provide detailed information on how we link related accounts, please know that we have reviewed your account on the basis of the information provided and regret to inform you that it will not be reopened.

 

There goes my dreams of selling on Amazon! Two more email threads followed from this with me requesting details why this has happened with concerns that someone may have setup a fake account in my name, both requests had the same reply.
Googling this issue it seems very common for Amazon to close accounts with this generic message, this maybe automated so I had some confidence that if I could talk to a human we can put this silly issues behind us and start to build a happy relationship again with my new partner. I found the following post on Amazon Seller Support Forum: Thread: Account Suspension

Poor Christopher, he must of changed address by now - but what the hell, I typed up an honest email detailing my brand and plans and sent it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Next day I received the following...

Dear Tim,
Thank you for contacting Christopher North with your enquiry.  I am the manager of the Seller Performance team and your email has been passed to me for review.  Mr North has been advised of the outcome of my investigation.
On further review, I have reinstated your Amazon.co.uk selling privileges and removed the hold on the funds in your seller account.
Please note that if you do not comply with our policies, your selling privileges may be permanently removed.
Welcome back to selling on Amazon.co.uk; we wish you the best of luck.

 

Wow! I have to admit I was surprised!

My account was active again. Is there really a Christopher North? Is this a cleaver way to vet new customers that have triggered an account review? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. sounds like a very generic account and I'm sure most would give up if their account was closed and they know they where doing something that broke Amazon selling polices.

Lets hope our relationship is more trusting now and we can put this behind us!

Thanks Chris.
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