Amazon Seller Account Deactivated? What to Do First

The email says your Amazon seller account is deactivated. Don’t reply yet.

First, read the notice to the end. Then open Account Health in Seller Central and list every violation on it. Last, send a complete appeal: the root cause, what you’ve fixed and how you’ll stop it happening again.

Until Amazon reactivates the account, you can’t sell, and Amazon holds the money in your seller account. Everything here is for sellers on Amazon.in.

Read the notice to the end

Amazon sends the notice by email and in Seller Central, under Performance Notifications. To check it’s real, open Seller Central by typing its address yourself, not from a link in the email. Amazon says it never asks you to verify sensitive information by email.

Sellers often call this a suspended account. Amazon’s notices call it deactivated.

Your seller agreement with Amazon is the Business Solutions Agreement. It says the notice will give the reason and your options to appeal. During a fraud check, Amazon can leave the reason out.

Some notices quote Section 3 of the agreement. That’s the part called Term and Termination. It lets Amazon suspend or close an account at once in four cases:

a serious breach of the agreement that you didn’t fix within 7 days of Amazon’s notice
suspected fraud or illegal activity
harm, or possible harm, to buyers, other sellers or Amazon
an Account Health Rating below Amazon’s limit for deactivation

Copy the notice into a document, and write down:

the policy Amazon names
what Amazon says happened
the products listed at the bottom, by ASIN
the documents Amazon asks for, and the dates they must cover
any deadline

Then check your Account Health Rating

Account Health is the page in Seller Central that shows your violations and your performance rates. It also shows your Account Health Rating, a score from 0 to 1,000. New sellers start at 200.

The rating falls into three bands:

200 to 1,000, green, Healthy: the policies in the rating don’t put your account at risk.
100 to 199, yellow, At Risk: Amazon may deactivate your account.
99 or lower, red, Unhealthy: Amazon can deactivate your account, or already has.

If your rating is At Risk, address the violations now. Amazon says it will most likely deactivate an account if they stay open and it can’t reach you.

A Healthy rating isn’t a guarantee. Amazon can still deactivate any account at once if it suspects fraud, or if you break a policy the rating doesn’t cover.

One critical violation takes your rating to zero. Amazon then gives you three days to address it before it deactivates the account. An account health specialist may call you in that time, so check your emergency contact number in Notification Preferences.

You can address each violation in one of two ways:

Dispute it if Amazon made a mistake, and send the evidence.
Appeal it if the violation happened. Show that it wasn’t deliberate, and that you’ve fixed it.

The Account Health page also has a Contact us button. You enter your phone number, and Amazon says an account health specialist calls you.

Why your Amazon seller account was deactivated

Your notice should give the reason. Match it to one of these kinds, because each needs a different reply.

Verification (KYC): Amazon couldn’t confirm your identity or business

Amazon checks the person who registered the account, the business and its address. It accepts a passport, an individual PAN card, an Aadhaar card or a driving licence as ID.

The name on your ID must match the primary contact in your seller account. Your proof of address, such as a bank statement or electricity bill, must be less than 180 days old. Amazon accepts documents only through Seller Central.

Amazon may also ask for a video call. Its forum staff call this a standard security check. Book a slot and show the documents Amazon asks for.

While your account is under review for documents, don’t upload them again, and don’t appeal. Amazon asks for this on its verification page.

Before you upload, compare your ID, your proof of address and Seller Central. Every name, address and number should match.

Performance: your rates crossed Amazon’s limits

Amazon sets three limits that can lead to deactivation:

Order defect rate under 1%. This counts negative feedback, A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks over 60 days.
Cancellation rate under 2% for orders you ship yourself. It’s 0.5% for Prime orders and 1% for Guaranteed Delivery.
Late shipment rate under 2% for orders you ship yourself.

Cross one, and Amazon can deactivate your Easy Ship and Self Ship listings, or your whole account.

Before that, Amazon may offer a five-question quiz in a banner at the top of Account Health. For the order defect and cancellation rates, you get 72 hours to take it. If you pass, Amazon won’t ask for a plan of action, and your listings stay live.

If your listings are already deactivated, click Submit appeal on the Account Health page. Amazon then asks for a plan of action.

In Account Health, click View details and open the tab for the rate you crossed. Download its report and find the orders behind the number. If missed Easy Ship pickups pushed it up, read our guide to missed pickups before you appeal.

Policy: a violation on your Account Health page

Amazon lists policy violations on the Account Health page, under Product Policy Compliance. It rates each one critical, high, medium or low.

Critical violations include a counterfeit product found in a test buy. Asking buyers for reviews in a way Amazon doesn’t allow is critical too. A valid complaint from a rights owner, such as a brand, counts as high.

Repeat violations lower your rating faster. Two restricted-product violations in 180 days can put your account at immediate risk of deactivation. For intellectual property violations, the limit is five.

Some violations are about products that need Amazon’s approval to sell. Our guide to category approval on Amazon India lists the documents Amazon asks for.

For each violation, decide first: is it a mistake to dispute, or a fault to appeal?

Amazon’s code of conduct allows one seller account for each region you sell in. A second account needs a real business reason, such as separate businesses for separate brands. And all your accounts must be in good standing.

Amazon treats all your seller accounts as related to each other. If one breaks a rule, Amazon may deactivate the others too.

