Oh The Trouble I’ve Seen

Amazon rules change the moment you start winning. A listing that was fine yesterday can be suspended today, and the algorithm that flagged you does not care how much revenue you generate or how long you have been selling. Once it locks on, the burden of proof is entirely on you.

On this episode of The Longer Game, Michael Maher talked with Chris McCabe, CEO of eCommerceChris, a firm built entirely around helping Amazon sellers fight suspensions, listing takedowns, and account reinstatements. Chris McCabe worked inside Amazon on these exact teams before going independent, and the conversation is a clear-eyed look at what happens when a brand gets on the wrong side of the platform.

Amazon's Appeals Process Is Not a Conversation

When Amazon suspends a listing or an account, the seller has to submit a plan of action. Chris McCabe explained that Amazon's side of this exchange is often vague and formulaic, but that does not mean sellers can respond the same way.

"You have to give quality and communication to them. It's a double standard, because Amazon has the power in this relationship. You need to give quality and communication to them, and then know what to do if they don't respect that."

— Chris McCabe, CEO at eCommerceChris

There is no back and forth. If the appeal meets Amazon's bar, the next message a seller gets is simply that they have been reinstated. If it does not, sellers rarely get a clear reason why.

Reviewers Are Incentivized to Say No

One of the more surprising insights from Chris McCabe was how Amazon's internal review process actually works against sellers, even when the reviewer is not trying to be difficult.

"It's counterintuitive, but it's much quicker to be like, oh, this part looks a little vague, or this looks a little weak in the plan of action, than it is to thoroughly review everything and say yes, we can take this."

— Chris McCabe, CEO at eCommerceChris

Finding a flaw and rejecting an appeal takes less effort than approving one, even though it creates more work for Amazon's team down the road. Sellers who submit a rushed or vague appeal are, in effect, giving the reviewer an easy way out.

Know When to Stop Doing It Yourself

Both Michael Maher and Chris McCabe pushed back on the idea that any single agency can be an expert in everything Amazon touches. Suspensions and reinstatements are their own specialty, separate from PPC, SEO, or creative.

"Take a shot at it. If it doesn't work, hire us. Take a second try if you think you can appropriately revise your appeal. There's a certain percentage of those that are going to bounce back just because nobody read it."

— Chris McCabe, CEO at eCommerceChris

Chris McCabe was blunt about the math. If a brand's top listing is losing 3,000 dollars a day, a week of trial and error appealing it alone costs 21,000 dollars in lost sales before an expert is ever brought in. At that point, the cost of hiring help is trivial compared to the cost of waiting.

Generalist Agencies Can Make Things Worse

Chris McCabe shared a case where a marketing agency, while good at its core work, tried to handle a backend keyword abuse issue without knowing it needed to be escalated to Amazon's abuse team rather than just reopening generic seller support cases. The result was the client stuck at a dead end while the real problem went unaddressed.

"There's a marketing kind of salesy reason maybe they don't really do it, or they would just refer to somebody like me anyway. But then there are people way beyond that who are actively trying to help people, and they're actually doing more harm than good."

— Chris McCabe, CEO at eCommerceChris

What This Means for Brands

• Never treat an appeal as a formality. Include specific evidence, not just a promise to do better.
• Do not submit multiple weak appeals in a row. Each rejection makes the next one harder to win.
• Understand which Amazon team actually handles your issue before opening a case, generic seller support is not built for abuse or catalog fraud.
• Calculate your daily revenue loss during a suspension. It usually makes the cost of an expert look small.
• Pick a partner who specializes in reinstatements rather than one adding it as a side offering to a broader service list.

Amazon is not the villain here, and it is not a savior either. It is a necessary channel with real complications, and the sellers who survive it are the ones who take those complications seriously long before they ever get suspended.