May 25, 20223 (Updated June 3rd, 2023): Starting May 25th Amazon sent thousands of 3P (3rd party) sellers into a panic with the message “Your account is at risk of deactivation” notices on their seller accounts. Accounts must reverify their business information due to the new INFORM Consumers Law.
Yeoman is seeing this alert on all clients regardless of sales volume (Yeoman brand clients typically sell $5 – $25m annually on Amazon.com) This draconian approach has sent many organizations scrambling. Most have had stellar account performance for years and haven’t seen this type of messaging before. This is especially annoying since all accounts have already provided these details before.
In fact, Amazon did post a notification about the act on May 10th, but said “In most cases, if you already completed verification for any of the required information, you won’t need to submit it again, as long as your information hasn’t changed.” This doesn’t appear to be true.
The INFORM Consumers Act goes into effect June 27th. This law requires “High-volume” sellers are required to verify their business information annually. The bar to be classified as high volume is very low; just over $5k in revenue over the past 12 months. Full details on the act are at: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/GJ4JUGLSAPRM3LU7
Four tips to get verified:
- Don’t Panic – you will not be shut off immediately (but Amazon has said you must be verified by June 8th)
- The June 8th deadline was from an official email sent to some (but not all sellers)
- Get your details together – See full list
- Use the Original Login – This is your main Amazon login that is also used to update bank info, etc)
- This is required to complete the verification.
- Be Patient – It may error out at first. Amazon appears to have sent this out to thousands of sellers. Their systems appear to be overwhelmed.
- Yeoman has verified this issue with Amazon support and they have suggested waiting until later (we know that’s not re-assuring) If you continue to have issues, we recommend entering a formal ticket to get the delay recorded.
- Enter Support Tickets for Any Delays: Thousands of sellers are trying to get through this process in a very short time. Make sure you are entering tickets or requesting phone calls at any point in this process. Based upon this poor rollout, Yeoman fully expects some accounts to be incorrectly shut off.
- The last step may involve Amazon mailing a verification post card to your address (yes an actual postcard) While you may chuckle at this 90s style verification it is a real issue. A postcard can easily be lost or delayed in the mail. If you get to that step screenshot the confirmation and enter a ticket requesting overnight delivery (they won’t but at least you’ll have it on file)
First step is to go to your account information page on Amazon Seller Central https://sellercentral.amazon.com/hz/sc/account-information and click on the highlighted issue (most likely Business Address and Phone number) Once there you may have to verify any of the following:
- Corporate Name (important to make sure it’s the same as what is on your tax record)
- Corporate Address (main)
- Phone Number (important to make sure this is your customer service number since this will now be displayed on the seller details page starting in June
After you have updated this information got back to your policy violation and click on the requested document https://sellercentral.amazon.com/performance/dashboard Make sure you have all the following info ready:
- Tax info (EIN)
- Corporate Name (important to make sure it’s the same as what is on your tax record)
- Corporate Address (main)
- Phone Number (important to make sure this is your customer service number since this will now be displayed on the seller details page starting in June
- Your cell phone (text authorization is part of the verification process)
- Copy of both sides of your license (may be required)
- A personal bank statement or credit card statement (may be required)
.
You’ll need all your corporate info and (possibly) a copy of your license. It’s a painful process, but it must be done. Since the new law required annual recertification keep your details handy.
NOTE: It is taking Amazon several days (not 24 hours) to validate and clear accounts. If you’ve submitted your information and have not been approved within 48 hours, we recommend an additional support ticket to get your issue on record.
Yeoman specializes in helping multi-channel brands navigate Amazon, Walmart, Target, and DTC within the context of their overall sales. Nobody gets mult-channel selling like Yeoman. Contact Us to learn more
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