If you leave an Amazon account suspension unaddressed: what happens to deadlines, sales proceeds, and inventory

Amazon Seller Reinstatement Support ("we" below) is not an official Amazon contact channel and has no ownership or partnership relationship with Amazon. This article is for sellers who have received a suspension or warning notice and have not yet been able to act on it.

To give the answer first: as far as we have confirmed, Amazon's official guidance does not say that a suspended account goes back to normal if you leave it alone. The process toward reinstatement starts with the seller submitting an appeal or information. At the same time, no fixed number of days has been stated after which an account left unaddressed will be closed. What moves forward while you leave it are the deadlines in each notice and the deadlines for your sales proceeds and FBA inventory.

This article is based on our explanatory articles (which draw on Help and other sources we checked as of September 2026) and on Seller Central's official Help, which we checked on October 17, 2026. Policies and screens can change, so please also check the notice you received and the latest Help.

Our role is to prepare submission drafts and advise on revisions. You log in to your account and handle appeals and submissions to Amazon yourself.

First steps: three things to check today

• Without using the links in the email, open Seller Central yourself and look at Performance Notifications and the Account Health page
• From the body of the notice, write down "what was stopped," "why," and "what to submit, where, and by when." Keep the wording of the reason as it is, without paraphrasing it
• On the same sheet of paper, list the deadline dates and whether you have received any notice of a hold on your sales proceeds or of FBA inventory removal

What happens if you leave it? The key points first

Waiting does not move the reinstatement process forward

An appeal against a suspension of your entire account is filed from Reactivate Your Selling Account (出品用アカウントの再開). This button is at the very top of the Account Health page. You wait for an email with the review result only after you have submitted the appeal.

Even for a suspension caused by your Account Health Rating, Help does not explain that the account will come back with time. If you were suspended because of the rating, the violations remain on the Account Health page even after 180 days have passed since they were added.

Deleting products does not erase the record of a violation

Even if you close or delete the listings that were stopped, the violations do not disappear from the Account Health page. Violations are removed in cases such as when a dispute confirms a violation was issued in error, when an appeal results in a determination that it was unintentional, or when you have taken the required corrective action. Rather than waiting in the hope that they will go away eventually, first check which violations remain.

You can't say either "closed in X days" or "it's fine to leave it"

Amazon has not officially stated a number of days that applies to every suspension, either for how long a suspension lasts or for how many days it takes before an account is closed. However, an example notice stating that the account would be "permanently closed" if the required information was not provided by the deadline has been reposted. Some notices are worded so that the action becomes more severe once the deadline passes, so first check whether your own notice has a deadline.

What happens over time (a table of the general flow)

The following table lists, as a general flow and in the order in which they occur, deadlines that could be confirmed in our articles and in official Help. They do not happen in the same order for every seller, and both the starting points and the numbers of days differ by situation. If the notice you received states a different deadline, what the notice says takes priority.

Point in time (general flow)	What happens / what is stated	How it is handled if you take no action
Before suspension: a Critical violation is detected	You are notified on the Account Health page and by email, and your rating turns red with a score of 0. There is a three-day grace period before suspension, during which an Account Health specialist is said to help resolve the issue by phone	The Help FAQ explains that if you address the violation within three days, your account will not be suspended. Where fraud, deception, or similar conduct is suspected, the account may be suspended immediately regardless of the score
Before suspension: repeat violations of the same policy reach the limit	It is shown as a Critical violation, and there is a three-day period before suspension	If you do not respond within three days, your account is suspended until you finish submitting an appeal on the Product Policy Compliance (商品規約の遵守) dashboard
Before suspension: Amazon contacts a seller enrolled in Account Health Assurance (for Professional sellers)	If you contact Amazon within 72 hours of being contacted, you will not be suspended while you work with Amazon to resolve the issue	Contacting Amazon within 72 hours is described as one of the conditions for continuing to use this program. If you are determined to be involved in fraud, deception, or similar conduct, you may be removed from the program and suspended immediately
Under the agreement: you receive a notice asking you to cure a material breach	The agreement states that if you do not cure the breach within 7 days of the notice, Amazon may suspend or terminate immediately (this period may be shortened or waived where liability to third parties arises)	In principle, a suspension or termination is notified together with the reason and the options for appeal
After suspension: you submitted an appeal	Up to about two days for a response	This is a guideline for receiving a response, not an indication of when or whether you will be reinstated
After suspension: the notice states a deadline	There is an example notice stating that the account will be "permanently closed" if the required information is not provided within the deadline, and that it "will be considered for reinstatement" if the appeal is properly completed	The number of days in the deadline differs from notice to notice
From the date your sales proceeds are held	Generally held for 90 days. The hold may be extended if the risk or an investigation continues. Where fraud or similar activity is determined, until it is confirmed that there was no problematic conduct	It is not stated that the funds will be paid out automatically after 90 days. Once 60 days have passed from the hold date, you can separately file an appeal requesting payment
From the date you are notified that FBA inventory must be removed	Give return or disposal instructions within 30 days (or within the period set by program policies)	It is provided that if no instructions are given, Amazon may dispose of the inventory concerned. In some cases it may be disposed of immediately
You are asked to book a video interview when requesting payment	Book it from the link in the latest Performance Notification	Sellers have posted on the Seller Forums examples of notices saying Amazon decided "not to disburse payment" because the seller had not booked the interview (introduced in our article on sales proceeds after a suspension)

