[Journey] They Said the Account Wasn't Coming Back. Both Did.

Every article I read said the same thing. When you're banned on Amazon and Etsy, at that point, you don't get the account back.

I got both back.

If your Amazon appeal has been rejected more than once with the same reply, this is what the loop looked like from the inside, and what finally broke it.

I read it all, then ignored it

Before I sent anything I read everything I could find: Amazon bans, what the reps can and can't do, Etsy suspension stories. Most of it said reinstatement from where I was sitting was unlikely.

I didn't care. I went through every method I could find anyway.

Why my Amazon appeals kept getting rejected

Amazon gives you two things: you can send an appeal letter, and you can talk to a support rep. I used both, over and over, for months.

The pattern was the same every time. Send the appeal. Get a generic rejection back that doesn't tell you what was wrong. Rewrite it. Send it again. Too many appeals to count, and the account dead the whole time.

What the deactivation itself looked like is here.

Ask the rep for the specific thing

The rejection letter won't tell you what's missing. A rep might.

So after each rejection I talked to a support rep, and instead of asking for a general review I asked for the specific part that needed to be better. Every situation is different, yours and mine, but the reps have seen enough appeals to point at the weak spot once you ask for it directly. Fix that part, send again, ask again.

I kept researching between rounds too. And I paid for an appeal service. Not a recommendation. I was trying everything.

What the appeal is actually for

The appeal is just a way of talking to the Amazon specialist reading it. What they need, by the end of it, is to be confident you won't make the same mistake again. That's the whole goal.

Whatever gets them to that point, you do.

What that takes depends on what went wrong, so what went into mine won't match what needs to go into yours. The reps are where you find out which parts of yours aren't landing.

The escalation

After a lot of rounds I felt I'd given them everything they could possibly need, and the reply was still generic.

So I asked for an escalation.

That was the one that went through.

The account was reinstated after that. Months, not weeks, and I'm not giving a count, because it was too many.

Etsy: one appeal, then "final"

Etsy is a different story, and from what I read, a different history. Amazon doesn't tend to ban people at random. Etsy shops get closed for reasons that are never disclosed, and a lot of sellers never learn theirs.

Etsy also only gives you one appeal. After that you get a reply saying the decision is final and can't be appealed again.

I came to the conclusion that that isn't true.

I emailed every Etsy address I could find. I went through live chat. I tagged Etsy on LinkedIn and X, in my own posts and in the comments under theirs, where you'll see plenty of other sellers doing the same. All of it, many times, for months.

The shop came back. The fuller version of that is here.

What I actually learned

No decision is ever final. If you keep at something hard enough, you'll probably get there.

But I'd still rather you never need any of this. Preventing the problem is easier than fixing it, and that comes down to staying safe and reading the policies you agreed to.

If you've been reading these in order, you know the shape by now: what I did, what it cost, and what came back. The rest keep coming, and you can get them in your inbox.

Keep knocking,
Nick T