Quick answer. After an Amazon suspension, the moves that do the most damage are the ones that create a second violation or weaken the appeal you have not yet written. Do not open a new seller account, edit or recreate documents, contact customers outside Buyer-Seller Messaging, offer anything in exchange for changed feedback or reviews, or send a rushed appeal that skips the root cause. Amazon treats multiple accounts without a legitimate business need, altered documents and review manipulation as serious violations, and any one of them can turn a recoverable deactivation into a permanent one.
A deactivation notice puts pressure on you to act within hours. Speed matters, because some notices carry short response windows. Careless speed is the problem. Most of the suspensions we see become harder to reverse because of what the seller did in the first few days, and almost none of those moves were necessary. Each section below names one move, the Amazon policy it runs into, and what to do in its place.
Mistakes and Why They Backfire
The table lists the moves that most often turn one problem into two. Each row cites the Amazon rule that applies, so you can check it against your own notice before you act.
| Do not | Why, according to Amazon’s policies |
|---|---|
| Open a new seller account to keep selling | You may have one account per region unless you have a legitimate business need, and Amazon may deactivate all of your accounts if any one of them is not in good standing |
| Edit invoices or other documents | Documents must be authentic and unaltered, and the only change Amazon permits is removing pricing |
| Submit pro forma invoices, quotes or self-issued invoices | Amazon states these are not accepted for review |
| Contact customers by email, phone or social media | All contact must go through Buyer-Seller Messaging, and customer data may be used only to fulfill orders |
| Offer refunds, gifts or discounts to remove feedback or reviews | Incentives in exchange for providing, removing or changing feedback or reviews are prohibited |
| Request feedback removal outside Feedback Manager | Amazon warns that requesting removal through other channels may lead to deactivation |
| Ignore the notice or miss a deadline | Amazon’s Account Health Rating guidance gives a three-day window for some Critical violations before deactivation |
| Send several appeals in a row | Each submission is reviewed against the same record, and a weak one becomes part of that record |
Read the Notice Before You Do Anything
The first mistake happens before any of the others. Sellers skim the notice, assume they know the cause and start fixing the wrong thing. A deactivation notice from Amazon names the policy, often lists the ASINs or orders involved, and states what Amazon wants to see. Those three elements decide the whole case.
What to pull from the notice
- The policy name. Copy it exactly. An inauthentic complaint, a related-account deactivation and an Order Defect Rate breach each need a different appeal and different evidence.
- Every ASIN, order ID or listing named. Amazon’s appeal guidance asks for evidence for every ASIN under review, so a missing ASIN usually means a second round.
- The documents requested. Some notices ask for invoices, some for a Plan of Action, some for identity or business documents. Answer the request that was made.
- Any deadline. Write it down with the date and time you received the notice.
Then open the Account Health page in Seller Central. It shows the violations attached to the account, their status and the appeal path for each. If the notice and the Account Health page disagree, the Account Health page is the more current record. Professional sellers can use Contact us on that page to ask Account Health Support what a specific violation requires before they submit anything.
Why the Account Health Rating matters here
Amazon scores accounts from 0 to 1,000 under its Account Health Rating program. Violations deduct points by severity, and points come back as violations are addressed. Amazon describes 100 to 199 as At Risk and 99 or lower as Unhealthy, which means the account is eligible for deactivation or already deactivated. A new violation added during a suspension lowers the score further and adds another item that must be resolved before the account can return. That is the mechanism behind every mistake below.
Do Not Open Another Account
Starting over under a new name is the most common instinct and the most expensive one. Amazon’s Seller Code of Conduct says you may only have one Seller Central account per region unless you have a legitimate business need. It also says that if any of your accounts are not in good standing, Amazon may deactivate all of them. A new account opened to keep selling during a suspension is not a legitimate business need. It is a second violation tied to the first.
Amazon links accounts through shared people, payment methods, addresses, devices and other signals. A new entity, a relative’s name or a different bank does not remove those links when the same operators, products, suppliers or warehouse sit behind both accounts. When Amazon connects the new account to the deactivated one, the new account is deactivated as related, and the original appeal now has to explain both. Funds in the new account can be held as well.
Amazon’s legitimate examples are narrow. They include owning multiple brands that run as separate businesses, manufacturing products for two distinct companies, and being recruited into an Amazon program that requires separate accounts. If you already ran a second account before the suspension for one of those reasons, document the business need now, because Amazon may review it as part of the case. For when multiple accounts are allowed, see can you have multiple Amazon seller accounts.
