The Amazon Strategist Show

Why Most Amazon Sellers Get Suspended (And How to Protect Your Account in 2025)

• The Amazon Strategist Show • Season 3 • Episode 86

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What’s really putting your Amazon business at risk? In this episode of The Amazon Strategist Show, John Cavendish sits down with Debi Slaver, Sales & Marketing Director at SPCTEK, to break down the hidden pitfalls that lead to seller suspensions—and what you can do to avoid them.

From account health metrics to the realities of order defect rates, Debi shares the real talk every Amazon seller needs to hear in 2025. Whether you're scaling fast or just starting out, this conversation will help you avoid costly mistakes and keep your account in good standing.

🔑 Key Takeaways:
Violations can lead to account suspension if left unaddressed.
Poor account health can hurt your ability to advertise and grow.
Understanding order defect rates is critical for long-term success.
Quality control can make or break your seller metrics.
Amazon courses aren’t one-size-fits-all—do your homework.
E-commerce is not a passive income strategy.
Hands-on account management is non-negotiable.
Strong customer service is essential for seller survival.
Know your violations to protect your seller privileges.

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Connect with  @spctek and Debi
Website: https://spctek.com
Email: debi@spctek.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SPCTEKGlobal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spctek
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spctek
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8WKVkQ7E_1_qCSAOAybzxA

Connect with John Cavendish
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jgcuk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejohncavendish
LinkedIn: https://hk.linkedin.com/in/thejohncavendish

Know More About Seller Candy
Website: https://www.sellercandy.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/SellerCandyPro
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sellercandyamz
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sellercandy/
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SPEAKER_01:

