I was a model seller for Amazon.com's merchant storefront with great success for two weeks in May. I fulfilled all orders received on time (within 48 hours of purchase), shipped quality as-described merchandise, via insured UPS Ground shipping, providing tracking #'s to the buyer, and immediately following up where there were any problems or concerns from the buyer, of which there were really none.
I received an across the board 5 out of 5 (maximum high score) from every buyer who provided feedback to my account.
As per the experience of other sellers (I should have investigated this before I went on board as an Amazon seller but as a one of the charter customers of Amazon going back to literally their first days on the Net when they sold only books, I had little reason to suspect what I was getting in to) about 10 days into my selling I received an email from their seller performance department saying that my account was "under review" and that my funds disbursement would be frozen until they completed same.
I had absolutely no idea what initiated this "review" since everything was going well with my selling and I could see that all my shipments were being delivered and everyone was happy with their experience in buying from me. Now I understand that this is standard behavior for Amazon and there is rarely a reason for it, other than perhaps an unscrupulous and groundless reason to delay payment to their sellers.
When I attempted to discover what reason they could give me for the "review" and freezing my funds account, I was unsuccessful. The "review" department cannot be reached by phone, only email and the seller help department only referred me back to the review department's email address.
This was very distressing. This made me very angry. I never did find out the rationale for this, obviously because there is and never was one.
In the meantime I received form letter replies from the review department in response to my inquiries about the status of my account stating essentially nothing.
What is unbelievable is the form letters stated that I would be allowed to continue to list and sell items on their site, generating commissions for Amazon, and incurring the time and expense of packing and shipping my merchandise, all while my funds account would continue to be frozen and I did not know when I be collecting the funds in my account. This made absolutely no sense to me, nor would it to any rational person.
My obvious response while I was being victimized in this unconscionable way was to issue immediate refunds, including shipping costs, to the buyers of all as yet unshipped orders, along with a short but comprehensive note to each explaining why I was taking this action.
My next step was to delist all the outstanding, not-yet-purchased items in my storefront, for the same obvious reason.
My next communication from Amazon's review department was a complaint that I had issued a large number of refunds to buyers, those I just mentioned re the orders I chose to cancel rather than ship with no reasonable expectation of when I might get paid for same, if ever. Duh! What part of this don't you understand Amazon? Who can reasonably be expected to work for free? You must be nuts to expect same.
A day or two later I received the same communication as others have reported, which is that they had closed my seller account and would hold release of my existing funds for 90 days.
I was never given a reason for this action and have no idea how in a free country like this Amazon is allowed to engage in this blatantly illegal activity.
In the wake of all of this, I see my only recourse (other than showing up at the Amazon headquarters with an assault rifle and blowing them all away which would be great for relieving my anger but would impact a tad on my personal freedom, so that's not an option I want to consider) is to report and expose what Amazon is doing on the widest possible scale, which is very do-able thanks to the age of the Internet and sites such as consumer complaints, so others will be informed and warned about the thugs in Seattle.
I have also just purchased the domain www.amazonblows.com as a platform to report my short but unhappy experience as an Amazon seller. On that site I will document my stellar performance as a merchant, including a listing of each sale made, the ship date, UPS tracking #, delivery dates of same, all of which were rated 100% satisfactory by my customers. I will also document the generous accommodations I was eager to make in any cases where there might have been any kind of adjustment needed to the purchase.
For example, in one case, I neglected to include the outer boxing and booklet associated with a CD box set of jazz recordings. This was an honest mistake, I had forgotten that the set initially sold with same. I issued my sincere apologies to the buyer and as a gesture of good will told him I could not locate the box and booklet at the moment because I was still in the process of unpacking from a recent move, but if I did I would forward same to him.
I then issued him a FULL REFUND on his purchase through my seller account and TOLD HIM HE COULD KEEP THE ENTIRE CD SET (a $175 value at retail prices) with my compliments for his trouble. That there was no need for him to return the CDs to me.
Obviously one cannot run a profitable business this way but because I had experienced no other problems with my seller account purchases and I completely understood why he would be upset in receiving an incomplete product, I was glad to extend this gesture to him to demonstrate that it was a completely unintentional and honest mistake on my part.
He was grateful and wrote me a personal email to tell me so. I told him he was welcome and that I hoped he enjoyed his collection and hoped to do business with him again.
In another case, while I was preparing another CD boxed set for shipment, which I had listed on my site as free from imperfections, I noticed that a small tear on one corner of the outside sleeve. The product, that is to say, the actual jewel cases and CDs enclosed remained completely unaffected. I emailed the buyer offering them either a huge discount in the form of a partial refund on their purchase, or the option to cancel their order. They opted for the discount, I issued them same, shipped the order, and once again received a complimentary follow up email thanking me for my honesty and generosity. Another happy customer.
This was my experience as a seller on Amazon's merchant website.
If this kind of thuggery can be enforced upon a seller like myself, with an unblemished and outstanding record, it can and will happen to anyone who enlists as a merchant on their site.
There is nothing too bad that can happen to these criminals and the sooner they have to deal with the consequences of their actions, the sooner the world will become a better and less polluted place.
Amazonblows
Commack, New York
U.S.A.
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