One of the unfortunate risks associated with depending on any of the “big boy” websites like google, youtube, eBay, paypal, and yes our much beloved Amazon is the fact that they hold all the cards.
Seemingly on a whim they’ve been known to press the delete button and flush away a sellers account in a moment. Usually a severe rule infraction has occurred, but not always. Usually justice is done in the end (accounts restored), but not always. In spite of the seeming injustice of it all, we are forced to conclude that it’s just part of the game right?
Not necessarily.
Sure, playing by the rules doesn’t hurt, but the rules are always shifting about and Amazon (and all the other big boys) are fickle partners at best. It’s a cat and mouse game that many old school eBay sellers from the early 2000’s can easily related to. I know of exactly zero big time eBay sellers from the early 2000’s who slept soundly each night with the secure thought in mind “eBay has my back – it’s all good.”
Our solutions to these issues:
1. The best solution to such risks is to establish multiple streams of income. That’s why our community is built on the “C.E.S.” model (each letter in CES is a different biz model I’ve built, and my team and I teach those models to others.) The three models work great together and compliment each other while operating independent of each other. My $5 “Silent Sales Machine” book has details (sold on Amazon)
2. We have content coming out soon that will show you how to have multiple Amazon selling accounts and ELIMINATE the risk of being “shut down.” I can’t say more about it just yet, but it’s 100% legit. A note about this never before revealed training: No Amazon trickery or policy violations are occurring with this strategy. You’ll have a “why didn’t I think of that” reaction initially, and then the success story of our case study students will blow your mind.
While you may not get the feeling that Amazon, eBay, Google or Youtube have “got your back”, our community, my team, and I sure do. We aren’t a herd to be toyed with – we are tight nit community of creative entrepreneurs who simply roll on when circumstances shift.
Stay tuned for the release of these great training courses and much more of what we have in store for our ProvenAmazonCourse.com community – we are here for YOU.
Comment on this blog post using the above links, or join the conversation on Facebook
UPDATE ONE DAY LATER: In a crazy twist of irony, the same day I published this article my own youtube account was suspended! Get the detail – click here to see how we are managing the youtube suspension.
Look forward to the “multiple Amazon accounts” insight – will help a lot of people! And you’re right, there is increased fear of “putting all your eggs in one basket” when it comes to online income, especially if your livelihood depends on it.
It’s unwise though to build these multiple streams without guidance and research. I’m writing an article right now on why I cannot promote a lady’s website – it should never have been built in the first place. There is no unique niche, no audience for these brand-name products (no reason to buy them from her). She is missing out big-time by not staying in touch with previous customers, also.
Your communities are an incredible source of support, advice and solid info, and I appreciate what you have created, there! Nothing else like it online that I know of.
Where will these details be posted when available .
as soon as possible to member of our provenamazoncourse.com community, and in my free newsletter.
One of my side streams of income is helping suspended and banned Amazon sellers get reinstated and I’ve been blown away by how many sellers have been kicked off the platform – many of them because they were ignorant, not evil. I can’t wait to see your approach for multiple accounts and to share it with my readers.
We can’t wait to share it with you! Thanks for the support!
how do you do that? i was banned in 2006 or 7 after selling since 2002 or 3, because of one late shipment (my own fault, trying to balance work & amazon, but a stern warning would’ve woke me up). I’ve never been able to get reinstated. only tried once or twice. got a link to your service info? i just joined the PAC, so I don’t know if you can IM me or not. username: rdonahue
Hi,
I had my account suspended in November but still have full access to my account, how do I contact you for help in reinstating. Thanks
I too will look forward to what you have to say about multiple Amazon accounts. I have thought several times in the past that additional accounts could be useful, for a number of different reasons. Thanks for continuously keeping your eyes above the horizon and looking for new opportunities for all of us to do things better.
I think that another important consideration for an FBA business is an exit strategy. There will eventually come a time when you will shut down your business, whether you just get tired of it, you retire, you change your chosen path, or you just can’t run it any more for some reason.
Great info as always!
A short story..
I remember contacting Amazon support not so long ago to ask for help re-activating a product in my Amazon account that looked to have been disabled. The Amazon associate then proceeded to upload a feed file in an attempt to restore the product. Whilst doing so the associate accidentally checked the ‘over write existing listings’ box and inadvertently deleted all the product data in my account. The next day I checked my Amazon account to find that the one product was listed with all other data deleted – shucks!
It took a lot of time to restore my account and all the product data, (listings, keywords, images, category positioning, etc) with no help from Amazon except for an apologetic message that read along the lines of – “were sorry for this associates actions – it wasn’t supposed to happen”.
That was Amazon’s response and Amazon wasn’t able to restore my account product data. In return I lost weeks of sales and needed to commit a month of work rebuilding my account data. Luckily I was able to restore my account data and sales volume although the moral of this experience..
..I learned not to ask for help from Amazon.
I should have known better after previous similar experiences with eBay and Google over the years, i.e. don’t reach out for help from these giant corporations – they have one goal and that’s to make as much money as possible.
They won’t give a hoot if your business goes down the pan in a matter of seconds. Help can only come from the users building businesses on the platform, like Jim’s My Silent Team forum.
My Son was shut down right before Christmas last year. In Amazon’s defense -they did give him several policy violation warnings and he did not take my advice to delete his listing and pull the product. (Chinese Lego knockoffs with “Lego compatible” in the title and description of details). His appeal was denied because Lego’s legal team was involved. We later got Lego to withdraw their complaint (they were very cooperative) but only after he had spent over a thousand $ in removal fees & deleted all his listings. He was reinstated in January 2015 but missed about $30K Christmas profit.
I have been banned about a year ago and use eBay strictly until recently my account was suspended. So now I was searching if there was a way to get back on Amazon. Came up with some results and found sites like Aspkin forums and Auction Essistance who can help get you back on. I am just a little skeptical since Amazon’s policies forbid you from registering another account.
Try to get reinstated. Be politely persistent. Use the resources from the article above.