The numbers of days in the table all apply to specific situations. You cannot apply the number of days for one situation to a different notice.

What does not stop, and what remains, during a suspension

Sales proceeds: a "hold" is not a state in which you simply wait

After a suspension, your sales proceeds do not disappear immediately; first, payment stops as a "hold." The amount held is the full unpaid balance at the time of the hold, and the amount may change as returns, refunds, fees, and other items are settled.

As far as we have confirmed, Help contains no example of the word "confiscation" being used for the sales proceeds themselves. However, if a notice says the funds are "held permanently" or that Amazon has decided "not to disburse payment," these are expressions indicating that, as a result, the funds may not be paid. You can see your balance in the Payments report, and an appeal against a hold is made by following the steps described in the notice or in Seller Central.

An appeal for reinstatement and the procedure for requesting payment of your sales proceeds proceed separately. Our role is to prepare submission drafts and advise on revisions; judging how a claim for your sales proceeds should be treated under the agreement or the law is a matter for lawyers.

FBA inventory: storage fees and the removal deadline keep running

If you have received a removal notice, the deadline runs from the date of the notice. It has not been confirmed whether you can create a return request during a suspension, and there are also reports of storage fees continuing to accrue while the seller was unable to take action. Check the removal notice and your inventory screens early, and if you cannot take action, follow the contact method stated in the notice if there is one; if there is not, ask through a case.

Unshipped orders and transactions already completed

Some example suspension notices state that all unshipped orders must be shipped. The agreement provides that even after it ends, obligations relating to transactions entered into before it ended, and liabilities incurred up to that point, remain with the seller. Even if your listings are stopped, keep responding to buyers and keep your records.

Situations in which notices tend to be left unaddressed, and how to check

You can't find the notification email

The Notification Center shows notifications from the past 30 days. Older ones may remain on the Performance Notifications screen. Please also look at the Account Health page. Some notices are sent only by email, so also look in your spam and deleted folders and in any other receiving address you selected in Notification Preferences.

The notice said "closed," so you gave up

No official document defining "suspended" and "closed" can be found, and you cannot tell your current status from the word alone. There are examples in which reinstatement was offered even though the notice said "closed," and examples in which reinstatement was declined even though it said "suspended." Check whether the notice includes an appeal method or a deadline, and whether Reactivate Your Selling Account appears on the Account Health page.

The notice said "under review," so you waited

Even if it says "under review," if it asks you to submit documents or answers, you are at the stage of submitting, not waiting. There are also inquiries on the Seller Forums about being asked for sourcing documents in an email with "review" (審査) in the subject line. Read the notice according to what the body asks for, not by its subject line.

You weren't sure the notice was genuine, so you didn't act on it

Without using the links in the email, look for the same notice in Seller Central that you open yourself, from a bookmark or similar. If you can't find it on the screen, confirm through Account Health Support or Technical Support. This is because some genuine notices arrive only by email.

If you have already missed a deadline

How things are handled after a deadline has passed differs by program, and Help does not cover every case. First, open Seller Central yourself and check the original notice and what action is currently being taken. Then explain to the contact indicated in the notice why you were late in noticing it. If your account has been stopped, file an appeal from Reactivate Your Selling Account.

If you are asked for additional information in response to your appeal, submit it via View Account Health Requests (アカウント健全性の要請を見る). Before resending the same content again and again, check in the notice what was missing.

If you are unsure how to read a notice whose deadline has passed, you can send us the text of the notice on LINE (see the consultation box at the end of this article).

