As always with such things it’s impossible to judge whether it’s localised or universal but it seems some sellers have experienced problems getting their cash for sales via the Amazon disbursements system.
As one merchant notes on the Amazon support boards: “I’m aware of the threads for failed disbursements in DE & FR. Has the issue now spread to UK? I requested a UK disbursement this morning around 10am. Everything occurred normally and the transfer was confirmed by Amazon via email half an hour later. Account balance then reset to zero. However, logged back on this afternoon and the transfer balance has moved back into the current transfer, marked as a “Carryover”. And the reason “Failed Disbursement”. At the top of the statement it states “An unexpected issue occurred during fund transfer. Please contact Seller Support for more information.”
Several sellers on the relevant thread note that Amazon suggest their details have changed. And that’s the reason for the problem. But sellers say otherwise. Here’s the text of an email one seller received from Seller Support:
“I understand that your concern is regarding payments. I apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Upon research, I see that our internal team has initiated the amount but the amount was bounced back to us.
Hence I request you get in touch with your bank and confirm if any details related to your bank account or code has been changed.”
Getting paid for your sales via the Amazon disbursements process is vital for most sellers and any delays can have a negative impact on cash flow and your ability to do business.
Do let us know if you’ve been affected by any similar problems. Is it especially a problem as we enter the Black Friday and Christmas period? What has Amazon told you?
55 Responses
Same problem here! Automated responses! 3 disbursements in a row bounced back
Dance with the devil they say. October has been a nightmare month with Amazon.
Listing a product on FBA then have Amazon drop their FBA sell price to below what you pay for it!
Refunds granted to FBA customers, even though Amazon have delivered and have POD. They state they will investigate and it may take up to 45 days until which point the seller is out of pocket,
Now this issue! I spoke with a very pleasant Seller Support agent who was sympathetic but couldn’t give a clear indication of when the funds will be released, or indeed what the issue was and when it will be resolved.
Wait and see how many of us are complaining when we can’t get our funds released because there isn’t enough money in our banks (you need to have £5 at the point of processing) because Amazon didn’t release the funds!!!!
I want to partner with my selling platforms, not feel like I’m being abused by them.
For the amount of money we pay Amazon to sell through their platform this isn’t good enough, Amazon seem to have a plan to get rid of all the sellers
This is a widespread issue affecting every single seller in the whole of Europe.
That information is now outdated. Amazon have confirmed that updating your bank account details will do nothing and will instead trigger the 3 day hold of your money.
One seller has received an email where they have admitted that over 10,000 uk sellers are having issues but we will have to wait as the department in Seattle have now closed for the day.
One question is why Amazon have been so quiet regarding this. No statement or anything.
Amazon are extremely lax in reporting issues.
Why can they not just make an announcement, especially for something that is now ongoing for several days and effecting so many sellers!
Extremely poor. Imagine if we did that with our customers, what would happen?
Big problem for amazon as there payments services are covered by the FSA and I and other sellers have losses that will need compensation for, I will not hesitate to complain to the financial onsbudsman and they always charge a £400 fee to any company under the complaints system. I recommend any seller who has been inconvenienced does the same.
Some sellers have been trying to disburse their funds without success since 22nd October, but it seems now that the problem is far more widespread. Amazon have not posted a single official announcement about the problem, which is causing alot of frustration and anger amongst sellers.
Combined with a recent fee increase and some sort of crackdown on CD sellers, not to mention reports of some long-standing suppliers now terminating their agreements with individual sellers and committing to supply only Amazon, there is much to support the conspiracy theorists who are predicting the demise of the Amazon Marketplace.
Amazon tend to keep quiet about problems.
Remember the FBA incoming stock fiasco last year? Not a peep.
Yeah same problem here for me , processed yesterday , got the email to say it had been processed and amount on Amazon account checked back to zero ,
This morning it was back in my Amazon account and can’t request again because it only allows one request in a 24 hour period
Amazon has yet to issue any official statement and it has been going on for days. I contacted seller support yesterday and they only said it’s technical issue on their side and they are working on fixing it, they don’t have a date when it wil be solved.
Some people in that thread talked about needing IBAN but I don’t think that’s the issue. I recently updated my bank details because all those ring fencing shit going on, bank changed my sortcode, I just had my 3 disbursements from last week arrived my bank account with new sort code this morning. I remembered clearly I left IBAN for new account details blank, but I did enter old IBAN to verify some information at bottom of the same page of providing new bank account information page. Therefore it’s not the issue of no IBAN or something but something to do with amazon own internal issue!
