Amazon Seller's Account (or The World's Worst Customer Service)

Being a medical student, you go through a lot of books. From the first day of school when you are told to purchase a dissection guide, Grey's Anatomy, Netter's, and a book of pictures of dissections, we collect lots of books that are nice to have for the 4 months of the course but have little value otherwise.

I thought I would be forever condemned to keep bookshelves full of useless materials--then I found the Amazon Seller's Account, but first a little background.

I've been buying books off Amazon for years. I'd estimate that I've spent a couple thousand dollars, both on books for myself and medical books that I've needed for courses. So you can imagine how excited I was to find a seemingly easy way to resell the books.

So within a few minutes I had opened an account and listed all of the old books that I wanted to get rid of. Keep in mind I had never opened an account before. Imagine my surprise when I received this email from Amazon within 6 hours of opening an account.

Hello from Amazon.com.

We are writing to let you know that we have blocked your selling account. Your open listings have been canceled and you may no longer sell on our site. Any subsequent selling accounts that are opened will be closed as well.

We took this action because it has come to our attention this account is related to an account which has been previously blocked for performance issues or violations of our policies. While we do not provide detailed information on how we link related accounts, we have significant evidence that this account is related to a previously blocked account.

While we appreciate your interest, please understand that the closure of an account is a permanent action. Thank you for your understanding with our decision.


Regards,

Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com

First off, who's idea was it to send out form emails like this to valuable customers, especially if there was a chance they could do it in error. For someone who puts value in their word in commitments they enter into, it was very offensive to hear these baseless acusations.

Clearly Amazon had made a mistake as I had never opened an account in the past. I expected that a quick email would be all it would take for them to correct what must have been a clerical error--how wrong I was. Here's the next email that I received in response.

Greetings from Amazon.com

I have verified that your account has been blocked by our Seller Performance team on January 30, 2010. Please e-mail them at seller-performance@amazon.com regarding the status of your account. You may also reply to the block notice in the Notification page of the Customer Metrics section in your selling account

For more information, see our Help page on Appeals for Suspended or Blocked Accounts:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200370580

Questions about your funds should be directed to our Payments team at payments-funds@amazon.com.

These departments do not offer telephone support. However, they will respond to your e-mail as soon as possible.

For more information on your Seller Performance ratings, please visit:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=12880481

Thanks for being part of the Amazon.com online community. I do hope this message finds you well and I wish you all the best in all of your future online sales.

Best regards,

Carlos V.
Amazon.com Seller Support

Clearly this was another form email--Amazon may not have any problem accusing people of wrongs they haven't done, but I guess they have difficulty actually responding to emails sent in response.

In my final email I stated that because my issues were in no way addressed I would be canceling my Amazon credit card and never purchasing from them again. Here was their response (note: in my email I never mentioned being "singled out" this must've been their email they send out to people who don't just give up and allow their name to be dragged through the mud..

Hello from Amazon.com.

We apologize that you feel singled out by our actions, but want to assure you that is not our intention. Be assured that our policies apply to all sellers.

We regret we are unable to provide further information on this situation. Further correspondence regarding the closure of your selling account will not be answered.

The closure of this account is a permanent action. Any subsequent accounts that are opened will be closed as well.

Best regards,

Seller Performance Team

Needless to say, if others are dealing with this problem, Amazon is going to have some PR difficulties in the future.

Update: This is the 5th ranked site in Google when one types "Amazon Seller's Account"! Which is great! I feel like in some small way I am "sticking it" to "the man," for how despicably they treat their customers. If reading this and having a similar problem, please share your story in the comments section so as to help get the word out.