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Remember that legendary post (that got deleted) where the ex-Amazon employee bragged he got praised for rejecting every single seller appeal without even reading them? Yeah, that one made the rounds on Twitter too. Good times. Because we (all Amazon sellers) knew it was definitely a true story.
Well, let me tell you what it’s actually like to be an Amazon seller in 2025.
You set up your company, open your shiny seller account, stock your products (FBA or your own warehouse, doesn’t matter), and then the fun begins.
Customer buys your $80 item, messages you:
“Hey I don’t like it, refund me but I’m keeping the product. just send the money back :)”
For most cases, you have to "returnless" refund them and eat the loss because if you don’t, they leave a 1-star review and Amazon instantly believes it and your account health tanks. Congrats, you just gifted someone free stuff.
Selling branded products? One day you wake up to a surprise suspension: “We suspect you’re not authorized to sell this brand. Prove it or stay suspended.”
You send the official authorization letter. Amazon: “Sorry, the date isn’t in the top-right corner and the phone number is missing the country code. etc. Appeal Rejected.” *(remember that guy purposely rejects each appeal, I still remember he said, "I know I caused millions of dollars' loss to companies".)*
If you try to get the brand's authorization exactly in the format Amazon asks, the brand may tell you “We’re not rewriting our official letter just to satisfy Amazon’s insane formatting fetish.”
You’re screwed. You are suspended for a lifetime.
Or, separately, one beautiful morning you log in and see:
“Your account is suspended because we randomly decided one of your 400 listings is counterfeit. Prove it isn’t.”
You send invoices, certificates, proof of delivery, photos of you crying in the supplier’s office – rejected. Reason? “We don’t have to tell you because of privacy policies in our investigation process.” Classic. They are mad of something, but won't tell it to you, most of the time reviewers even don't understand/care why your account suspended. You have to figure it out yourself. Like a problematic girl/boyfriend...
Every appeal is handled by a different rep who clearly never read the previous 17 messages. They even confuse you with another seller, call you “Dear Wang” when your name is something else, or shares business info belongs to a completely different seller, or their response directly contradicts whatever the last reviewer person promised/asked. It’s like performance art.
While suspended:
1. Amazon holds ALL your money for 90 days but you still have to pay monthly subscription + storage fees every month or they keeps your account suspended.
2. Your entire FBA inventory? Completely locked. You can’t sell it, you can’t retrieve it, you can’t even touch it.
3. Just when you’re counting down the days until the 90-day hold ends and you can finally get your stock back, Amazon sends the chillest email ever: “We’ve decided to dispose of your entire inventory. Because why not? :)” And of course you can’t file a removal order or do literally anything in Seller Central because, surprise, suspended accounts are locked out of every single function. So they just destroy thousands of dollars of your products and ghost you.
4. Calling amazon support and talking to an actual person? Not possible for suspended accounts...
5. It's a lifetime suspension. You can not open a new Amazon seller account to start from the beginning. They forced you to send free products to customers, then took your money, then seized your inventory, and then kicked you out of the platform. Amazon is done with you.
Moral of the story: Amazon treats sellers like disposable trash and punishes them in every way possible. Even for an authentic sellers. The reviewers may get praise just because rejecting your appeals without reading them. **I made a huge mistake by building all my e-commerce operations (Amazon FBA, Amazon MCF, etc.) on Amazon. Because my Amazon account was suspended and all my inventory was seized, I had to stop selling on all platforms like eBay and Shopify. I want to warn other fellow sellers not to make this mistake. Never rely only on Amazon for all your operations.**
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