Quick answer. Amazon expects every unit to match the condition you assign and the detail page you list it on. A customer report that an item arrived expired or in the wrong condition, such as a used item sold as New, is logged on your Account Health page as a Low severity violation, while customer reports of counterfeit goods are High severity and a counterfeit confirmed through a test buy is Critical. Low severity points are small, but they grow with each repeat of the same policy, so the cheapest protection is a quality control process at intake, at grading and before shipment that stops bad units from reaching customers.

Quality complaints rarely start with a dramatic failure. They start with a scuffed box sold as New, a supplement with four months of shelf life left, a used blender graded one step too generously, or a supplier lot that was never opened before it went to a fulfillment center. Each of those produces a return comment, a negative feedback, an A-to-z claim or a policy violation, and Amazon reads all of them as evidence about how your business controls what it sells. We see the same pattern in quality-driven suspensions. The seller treats each complaint as a one-off, and Amazon treats the sequence as a process failure.

How Amazon Defines Each Condition

Amazon’s condition guidelines apply to all categories unless a category-specific guideline says otherwise. The grade you select is a promise to the customer about what is in the box, and the customer judges the unit against Amazon’s wording, not yours.

Amazon also publishes category-specific condition guidelines for books, electronics, software and video games, cell phones, personal computers, toys, home and garden, tools, watches, medical devices, intimate apparel, and consumable, ingestible and topical products. Those pages narrow or override the general grades. If you sell used goods in any of those categories, read the category page before you grade a single unit, because a grade that passes the general guideline can still fail the category rule.

The grading decision that prevents most complaints

When a unit sits between two grades, we grade it down. The price difference between two neighboring grades is smaller than the cost of a return, a refund, the loss of the unit, and a violation that counts toward a repeat threshold. Write the condition note for the customer who will open the box, and name every missing accessory, mark and cosmetic flaw that Amazon’s wording requires you to disclose.

Items Amazon Will Not Accept in Any Condition

Amazon’s condition guidelines list items that are unacceptable for listing regardless of the grade you choose. No condition note cures these problems.

• Dirty items. Signs of mold, heavy staining or corrosion make the unit unlistable.
• Damage that blocks use. An item damaged in a way that renders it difficult to use cannot be listed.
• Missing necessary parts. An item missing accompanying material or parts it needs is unacceptable, though this does not necessarily include instructions.
• Repair needed. An item that requires repair or service cannot be listed.
• Not made by the original manufacturer. Copies, counterfeits, replicas and imitations are prohibited.
• Promotional material. Promotional copies, promotional bundles, product samples and advance reading copies, including uncorrected proofs of books, are prohibited.
• Expiration problems. An item past its expiration date, including “best by” and “sell by” dates, with an unacceptable portion of shelf life left, or with a date tampered with or removed, cannot be listed.
• Disposal stock. An item intended for destruction or disposal, or designated unsellable by the manufacturer, a supplier, vendor or retailer, cannot be listed.
• Prohibited products. Anything prohibited for sale on Amazon is unacceptable in every condition.

Two items on that list cause more trouble than the rest for resellers. Liquidation and closeout lots often contain stock a retailer marked unsellable or intended for disposal, and a lot that arrives without paperwork gives you no way to prove otherwise. Promotional bundles and samples look like retail goods but are prohibited, which matters for wholesale buyers who accept mixed pallets. Amazon also states that only full retail versions of software may be sold.

See also Amazon Product Safety Suspensions and Product Recalls on Amazon.

How a Quality Complaint Becomes an Account Health Violation

The Account Health Rating is a score from 0 to 1,000 that shows your risk of deactivation for the policies it covers. New sellers start at 200. A score of 200 to 1,000 is Healthy, 100 to 199 is At Risk, and 99 or lower is Unhealthy, which means the account is eligible for deactivation or already deactivated. You lose points when Amazon detects a new violation and regain them when you address it.

Where quality complaints sit on the severity scale

Amazon’s own example of a Low severity violation is a customer report that a product was expired or in the wrong condition, such as a used item listed as new. Amazon says it tolerates infrequent low severity violations because mistakes happen in the course of business. Customer reports of infringing or counterfeit products are High severity, and Amazon’s tolerance for High severity violations is minimal. A product found counterfeit or pirated through a test buy is Critical, and a single Critical violation qualifies the account for deactivation.

This is why the distinction between a condition complaint and an authenticity complaint matters so much. A customer who writes that a product “looks fake” because the packaging is crushed or a seal is missing may trigger a counterfeit report instead of a condition report. Packaging quality is a condition problem that can turn into an authenticity problem in the customer’s words.

