Amazon Account Suspension – Order Defect Rate (ODR): Plan of Action and Appeal

The one thing that I always worried about and you should too is Order Defect Rate (ODR). It is one of the most vital metrics to measure your seller performance.

The moment you breach the defined barrier of Order Dispatch Rate (ODR), your Amazon account will get suspended for sure. Let’s understand why ODR is so important:

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What Is Order Defect Rate (ODR)?

Order Defect Rate (ODR), calculated by dividing the number of orders with the negative “defects” by the total number of orders from the same time period.

Order Defect Rate should be under 1%.

Sample E-mail (Seller Account Suspension Notice) From Amazon

Below is the notice of Amazon seller account suspension due to Order Defect Rate:

Dear Seller,

My name is XYZ from the Amazon Account Health Support team and we attempted to reach you by phone to discuss the status of your account. 

Your Amazon seller account has been deactivated. Your listings have been removed. Funds will not be transferred to you but will be held in your account while we work with you to address this issue. Please ship any open orders to avoid further impact to your account.

Why is this happening?
Your order defect rate exceeded the target of 1%. Amazon’s Order Defect Rate Policy can be found at (Amazon URL). 

How do I reactivate my account?
Please review your orders to determine the cause of the defects. You can appeal any A-to-z claim, negative customer feedback, or service chargeback that you believe should not be counted in your order defect rate by visiting the following links:
-- Appeal A-to-z Claims: (Amazon URL)
-- Request removal of seller feedback: (Amazon URL)
-- Appeal Chargeback Claims: (Amazon URL)

Additionally, please send a plan of action that explains:
-- The root cause(s) of the A-to-z claims, negative feedback and service chargebacks
-- The actions you have taken to resolve A-to-z claims, negative feedback and service chargebacks
-- The steps you have taken to prevent A-to-z claims, negative feedback and service chargebacks going forward

How do I send the required information?
Submit this information at (Amazon URL).

What happens if I do not send the requested information?
If we do not receive the requested information your account will remain deactivated and funds in your account may be held for 90 days.

We’re here to help
If you have questions about this policy or information requested above, please contact us at (Amazon URL). The Account Health Support team is available to discuss your account performance 7 days a week, from 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Additionally, please find assistance creating a plan of action at (Amazon URL).

Has your account been deactivated in error?
If you believe there has been an error, please submit an explanation. Your explanation should include the following information: 
--Evidence or examples that demonstrate that your account complies with our Order Defect RatePolicy

You can view your account performance at (Amazon URL) or select Account Health on the home screen of the Amazon seller app on your iOS or Android device. Your Account Health shows how well your account is performing against the performance metrics and policies required to sell on Amazon. 

 Thank you!

 Sincerely,

 XYZ
 Amazon Account Health Support Team 

 

How Does Amazon Order Defect Rate Work?

Amazon uses Order Defect Rate to measure your ability to provide great customer experience. It is based on three parameters:

• Service Charge Back Request – It is the number of times you have refund the orders to the customers.
• A-Z Claim – These are the claims made by the customer when they are dissatisfied with the ordered product or delay in delivery.
• Negative Feedback/Bad Review – It is pretty straight forward that any negative feedback or low rating. [Know How To Remove Negative Feedback Like A Boss]

How Is Order Defect Rate (ODR) Calculated?

As I mentioned earlier, ODR is based on three parameters – Service Charge Back Request, A-Z Claims, & Negative Feedback. The ratio of these three parameters are combined together to the total number of orders during a given 60-day period gives the overall Order Defect Rate in percentage.

For example, suppose Amazing Marketer Store has one A-to-z claim, one chargeback request, and two negative customer feedbacks within a 60-day period across a total of 100 orders. Then, the ODR for Amazing Marketer Store is 4 divided by 100, which means it is 4%.

Amazon will discontinue your selling privileges temporarily or permanently if you have such a high ODR i.e 4%. So, as a seller, you have to maintain an ODR under 1% to avoid your seller account suspension.