The related-account trap
Sellers sometimes ask a friend or family member to list the same products while the main account is down. Amazon’s related-account review looks at who controls the account and what it sells, and it does not depend on whose name is on the registration. If the second account is linked, both accounts carry the violation. The same applies to a virtual assistant or agency that logs into several client accounts from one device. Shared access is one of the signals Amazon uses, so tighten who logs in from where while your case is open.
Do Not Alter, Recreate or Backdate Documents
Amazon’s invoice requirements for appeals say any document you provide must be authentic and unaltered. You may remove pricing. Nothing else may change. Amazon also says it may contact your supplier to verify the information, which means an edited date, quantity, product name or address can be checked against the supplier’s own records.
The invoices must come from the supplier, carry the supplier’s contact details, and cover quantities that match your sales volume. The issue date must fall within the 365 days before the performance notification, counted back from the notice date and not from the day you submit. Amazon states that pro forma invoices, quotes and self-issued invoices are not accepted.
Sellers who lack the right invoices often try to fix the gap themselves. They retype an invoice in a cleaner template, merge two invoices into one, add a missing brand name or change the date so the invoice falls inside the window. Each of those changes produces a document that does not match the supplier’s record. When Amazon finds the mismatch, the case shifts from the original violation to forged or manipulated documentation, which is much harder to reverse and is often treated as permanent.
What to do when your documents fall short
- Ask the supplier for a reissued copy. A supplier can reissue an original invoice from its own system. That is a copy of a real record, not an edit.
- Use the records you have. If invoices cover only part of the volume, say so plainly in the appeal and explain the steps you took for the rest, such as removing the uncovered ASINs.
- Match names exactly. The business name and address on the invoice should match your Seller Central account. If they differ for a legitimate reason, explain the reason with supporting documents.
- Remove ASINs you cannot support. An appeal that removes unsupported listings is stronger than one that stretches documents to cover them.
The same rule covers letters of authorization, identity documents, utility bills and bank statements. Read our guide to forged or manipulated documentation suspensions.
Do Not Contact Customers Outside Amazon
Some sellers try to resolve the complaints behind a suspension by reaching customers directly. They find a phone number on a shipping label, send an email or message the buyer on social media. Amazon’s Seller Code of Conduct and its communication guidelines require all contact with customers to go through Buyer-Seller Messaging, and customer information may be used only to fulfill orders. Contact through any other channel is a separate violation, and it is easy for Amazon to see when the customer reports it.
Messages sent inside Buyer-Seller Messaging carry limits too. A message that asks a buyer to withdraw a complaint, change a review, remove feedback or tell Amazon something different counts as an attempt to influence the customer. During a suspension, Amazon reviews the account’s message history closely, so every message you send now becomes evidence.
Messages that answer a question about an open order, confirm a return, issue a refund the customer asked for or provide tracking are permitted. Keep them short and factual, and keep them to order fulfillment.
Do Not Try to Buy Your Way Out of Feedback or Reviews
Amazon prohibits paying for or offering incentives such as coupons, refunds, gift cards or free products in exchange for providing, removing or changing feedback or reviews. The Code of Conduct states that sellers must not attempt to influence customers’ ratings, feedback and reviews. Amazon’s customer product reviews policy lists the consequences for manipulation, including immediate and permanent withholding of selling privileges and funds, removal of all the product’s reviews, a block on future reviews, delisting of the product, and legal action that can include referral to civil and criminal enforcement authorities.
A suspension for ODR or product quality often follows a run of negative feedback, and the temptation is to make it disappear. Offering a buyer a full refund in exchange for removing feedback converts a performance problem into a manipulation case. Amazon’s Account Health Rating treats review solicitation as a Critical violation.
The permitted route for feedback
Feedback removal requests must go through Feedback Manager within 90 days of the feedback being left. Amazon removes feedback that contains obscene language, personal information, a product review instead of a seller review, or a complaint about a fulfillment issue on an order that Amazon fulfilled. Amazon warns that asking for removal through other channels may lead to deactivation.
Do Not Rush, Pad or Repeat the Appeal
The appeal is the document Amazon uses to decide whether to restore the account. Amazon’s appeal guidance asks you to be clear, concise, factual and direct, and to avoid emotive language. It also asks you to do the following.
- Explain every issue named in the notice and its root cause.
- List the specific actions you took, with dates.
- Provide evidence for every ASIN under review.
- Use documents within the requested timeframe, which for some products is 365 days.
