Amazon UK sellers have been hit since September 20 by surges of pending orders on items priced at £100 or more that never clear, locking up stock real customers can’t buy, according to Dan Robinson at The Register. A pending order comes out of available inventory while Amazon verifies payment, and sellers can’t cancel it, so one saw £25,000 of goods tied up in 72 such orders over three days. Some merchants suspect rivals are ordering with cards that lack the funds, though there’s no evidence yet it’s deliberate rather than a fault on Amazon’s end. Seller Support first called the activity normal, but a forum post hours after The Register reached out said Amazon had escalated it to its partner teams.
