AmazonPay Account Suspended

[delcorsets]

We sell a brass double-finger ring that the designer has named the "Pistol Whipped Brass Knuckle Ring". It was flagged by AmazonPay for being a weapon or firearm, of which it is neither. We responded by submitting an appeal explaining that we thought the product was flagged in error, as it is clearly not a weapon or firearm. We included multiple pictures of the ring to show just how small and non-weapony it is.

We got a response saying that our appeal was denied, the AmazonPay account was being closed, and we could never open another one.

I'm a little bit in a state of disbelief, as I can't even understand how this piece of jewelry could be mistaken by a human eye as a "weapon or firearm" once viewed - even if it was originally caught by an algorithm because of it's name.

Has anyone dealt with AmazonPay appeals before? I'd like to submit another appeal but I suspect there might be a different or better way to approach it? I've since renamed the product, and would even be fine with discontinuing the sale of that particular ring. I'm not sure of the best way to approach this..

Thanks for any help.

[Rick Wilson]

I’m checking with someone I know at Amazon to see if I can assist.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

way to go above and beyond the call of duty Rick!

[delcorsets]

Rick Wilson That would be amazing - thank you! Just connecting with a human would be a huge help!

[Rick Wilson]

I was told your account was reinstated this morning, FYI.

[delcorsets]

Yes, I just checked and see that it’s active again! Thank you!

[oliverands]

Wow, is Rick the man, or what?

My situation is not nearly the same as an account suspension, but I've been dealing with similar issues for months now with the AI they have trolling through images and making decisions.

I sell sewing patterns. The products are printed paper inside an envelope. My main product images are photos of the front cover of the envelope. As a result, the images have text, logos, and graphics on them--because the products themselves have text, logos, and graphics on them. Amazon's AI is flagging these images an non-compliant because of the text, logo, and graphics on the main images. As a result, they have suppressed many (but not all) of my products. (And it's strange that it's only a portion of the range of products because all of them are basically the same, just with different text and images.)

I have been fighting with Amazonīs seller support group for months about this. I keep explaining that these are essentially book covers and that the text, logo, and graphics are on the products themselves so these images are not non-compliant. I've pointed out that they have thousands of other products in the sewing template category that are the same and that they need to fix this issue at the category level by deactivating this requirement for the whole category because in the industry this is the standard way that products are represented, it's what customers expect to see, and if another image is used for the main image, the product is misrepresented. (It would be like trying to sell a book with a photo of a page of text from inside instead of the cover.) I assume that it would be to Amazon's benefit to address this at the category level. If they are suppressing a portion of my products, I have to assume the same is happening all across the category and Amazon is incorrectly suppressing many thousands of listings across the category and is losing revenue as a result.

Every response I receive to cases is the same. The agent reiterates the same policy about no text, logo, or graphics on the main image. No one in the support department takes the time to read my explanation of the situation and address the issue. Finally, after a month of messaging, I got someone to address the issue with most of my suppressed products. All but one were reinstated. For some reason, they said the one they didn't reinstate would need to have a separate case created to reinstate it. (Why not just fix all the issues at once?) So now I'm going through the same game on the one remaining product. I keep referencing the original case which was resolved successfully, but seller support is now saying they won't address the issue for this remaining product and I need to use an other main image for this product. They closed the first case I created so that I cannot reopen it saying that they reviewed the situation and made a final decision. (A different final decision than the previous case on all the other products?) So I created a new case referencing the original which was resolved favorably. And I've gotten the same response that I need to change my main image because it is not compliant. This case has now been closed as a duplicate and I have been told that if I open another case on this product I will be suspended.

It's clear that seller support is either an AI that's not able to handle exception cases or that agents are incentivized to close cases as rapidly as possible instead of actually resolving cases in a way that is beneficial for both Amazon and the seller partner.

Just venting here, mostly. But it's another example, I suppose, of why you should never rely on Amazon as your primary sales channel.

And, I should add, writing this makes me realize how grateful I am for the Miva support team. Whenever I have an issue with Miva, they work to understand and resolve it. Never a run around, a prematurely closed case, or problems with the Miva team!

[Rick Wilson]

From what I understand Seller Support is based in Costa Rica and they're paid on cases marked close per hour, where they have under 4 mins per case to reply. So that's likely why it seems like a bad AI but in reality it's bad economics.

[oliverands]

I was someone relieved to see today that it's not just me. This thread appeared on the Amazon sellers board today, and it seems like everyone has the same sort of problem with cases being closed without being resolved.

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/for...support/742649