Amazon Passport Required!

[raydavies]

After having been a professional account seller on Amazon for many years i have suddenly had a demand for a passport to be uploaded to "Set up my account"!

Problem is I don't have a passport it expired a few years ago and I don't travel abroad anymore.

I'm already having trouble with Amz as they keep "Suppressing" items as the picture is not on a white backgound. They are all on a white background but in spite of the pic having been accepted for at least 5 years, they wont accept it. We spoke to them but they insist

They are also suppressing others with the reason given "Something wrong with item title - missing info." Again, these have been up for 5 years or more with no problem Of course they don't specify what the missing item is.

Getting worried now with Christmas approaching.

Has anyone else had these, or similar, problems.

PS. My wife has just tried taking the commas out of the title on one and it's bee accepted! It's as though Franz Kafka has taken over Amazon.


Ray

[bubbleimages]

I think they do require another form of identification to be uploaded after the other one has expired, so if it was a driving license before hand and the expiry date has passed they would like to see another one for their 'know your customer' database due to EU laws. They have been reauthenticating many older established accounts for this reason.

I would touch base with them regarding not having a passport as you do not travel, but as you know their seller support can be hit and miss. If the account is a big earner and looking ahead to this festive period, then would advise paying for a new passport and get it submitted soon just to clear there requirements.

Hope you get that, and your suppressing issue sorted, Ray. Have a good weekend.

[raydavies]

Thanks for the response. Following a chat with them it turns out that although their online form says Passport in a dropdown, it doesn't drop down to show other choices. They say they're unable to correct this but, as you say, it will accept a driving licence.

Thanks again. Also, I hope you have a great weekend!

Ray

[raydavies]

I'm now having a nightmare time with Amazon! They asked for verification and I complied with their request. Yesterday I was told they were witholding payment to me until they had verified my account That in itself causes problems as there is a lot of money involved.


I then discovered they'd suspended all my listings for the same reason! All attempts to contact them were thwarted by "technical Issues" until I finally got a message through to them which was replied to by customer support (not seller support). I've now tried again and opened another case.


I've now learned they are taking anything up to 6 months to verify accounts due to the high volume of new registrations and the Amazon forum is loaded with posts with the same problem. There is one case where over £50,000 has been held over for months on end.


This is terrifying especially in the run up to Christmas - my wife and I are at our wits end.


Ray

[Andrew]

They make the rules and bend and change them whenever they want unfortunately. The majority of sellers on there are of little importance to them and you have to jump through the hoops whenever they tell you. Doesn't matter if you have done no wrong, you can still get totally screwed. Withholding payment is standard for them. You just have to wait which I can imagine is a nightmare and no one will give you a timescale. You have been caught with re-verification at a bad time. Why they are doing this to existing accounts with no issue's when they have this so called backlog makes no sense.

[GoonerGary]

I've had to verify twice. I wasn't going to go through all of that again. My business names are not on the business account debit cards, only my real name. It takes a few goes for them to approve all of my accounts. So I did the sane thing and told them that I would not be re-verifying and deleted all of my products.

[pisquee]

To set us up on Amazon, I got a new passport - old one had expired, and I hadn't any holiday plans to go anywhere (and don't drive to have a license) For this I got the paperwork together, and did a fast track appointment at the passport office. bit of a faff

[raydavies]

I only wish I could tell them to get stuffed, but they provide (usually) a good chunk of my income.

Ray

[raydavies]

I have now received a reply from Amazon which states:

"[FONT=&quot]The scope of your trading activity.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]-- Items listed on your account do not match your business scope. The business scope is shown on public available information."

Please, does anyone know what this means.

After 6 years I would have thought it was patently obvious what we were selling. But, what is the "[/FONT][FONT=&quot]public available information."?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ray[/FONT]

[Andrew]

Items you sell on Amazon does not match how you trade elsewhere it seems to be what they are saying. I would assume Amazon are wrong but that is of no help as they are "never wrong". Did you give them a website to check? Are you a ltd company and the category shown on companies house different to online retail or similar?
I think you need to ring seller support again for what little help they give. Amazon seem to have sadists working for them who enjoy punishing people regardless of what they did. Treated as guilty until you can prove otherwise. Surprised the press don't get onto the forums as some crazy stories on there.