A lot of times the people that you work with as a seller, you've never personally met. You've only known them via, you know, or WhatsApp or whatever, however you communicate with them, right? That's really the only way that you know them. And when they disappear, it's almost impossible to find them because they're moving on to somebody else. And so I just think it's really important in this industry, if you're getting into Amazon, that you're really researching it well.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, I'm your host, John Cavendish, and welcome to season three of the Amazon Strategy Show. The show is all strategy with no hacks, no silver bullets, and no magic pills, just real practical strategies to grow your Amazon business. Today, I'm joined by none other than Debbie Slaver from SPC Tech. So with a career spanning over two decades, Debbie has worn multiple hats in the field of sales and marketing, and she currently serves as the director of sales and marketing over at SPC Tech. And I was on their podcast a few weeks ago. So Debbie, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much, John. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, thanks for being here. And yeah, getting right into it, because this is some of the stuff we didn't cover on the other episode, which you should go and check out their show. Yeah, I know, you know, All you want to talk about is AI. I'm only joking because we just talked about that and how everyone just talks about AI these days. So we're not going to talk about AI. We're going to talk about the boring stuff. So what's boring and actually important that you've been thinking about recently, Debbie?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think, John, it's important anytime you do a business to recognize what types of things are really the foundation of being successful. And, you know, Amazon really sets it up well for you by giving you, you know, your account health score and all of that type of stuff. It gives you some place to look at in Seller Central so that you can actually see what's going on with your account. Don't we wish in regular business that we just had a dashboard we could go to and look at?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, I wish that. I mean... Hopefully, if you're running your business right, you have a dashboard to look at. Otherwise, you are literally flying blind.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but you may have had to create it yourself where when it comes to Amazon, they've already created it for you and stuff like that. I think one of the things that probably has happened to everyone who has sold at one time is when they get that email that says they're in violation and their heart just like, you know, sinks and goes fast and all of that type of stuff. and they're like, oh no, oh no, what do I do now, right? And so I know your company, Seller Candy, very familiar with having to go and speak to seller support and all of that type of stuff for individuals because of violations and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, 100%. So I mean, violations are some of our bread and butter, some of the things we do. But yeah, I mean, when a seller gets that, it is not a thing they want to ever, ever experience, let alone on the day you get it when it really, really sucks. So what happens when a seller receives multiple violations at the same time?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, so I think you need to understand that violations are going to lead to some type of penalty. If you don't take care of it, if you don't let Amazon know what's going on and stuff like that, you could have all the way up to account suspension, deactivation of specific products, and even some restrictions on your selling privilege and stuff like that. I think that a lot of people don't understand that your account health can affect your ability to advertise your products. I mean, there is so much that is tied to just really the account health and the basics. Like you said, I know today everybody wants to talk about AI and I know that that's important, but I think it's really important that people realize let's get the basics down first. Make sure you're paying attention to your numbers and stuff like that. There are are a lot of very common types of violations, which are anything from selling counterfeit to inauthentic products, listing policy violations, particularly if you are in certain fields or categories. And I think it's really important if you're in health supplements or stuff like that, that you understand what you can and cannot put into listings. And of course, there's IP infringements. And it may be somebody violating your trademark or copyrights or patents without your authorization. And then there's one that people don't talk about a lot, but it's review manipulation. Either soliciting fake reviews from your family and friends, or sometimes there's the bad character out there who's leaving bad reviews on a competitor, not realizing that it could affect them. And of course, all the performance issues that come with shipping, your ODR, your late shipment rate, cancellation rate, all of that type of stuff. And then, of course, customer service.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, that's pretty thorough. I think that's pretty much everything. When you talk about ODR, order defect rate, are there kind of different metrics that you track and certain thresholds?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so just so people know, ODR means high order defect rate. It could come from negative reviews. It could come from A to Z guarantee claims or any chargebacks. So this really comes from, I believe, quality of product. Are you making sure that what you're selling has a high enough quality that when your customer receives it, that they're going to be really pleased with what they purchased, you know? And I think this is sometimes the seller who gets on there who thinks, oh, I'm just going to source from Alibaba or Timu or something like that. I'm just going to pay these low prices and and I'm going to get this product in and I'm going to sell it, I think they don't understand that Amazon has built itself to be a trustworthy and reliable marketplace. And all of their policies and processes that they have are in order to ensure that. So if you're seeing negative reviews, and it could be something as simple as making a mistake when you shipped your FBA in, like putting blue labels on red product and red labels on blue product, and And all of a sudden, they start fulfilling. And people are like, I didn't order red. I didn't order blue. So it can be something like that. But it can be quality of your product. That's why I think it's really important that you're sampling and looking at everything that you're selling. Sometimes I've heard sellers say, well, I've purchased from this manufacturer several times, never had a problem. And all of a sudden, the manufacturer knows they're shipping to FBA. And they might cut a few corners for you, you know, to help you with their costs. So it's really important that you're involved in all of that when it comes to the order defect rate.

SPEAKER_00:

And are there any kind of like thresholds that people should be watching out for, like percentages or risk factors you can see in the account?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I'm going to say that there are, but I will be honest, I'm not enough into that. I'm not in the seller dashboard, really, with what I do. And so, unfortunately, I don't know. I mean, do you know what it is? I

SPEAKER_00:

don't know. It's just interested. Yeah, I think it's like

SPEAKER_01:

90. You have to stay above 90. I think it's 90%. It could be 95%. But yeah, there is a threshold as to what you should be above. And when you're in seller send you can actually look at it and it'll say what's recommended that you stay above a certain percentage and stuff like that. I just have too many numbers in my head right now.

SPEAKER_00:

That's okay. So yeah, you talked about Seller Central telling you when things are an issue and things are not. So, you know, of course, when you're in Seller Central, it can tell you that your account health is at risk or critical. What starts to happen at that point? And now a very quick message from our sponsor, Seller Candy. Are you dealing with support issues, cases, flat files, suspensions, or even account suspensions, then Seller Candy is there for you. We take the pain away so you never need to talk to seller support again. If that sounds interesting, head to sellercandy.com to check us out and book a call with our team today. That's it from us. Now back to the episode.

