Name of Complainant	Otto Jalmari Hakola
Date of Complaint	December 27, 2020
Name(s) of companies complained against	Amazon
Category of complaint	E-Com & Retail
Permanent link of complaint	Right click to copy link
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Text of Complaint by Otto Jalmari Hakola:

Good Day!

My seller account has been deactivated because this one had been linked with the account of my former partner. As soon as I was convinced of this, I immediately sent a detailed Plan of Action to Amazon (you can see a summary of this plan below).

The root cause that led to the deactivation of related account:

1. I had a partner with whom we had sold on Amazon for a long time. We had common seller central. Since my partner a citizen of another country, he couldn’t open a bank account in our country (Finland). That’s why my personal bank account had been linked to our common seller central;
2. After a while we couldn’t agree on the division of profit from sales and terminated our partnership. Based on Letter Terminating Partnership, the common account remained with my former partner and I registered a new one for myself;
3. After the end of our cooperation, the partner told me that he would delete my bank account from his seller central (which was our common before). Since the funds stopped flowing to my bank account, I decided that he had actually deleted it. But he didn’t do it, he just stopped selling and that’s why money didn’t go to my bank account from his seller central;
4. Since at that time I was convinced that my bank account was deleted from my partner’s seller account, I linked the same bank account to my newly created seller central without any doubts. Since my bank account has not actually been deleted from my partner’s seller central, our accounts were linked due to the same bank account;
5. Finally, I logged into my newly created seller account from the same devices from which I once logged into my former partner’s account (which was our common before). I am guessing that this could also lead to the linking of our accounts.

What I have done to fix the issue:

1. I contacted my former partner and asked him to delete my bank account from his seller central. Also, I offered him my help in his account reinstatement. However, we were unable to do either one or the other because my partner lost all the data to log into his account. So, we couldn’t even log into his account;
2. After that opened a new bank account. As soon as the new bank account has been opened, I immediately linked it to my seller central. Previous bank account was deleted from my ‘deposit method’ section;
3. Since I’m not sure if my previous bank account could not have been used by anyone other than my former partner, this one was closed to prevent any connections with other seller accounts;
4. I bought new devices (laptop and mobile phone) from which I only log into my seller account. These devices are not used for anything else;
5. All Amazon Policies and Seller Code of Conduct were carefully learned by me and my managers again. The most important provisions were incorporated in our internal rules.

How we I will prevent this problem from happening again in the future:

1. I will never provide anyone with my personal and financial information, such as: e-mail, credit card (or debit card), bank account and etc.;
2. Additionally, I will never provide anyone with my personal (new) devices from which I permanently log into my seller central;
3. If I need to change my financial information (bank account, credit card, debit card), I will always link a new account/card. I will not use my old account/card that could be used by someone else;
4. To be sure of the legitimacy of my business reasons, I will always notify Amazon if I decide to create multiple accounts. And until I get approval from Amazon, accounts will not be created;
5. I will personally monitor any updates and changes in Amazon policies, rules, requirements and guidelines. If such changes/updates are made, I will notify all my managers about them. If we don’t understand anything, we will contact Amazon Seller Partner Support.

 

I tried very hard to describe the whole situation as detailed as possible. It is very important for me that this appeal is reviewed. I love Amazon, want to reinstate my seller central and continue to sell there.

Please, review this Plan of Action.

I look forward to your response!

 

Thank you,

Otto Jalmari Hakola

 

 

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