Sellers have been complaining amazon require seller to ship orders quickly and amazon deduct all charges very promotely, but when it comes to amazon paying sellers, they don’t do the same. Especially this time, it has been going on for day and affecting massive number of sellers and yet they have not said a single word in public.
I wish British government can do more and setup independent regulating body to regulating online marketplaces. They shouldn’t be able to do whatever they want and squeeze sellers unethically on every aspects.
why have the press not jumped onto this?
We’ve been trying to disburse since Friday with no luck and we have suppliers due to be paid today… And being allowed one attempt every 24 hours is pathetic at the best of times, but in the current circumstances it’s disgraceful!
I must have been too. I just put it down to me not doing it right and disbursed the next day.
This arrogant vile monster(Amazon)is getting fatter by the day. It treats their sellers like dog poo!. 1000s of sellers have there funds “held” in lots of cases for several months whilst they simply ignore your emails and communication. Now they are moving into food, prescriptions, cars, etc etc. Without paying taxes.
The more we feed this devil, the stronger it gets. Its time government steps in, Its time to raise a “super complaint” against them, Im afraid the Ombudsman seems completely toothless.
I quit selling on this animal as they would have eventually made my business go under.
If you are proud of your business, then find other channels to sell your items.
Just noticed this, we tired on the 30th and it has bounced back, thought we had just sold a bunch more stuff.
Actual Amazon payments from our website is fine however.
I wonder if they’ve messed up. I’ve seen several theories doing the rounds, beyond just normal technical incompetence;
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/30/heavy-spending-drives-amazons-real-free-cash-flow.aspx – on top of Lex Luthor… I mean Jeff Bezos, pulling enough cash out to make himself the world’s richest man, perhaps they’ve messed up their cashflow and haven’t got anything in the bank right now.
The other theory I’ve seen is that they’ve had some kind of data breach and they have had to lock things down until they can sort it out (which would explain the lack of announcements).
This certainly isn’t fun from a cashflow perspective, especially at this time of year !
I am in the same boat too. This issue is throughout Amazon and the lack of an announcement from them is completely disgraceful.
Also, I have cases opened since 06th December 2016 regarding an abusive buyer, whom has tried to extort free products from me. He has also threatened to get me kicked off Amazon and yet continues to purchase from me. He buys an item, says item is not as described and receives a full refund each time. He leaves negative feedback and then goes on to buy again from me. He has been refunded 5 times out of 8 FBA orders. I’ve had another seller contact me regarding this buyer and low and behold he has been having the same issues from this customer. The other seller questioned me on the Amazon forums and it is the same customer.
Amazon have done nothing to protect me as a seller. Over 10 cases opened since December 2016. Ignored.
Another separate case, a competitor/seller on Amazon is purchasing products FBA and sending whatever he has lying around back to Amazon. He’s doing it on an industrial scale. How do I know, 3 other sellers have contacted me and it is the same person they have had purchasing their inventory. We have all complained to Amazon. Again, nothing is done.
There is no protection for sellers on Amazon.
I’ve said it earlier this year “Is Amazon on the brink of bankruptcy” how can a company with so many new business ventures, expansion costs, unbelievable biased customer service, poor feedback, driving prices down at every opportunity make enough profit to support itself?
Amazon just confirmed to me that it is effecting all accounts in Europe and it will be the end of the week at the earliest before a fix can be found. I haven’t been able to withdraw and funds from any of my european amazon accounts since Friday.
Amazon have finally placed a message on the seller dashboard saying: Technical Notification Currently, there is a delay affecting the delivery of some recent Amazon seller disbursements to bank accounts. Our engineers are working to ensure that normal service is restored as soon as possible. (01/11, 11:45 GMT) This is despite them sending me a message under an hour ago telling me our bank details were incorrect and we needed to change them.
We disburse to a UK bank account for £ and a German bank account for euros. Both failed yesterday, both are with different banks. THIS IS AN AMAZON PROBLEM and they need to accept that
One thing that is worth noting is keep trying if you are daily disbursements. Yesterday we disbursed France and Germany at the same time to the same account in euros. France went through, Germany did not and these funds from France were deposited today. Interestingly the FR payment was by far the smaller payment. But it is worth trying to disburse whilst they have the issues as some appear to be going through.
Failed dispersals on Monday and Tuesday, won’t be able to try again until this evening. Rent money due next Monday and I doubt I’ll have it in my account by then. Why Amazon payments take 3-5 days to clear is beyond me. Have spoken to seller support and asked them about having my money paid in faster so I can pay rent but I doubt they will do anything. An absolute shambles!
