You are most welcome, my friend; I have seen several mentions of having success simply by changing from Mastercard to Visa (and in some cases, a Visa debit card rather than a credit card).
One thing that might be worth bearing in mind for situations of changing Credit Method Manager information is the phenomenon explained in the 7Jul22 OSFE thread Ancient Amazonese Secret (link, NSFE URL).
Good Luck, and please keep us apprised if you have both the time and inclination to do so.
After taking some deep breaths and drinking a comfort drink (too early for alcohol but a macchiato helped), I read all the NSFE links provided here and most importantly this thread and changed my Capital One Mastercard to a (Scotiabank) Visa Credit Card and I am happy to report that it worked.
Changing the charge method in general did not seem to change the charge method for advertising (maybe it would a while later), so I changed it there too.
Congratulations! May The Sales Be With You!
Two weird things that I noticed as soon as I gained access to my shop.
My total balance shows -$0.27, as if a disbursement happened as soon as I changed the credit card. However, I usually get about half of my balance, since Amazon holds the rest as an account-level reserve since my suspension two years ago (initially, handmade sellers used to get 100% of them, but new(er) sellers and suspended sellers are subject to account-level reserves). Right now the account level reserve looks like zero as if my suspension’s effect went away.
I didn’t get a “Your payment is on the way” e-mail, so if the page updates during the day and shows the usual account level reserve, I’ll share.
About the weird -$0.27… and a little info: I am 100% FBA and I only have inventory in the US:
Investigating further:
Any thoughts or suggestions? Can Amazon move our inventory to another marketplace that we are eligible to sell and start charging us FBA inventory fees automatically?
I am aware that this issue does not fit the subject but can this be another glitch related to the Unpopular MasterCard glitch?
It should self-resolve within a day.
Yes, and not just by the synchronization methodologies in place for folks who WANT to utilize the other Marketplaces.
There’s a known glitch whereby Canadian members of the Buyer Community purchase something from .com, return it to a facility IN Canada - which is supposed to be routed through the Las Vegas or Lexington, KY Return Centers, or to the Spokane or Seattle Sorting Centers - and one of those facilities routes it back to a .ca facility improperly.
That’s a fairly rare occurrence, but it’s happened to us twice over the years that the North American Unified Account regime has been in place, and I know of several other instances of the same having occurred to other SoA Accounts.
Update: The Seller Central page shows my total balance before today’s glitch. So, no disbursement today. Canada charge is still there. And it looks like my account is not eligible to request an on-demand disbursement.
I wonder how many sellers are experiencing a similar situation and how much money Amazon gets to keep for another two weeks just because they decided to unwelcome MasterCard suddenly!
Finally…
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/1bfb5e9a-ad1a-489e-9f5d-0d761cd9532d
At least they acknowledge the issue… now “be patient…” sounds easy when it’s not you the one that is watching helpless how your account is being destroyed by this “glitch”.
Yep, CR has posted that twice:
Only took the FMT/CMT six or so weeks (the uptick in reports has swelled in recent days, but it the earliest reports go back to August) to realize that there was a problem (or, perhaps, to be allowed to simply acknowledge the possibility).
Let us hope that the ‘Priority Fix’ is pushed through tout de suite.
Let us more-fervently hope that it’s not crafted out of the usual chewing gum, and shoe strings, and sealing wax patching.
TWO years later and they are still withholding your funds? I have never heard of this before! Special for Canadian sellers or do they do this to everyone?
No, that’s how it works for every seller who registered after a certain time.
There’s a “7 days after delivery” withholding, which tends to work out to around half the available funds at time of disbursement.
@GGX explained it perfectly.
I think I registered my seller account on Amazon in the late 1990s or very early 2000s so am not subject to some of the atrocities/indignities of those with more recently established accounts.
I also know the rules can change in an instant. I have been unpleasantly surprised by the academics and institutions purchasing books getting an extra 30-45 days to pay.
The progress report is not appealing, as evidenced by Micah’s post yesterday (added emphasis & select redactons mine):
With every passing day that this snafu continues, I’m led closer and closer to a conclusion that there’s some back-boardroom wrangling going on, although I do not lightly discount the possibility that it could easily stem from nothing more complex than Amazon having simply borked (yet again) the evolution from MWS API to SP-API.
The “funny” part is the “we have a tech issue with mastercard” followed by the same brainless copy-paste of the “add a valid charging method” workbook. Really?? All sellers posting on that thread are having the same issue. None of them have an “invalid” charge method, hence the information provided from paragraph 2 and above is simply useless and unrelated to the issue.
Will they really keep making it look like it’s the seller’s fault to be locked out of their accounts, even after acknowledging in small print that there is, indeed, a glitch?
There’s money to be made in accounts being held do to not being able to access … interest $$$
Yepper, and when every penny counts towards pinching off the next billion or so, and towards keeping Wall Street quiescent over a badly distorted P/E Ratio…there’s a built-in incentive to rest upon your heels, rather than to rectify discrepancies.
I’ve decided that on my next payout day, I’m going to put my account on vacation for a few hours around the time that the payment gets processed, so that if the snafu hits us, I at least won’t be getting orders that I can’t access.
It’s absurd that they can’t do something.
Such speculations have run through my mind.
Is Mastercard not regarding Amazon with the proper amount of awe? Did Amazon decide to teach them a lesson in a mild sort of way? But not of course, by jeopardizing relations with buyers. Sellers don’t matter.
But stupid error is probably the reason.
This is what I’m wondering as well, because of the historical precedent set in Amazon’s dealings with Visa on a similar score (of the credit behemoth resisting falling in line behind Amazon’s lead).
