Amazon Account Got Temporarily Locked – How To Fix It

Amazon can lock your account for a couple of different reasons. A locked account can cause you a major headache, especially if you have a seller account that conducts daily sales in a larger quantity. But a buyer’s account can be locked easily as well if any suspicious activity is detected. It’s important to be informed about the reasons Amazon may lock your account so you can avoid it in the future.

The most common reasons Amazon may lock your account

Entering a fake name, shipping, or billing address – Once you place an order, Amazon will try to match your billing address linked with your credit/debit card and your default Amazon address. If the two addresses don’t match, your account will come up as fraudulent and will be locked.

Misusing Amazon gift cards – Amazon Gift Cards could be purchased from anyone, and Amazon is trying to prevent people from selling their Cards. A newly registered member purchasing multiple Gift Cards will get their account locked, as they will be seen as a potential reseller.

An unusually high number of orders – If you have a brand new Amazon account, placing too many orders right away in one day is not a good idea. This will trigger the anti-fraud system, and your account will get locked immediately.

An unusually high number of returns – The reason you are usually able to return things for free as a buyer is because Amazon is the one that pays for the shipping. To prevent their costs from becoming too high, they will suspend any account with too many returns.

Different IP address – It’s never a good idea to share an Amazon account since logins from different locations can be detected as stolen by Amazon’s security system. When orders are being placed in your account from different IP addresses, the account will be considered hacked and will get locked.

Contact Amazon

If your account has been locked for security reasons, you may have to prepare yourself for a lengthy process of recovering your account. Even if you haven’t done anything fraudulent and it got locked due to an error, not anyone will be able to unlock your account. For example, Customer Service Representatives don’t have the authority to unlock Amazon accounts.

Your best option is to contact an Account Specialist, as they will be able to help. Unfortunately, they deal with a lot of requests from customers, so be prepared to demand contact with them multiple times and wait for their response.

You can contact an Amazon Account Specialist in four different ways:

Chat – Usually the fastest way to contact Amazon. However, when you are locked out of your account, and this was your only one, you might have a problem. You can try using a friend’s account. But it’s best if you create another account under your name using a different email address, log in and contact Amazon via chat. Make sure you request to speak to an Account Specialist and have all your account verification details.

By phone – The most efficient way of reaching an Amazon Account Specialist. When you dial Amazon’s customer service number, you will have to speak to a Customer Support Representative first. Give them your account information and ask to speak to a supervisor or an Account Specialist. Explain your problem to them and ask them to review your account along with all the documents needed.

Email – Still an option, although it’s a much slower form of communication, especially if you send one via the login page. You probably got an email notification about your Amazon account, reply to that one instead. This way, you can directly email the Amazon Account Specialist the details that are requested for account verification. Send them the necessary documents, then wait for a reply.

Fax – Available but not recommended since it’s the slowest way possible and it can take a long time to get to an Account Specialist if you can even reach one. Use fax to send your documents after you already made contact with them, and they agreed to review your account. Even then, it’s best if you send the documents by email too, to make sure they went to the right place.

Prepare the necessary documents and wait

For a successful account recovery, you will need to prove that the account belongs to you. You can do this by sending Amazon the serial number of your Amazon account, your default shipping address from a different bill in your name, and a bank statement with the debit/credit card used for payment that has the same billing address. Additionally, you may need to verify your identity by providing a scan or photo of a government-issued identity document.

After your initial description of the mistake to Amazon, your account will be placed on hold. If you haven’t gotten an explanation before, now the Amazon Account Specialist will tell you the reason why your account was locked. They will ask you to send the necessary documents. Once you did, they will review all of your information and give you an answer in 24-48 hours.

Due to the number of requests, you probably won’t get an answer from them that quickly. You can call them again to inquire about the documents which you have already sent. Once they review and verify all relevant information, they will probably deem your account safe. Then they will unlock your account, and you will be able to continue using it.

Final thoughts

As you can clearly see from the text above, you will have to be very persistent to get your account unlocked. You can prevent all this by sticking to some simple rules. Create several accounts using different IP addresses via VPN, so if you get one locked, it won’t be a huge problem.

If you just registered your first Amazon account, do not ship more than 5-10 orders a day, and don’t use gift cards. Even if your account isn’t new, you shouldn’t redeem more than $200 worth of gift cards a day nor use Amazon Prime Service for a large number of shipments.