Amazon Account Health Assurance Protects Sellers From Deactivation
Amazon announced at its annual Accelerate seller conference this year that the new Account Health Assurance program is a commitment to not deactivate accounts that consistently meet account health rating standards and it looks like it is finally rolling out to sellers in the US and Canada.
The Account Health Assurance program is a new benefit available to professional sellers who consistently achieve a high Account Health Rating. Amazon says they will no longer deactivate accounts of sellers who qualify for the program, as long as you work with them within 72 hours of contacting you to resolve any issues.
— Amazon Sellers ASGTG (@AmazonASGTG) November 16, 2022
According to the Amazon seller central page for Account Health Assurance:
Do I qualify for AHA?
AHA is available to professional sellers in the US and Canada who maintain an AHR score of 250 or more for at least 6 months with no more than 10 days below 250, and have a valid emergency contact number on file. You will receive an email confirming your enrollment as soon as you’re eligible, and you can check your progress toward becoming eligible here.
If I qualify, is my account automatically in the program?
Yes. You will be notified of your enrollment via email, and you can see your enrollment status on your account health page. If you meet the AHR requirements, but you do not have an emergency contact number, we will notify you via email that you are eligible and ask you to provide emergency contact information before you are enrolled. Ensure that your emergency contact number is always accurate and up to date, so that we can reach you and work with you when we need to.
Where is AHA available?
At this time, AHA is available to professional sellers who qualify for the program in the US and Canada stores. We look forward to expanding the program to additional stores around the world as the AHR becomes available.
If I don’t qualify now for AHA, can I qualify and be enrolled later?
Yes. We are continuously reviewing accounts and enrolling sellers in AHA as soon as they qualify. You’ll be notified both via email and on your account health page once you’re enrolled. If you haven’t been enrolled in AHA, see FAQ 3 for guidance on what it takes to become eligible or check your progress on the eligibility page.
Can I lose access to AHA?
To continue to be eligible for AHA, you must meet the following requirements:
- Engage with our account health team within 72 hours of notification that we need to work with you regarding an issue
- Fully resolve issues when working with Account Health Support
- Keep your AHR from falling below 250 for more than 10 consecutive days
Regardless of your AHA eligibility status, Amazon may remove you from the AHA program and deactivate your seller account immediately if we believe you have engaged in fraudulent, deceptive, illegal, or otherwise harmful activity, in order to protect customers, our selling partners, and Amazon’s store.
What if my AHR score falls below 250 after I am enrolled, but I don’t have any violations on my account health page?
Your AHR increases based on the number of orders you successfully fulfill in the last 180 days and the policy violations that you resolve, and you lose points based on the number of policy violations incurred. If you have a seasonal business or you fulfill fewer orders after you are enrolled in AHA, it is possible for your AHR to fall below 250 without incurring violations.
Should your AHR fall below 250 after you’ve been enrolled in the program, but you don’t have any policy violations on your account health page, you will remain enrolled in the program. However, if you incur any new policy violations, you will need to appeal and resolve them within 10 days or you will lose access to AHA.
What if I am not able to answer the phone when you call me about an urgent issue?
When we need to get a hold of you, we will need to speak to you within 72 hours. You will receive both a phone call and an email with instructions on how to get in touch with us. If you can’t answer the phone the first time we call, we will try again, or you can call our team directly using the "Call me Now" button found on your account health page. Alternatively, you can submit a plan for how you intend to resolve the issue on your account health page. But if we need more information from you, we may request that you speak to us over the phone before resolving the issue.
My Account Health Rating hasn’t been updated to a numeric score yet. How do I know if I’m eligible for Account Health Assurance?
If you can’t see a numeric AHR score yet, you are not eligible for Account Health Assurance.
More details can be found on the Account Health Rating policy page.
And check out what sellers are saying about the new program over on the Amazon seller forums - some are concerned the 250+ metric will put smaller sellers at a disadvantage while others believe that with the significant resources Amazon may be allocating for the program, it makes sense to limit it to larger sellers.
Amazon_News
Why 250? Most small professional sellers are all hovering at 200, so this is a disadvantage to those sellers.
Maintain an AHR of 250+ for 6 months
To join Account Health Assurance, you need to maintain an AHR of 250+ for 6 months, with no more than 10 days below 250. This shows us that you take your account health seriously, and work quickly to fix policy violations.This implies that anyone under 250 doesn’t take their account health seriously.
To reach 250 from 200 we need about 2500 orders in past 6 months. So it seems that amazon is not going to allocate resources to small scale sellers
Another slap in the face of Small Businesses owners. Way to go, Amazon! Great way of “supporting small businesses”.
Why not making it something more meaningful, as: “accounts without serious violations for X time” or “accounts selling for more than x years with metrics over X for X time”? I get it, no financial interest here…
DanCooper
There is probably a huge divide between accounts under 250 and accounts over 250. 20% of the sellers are probably using 80% of the resources. While I wouldn’t say that under 250 AHR accounts don’t take their account health seriously, they are probably not seen as SERIOUS businesses in Amazon’s eyes.
You need 10k orders in the past 180 days to get the ability to be in the program. That is only 55 orders a day. While I know that it may seem a high bar, the resources that Amazon may be dedicating to this specific feature may not be enough to include all.
Do you think Account Health Assurance is a positive steps for Amazon seller support? Let us know in the comments below!
