I expected more
I contacted Riverbend during 2025 after my Amazon FBA account was deactivated. Previously to contacting them I had lodged several appeals with Amazon Seller Support only to be knocked back with standard refusals. My issue was that I could not escalate the matter beyond Seller Support as I had comprehensive proof that I had not violated Amazons terms. Having contacted Riverbend, I explained what had happened and paid $2500 for them to get the deactivation lifted. First the good things, the consultant I dealt with was on point, efficient and responsive. The reformatted letters of appeal and suggestions etc were an improvement on what I had done myself albeit they contained the same information. Why the mixed review? The documentation that I was sending following Riverbend’s suggestion was still going to the same level of support in Amazon, predictably I was getting the same result as it contained the same content. When this was obviously failing, it was suggested that the issue needed to be escalated which is what I had wanted all along. The escalation was to email several senior business leaders within Amazon (Jassey, Herrington, Bezos etc) We sent out several emails over several months and all were referred back to my original path of contacting Seller Support. Several responses that were not automatic replies stated that the email address I was contacting was not for that purpose. After many months, nothing worked, there was no escalation and I was no further forwards. At that point Riverbend stated they could do nothing more to help me. They left me, I didn’t leave them. I found that for the price I paid - $2500, the escalation process to senior managers was at best speculative. Randomly contacting senior Amazon business leaders in the hope something gets read is not what I would consider strategic. It’s not unreasonable to assume that one would hope for a less random approach for the money charged. In all honesty I would have done this myself had I have known beforehand. My other regret about this is that I lost many months due to inactivity following a speculative process that did not yield any result. Following my experience, I contacted another unrelated Amazon consultancy who offered legal assistance. This cut through the barriers faced with Seller Support, the same documents were presented and after an escalation taking just over 3 months, my account is fully operational again.