Bonus Tip

If you notice a small difference between your ODR shown by Amazon and ODR calculated by you (most likely ODR by Amazon will be less). This is due to the fact that the customer has made an A-Z claim recently before posting negative feedback.

In simple words, if a customer files an A-Z claim and writes negative feedback for the same order, Amazon will count it as one factor instead of two. So, this is a little sunshine for you.

But still, that doesn’t mean you should take this lightly as every negative feedback will take you closer to the account suspension.

How Does Order Defect Rate Impact Seller?

Amazon treats ODR as one of the most pivotal factors to assess your seller performance and expects you to maintain the higher standard of customer satisfaction akin to what Amazon delivers.

The moment you surpass the predefined standard of under 1% ODR. Two things will happen:

i) Buy Box Will Be Lost

Firstly, you will lose the BUY BOX automatically for any product you are selling or responsible for shipping. Amazon never lets their customer have a bad experience and always tries to maintain their trust in the Buy Box. Amazon’s credibility is at stake if you don’t deliver as per the Amazon standards.

ii) Account Suspension or Termination

Secondly, your Amazon account will get suspended or terminated once Amazon notices that your ODR is more than 1%. Your payments will be on hold to refund customers and remaining payments will be credited to you after 90 days. Amazon will not give you any discount on this no matter how big or successful seller you are.

Amazon will only suspend your account if ODR is slightly above 1% and it will give you 17 days to submit the Plan-Of-Action to reopen your account. [The Complete Guide – To Reopen Amazon Account Suspension]

But if your ODR is drastically above 1%, Amazon will not think for the second moment and terminate your account straight away. Higher ODR indicates that there are excessive late deliveries and numerous cancellations done by you.

As shown in the example, ODR 4% is way too high to avoid termination. In this case, there are cent percent chances that account will get suspended and terminated together.

How To Reduce Order Defect Rate?

It’s always better to take precautionary measures instead of fixing the chaos. So tracking performance should be the topmost priority task for you that needs to be performed on a daily basis.

I perform the following things on a daily basis which I recommend to you as well:

• Read all A-Z claims and customer feedback meticulously and respond positively.
• Identify recurring patterns such as late shipments, numerous return or refund, cancellations, mismatched expectations. Resolve them with utmost priority.
• Ask Amazon to edit the misplaced feedback so that it doesn’t impact your ODR.
• Give FAST & FREE shipping to every customer. Late deliveries led to almost 84% of negative feedback. I suggest you to use reliable third-party logistics or Amazon FBA to overcome this issue.
• Enroll in Amazon FBA programme, it will take all your pain from pick, pack, & ship and there are chances that you might get your Buy Box back.

How To Re-open Suspended Account?

In order to reopen seller account, you need to submit a detailed Plan-Of-Action or Letter of Appeal to Amazon with all the asked details and steps you have taken to avoid the same in future.

You can download a tried & tested version of POA for ODR shared below:

Sample Plan-of-Action (POA) / Letter of Appeal (Free Download)

👉Click here to Download Plan-Of-action (POA)/Letter of Appeal for Order Defect Rate (ODR)

👉Click here to Download Plan-Of-action (POA)/Letter of Appeal for Order Defect Rate (ODR)

Conclusion

As a seller, Amazon expects you to satisfy the customer, the way Amazon does itself. It expects you to provide the best product, fast shipping, answer customer grievances positively, refund or return the product, and many more such things.

Amazon measures Order Defect Rate (ODR) to keep you on your toes in order to deliver the best customer experience via you. So, it wants you to maintain the ODR under 1% if you want to be a great seller.

To know more about seller account suspension and other major reasons, read 👉 How to reopen suspended seller account – A Complete Guide

——– If you still have any concern regarding Amazon or any other Digital Marketing strategies, ASK THE QUESTION in the comments below ——–