Have contacted seller support four times in the last two days regarding this, always get told the same that it is a technical issue and they are woking on it but no clear timescale on this being resolved. We have staff wages to pay next week so this will now have a huge impact on our cashflow, mentioned this to seller support and said when its resolved payments must be paid faster than usual and the normal 3-5 working days but of course they couldn’t say anything. The lack of clear information from Amazon is not acceptable.
And I bet you won’t get an answer if you ask for compensation as they will turn a blind eye to that one. Back on 3-5 days to cashout is a joke. We cashout on Paypal first thing in the morning and by the time I have logged in to my Paypal account it is there and that is 7 days a week. On a normal working week they will hold the funds back for that long so they can do the loans using your money in the process so they can make even more money.
Well when we tried to transfer for the 3rd time and it failed we stopped everything on Amazon, so we don’t have to worry about fulfilling anymore orders until this issue is sorted out.
Don’t want to have to keep sending stock out and paying for it, while Amazon keep our money.
Funnily enough had a phone call from Amazon today as well trying to get us to do some promotions… I said you must be joking!
Until Amazon pays out our money we are doing nothing.
Really dont think they care about how it affects peoples lives, jobs, businesses, not been able to pay bills, wages, etc.
Never mind the worry and stress it causes people.
Same as lots of others…NOT HAPPY
This is a huge issue affected a huge number of sellers in the UK at the worst possible time of the year / month, with no resolution in sight – this has been going on for five days for us, and they are holding a 6 figure sum from us.
As sellers we have staff, bills and tax to pay at the beginning of this month, along with buying stock for the upcoming Christmas period, this could be a total disaster for third party sellers, and Amazon need to resolve this very fast.
On the flip-side, they’re earning a nice amount of interest from every sellers money that they are withholding! No chance of us seeing that though, or even being compensated!!
If Amazon was treated the same as Sports Direct their Rachmanism would be brought before parliament.
Spend 5 minutes reading Seller’s accounts on the Amazon Forum and you will ask yourself how any honest business is allowed to operate this way.
same useless help from seller support as per the norm!! left in the dark for days not knowing what is happening,lie after lie.
no way to treat the people that really keep amazon running
Out of curiosity, how many sellers have stopped shipping orders during this “cash freeze” ? we send circa 40-60 orders per day on Amazon and currently have around just over £2k on hold, I threatened Amazon yesterday to stop shipping orders until I had been paid, I got a snotty response saying it would effect my delivery metrics and I would be penalised??
How can it be ok for them to withhold my funds whilst at the same time expect me to ship out orders on fresh air !
The audacity of Amazon makes me sick at the best of times, but this really takes the biscuit.
As a follow up from my earlier comments all my funds were released last night about 11pm. However no update from Amazon! Surprise!
Has anyone had successful disbursements? Ours remain in the processing stage since last night. No update from seller support
I thought it was our bank details so managed to get a confirmed disbursement on Tuesday for Friday! Will see tomorrow if it goees through and money wont land until Wednesday now a week late. Interesting going to the Ombudsman for compensation, if it does work everyone should log a complaint in this manner, costs nothing and holding money they must be regulated – I will ask teh question on twiiter they are very responsive (FSA not Amazon!) on twitter.
Interesting link from Financial Conduct Authority website for those that wish to take it further – and if they dont refund our fees for the amount held we will!!
https://register.fca.org.uk/shpo_searchresultspage?search=Amazon&TOKEN=3wq1nht7eg7tr
Got a notice a couple of weeks ago saying their ‘system’ inadvertently doubled up on one of my disbursements (of a whopping $68.00). They sent a second e-mail the next day (11:45 pm) saying that they will hit my bank account the next day (which they did….at 2:00 amm—–and I’m still asleep) to pull $68.00 out of my bank account….which wasn’t there to take. I find all this out at sunrise that morning while I’m drinking coffee. And since I didn’t have enough money in my account for them to take out, that set all this other crap into motion. As in they completely removed all my Wells Fargo business account info. Which NOW meant that they had anywhere to send the $300.00 they owed me at the time (which now, a week later is closer to nine hundred bucks. A couple days later I wake up to another e-mail saying they’re ‘transferring money to my account…..which they actually did, and on last Saturday even. But since then? Not a word, even though I’ve sold maybe $1200 worth of crap that has gone thru Amazon Pay. I finally got pissed again and e-mailed ‘Chad’ one more time about two hours ago asking him if they’ve managed to fix all this crap yet, ‘cuz I kinda had plans this weekend and I could really use my cash now……but so far, no reply. Suffice to say I’m starting to get a bit pissed off……especially since this is all their fault.
