Yesterday sellers began getting warnings that their account was at risk of deactivation relating to the INFORM Consumers Act, even sellers who had already re-verified their account at least once.
The reports continue today, and so far there's no indication Amazon has addressed this issue that is causing sellers extreme stress. On
one thread on the Amazon discussion boards, a seller wrote, "We have a warning that we are at risk of deactivation although we have excellent account health. When we try to go to the Account Health page we get an error message. I hate this stuff. I swear it takes months off my life when stuff like this happens."
On
another thread, one seller wrote, "This is so ridiculous. I was trying to verify the tax information. In the "country" box, there is no "United States" for you to choose from. All the other countries are included in that box except "United States". Unbelievable!"
We sent an inquiry to Amazon today at midday to ask about the glitch and the lack of communication with sellers about it.
Update 5/26/2023: An Amazon spokesperson responded to our inquiry, explaining that it investigated the issues when questions started coming in last night: There was a brief period when some sellers had issues accessing the Account Health Dashboard, and an error that impacted some US sellers who were unnecessarily asked to verify their tax information.
Both issues have been resolved, according to the spokesperson, who provided us with the responses going to sellers who had reported issues:
1) Regarding concerns around deactivation:
"If you received an email confirming that you passed verification for a specific piece of information, this email is accurate. Since updates to your Account Health page can take up to 24 hours, we advise you to check your Account Health periodically. If the update still has not appeared after 24 hours, then please reach out to Seller Support to let us know."
2) Regarding the Tax Questionnaire:
"We know that sellers have been experiencing issues with the Tax Questionnaire, and we apologize for the confusion this has caused. An error occurred where US sellers were asked to submit a new Tax Questionnaire as part of requirements for the INFORM Act. If your business is registered in the US, we have already verified your Tax information and we do not need you to fill this questionnaire out again. We will update your Account Health page and Account Information page to reflect this in the coming days."
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Glitches Plague Amazon Verification Sowing Panic Among Sellers
by: COVID-19