AbeBooks Help Center

Appealing the Removal of Selling Privileges
What can I do to have removed item(s) reinstated?

Appealing the Removal of Selling Privileges

AbeBooks is dedicated to delivering exceptional service, so we continually monitor the performance of sellers. By studying a number of key metrics and listening to feedback from customers, we sometimes remove selling privileges to ensure buyers always enjoy a positive shopping experience on our websites. These decisions are only taken after careful consideration of the facts.

We typically remove selling privileges for poor performance (such as when your completion rate falls below our standards) or violation of our policies or agreements. However, we also reserve the right to remove selling privileges for other matters when the customer experience is less than satisfactory.

If your selling privileges have been removed, you have the opportunity to appeal the decision, and have your privileges reinstated if you can show that corrective actions have been taken. We welcome all appeals and will carefully consider any information that is submitted. However, submission of an appeal does not guarantee reinstatement.

Step 1: Determine why your selling privileges were removed

Review the email you received from AbeBooks to understand why your account was suspended.

Step 2: Evaluate your selling practices

Evaluate your inventory and/or selling practices for anything that may negatively affect the buyer experience or be in violation of our Policies & Agreements. Here are some areas you may want to review:

• Shipment of orders – are you shipping your items within 2 days of the order date? Are you providing tracking information to improve the buyer experience?
• Communication with buyers – are you responding to both buyer and AbeBooks Customer Support questions within two business days, and doing so politely?
• Listings – are you describing your items accurately in your listing descriptions?
• Inventory – are you listing items that you have the legal right to sell?

Step 3: Create a Plan of Action

Create a precise Plan of Action that effectively describes how you will address the problems. A valid Plan of Action should include the following:

• Description of the issues that caused poor performance and/or Seller Policy violations.
• Explanation of the steps you have taken to resolve the issues.
• A clear assessment of how you will prevent these issues from occurring in the future.
• Any additional details you would like us to know.

Here is an example of an acceptable Plan of Action:

“We will review our inventory management processes to ensure we are listing only items that are available for sale, and are in stock. Our high cancellation rate is due to being out of stock of listed items. We have asked our support staff to perform daily inventory monitoring. Order fulfillment should improve after these steps are implemented.”

And this would be an unacceptable Plan of Action.

“We will try and work harder at improving our completion rating.”

Step 4: Send your appeal to AbeBooks

Send your Plan of Action to AbeBooks for review. You can do this in one of two ways:

1. Responding directly to the suspension notice email you received from the Security & Trust Department, or;
2. Contacting AbeBooks Customer Support using the online ‘Contact Us’ form. CS will then forward your email to the Security & Trust Department.

After receiving your Plan of Action, we will notify you of the next steps by email, usually within two business days.

What can I do to have removed item(s) reinstated?

If AbeBooks has removed item(s) from your inventory, you can appeal this action. If you received a removal notice, you can directly reply to that email. Alternatively, you can contact AbeBooks Customer Support using the online Contact Us form. Please be sure to include the following information:

• A statement outlining why you are appealing the removal.
• A Plan of Action explaining the steps you have taken to correct the problems that led to the removal.
• Valid invoice(s) and/or purchase order(s) from your supplier for the removed item(s), if applicable.

Please note: If the removal action is due to a complaint from a rights owner, additional information and/or actions may be required.