(Wonder what they’ll say when I email them my two overdrafts from W/Fargo that I got because I was short in the bank for some stupid recurring payments I’ve got going)…..
Same here
A small random disbursement made overnight but my balance, which is considerably more has disappeared, although showing open I’m unable to withdraw request – but does say (open) I’ve spoken to Amazon and apparently they can only tell me its a glitch and engineers are working on the issue.
@LavenderRi, sorry to hear that. I thought that by describing what process we followed might help. I don’t have any more suggestions. This seemed to work for us but I wont know for sure till the money actually hits the account. I am sorry I was not able to help.
I have an open balance, but when attempting to withdraw I get a ‘no open balance’ message. Amazon (not me) withdrew an amount 2 days ago, which was not the full amount.
This has left an open balance, which now looks like an old payment since Amazon disbursed after this open balance.
I have to go to previous payments to see the open balance, all new processed orders are being added to this open balance which cannot be withdrawn.
Amazon support, say it’s a technical issue, and will message me in 48 hours.
I am still to recieve the disbursement which Amazon sent, so I cannot confirm if even that worked.
If you in a similar situation I suggest downloading the .csv files of sales relating to your recent transactions and disbursements just in case this gets worst.
We cashed out yesterday on our account and everything was normal as it apperard on the balance side stating that it would be paid out in 3-5 working days. 24hrs later and the balance has gone back again and it is not showing that it is going to get paid out so looks like it is not sorted after all. To late at night to get in touch with CS as it is after there hours but will be in touch with them tomorrow
Spoke to Amazon on Live Chat this morning (sunday 5th ) as our balance has gone back on after trying to cash out on Friday.
They say its another glitch but its being worked on…
Sorry for the inconvenience..BLAH..BLAH..BLAH.
Said we should get compensation as this is the 2nd time this has happened now.
No promise of Compensation !!
No forthcoming statement from Amazon either.
Taken all our listings off sale again…Getting beyond a joke now 🙁
Has anyone received funds yet?
Is this a cunning plan by Amazon to put small business under and take over sales of their products? I think they forget about their sellers’ needs and the impression is that they don’t give a damn about us.
Our money was in this morning. Everything looks back to normal for us. Hope everyone else is in the same boat.
When the glitch happened we pressed the disbursement button last Wednesday 1st November late morning. It looked as if everything was fine this time and it was…..the money was in our bank this morning. There was an “automatic dispersement” on Thursday 2nd triggered by Amazon themselves – this isn’t in our bank yet but should go in tomorrow. From as far as I can see everything is back to normal for us. Hope that helps.
Amazon owe us £22.000 payments have not been recieved into our bank and its not a HSBC bank nothing is pending for tomorrow as well
I recieved a phone call from Amazon sat to tell me that they had authorised a 12 hour same day payment so that was a lie, the only payments we have recieved are for spain and Italy which were under £100.00, between the 2
all our products are sold FBA and our main business is the uk, we are a small family business so cannot afford this delay
I made a transfer on Saturday night November 4 and that amount I received already but the transfer amazon did on November 3 I did not receive yet does anyone know what is going on
we are still waiting for a disbursement from the 29th Oct from Amazon Spain – other Europes have been disbursed and received into our account after this date.. it is this one we are missing
Checked the opening balance and it is still not showing as bounced back.. just Disappeared
I was advised by my bank to ask them for payment IDs.
Every transfer has an unique ID. So I did this.
I was given IDs for a disbursement that we cashed out on 27th that’s now in our account.
A transfer made on 29th – They have NO ID.
A transfer for Sunday 5th – they gave me an ID. This would suggest that those without an ID are lost.
If you use chat ask for IDs, maybe at least this give you an idea what not to expect to hit your account.
The bank also told me that it’s very unusual for a transfer with an ID to go awol.
Hope this helps.
What a mess!
I can’t change my bank ac. It’s not part of the the above wider problem. But because they think that’s my issue, I get a response telling me funds on way.
To a bank account that’s closed.
And I can’t disperse what’s in my current balance because the bank ac is wrong. And if they disperse it again shortly on my behalf, then that money too will go AWOL.
Been a week and I’m beyond frustrated.
Check you are receiving the disbursements. I have found 3 from DE missing and 2 from UK. Later payments are arriving but these have not. When I contacted seller support they knew exactly which were missing before I told them but they didn’t contact me. No resolution date offered.
Is anyone else still having problems. As I am . Nearly 15 days without any money now. Staff are reliant on it and the general running of the business at this time of year.