Amazon Plan of Action
You open your email and you see a suspension notice from Amazon. What do you do now that your Amazon seller privileges have been suspended?
It’s time to start crafting a Plan of Action. You can write your own Amazon POA or get help from our team which drafts numerous Plans of Action each week for suspended Amazon sellers.
A plan of action is basically an Amazon reinstatement letter that you will draft after your Amazon account is suspended and you have received a suspension email. This is how you will appeal your suspension, by using an Amazon POA (plan of action).
You must use the Plan of Action to reactivate your account on Amazon and remove any restrictions you may have. You can start the appeal process from your Seller Central account.
Whether you write the Plan of Action yourself or you get help, you need to know the basic information every Plan of Action should contain.
A Plan of Action (POA) should consist of 3 sections:
1) Root Cause:
This is the problem that Amazon wants you to address. It can be due to a number of types of customer complaints, or in more advanced cases, intellectual property complaints. Amazon really wants you to follow through and find the issue at hand yourself, take ownership, and elaborate on the issue. Do a deep dive to find the root cause, a self-analysis so to speak. Look at how you run your business. Identify the cause of the issue, but never admit to doing anything wrong – always stay positive.
2) Immediate Remedy:
This directly addresses the concerns or issues outlined in the root cause. What did you do immediately after finding out about the problem to make the customer happier? Amazon is all about the consumer, even if they are scamming the seller. You want to show Amazon, not just tell them, that you have taken measures to fix the problem at hand: removed the issue from inventory, refunded the customer, etc. This is necessary to maintain your account health and get your account / listing(s) back.
3) Preventing Future Issues:
This section of an Amazon POA outlines what changes you’re going to make to prevent future complaints. This is where you design how you’re going to be a better seller on Amazon. You can’t use forms for this; you need to write a Plan of Action specifically designed for your business. The people reviewing your Plan of Action need to feel comfortable reinstating your account/listing by knowing you are making changes to your business that’ll result in fewer or zero complaints from others who purchase your products.
Sending Plan of Action to Amazon.
The 1st plan of action is really what can make or break you as a seller.
It might take a substantially greater amount of effort to get past that 1st Amazon POA. It’s vital because it has a better success rate of reinstatement. The problem is that the supplemental plans of action are taking longer and longer to be reviewed and to get responses. We think that Amazon has increased their staff in terms of addressing plans of action and focuses them on the initial ones coming in. The 1st plan of action is absolutely vital.
I’ve noticed particularly regarding appeals to Amazon, you really have to make sure they are concise, persuasive and also respectful to the people who are reading them. Because that could also be a big factor into whether or not you get your account reinstated. When people you know from Hyderabad or Bangalore are reading these, you want to make sure that you treat them with respect.
Sellers need to know what not to argue. Amazon is one of the best employers in India because the company promotes from within. But even people with great jobs for Amazon still see this awful poverty. So if you’re arguing that you can’t pay for your kid’s private school, that you can’t make your Mercedes payment, or you were making $1 million and now you’re really hurting, those are not persuasive.
You have to be concise and persuasive and avoid putting your foot in your mouth in terms of your audience.
