This is a continuation of an ongoing series of Amazon Seller Performance Related information.

The goal of these articles is to try our best to avoid compliance issues and best deal with them when we do get into trouble.

1. It seems like Amazon has started suspending accounts for safety incidents alone. This is new, as they have not done so up until now.
3. If you receive a Seller Performance notices via Amazon messenger system, it is most likely a hack attempt. Do not click on any links on these notices. Simply marks as spam, or “no response needed.” Seller Performance never sends sellers notices via the Amazon messenger system. The following is one such message that many sellers received: “We consider allegations of intellectual property infringement a serious matter. All sellers are required to read the intellectual property policies when listing products on Amazon.com.”
5. Seller Performance has been sending “Used as New” complaints, requesting a response within two days to avoid risking losing your selling privileges. I suggest you reply to those promptly, as the time frame decreased from the seven days they previously gave, up until a few weeks ago.
7. Amazon sellers should be careful not to ignore any Amazon notices regarding ASINs, even if you intend on ditching the ASIN. Some sellers received product quality emails asking for a plan on an ASIN. These notices include a warning, which if the seller does not respond within seven days, they may lose their selling privileges. Unfortunately, this is exactly what has been happening. It is crucial that sellers respond to those emails with a plan in a timely fashion. If plan of action is sent at the very last minute, it may be too late. The POA may not be reviewed on time.
9. Some suspended sellers received this unexpected message from Amazon: “We attempted to reach out to you by phone today regarding your Amazon.com selling account. We hoped to help answer questions you may have about why you may not currently sell on Amazon.com and the appeal process. “As of now, none of these sellers actually received any phone call yet. This could mean that phone service may be available shortly.
11. It is critical that sellers pay proper attention to late shipping warnings. Amazon is taking these warnings into account very seriously.  In fact, if a seller receives such a warning, a suspension due to late shipping may be looming.
13. Sellers of dietary supplements should make a note of this upcoming change in policy: “Effective September 2, 2017, you will need an approval to list Dietary Supplement products. If you do not obtain approval before September 2, 2017, your listings for the Dietary Supplement products will be removed. There is no fee associated with this application.”
15. The following message seems to be completely unrelated to any plan of action.   It was sent to Amazon sellers who are suspended for infringement. Sellers that did not appeal at all also received it. “You have listings that infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. This is against our policies. The removed items can be seen on the Performance Notifications page in Seller Central. As a result, you may no longer sell on Amazon.com, and your listings have been removed from our site.”
17. Please be cautious of emails with the following tricky subject. It is a phishing email.  “subject: fwd: [CASE 4127966501] FBA shipment Missing!”
19. It is worthwhile to review the FBA policies, as some sellers received the following suspension notice.  They can be viewed on the following link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200242960
21. “Hello from Amazon, We are writing to let you know we have removed your selling privileges, canceled your listings, and placed a temporary hold on any funds in your seller account. Any new selling accounts you open will be closed…….. Specifically, our review found that you have repeatedly shipped less quantity than what was submitted on your shipment plan and have subsequently submitted reimbursement claims for the shortages…..We took this action because our reimbursements team found you’ve submitted a high volume of insufficiently researched reimbursement requests to Seller Support which is prohibited by FBA Policies.”
23. Northface Compliance / [email protected] has been sending messages warning sellers to remove items. They did in fact follow up and file RO complaints claiming TM violations.

Ed Rosenberg ([email protected])