We asked Amazon in September about a seller who reported on the discussion boards that they had issues updating their credit cards and lost access to their account as a result. (From the responses, it seems sellers have a chronic fear of things going wrong when updating credit cards – “This is definitely one of the most troubling and persistent problems Amazon sellers face,” one seller responded.)
Additional sellers reported the problem this month, and on October 13, an Amazon moderator acknowledged there was a problem with Amazon incorrectly labeling credit cards as invalid, responding to the reports in two threads:
“Unable to charge HELP” started off with a seller writing on October 6, “My credit card, which I have been using for 8 months without any problems, was deemed invalid by Amazon today.” Other sellers chimed in saying they too were unable to update their credit card. “I have encountered the same problem,” one seller wrote. “I have tried several different cards but they are all invalid. It has been a week already, and Seller Support does not have a solution either. This is really frustrating.”
In the other thread started on October 7th, “Credit card invalid, I can’t access my seller acount,” a seller explained Amazon sent them an email that their credit car was invalid – “I’ve used the same credit card for my charge method for 4 years until yesterday,” they seller said. “I have 3 open orders, ready to be sent BUT I cannot evet see their addresses. What should I do?”
“I wanted to provide you all with an update here. We are aware of the issue with cards being labeled as invalid incorrectly.
“This is a systemwide issue that we are aware of and working on a priority fix for currently.
“I ask that you remain as patient as possible given the circumstances, and please don’t retry multiple times during this time. Please do retry verifying your card after 24 hours.
“Above is all of the information we have currently. I will update this thread as soon as I hear anything further.
“I realize this is extremely frustrating situation – and apologize that those impacted are experiencing this. Hoping to share good news on this as soon as possible.”
(NOTE: We’ve seen sellers advise colleagues who have trouble to wait 24 hours before trying to verify their accounts after a failure – the moderator’s post confirms that advice.)
We followed up with Amazon this week, and a spokesperson told us on Friday he was still waiting on some additional details to be able to respond to all of our questions. We had asked: What caused the glitch, when will the glitch be fixed, and what will Amazon do to make things right for sellers who lost revenue as a result of the glitch?
If sellers can’t access their accounts, that represents lost sales, and they may also accumulate dings on their accounts while unable to access their accounts. We’ll update this post when we hear from Amazon with more information.
Credit: Source link