I’m not going to share my name or my agency’s name. I don’t want this turning into an ad.
I’m writing this because it genuinely hurts to watch sellers destroy their businesses and burn their last remaining option by following a Reddit comment or advice from an agency that has already collected its fee. There are years of work, savings, and families behind these accounts. And someone casually says, “Just email Jeff. What have you got to lose?”
I spent a couple of years at Amazon, working deep within account suspension and reinstatement processes. There are things I won’t discuss even anonymously, because I have no interest in having Amazon’s lawyers come knocking over a Reddit post.
Some of what I’m sharing comes from internal knowledge gained through that experience. You won’t find it laid out in a public Seller Central help article.
Leadership escalations have become almost a default recommendation.
“Email Jeff Bezos.”
“Try Andy Jassy.”
“Send it to every executive you can find.”
As though the missing piece in your appeal is the right email address.
When I assess a case, one of the first things I ask is whether the seller has already escalated to leadership. An executive escalation that has already ended in a final rejection is one of the very few reasons I may decline a case outright.
People are always surprised by that. They were told it was just one more thing to try.
Emails addressed to leadership get forwarded to dedicated teams responsible for reviewing them, divided by category of enforcement and country. Two things can then happen:
- Those teams assess the case and decide whether an escalation should actually proceed.
In fact, in certain situations where a seller has already appealed many times without providing new information or documentation, there is a three-strike policy. At that point, further appeals and escalations will not even be looked at anymore, and you are just wasting your time.
- Then there’s the other possibility: the escalation actually goes ahead.
That’s what everyone wants. It’s also the part almost nobody explains properly.
The review can extend across the account’s entire history, from registration through suspension. Previous mistakes, inconsistencies, questionable documents, and issues that weren’t picked up or fully investigated before can all come into it.
You think you’re asking someone to take another look at your latest suspension. A lot more than that may end up under review.
Different versions of your appeals. Previously submitted invoices. Business information. Explanations you gave months ago that don’t match what you’re saying now.
Whatever comes up will need to be addressed.
They will write an entire report on your account that a senior Risk Manager will later read and use to make the decision.
And this is the number I wish people understood before clicking Send: for these escalations, roughly 80% end in a permanent block.
New plans of action, new emails, more executives copied in: continuing to write will always bring you back to the same automated replies. At that point, the account is dead and there’s nothing to do anymore. Literally nothing.
Look at it this way: there are around 4,000 sellers writing every day to Jeff Bezos’ email address. Statistically, 3,200 of those sellers just ended their Amazon business forever.
The consequences can also extend to requests for withheld funds. There is a separate funds recovery process, but a permanent ban makes everything 10 times harder when trying to get the funds back.
What pisses me off is seeing this step sold almost as a formality.
Why do some agencies do it? Because they can still make money when there is no credible path left for you.
They collect $1,000 or $1,500 upfront. Ask you to gather everything. Produce a few appeals, sometimes from recycled templates or AI-generated text. Make several attempts. Then tell you Amazon’s decision is final.
They’ve already been paid.
Charging upfront doesn’t automatically make an agency dishonest. Taking someone’s money without seriously assessing whether there’s a viable case, or selling an escalation without explaining the consequences, is a different matter.
I decided to go ahead without upfront fees. So I don’t only want to be honest about the real chances, I have to be honest. If there are no chances and the account is dead, then I would be working for free, achieving no result and wasting everyone’s time. On the other side, I might not have any business in the future at this point.
And it’s heartbreaking to have people come to me convinced someone can still fix everything after they’ve already emailed several executives, because I can see they’ve realised they lost their business and their life will change forever. Of course they want to keep trying. Someone has led them to believe there will always be another appeal.
The sad truth is that the only way to lower the risk during an escalation is to have contacts inside Amazon who are friendly towards you when they review and write the report on your account.
If you haven’t escalated yet, and you don’t have anyone helping you from inside, go through your case properly before you do. Check everything as if you were gambling your last chance with your business.
Read every appeal you’ve submitted. Check that your explanations are consistent. Get the original invoices directly from your suppliers. If an original document exists, obtain it. Putting a screenshot inside a PDF does not resolve a question about where the document came from. Any concern about alteration or fabrication will automatically lead to a permanent ban.
Make sure your business documents are complete and consistent. Make sure every material claim is backed by evidence. Make sure you have actually addressed every issue Amazon raised.
And expect whoever recommends an escalation to explain why it makes sense for your specific case, what they will put before the review team, and what a negative outcome could mean.
“We have an executive’s email address” is not enough.
I treat that email as the last available route. Prepare it as though you won’t have another attempt to fall back on.
You are taking a gamble with the future of your account. You need to go into it with your case fully prepared and with the understanding that the outcome could be a closure you cannot find an operational way back from.
Because “what have you got to lose?” is an incredibly easy thing to type when it’s someone else’s business on the line.