What a weak appeal looks like
An appeal that apologizes for several paragraphs, blames Amazon, a customer, a carrier or a competitor, or promises to do better without naming a single changed process tells Amazon the cause is still in place. Amazon’s reviewers read for three things. They want the specific failure that caused the violation, the corrective steps already completed, and the preventive controls that stop it from happening again. Generic language about quality control or customer service gives them none of the three.
A strong appeal names the failure in operational terms. For example, a supplier shipped units that did not match the listing, and inbound inspection did not catch it. It then lists what changed, with dates. The supplier was removed, the remaining units were removed from inventory, and an inspection step was added for every inbound shipment. Each claim points to a document attached to the appeal.
Why repeat submissions hurt
When the first appeal is rejected, many sellers resubmit within hours with small edits. Each submission is reviewed against the same account record, and each rejected one stays in that record. A pattern of rapid, inconsistent appeals makes the next one harder to accept, especially when the stated root cause changes between versions. Before you resubmit, read the rejection, identify exactly what Amazon said was missing, and fix that point with evidence. If the rejection is unclear, ask Account Health Support what the violation requires.
Do not admit to violations you did not commit to make the appeal look complete. An invented root cause becomes part of your record and has to be defended on every later review. If the cause is not yours, such as a listing changed by another contributor or a complaint that does not match the order, say so and prove it.
Do Not Ignore Amazon, Open Orders or Held Funds
Watch your email, the Account Health page and Performance Notifications for requests, and respond within the stated timelines. Amazon’s Account Health Rating guidance gives a three-day window for some Critical violations before deactivation. A missed request during an open review can close the review against you.
Your obligations to customers continue while your listings are down. If you fulfill orders yourself, ship the open orders, answer messages, process returns and issue refunds on time. A late shipment, an unanswered message or an A-to-z claim filed during the suspension adds to the metrics Amazon reviews when it reads your appeal. If you use Fulfillment by Amazon, check whether a removal order is needed for inventory and act before any storage or disposal deadlines in your notice.
Held funds
Amazon may withhold funds after a deactivation. The Business Solutions Agreement allows Amazon to withhold payments for as long as it determines related risks persist. If the account is reinstated, funds are released on your normal schedule. If it is not, Amazon’s funds disbursement eligibility policy explains when and how you can appeal for them after 60 days. Do not open chargebacks with your bank or card issuer against Amazon fees to recover money, because that creates a dispute that runs in parallel with your account case.
Do Not Change Account Details or Access During the Review
Changing the bank account, legal name, business address or primary contact can trigger a fresh identity or business verification. Amazon’s seller identity verification rules require documents that match the account, and a mismatch during an open deactivation can add a verification hold on top of the original issue. If a change is unavoidable, make it once, with matching documents ready, and mention it in the appeal.
The same caution applies to access. Do not hand your login to an unknown service provider, and do not add users who log in from new devices or countries in the middle of a review. Amazon watches login and device patterns as part of related-account and security checks. Use user permissions in Seller Central for anyone who needs access, keep two-step verification on, and record who logged in and why.
Do not delete listings, product data or messages to clean up the account. Deleted records are still visible to Amazon, and missing records you later need as evidence cannot be recovered. Close or remove a listing only when your corrective plan calls for it, and note the date in the appeal.
First-Time and Repeat Suspensions
A first suspension for a performance metric, such as Order Defect Rate, Late Shipment Rate or Cancellation Rate, is usually read as an operational failure. Amazon wants to see the cause, the fix and the control. Amazon expects seller-fulfilled accounts to keep ODR under 1 percent, Late Shipment Rate under 4 percent and Cancellation Rate under 2.5 percent, and a clear explanation tied to those numbers carries weight.
A repeat suspension for the same issue is read differently. The previous appeal promised controls, and the repeat shows they did not work or were not put in place. The new appeal must explain why the earlier plan failed and what changed in the process itself, such as a new warehouse procedure, a new supplier or a staffing change with dates. Copying the previous Plan of Action is one of the fastest ways to a denial.
Suspensions for deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, forged documents or review manipulation sit in a separate category. Under Section 3 of the Business Solutions Agreement, Amazon may suspend or terminate immediately where the account may be used for deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity. Every mistake in this article pushes a case toward that category, which is why avoiding them matters more than writing quickly.
How severity changes what you should do first
For a performance metric suspension, start by pulling the order-level data behind the metric and finding the failure point. For a product authenticity or safety issue, start with supplier documents and inventory status. For a related-account or identity issue, start by mapping every person, device, bank and address connected to the account. For a code of conduct issue, start with your own message and review history, because Amazon already has it.
