Amazon
Seller funds of $11,700 held for 90 days after account review
- 08-15-2009
- 22
Amazon is a ripoff. I sold many items on Amazon because I decided to move from ebay to Amazon. I get good prices and my products are popular and priced well so they sell quickly. I am a large "small business" not some guy shipping out 3,4 items a day out of their home.
After a month of sales I get an email that my account is under review. They say it is not necessarily a reflection of bad seller practices but is for the safety of Amazon's buyers. Yeah right. The email states that it is important to continue processing orders while it is in review... Now keep in mind that while "in review" you do not have access to money for up to 30 days.
Ok, I am not a scammer and have nothing to hide. It'll just pass and I'll get access to my money in a few weeks, right?
Wrong. After I shipped out nearly 12k worth of merchandise with no immediate compensation I get an email from Amazon that my account is linked to a blocked user. I file an appeal and get a generic response that we have investigated your account thoroughly but the decision remains.
So now I have $11,700 of my money locked into Amazon for 90 days. All emails I send for help are either ignored or I get the same generic response. There is no one to call to talk some sense into. The phone in seller support is for generic questions, the live people tell me to email seller support which of course is no help.
All items have this charge when ship feature and they can verify easily that items have been delivered. This isn't an issue of protecting themselves, not after 35 days and no claims, chargebacks or negative comments and I still can't get my money despite tracking info they have access to showing items delivered a long time ago.
If I were a smaller business I would have easily folded in these rough economic times. Cash flow is king, remember that. If you want to destroy your business go ahead and sell on Amazon... Oh, that's assuming you are able to make a profit after their hefty seller fees.
Company: Amazon
Country: USA
Site: amazon.com