Andon Cord (Amazon)
On Amazon, an Andon Cord is a hold that suspends a single ASIN from sale after customer complaints point to a physical or functional defect, or to a mismatch between the item and its product page, until the vendor responds and the complaints are resolved.
On Amazon, an Andon Cord is a hold that suspends a single ASIN from sale after customer complaints point to a physical or functional defect, or to a mismatch between the item and its product page, until the vendor responds and the complaints are resolved.
What it is
The complaints reach Amazon through customer service and fall into two groups: the item doesn’t work or arrives defective, or it differs from what the product page describes, such as a listed feature that’s missing or a color that doesn’t match.
The notice arrives by email from Amazon Retail Business Services or Vendor Central, with “Andon Cord” in the subject line. It lists the complaints received for the ASIN and asks you to check your own inventory for the same problems and confirm whether they’re real. When the complaint is about how a device functions, the fulfillment center team may also ask for quality-testing guidelines so it can check the stock it holds. You have a standard 24-hour window to respond, and Amazon expects your inventory findings along with the steps you plan to take next.
If you also sell through Seller Central, you may run into “AndonCordManager,” a separate FBA mechanism that blocks shipment creation when a shipment has a defect, such as a box that’s overweight or has the wrong dimensions listed.
Where it lives in Vendor Central
The Andon Cord reaches you as that notification email, so the email is what you work from. Route it to someone who can pull inventory and answer inside the 24-hour window. If the complaints turn out to come from customers who didn’t follow the product’s instructions, say so in your response and ask for the ASIN to be relisted right away.
Why it matters to a vendor
The ASIN stops selling as soon as the hold goes on, before anyone has confirmed a defect, and while it’s off the site it loses sales and search ranking.
Repeat Andon Cords on the same ASIN over a few months escalate. Amazon requests a return authorization for the entire on-hand inventory in exchange for a new defect-free batch, and further defective batches put the ASIN at risk of permanent removal, so when the first notice arrives, check your own stock for the cause instead of only answering the complaints listed.
Because a mismatch with the product page is one of the triggers, InsightLeap’s daily catalog audit, which emails the content changes and broken variations it finds, gives you a chance to catch a listing edit before a customer does.
Related terms
- Vendor Returns (Return to Vendor, RTV): how Amazon sends inventory back to a vendor and deducts the cost.
- Glossary index: the rest of the Vendor Central terms and InsightLeap metrics.