What not to do instead of leaving it

• Opening a new account and continuing to sell: As a rule, you can have only one account per region in which you sell. The only exception is when you have a legitimate business reason to have a second account and all the accounts you hold are in good standing. If any of them has a problem, all of your selling accounts may be stopped.
• Closing your account to make the problem go away: If you close your account yourself, Amazon cannot reactivate that selling account. During a suspension, the hold on your sales proceeds and the inventory issues remain even if you close your account.
• Deleting listings and waiting to see what happens: This does not address the violation, and the record also remains.
• Hurriedly recreating or altering documents: Documents that differ from the actual transactions are not accepted and may make your situation worse. For documents you do not have, ask your supplier to reissue them with content that matches the actual transaction.

Frequently asked questions

Q. What happens if I leave an Amazon account suspension unaddressed?

A. As far as we have confirmed, Amazon's official guidance does not say that a suspended account goes back to normal if you leave it alone. In the meantime, the deadlines in the notice, the hold period for your sales proceeds, and the deadline for FBA inventory for which you received a removal notice all keep moving forward. There is also an example notice saying the account would be "permanently closed" if the required information was not provided by the deadline, so first check whether your own notice has a deadline.

Q. Will a suspended account be reinstated on its own if I just leave it?

A. As far as we have confirmed, official Help does not say that a suspension is lifted just by waiting. The process toward reinstatement starts with submitting an appeal or information. Even if you were suspended because of your Account Health Rating, the violations remain on the page even after 180 days have passed.

Q. What happens if I leave an Amazon hold (a hold on my sales proceeds) unaddressed?

A. A hold generally lasts 90 days and may be extended if the risk or an investigation continues, and it is not stated that the funds will be paid automatically after 90 days. If the hold is not released even after you appeal against it, or if you do not appeal, you can separately file an appeal requesting payment once 60 days have passed from the date of the hold. In that process, you may be asked for identity verification or sourcing documents.

Q. If I leave my account suspended, will I still be charged the Professional plan monthly subscription fee?

A. The Help FAQ states that the monthly subscription fee is not charged for months in which the account was blocked or temporarily suspended. On the other hand, you are charged for periods when you have applied the vacation setting yourself. Check in Transactions (トランザクション) whether any charge appears for the period of the suspension.

Q. I left it for months. Where should I start checking now?

A. The Notification Center only shows notifications from the past 30 days, so look for the original notice on the Performance Notifications screen. Once you find it, check whether it states a deadline, whether it states how to appeal, and whether Reactivate Your Selling Account appears on the Account Health page. For your sales proceeds, check the balance in the Payments report; if 60 days have passed since the date of the hold, you can separately file an appeal requesting payment. Also check whether you have received a notice of FBA inventory removal.

Q. Can I consult you about a suspension I have left unaddressed for a long time?

A. Yes, you can consult us. Consultations are free, as often as you need, and even if you have already submitted several times, just tell us where things stand. If you send us the following three items, it will be easier for us to understand your situation.

• The text of the notice you received (a screenshot is fine)
• The date you received the notice, and whether you have appealed so far and how many times
• Whether it is a selling account or a buyer account, and which country's Amazon

Please do not send your login ID, password, or verification code. Whether your account can be reinstated is decided by Amazon, and we cannot promise reinstatement.

Summary

• As far as we have confirmed, Amazon's official guidance does not say that a suspended account goes back to normal if you leave it alone. The process toward reinstatement starts with submitting an appeal or information.
• At the same time, there is no fixed number of days after which an account left unaddressed is closed. What is moving are the deadlines in each notice and the deadlines for your sales proceeds and FBA inventory.
• The numbers of days differ by situation: three days before suspension for a Critical violation, generally 90 days (with possible extensions) for a hold on sales proceeds, within 30 days of the notice for FBA inventory removal instructions, and so on. The deadline in the notice you received takes priority.
• Deleting products does not remove violations, and opening a new account or closing your account does not resolve the problem.
• First, look for the notice in Seller Central that you open yourself, and write down "what, why, and by when."

*This article provides a general explanation. The appropriate response in individual cases depends on the circumstances.

Further reading

From Amazon account suspension to an appeal: reviewing the notice and planning your response Read article → Distinguishing Amazon seller account suspension from closure: notices and reinstatement inquiries Read article → Checking funds after an Amazon suspension: holds, disbursement requests and video interviews Read article →