Overview

Amazon displays error 100678 when a product’s return rate climbs above the platform’s acceptable limit. The system automatically pauses the affected listing, stopping any new sales until the seller resolves the underlying issue. Prompt remediation is crucial to protect revenue and maintain a healthy account profile.

Key Points

• Automatic pause — Amazon suspends the ASIN as soon as the refund ratio exceeds the category benchmark, meaning the item cannot be purchased until the seller intervenes.
• Root‑cause analysis required — Reactivating the listing without identifying why customers are returning the product typically triggers the same error again and can lead to stricter account actions.
• Customer feedback as a diagnostic tool — Return reasons, buyer comments, and defect codes reveal whether the problem lies in product quality, inaccurate descriptions, packaging, or sizing.
• Manual reactivation — After corrective steps are taken, sellers must update the inventory quantity and manually enable the listing through the Inventory > Manage Inventory page.
• Impact on account health — Repeated high‑refund alerts lower the “Refund Rate” metric in the Account Health dashboard, increasing the risk of broader selling restrictions.
• Financial consequences — Each returned unit incurs lost revenue plus potential FBA return‑processing, restocking, and disposal fees.

How Error 100678 Works

1. Monitoring and threshold detection — Amazon continuously compares each seller’s refund percentage against historical data for the same category. For example, a kitchen‑tool seller whose items normally see a 1.5 % return rate will trigger the alert if a new batch spikes to 4 % within a two‑week window.
2. Automatic listing suspension — Once the system flags the ASIN, it changes the offer status to “Paused,” removing the buy box and preventing any further purchases. A seller of a popular Bluetooth speaker might see the product disappear from search results overnight after the spike is detected.