How repeat violations change the math

Amazon says point values typically range from two to eight based on severity, and that negative point values sometimes double for each repeat violation of the same policy. Repeat violations are labeled as such in the Impact column on the Account Health page. Amazon also sets a maximum number of repeat violations for a single policy within 180 days. For infringement policies the maximum is five, and for restricted products policies it is two. Amazon notes that listing a used product as new has a higher repeat threshold because those violations are usually low severity and easy to resolve, but a higher threshold is still a threshold.

When you reach the maximum for a policy, Amazon surfaces a Critical violation, your score drops to zero, and you have a three-day period to address it before deactivation. An Account Health specialist may try to call you during that window, so the emergency contact number in your notification preferences needs to be current.

What offsets the losses

You gain four points for every 200 orders fulfilled over the last 180 days, and points tied to violations fall away as violations age past 180 days. A high-volume account can absorb occasional Low severity violations. A small account with a run of condition complaints on one SKU cannot.

Quality problems also produce returns, negative feedback and A-to-z claims, which feed other metrics. See our guides on suspensions for too many returns and Order Defect Rate.

Expiration-Dated Products and FBA Shelf Life

Expired and short-dated goods are the most preventable quality violation, and Amazon’s FBA rules leave little room for interpretation. Amazon says failure to meet its expiration requirements may result in removal of listings, disposal of inventory or deactivation of the selling account.

What counts as expiration-dated

Amazon treats any product with a shelf life, or that loses effectiveness over time, as subject to expiration even if no date is printed. That includes consumables, OTC medication, dietary supplements, pet food, topical products such as creams, shampoos, sunscreen and cosmetics, cleaning products, pest control and pool testing products, bundles that contain an expiring component, and any product with a period-after-opening symbol. Critical safety products such as children’s car seats, medical devices and fire extinguishers may carry manufacturing dates that Amazon tracks.

The shelf-life rule at check-in

At check-in, a product must have enough remaining shelf life to be consumed in full plus an additional 90 days. Amazon’s example is a bottle of 240 daily servings, which needs 330 days of remaining shelf life. Baby formula needs at least 180 days. Amazon’s published guide table lists minimum arrival times before expiry such as 90 days for chips and snacks, 270 days for beverages, 365 days for pasta and peanut butter, 540 days for candy and canned food, 730 days for herbal or mineral supplements, and 900 days for cleaning supplies and personal care products. Amazon notes the table is a guide and not an exhaustive list.

Labeling and shipment data

• Attributes at ASIN creation. You must set Is Expiration Dated Product, Product Expiration Type and shelf life correctly when the ASIN is created, and Amazon monitors those attributes afterward.
• Printed dates. All ingestible products must carry an expiry or manufacturing date, and lot numbers alone are not enough. Baby food and formula must show an expiry date.
• Case packs and multipacks. The date must appear on the outer packaging and on each item inside.
• One date per ASIN per box. Units of one ASIN with different expiry dates ship in separate boxes.
• Send to Amazon entries. The date you enter in Send to Amazon becomes the expiration date of record. A mismatch with the date on the unit is an expiration date defect that can lead to listing blocks, disposal or deactivation.
• Past-date arrivals. Items already expired at arrival are marked for disposal and cannot be returned to you.

Once inventory is in a fulfillment center, Amazon sets units that pass expiration or come close to exceeding the shelf life of the ASIN to unsellable. Set your automatic removal settings so unsellable units come back to you instead of sitting in the network. For merchant-fulfilled consumables, the same shelf-life logic applies in your own warehouse, because the customer complaint and the violation are the same whether Amazon or you shipped the order.

Where Quality Problems Start

When we review an account with recurring condition complaints, the cause almost always falls into one of five places. Naming the right one is what separates a plan Amazon accepts from one it rejects.

1. Sourcing. The supplier ships damaged, short-dated, previously returned or unsellable stock, or the source cannot be documented. Recurring defects on one supplier’s lots are a sourcing failure, not a packing failure.
2. Receiving. Units go from the supplier carton to an FBA shipment without anyone opening a sample, checking seals or reading dates.
3. Grading. Used and returned units are graded by feel, by different people with different standards, or graded high to protect margin.
4. Storage and prep. Heat, moisture, crushed cartons or poor prep damage units after inspection. Meltable and liquid products are frequent cases.
5. Listing data. The unit is fine but the detail page is wrong. A different size, color, count or model on the page produces a “not as described” complaint even when the product is perfect.

Customer returns deserve their own line in the plan. A returned unit resold as New without inspection is the most common source of “used sold as new” reports we see. Once a unit has been opened by a customer, treat it as used until someone has inspected it against Amazon’s New definition.