SPEAKER_01:

What I find really, it kind of amazes me actually, when people get these violation notifications, John, a lot of times they don't pay any attention to them. And And that's when you'll start to see, you know, your account health is now at risk and you're not paying any attention. We get people who've had their account totally suspended. And when we start doing a little bit of research, we'll say, okay, what did you do when you got this violation? Well, I didn't know what to do. So I did nothing, you know. And it's like, yeah, if you yourself don't know what to do, you need to get on forums. You need to check with Seller Central. You need to figure out what to do. do because it's like the bill that comes to your house if you decide you're not going to open it it doesn't mean you don't own it or owe it you're still going to owe it right you still are responsible for it and it's the same thing with violations you have to really make sure that you're paying attention to them and doing something you know if you're not sure then you better find somebody who is sure about what that violation could mean to you because when it starts to I mean, actually, when Amazon starts to tell you that you're at risk, that's major. You know, you've let things go. And so you need to do something about it.

SPEAKER_00:

And what would you suggest that people do about it?

SPEAKER_01:

Depending, of course, on what the violation is, it is really important that you are, first, if you can understand it, and I will tell you, many of Amazon's emails are cryptic to people who are not familiar with them. You know, you're like, oh, it says counterfeit, but my product is authentic. I bought it from Walgreens, right? So you don't understand how can they say it's counterfeit. And then they want to see invoices and they don't want to accept your invoices from a Walgreens or a Walmart because they want to see the whole source trail. They want to see what happened before it went to Walmart and stuff. Obviously, you're not going to have that. And so I think we are seeing a day when arbitrage is really kind of of being pushed out of the Amazon realm. I see them going, they really want to back brands more. So if you are selling white labels or generic product or you're selling brands, you know, you need to make sure that you're in compliance before you do all of that. That could be a letter of authorization saying that you can, yes, they can sell my brand. Or it may be that you really have to check your suppliers carefully, making sure that the suppliers are authentic suppliers, that they have permissions. Again, I can't tell you how many times I've heard somebody say, well, my VA was handling that. My VA did it. I didn't know anything about it and stuff like that. And I think what's interesting to me is how often I hear people say that they believe Amazon is a passive income company. There's nothing passive about having an Amazon business. You have to be involved in it. You have to have your hands on it. You need to be looking at the quality of the product that comes in. You need to make sure that you know where the product is coming from and do they have the proper certifications, letter of authorizations, and all of that type of stuff. And you need to pay attention to whether or not people are on your listings. If you're brand? Trademark infringements? Are they using your photos? All of that type of stuff. So I think there are some immediate impactful things that can happen after a violation. It might be a listing suppression. So they might just say that the product that's tied could be removed or made unavailable for sale. You know, that doesn't sound like it's that bad unless it's your number one seller. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh no, No, we can't pay the bills next week, right? Amazon will typically put funds on hold. If you get to a point with a violation that you're at risk, I guarantee you Amazon is holding your funds now until you resolve this, all right? And then, of course, just any violation could affect those seller metrics that we talked about, the ODR and stuff like that, which impact your account health. So it depends on the severity of the violation and actually the seller's track record. So if you've had this happen over and over and over again, at some point, Amazon's going to catch up with you. So the first time you might get just a warning. They might ask you just make a correction to the problem, update a listing, improve your shipping times, even downloading if you're FBM and you're shipping yourself. Sometimes you have a ship station or something that integrates and all of a sudden it goes offline and you have a bunch of orders that got shipped without any tracking. All of that stuff is going to come against you. So sometimes it's just a warning. But it could be a suspension. It could be your seller privileges. It could be just the product. And so it might say that you can no longer fulfill any new orders that come in as well, which just kind of piles upon the problem that you already have. And so that's the reason why I say when you get the violation, go to Seller Central. Go to your forums. If you don't understand it fully, make sure that you do understand what's at risk and how you can correct it. Because a lot of times with Amazon, it is just basically admitting fault and giving them we're going to correct it. And here's what we're going to do. You know, giving them a detailed plan and letting them know.