US, EU and UK Differences
The Seller Code of Conduct applies across Amazon’s stores, and the one-account-per-region rule means a seller can hold separate accounts in different regions. Separate regions do not protect you. The Code of Conduct allows Amazon to deactivate all of your selling accounts when any of them is not in good standing, so a suspension in the US can reach a linked European or UK account and the reverse. Do not move inventory or sales to another region’s account to keep trading while one is suspended.
Each marketplace reads the same appeal standard, but the documents differ. US sellers above Amazon’s high-volume threshold must certify bank, tax and contact information under the INFORM Consumers Act, and Amazon gives 10 days to complete that certification to avoid deactivation. European and UK accounts face identity and business verification under local rules, and European listings must carry product safety information such as manufacturer details and an EU Responsible Person under the General Product Safety Regulation. When a notice names a regional requirement, the appeal must answer with documents issued for that region.
Consumer law also differs. In the UK, buyers of goods sold online can cancel within 14 days of receiving the item, and the seller must refund within 14 days of getting the item back. Refusing or delaying a legally required refund while your account is under review creates a customer complaint at the worst moment.
What to Do Instead
The steps below are the order we follow when a seller brings us a fresh deactivation. Each one closes off a mistake from the sections above.
- Read the full notice and list every policy, ASIN and order it names.
- Open the Account Health page and match each violation to its appeal path.
- Freeze account changes, new accounts, off-platform messages and feedback requests until the case is resolved.
- Pull the order, listing and inventory data behind the violation and find the root cause before writing anything.
- Gather invoices and records that meet Amazon’s requirements, and request reissued copies from suppliers where needed.
- Complete corrective actions first, so the appeal describes steps already taken, with dates.
- Write one complete appeal that covers root cause, corrective actions and preventive measures, with evidence for every ASIN.
- Submit it from the Account Health page and keep a dated copy of everything you sent.
- Keep handling open orders, returns and messages within Amazon’s timelines while you wait.
- If the appeal is rejected, read the response, fix the specific gap and resubmit once.
Our Amazon suspension and reinstatement team handles this process every day. For the full picture, see what to do when your Amazon account is suspended.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I open a new Amazon account after being suspended?
Amazon allows one account per region unless you have a legitimate business need, and it may deactivate all of a seller’s accounts if any one is not in good standing. A new account opened to get around a suspension is not a legitimate business need and is likely to be deactivated as related.
Can I edit my invoices before sending them?
You may remove pricing. Amazon requires everything else to be authentic and unaltered, and it may contact your supplier to verify the details. Ask the supplier to reissue a copy from its own system if the original is missing.
Should I contact customers who complained?
Only through Buyer-Seller Messaging and only for permitted purposes, such as resolving an open order or return. You may not ask a customer to remove or change feedback or a review, and you may not offer anything in exchange.
Is it bad to appeal right away?
Speed matters when a notice carries a short window, but an incomplete appeal leads to more review rounds and adds a rejected submission to the record. Find the root cause, complete the corrective steps and gather evidence first, then submit one complete appeal.
Will Amazon keep my money while I am suspended?
Amazon may withhold funds after a deactivation. If you are reinstated, funds are released on your normal schedule. If you are not, Amazon’s funds disbursement eligibility policy sets out how to appeal for the release of held funds after 60 days.
Get Help Before You Act
Submit your case for a free assessment, or book a consultation.
You can also see all our marketplace suspension services.
Sources
- Amazon Seller Central, Selling policies and seller code of conduct
- Amazon Seller Central, Invoice requirements for appealing a policy violation
- Amazon Seller Central, Complete an appeal questionnaire to reinstate selling privileges
- Amazon Seller Central, Appeal an account deactivation
- Amazon Seller Central, Communication program policy
- Amazon Seller Central, Can Amazon remove buyer feedback?
- Amazon Seller Central, Customer product reviews policies
- Amazon Seller Central, Account Health Rating program policy
- Amazon Seller Central, Account Health Rating: Frequently Asked Questions
- Amazon Seller Central, Order Defect Rate
- Amazon Seller Central, Late Shipment Rate
- Amazon Seller Central, Cancellation Rate
- Amazon Seller Central, Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement
- Amazon Seller Central, Funds disbursement eligibility policy
- Amazon Seller Central, Global seller identity, address and business verification
- Amazon Seller Central, INFORM Consumers Act compliance
- Amazon Seller Central, General Product Safety Regulation compliance
- GOV.UK, Accepting returns and giving refunds
