Available Balance Declining with Orders Filled and Account Level Reserve Growing
I am a new seller with just over 30 days on Amazon. When the business was started I understood the account level reserve and the reasoning for holding the funds in order to fill potential returns, refunds, claims or chargebacks. The tiers that Amazon has indicate that 100% of funds are held for a period of 14 days post-delivery of the product. With this taken into account I wasn't expecting to see any kind of payout until the Nov 30 payout date, however, this payment was a grand total of $0. The available balance when the period rolled over at the 1st of December was around $2500 but has steadily declined to where it is now at $0. As orders are received and processed, the available balance has decreased to nothing. Why has the available balanced decreased with processed orders? I thought fee's and shipping expenses were supposed to be deducted from the transaction total or the amount that would be held in reserve. There have been over 900 orders processed since I started and my metrics across the board in my account health are perfect. All of the required verifications have been completed and there are no policy violations against my account. I have reached out to Seller Support and Account Health support several times and they have either "escalated" the case or told me to email the Disbursements team. I have also emailed the disbursements team and have not received a reply of any sort. The latest case number is 14443327281.
Can one of the moderators look into this and help sort out why there continue to be no available balance and when I might be able to expect some form of payout. Without payout I won't be able to continue to operate. No money coming in doesn't lend well to a viable business model.
Available Balance Declining with Orders Filled and Account Level Reserve Growing
I am a new seller with just over 30 days on Amazon. When the business was started I understood the account level reserve and the reasoning for holding the funds in order to fill potential returns, refunds, claims or chargebacks. The tiers that Amazon has indicate that 100% of funds are held for a period of 14 days post-delivery of the product. With this taken into account I wasn't expecting to see any kind of payout until the Nov 30 payout date, however, this payment was a grand total of $0. The available balance when the period rolled over at the 1st of December was around $2500 but has steadily declined to where it is now at $0. As orders are received and processed, the available balance has decreased to nothing. Why has the available balanced decreased with processed orders? I thought fee's and shipping expenses were supposed to be deducted from the transaction total or the amount that would be held in reserve. There have been over 900 orders processed since I started and my metrics across the board in my account health are perfect. All of the required verifications have been completed and there are no policy violations against my account. I have reached out to Seller Support and Account Health support several times and they have either "escalated" the case or told me to email the Disbursements team. I have also emailed the disbursements team and have not received a reply of any sort. The latest case number is 14443327281.
Can one of the moderators look into this and help sort out why there continue to be no available balance and when I might be able to expect some form of payout. Without payout I won't be able to continue to operate. No money coming in doesn't lend well to a viable business model.
13 replies
Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY
The tier system is for Amazon Pay, not Disbursements.
Account level reserve is based on your account metrics and sales velocity. Its normal for newer sellers to have an account level researve to cover the entire 30 day return/refund perior. This refund/return period is extended during the holiday season which will impact the account reserve.
This is all normal. Disbursements are biweekly in the beginning and reserve funds to cover for potential returns. If your sales velocity increases (you stated you have 900 orders) then the amount to cover for those returns can reserve your entire balance.
We didnt get a decent disbursement for ~2 months when we statrted. Yours will be worse because of the time of year.
It gets better, we get daily disbursements with express payout for the last 3 years or so.
Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp
There appear to be a lot of moving parts here.
If you are doing FBA it's entirely possible that you have a pricing problem that will actually leave you in the hole unless it gets fixed FAST.
Since you say "I thought fee's and shipping expenses were supposed to be deducted from the transaction total or the amount that would be held in reserve." it sounds like an FBA version BUT it could also be the case is you are FBM and are using Amazon 'buy shipping' for the labels.
Are you FBA or FBM, and have you looked at ALL your costs to see if it's a pricing issue and not an Amazon issue?
Micah_Amazon
Greetings @Seller_3viPZ42qINdJt,
Thank you for reaching out. My apologies on the frustration this may have caused. I wanted to follow up and see if you have any additional questions or concerns from account level reserve? I can see that @Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY, @Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw, and @Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp have provided some amazing answers to your questions about the entire process and solutions to help move forward. This is great with because the conversations are tying into your bottom line.
Here are some resources for you view at your earliest convivence:
Please let me know if you have additional questions. Upon reading through the case ID and this thread, it looks like everything is working how it should from Amazons perspective and policies. The uptick in sales especially around this time as mentioned earlier will have a hold on funds.
Cheers,
Micah