SPEAKER_00:

I agree. Love it. Thank you. And yeah, this is exactly how you get things done with Amazon. So Amazon does not care whether you are, whether you are actually in the right or wrong. You just need to take, take it and eat it and move on to the next thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Admit your fault. Admit your fault, even if you're

SPEAKER_00:

not at fault.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Which happens, I mean, you know, it obviously happens. I think it's not unknown within the industry that Amazon is more buyer friendly than they are seller friendly. And they're usually going to err on the buyer's side instead of the seller's side. So if the buyer is saying that this is what's happening, they've already, I mean, it's not like innocent until proven guilty. If the buyer says this is what's happening, the seller is guilty, regardless of whether that buyer is a good character or a bad character. Right? And so, you need to understand, that's one of the reasons why I say really take your customer service seriously. If somebody's trying to contact you, make sure you're responding to them. Make sure that you're responding nicely to them. I often tell people, take your emotion out of it. Whether you're talking to Amazon or customer or whoever take the emotion out of it and just respond with facts you know oh I'm sorry that was clearly listed in our policy let's see if we can do this for you

SPEAKER_00:

you know totally agree so Debbie we're going to move on to another part of the podcast called our controversial take what you can share anything controversial but preferably your most debatable controversial opinion related to Amazon or the e-commerce industry So

SPEAKER_01:

I think we touched a little bit about this, John, when you and I talked. guess it's kind of my pet peeve, that everyone makes it seem so easy, that Amazon is so easy. I mean, you just find the right product, you just throw it on, and before you know it, they're going to be throwing money at you, right? And they don't talk about that you've got to do the listing correctly and that you've got to do the shipping correctly and that you've got to use the right photos. I mean, that kind of stuff is all in Amazon's rules under Seller Central. you know, your policies and your agreements and stuff like that. But it's just not known very well to most people. And so I don't care if a training costs you$27 or if it costs you$2,000. You need to do your research before you agree to do any of that kind of stuff because it's money that you're just throwing in the wind. If they can't actually prove to do what they say they're going to do. So I think that's probably mine. I mean, it gets me kind of... When you're an agency out there and you're really trying to be above board and you're trying to do things properly and you hear about all of these other agencies that have taken people's money and just run with it, it's disappointing for our industry. There's a lot of bad players out there. And the minute that you get that violation, they just disappear. And because e-com, you know, if you think about it, is very global. I mean, we're a perfect example of it being global, right? That a lot of times the people that you work with as a seller, you've never personally met. You've only known them via, you know, Skype or WhatsApp or whatever, however you communicate with them, right? That's really the only way that you know them. And when they disappear, it's almost impossible to find them. Because they're moving on to somebody else. And so I just think it's really important in this industry, if you're getting into Amazon, that you're really researching it well. Look, there's a lot of stuff out there on YouTube that you can watch, that you can listen to, that you can learn about all the things that you want to learn about without having to pay somebody thousands of dollars to take a course. That's their patented way of doing exactly what you want to do.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, 100%. yeah I

SPEAKER_01:

think that's probably mine yeah

SPEAKER_00:

no I mean I agree and I think I mean there's two sides to that isn't there there's like definitely anyone who made all their money off doing that it's you know it's just a sausage machine you know they're just making money selling people how to get on Amazon I do think that like having mentorship or coaching is a shortcut to achieving most things in life but as you said you've got to get the right person to help you I

SPEAKER_01:

mean I agree with you if you get the right coach or the right mentor that is fantastic okay but if you come across somebody who's just always telling you you know oh you can do this I mean if it seems grandiose it is grandiose you know which means it may not be something that you're willing to put all the time and work into I'm not saying that it might not work but know your own limitations are you going to be willing to because like I said everyone tries to tell you that ecom is passive income and it's not passive it's a business that you need to treat as a business and you've got to devote time to it resources and all of that to it

SPEAKER_00:

100% thanks Debbie so if anyone wants to learn more about SPC tech what should they do

SPEAKER_01:

okay so our website is easy to find because it's SPCTEK.com I will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

SPEAKER_00:

Love it. And thank you for coming on the show and sharing. It's been super valuable. And yeah, I'm looking forward to having you back in the future.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, thank you so

SPEAKER_00:

much, John. I always enjoy it. If you liked the episode, please go and follow us on whatever platform you are listening on because it really just helps the podcast go further up. If you can raise your hand, any rating is helpful a good rating is even more helpful and yeah see you all next week

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