8.12.22

Amazon Suspensions Part 1 “Agency Insider Opinion Piece”

Written by Matthew Ferguson | Read Time: 5 mins

“There must be a fair balance approach, given the power Amazon wields.”

See past and supporting posts in this series:

An Amazon Sellers Nightmare

Amazon suspensions are a true nightmare. The horror of each passing day, as you lose revenue and worry about ballooning overhead costs, you must battle with a junior team who simply do not appreciate the peril the event has caused. That's if you’re lucky enough to get responses from something other than a machine. That's if you get responses in a timely manner at all!

… Breath Matthew, breathe…

I am complaining. This is going to get a touch emotional. However after a decade of bearing witness to these events, I’m frustrated how suspensions can happen. I am frustrated how unfairly they can happen without human thought or care. I am perplexed beyond parallel how awfully they can be policed by Amazon staff. To know some businesses have fallen apart and people have lost jobs over a machine-driven unfair suspension should frustrate anyone.

To be fair, the suspensions and process has improved over the years. It's not as bad now as it was. It’s a little more clear how to resolve matters, and it's a little more easy to prevent them.

However it’s just not good enough as a general process and procedure. It's grossly unfair. Amazon wields tremendous power in many ecommerce landscapes, making it impossible to avoid the channel for some sellers. There must be a fair balance approach, given the power Amazon wields.

But, but, the consumer?

Yes, I get it. My colleagues get it. Our Brands get it. The squirrel watching me from the window gets it. Amazon is consumer-focused. That's how they won big. That's why they suspend sellers - they worry about the consumer. Blah blah frankly.

I agree strong policing to ensure a great buyer experience is important. I am not questioning that at all. I agree Amazon set the bar higher for consumer satisfaction and ease, and they made many platforms, sellers and competing marketplace channels play catch up.

Consider that we now take next day delivery and no-hassle refunds for granted. A decade ago, online shopping felt far more like a gamble than it does today. I get the importance, the value and yes, as a consumer I benefited from the focus Amazon has on a great experience.

But, um, er, how should I put this… I don't care. And that's exactly the attitude Amazon support on account suspensions seems to have. That's a mistake, for such a life-changing event. That's an issue for a team who wields the power to make or break whole livelihoods, and cause job losses. And guess what - Sellers, the people who work there, are also consumers. Brand owners, company owners, ecommerce directors, managers, coordinators… we’re all people. We’re consumers.

If Amazon cares so much about the consumer, they should recognise the consumer is a person in any chain of interaction. And no matter the nature of the interaction, all should be given a level of respect. Yet unfortunately suspension is another example where Amazon support seemlingly does not have the training or procedures to produce that kind of output.

I think Amazon is eating its own tail to both promote ‘we value consumers above all else’ while they run sellers ragged on suspension messes. As linked above, Amazon support gives few Brands joy or positive experiences. Suspensions are even worse.

Suspension lack-of Reasoning

Not all suspensions are equal, so let me be clear: if your customer service sucks, you might deserve it. If you say it will ship in 3 days and you ship it in 7 days, you might have had it coming. If you tell the buyer it's legitimate, knowing it isn't, you may not have an online business in today's world. If you ship something fragile in an envelope, guess what, you cut costs in the wrong place and paid the price.

Suspensions are legitimately necessary for the poor business models, practices and sloppy teams or service providers. I do not question the need for suspensions. We all benefited over the years from this. It’s shaped many organisations up. It held many accountable to their poor operations.

But… have a brain behind these actions. If a seller ships product to France, and it's during a local postal strike, perhaps maybe it's not the sellers fault the packages arrived late? Maybe think about the reality of life events, and recognise the nuance? Maybe don’t drag them through weeks of poor responses and delays and repeats? It wastes everyone’s time, including Amazon support staff.

If a seller has a technical fault with a 3rd party provider, and suddenly a ton of orders get flagged for cancellations after 6 years of a near-perfect track record, do the maths. Balance the events. Think for a second. This seller was perfect. Now a 3rd party system messed things up. Was that really their fault? Even if you argue it is, have their 6 years of a near-perfect track record counted for nothing? A human being would never make this decision. Well trained staff and intelligent procedures wouldn't reinforce it for two months.

I’m all for leveraging AI so we can all sit around eating cheetos and complaining about the weather, but let’s remember they are input-output machine equations and won’t always account for reality. Machines lack perspective. To allow them to suspend a seller, and have that seller sweat for 15-25 days in a laborious back and forth unclear appeal process, while each day they are worrying about the revenue slump and possible job cuts, is simply unfair. It's an injustice. It's immoral. Its dumb.

I said breathe

Apologies, this has been emotional. In part 2 next week, we’ll focus on the different suspensions types, and how to tackle your appeal in detail. It will be more constructive, as opposite to this frustrated rant.

Amazon must fix support, and a big area is suspensions. It's simply wrong that such a life-changing event is so lacklustre for human interaction, understanding and accountability. There is no harm in seeking an amazing consumer experience and enforcing penalties to companies that do not meet the criteria. However there is great harm in letting machines destroy livelihoods, and junior trained staff with poorly defined checking procedures be placed in control of such pivotal nuanced events.

Amazon can and must do better.

Tune in next week (Are you on our newsletter? We sent weekly news, not just rants, I promise), however if you need help, message me any time at matt@richinsight.co.uk

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