No Amazon seller ever wants to risk his account getting suspended.

We understand the stakes should your account be suspended. Your status, your workers, and your income are all on the line. For this reason, we strongly advise and we are begging that you put cautionary measures around your Amazon account.

It is our desire to see your business succeed on Amazon. We would also like to keep anxiety away from you as you trade on Amazon.

But should you for any reason get suspended on Amazon, you need not panic. Just observe the steps below and everything will be as smooth as silk again

#1: Know the rule you broke

Before losing your cool, go over your Amazon’s terms and policies to understand which side of it you missed. If you can’t figure out which of them you broke, then contact Amazon’s legal service for proper verification

#2: Find out how your business dealings broke the rule

Once you have nailed the particular rule you broke, verify how exactly you broke the rule. Go through your inventory to see if you are selling an item you ought not to

#3: Draft a plan of action to resolve your violation

We have learned over the years that this is the most important step of all to take in getting your business back. We will go further to discuss more on this step since it is very much important

#4: Make an appeal to Amazon

Once you have observed the first three steps, you are now ready to appeal to Amazon. To do this, go to your user profile and click on the following;

Seller central>>Performance>>Performance notification. Look for the suspension you were served and click on it to submit your appeal. Then do the good old waiting. It takes about 48 hours to get a reply. Ensure your email is functional because they will contact you through it.

Creating an operational line of action

Your plan needs to be effective, so you need to spend quality time in coming up with one. No amount of apologizing to Amazon will do. It’s better to avoid falling into such dilemma by coming up a plan that avoids such mistakes in the near future.

Keep it professional

You must know that your request is not read by robots or computer program, but by humans. So cut any sentiments that might be in your appeal

Be precise

Don’t dance around in drafting your appeal. It only makes it difficult to comprehend by whoever reads it. Be blunt, only state things related to addressing your violations.

Identify where you first missed it

Let Amazon team know what led to this mistake. If it was ignorance, then state it. But it’s important to prove you would not let such blunder occur again

Pick out other related issues

You might have been suspended not just because of a singular deviation from Amazon’s rules, but a chain of other wrong doings you have done in the past. Check your selling history within the past one year to better understand your circumstances. Read your customer feedback that you can download from Seller Central. Address this too in your action plan

Quantify as much as you can

When talking about time, use a date not “two weeks ago”. The same amount or numbers of let’s say your inventory

Check for uncovered points in your appeal

No matter how concise your appeal might be, it is important to pick out redundancies. You need to prove to Amazon’s team that you took your time in coming up with an appeal. There are some programs that can help point out some uncovered areas in your appeal. They include ChannelAdvisor, process improvement, and reviews. Make good use of schedules as a reminder for you and your teams in reviewing your drafted plan.

Put Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) into consideration

This works well if your suspension was due to shipping-related violations

Get input from members of your team

When we talk about a team, we don’t just mean your employees. Inquire from customer service, shipping service and listing to know which rule you are breaking without knowing.

Though Amazon allows you to submit as much appeal as you wish, its better you come up with a much concise appeal at first attempt

Make ready for getting your business back on

Get ready to resume business fully should you be re-instated by Amazon. Don’t mess it up this time again. Update your stock and ensure your listing is right. ChannelAdvisor will be of great help for this task.

What if things don’t go as planned?

Things might not always turn out the way you planned it. Those anxious moments of waiting for your appeal even after observing best practices might just result in disappointments. This is more common if you have had a wrong doing with Amazon in time past.

All you need do if your appeal were turned down is to try again, polishing up your appeal wherever you can.

Resources:

http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=AMZN