Building a Quality Control Routine

A quality control routine only works if it is written down, assigned to a named person and recorded. Amazon’s appeal guidance asks for specific actions, dates of changes and documentation, so a routine that exists only in someone’s head cannot support an appeal later.

• Inspect at intake. Check packaging, seals and expiration dates before inventory is listed or sent to FBA.
• Grade conservatively. When an item sits between two grades, choose the lower one.
• Describe what is missing. Amazon expects missing accessories to be clearly stated for used items.
• Track shelf life. For dated products, follow Amazon’s expiration rules for FBA and remove short-dated stock.
• Read the complaints. Returns comments, feedback, and Account Health violations point to the specific defect.
• Fix the source. Recurring problems with one supplier or one SKU are a sourcing issue, not a packing issue.
• Keep supplier records. Invoices from legitimate suppliers are the evidence Amazon asks for when authenticity is questioned.

What a working intake check records

For each inbound lot, record the supplier, the invoice number, the date received, the ASINs and quantities, the number of units opened for inspection, what was found, the expiration dates read, and who signed off. Photograph a sample unit on every side and the carton labels. If a lot fails, record what happened to it, whether it went back to the supplier, was regraded or was destroyed. That log becomes your evidence if Amazon later asks how a defective unit reached a customer.

Grading standards for used and returned goods

Write a one-page grading standard per category that quotes Amazon’s condition definition and adds your own photo examples of each grade. Train everyone who grades against the same sheet, and spot-check graded units weekly. If two people would grade the same unit differently, the standard is not specific enough.

Watching the signal before Amazon does

Review return reasons, return comments and seller feedback for each ASIN at a fixed interval. A cluster of “damaged,” “used” or “expired” comments on one ASIN is a reason to pull and inspect the remaining inventory before the next violation posts. Our Amazon account health maintenance service runs this review for sellers who want it done on a schedule.

Documents and Evidence That Support a Dispute or Appeal

Amazon distinguishes between a dispute and an appeal. A dispute provides evidence that the violation was detected in error. An appeal acknowledges the violation and shows that it was not intentional and has been fixed. The evidence you need depends on which one you file.

• Supplier invoices. They show the source, the product, the quantities and the dates. Amazon notes that some products require invoices from the last 365 days, so check the timeframe in your notice.
• Intake and inspection records. Dated logs and photos show that units were checked before sale and what the check covered.
• Expiration evidence. Photos of printed dates, the dates entered in Send to Amazon, and shipment records show whether a unit met the shelf-life rule at check-in.
• Grading standard and training records. They show the corrected process exists and that staff were trained on it, with dates.
• Removal and disposal records. They show you pulled affected inventory and did not resell it.
• Supplier correspondence. Notices to a supplier about defective lots, or termination of a supplier, show the root cause was addressed at the source.

Amazon’s appeal guidance recommends circling or highlighting the parts of a document that matter, such as the ASIN or the supplier name. Submit evidence for every ASIN listed at the bottom of the notification, not only the one you consider most important.

Responding to Complaints That Have Already Built Up

Start on the Account Health page. Every violation shows the policy, the ASIN and the next steps Amazon offers. Work in order of severity, because Amazon advises prioritizing the violations with the greatest severity.

1. Sort each violation. Separate violations that are wrong, such as a complaint about another seller’s unit on a shared listing, from violations that describe a real defect.
2. Dispute the errors. For complaints made in error, file a dispute with evidence, such as the inspection record and photos for the shipped unit.
3. Pull the affected stock. For valid complaints, inspect remaining inventory of that ASIN and remove or regrade anything that fails.
4. Find the root cause. Trace the defect to sourcing, receiving, grading, storage or listing data, and confirm it with your own records.
5. Fix and document. Change the process, record the date of the change, and gather the evidence that the change is in place.
6. Write the appeal. State the violation, the root cause, the corrective steps already taken and the preventive steps now in place, with dates and attachments.

Closing or deleting the listing does not remove the violation from the Account Health page. Amazon says violations are removed through a successful dispute or appeal, by taking the required corrective action for certain types, or after 180 days. If the account is deactivated for its Account Health Rating, violations stay on the page and do not age off until you address them, and the account is reinstated once the score returns to 100 or higher.

If the complaints have already led to a suspension, our Amazon suspension and reinstatement team can help.

For a closely related case, read Inauthentic vs Counterfeit Complaints on Amazon.