To get your account back, Amazon says to fix the other account first:

Sign in to the account that broke the rule.
Appeal each of its violations from its own Account Health page.
Once Amazon reactivates it, appeal your own account. Give the other account’s store name and the date Amazon reactivated it.

If you no longer own the other account, Amazon’s forum staff ask you to show a clear separation instead. That means evidence that you no longer own it, or have any rights in it.

If you don’t recognise the other account at all, say so plainly in your appeal. Then collect the documents that show who owns your business.

How to write a plan of action

A plan of action (POA) is a written appeal. It gives the root cause, what you’ve fixed and how you’ll stop it happening again. Amazon.in’s help pages ask for one to reactivate listings after you cross a rate limit.

Some violations use a short questionnaire instead. For product condition complaints, Amazon says it won’t accept a plan of action. Answer the form Amazon gives you.

For a full plan of action, work through these steps:

Cover every violation. Amazon’s appeal guidance asks you to explain all of them, because one deactivation can have several causes.
Find the root cause of each. Amazon’s own examples are suppliers it can’t verify, and problems with stock control or quality checks.
Say what you’ve fixed. Give each action, its date and the document that proves it.
Say how you’ll stop it happening again. Amazon suggests evidence such as photos of new training material, packaging or quality checks.
Attach evidence for every product the notice names. Highlight what matters on each document, such as the ASIN or the supplier’s name.
Keep it short and factual. Don’t introduce your business or mention other support cases. Leave out emotional language.
Send it from Account Health. Select the violation, or follow the notice. Then watch your email for Amazon’s decision.

Say you sell handmade soaps in your own shop and on Amazon, through Easy Ship. In one busy week, your cancellation rate goes over 2%, and Amazon deactivates your Easy Ship listings. Your plan of action could say:

Root cause: “We sell the same soaps in our shop and on Amazon, and we updated Seller Central once a week. In the week of 13 October, we cancelled 11 orders for soaps already sold in the shop.”
What we fixed: “On 20 October, we moved 300 soaps to a shelf kept only for Amazon orders. Our stock in Seller Central now matches that shelf.”
How we’ll prevent it: “Every morning, our packer counts the Amazon shelf and updates Seller Central. We’ve attached the count sheets for the last 14 days.”

If Amazon asks for invoices, each one must:

show a date within the 365 days before the notice
cover your sales and stock of each product named
show the product clearly, by name, model number or barcode
give your supplier’s name, phone number, address and website

Amazon won’t accept pro forma invoices, invoices you issued yourself, or files in Excel or Word. You may hide the prices.

How long it takes to reactivate your account

Amazon’s help pages don’t say how long it takes to review an appeal.

If Amazon deactivated your account for its rating, it reactivates the account once the rating is back to 100 or more. The rating changes within a few hours of Amazon confirming you’ve addressed a violation.

Old violations don’t expire during a deactivation. Waiting won’t raise the rating. Only addressing each violation will.

For verification documents, Amazon says it may contact you within two business days if it needs more.

If Amazon turns down invoices you sent, Performance Notifications shows why. Fix each reason before you send anything new.

What happens to your payouts and stock

During a deactivation, Amazon stops your payouts and holds the money in your seller account. It uses that money to settle refunds, A-to-z Guarantee claims, removal costs and any fees you still owe.

Our payouts guide explains those fees.

Amazon’s funds policy says what happens next:

If Amazon reactivates your account after your appeal, it releases the money.
If it doesn’t, or you choose not to appeal, you can ask for the money 60 days after the deactivation. Email disbursement-appeals@amazon.in.

Amazon then runs a separate check. It may ask about your identity, your bank accounts and cards, and where you buy your products. If it finds fraud, abuse or repeated policy breaches, it can keep some or all of the money permanently.

If you use FBA, your stock stays in Amazon’s fulfilment centres, but it stops selling. Amazon’s seller agreement lets you ask for it back at any time, with a removal order. Storage fees run until you do.

Amazon usually fills removal orders within 10 to 14 business days, and charges a removal fee for each item.

If your account closes permanently, you have 90 days to tell Amazon whether to return your stock or dispose of it. After that, Amazon can decide.

If you ship orders yourself, ship every order you already have. The agreement keeps you responsible for orders placed before an account closes.

If your FBA stock has a short shelf life, create a removal order early.

What not to do

Don’t open a new account. Amazon’s rules say you may not open one once it removes your selling privileges. Amazon also says a new account opened to avoid a violation gets your related accounts deactivated automatically.
Don’t send the same appeal again. Amazon doesn’t allow duplicate support cases, such as a new case asking for an update. It can limit the cases you open if it finds duplicates.
Don’t edit a document or buy an invoice. Amazon wants every document authentic and unaltered, and it may check with your supplier.
Don’t pay a stranger who promises to get your account back. Only Amazon decides. On Amazon’s own seller forums, moderators remove these offers as “personal solicitations”.
Don’t share your password. Give anyone who helps you their own user login, linked to your account. Amazon recommends this for every business with more than one user.

Where we come in

We onboard and manage sellers on Amazon.in, appeals included, so we know where they get stuck after a deactivation. Often it’s an appeal with no root cause, sent again and again. Sometimes it’s invoices that miss products in the notice, or a related account the seller has never heard of.

We can read the notice with you, find the root cause, gather your invoices and write the appeal. Everything stays in your own Seller Central account: you add us as a user, and you keep the login. Nobody can promise that Amazon will reactivate an account, and that includes us. See our account management work.