Mistakes That Make Quality Problems Worse

• Blaming the customer. An appeal that says buyers misunderstood the condition shows Amazon that nothing will change.
• Naming a generic cause. “Human error” or “packing mistake” without the lot, the person, the step and the fix reads as an explanation that has not been investigated.
• Relisting before fixing. Sending more units from the same lot after a complaint repeats the same violation and moves you toward the repeat threshold.
• Reselling returns as New. Returned units that skip inspection are the most direct path to wrong-condition reports.
• Covering dates. Amazon’s FBA labeling rules tell you not to conceal the original expiry date or other product information, and a tampered or removed date makes the item unlistable.
• Entering the wrong date in Send to Amazon. A mismatch is an expiration date defect in its own right.
• Buying undocumented lots. Without invoices you cannot show the goods were not disposal stock or counterfeits.

First-Time Versus Repeat Violations

A first wrong-condition report on a healthy account is a warning. Address it, find the cause, and fix the unit or the listing. It carries a small point value, and Amazon has said it tolerates infrequent low severity violations.

Repeats are different in three ways. Point values for the same policy can double with each repeat. Repeat violations are labeled on the Account Health page so Amazon and you can see the pattern. And reaching the policy’s maximum in 180 days turns the pattern into a Critical violation with a three-day window. Amazon also states that violations removed after a successful appeal, where you did not dispute that the activity occurred, may still count toward the repeat threshold.

For a repeat case, the appeal must explain why the first fix failed. If the earlier plan said “we inspect all units” and another defective unit shipped, Amazon will want to know what the inspection missed and what changed. We build repeat-case plans around the specific failure point, with records from after the change, because a second copy of the first plan has already been shown not to work.

Differences in the US, UK and EU

Amazon’s condition guidelines and Account Health Rating pages are published per store, and the version cited here applies to selling in the United States. Other Amazon stores publish their own versions, so read the help page for each marketplace you sell in before assuming the grades and thresholds are identical.

In the UK, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats every contract to supply goods to a consumer as including a term that the goods are of satisfactory quality. The Act lists appearance and finish, freedom from minor defects, safety and durability among the aspects of quality, and it takes account of any description of the goods. A condition note that understates wear can therefore create a consumer law problem as well as an Amazon complaint.

In the EU, the General Product Safety Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/988, applies from 13 December 2024 and sets safety and traceability obligations for consumer products sold online. Quality failures that touch safety, such as a damaged seal on a consumable or a defective electrical unit, fall under that framework and under Amazon’s own product safety enforcement. Sellers in the EU and UK should treat safety-related defects as a separate, higher-risk category from cosmetic condition complaints.

Preventing Quality Suspensions

Prevention comes down to four controls that run every week. Buy only from suppliers who issue invoices and stand behind their lots. Inspect a sample of every inbound lot and every returned unit before it is sold. Grade against a written standard that quotes Amazon’s wording. Review customer signals per ASIN at a fixed interval and act on clusters before Amazon does.

Those controls also produce the records you would need if a complaint becomes a violation. A seller who can show the lot, the inspection, the date and the person responsible can usually explain a defect in one page. A seller who cannot show any of that is asking Amazon to accept a promise, and quality appeals built on promises are the ones we see rejected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell an item as New if the box is damaged?

Amazon’s New grade describes a brand-new item with the original packaging present for most items. If the packaging damage changes what the customer receives, list the unit in a used grade with an accurate condition note, because a customer who reports it as wrong condition creates a violation.

Do condition complaints affect my account health?

Yes. Amazon lists customer reports that an item was expired or in the wrong condition as Low severity violations on the Account Health page. Repeats of the same policy carry higher point values and can reach a maximum that triggers a Critical violation.

Can I sell expired or short-dated products?

No. Amazon prohibits items past their expiration date, items with an unacceptable portion of shelf life remaining, and items with dates tampered with or removed. For FBA, units must arrive with enough shelf life to be used in full plus 90 days.

Does closing the listing remove the violation?

No. Amazon says changing the listing status, including closing or deleting it, does not remove the violation. Violations come off through a successful dispute or appeal, certain corrective actions, or after 180 days.

What is the difference between Renewed and Used?

Renewed items are inspected and tested by an Amazon-qualified supplier or Amazon to work and look like new and come with a 90-day replacement or refund warranty. Used grades are assigned by the seller under Amazon’s condition definitions.

Get Help With Quality Complaints

Submit your case for a free assessment, or book a consultation.

You can also see all our marketplace suspension services.

Sources

• Amazon Seller Central, Condition guidelines
• Amazon Seller Central, Account health rating
• Amazon Seller Central, Complete an appeal questionnaire to reinstate selling privileges
• Amazon Seller Central, Expiration dates on FBA products
• Amazon Seller Central, Restricted products
• UK legislation, Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 9
• EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety