The Amazon judge and jury

MW, sorry to hear of your situation. That was outright wrong not explaining the situation. Bummer.

I've been an Amazon customer since 1999 also, but we find ourselves using Amazon less and less. Now that we know Amazon prices vary and many times they are MUCH higher than the competition, we order from other vendors after we price check and Amazon is too expensive. We have Prime, but don't use the movie or music portion, just the Free 2 Day Shipping (really 3 - 4 days when the hand off to the USPS). Prime goes out next go around.

if we lost Amazon, it would be no big deal and I am sure many others are starting to feel that way.
 
I've been on the fence about selling my Amazon stock and capturing the nice gain it has in my IRA. I think this thread has convinced me to sell on Monday.
 
BTW, OP- here's a trick to using your new Amazon account- don't link any credit cards, just use Amazon gift cards you can buy at the drug stores. Of course you'll need a different email address and ideally a different physical address than your current one but they may or may not be checking the physical addresses.

I wasn't already keen on renewing the more pricey Prime membership and your situation now makes that decision firm. Additionally, I was thinking of replacing my Roku with Fire but no more.
 
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Yup, just another on line vendor, thousands of 'em out there.

I buy lots of stuff from Amazon, but never had prime and never getting prime.
 
skipro33 said:
Here is something, a CNET story how one banned Amazon customer got back on;
https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-banned-this-shopper-then-he-outsmarted-them/
Click to expand...

Although that's different from the OP's story, it does offer a glimmer of hope.

In that CNet story, the banned person, Mark, clearly deserved it. Amazon is very generous with legitimate returns. But Mark admitted buying and returning extra items, as well as buying multiple parts, keeping the one he needed, and returning the rest. He admitted doing this routinely, more than once or twice a week.

That's just not fair to any retailer. There are re-stocking costs, and some products simply can't be resold after a return. In Amazon's case, we know the shipping cost is included in the price, so when they refund the purchase price, they're also refunding the shipping cost as well as eating the return shipping cost.

In the OPs case, I'd give the arbitration process a try. I've had that work with a credit card purchase I thought I'd never get refunded.

My sympathies. Being banned from Amazon would be a life-changing event for many of us!
 
If insufficient competition develops, I can imagine Amazon eventually forcibly split up in the manner of some prior monopolies. Certainly Bezos knows this. I'll be very surprised if Amazon's 2nd HQ is not near DC.
 
Gees, I've been returning items to Amazon lately, but all the sales tags are still intact (I recently returned baseball gloves and bike shorts because they didn't fit right) and they are still in a sellable condition. Still, I will try not to buy something from Amazon that may cause a return since frankly, I would hate to be banned from Amazon.
 
At a minimum I think I would write a physical letter as suggested earlier. And, I might consider small claims court or arbitration.
 
The part that is the worst IMO is that they did not tell you what you did...


IOW, the guy in the article was warned a couple of times and did not change his behavior... he KNEW what he did to get banned...


I would appeal to customer service that you STILL do not know what happened to cause you to get banned... that an easy to understand explanation would be helpful... then, if it was wrong you can at least know what you are fighting...


I do buy things from Amazon, but I also buy from other sites.... I do not think there is anything I have bought from Amazon that I could not get somewhere else for close to the same price... sure, I would hate to be banned as that takes away a choice vendor, but it is not the worst thing in life...
 
OP, sorry to hear of your troubles with Amazon. I’m a Prime customer, and would be mighty upset to have had your experience. I’ve found Twitter customer service from other vendors to be much, much better & faster than phone calls or email. Start a Twitter thread, tagging @AmazonHelp, which is Amazon’s customer support handle. Explain your experience as you have here, asking for help or an explanation. No guarantees, but worth a shot.

Edit: Looking at the @AmazonHelp Twitter handle’s messages, they say they don’t have access to customer Amazon account information for “security reasons”. Might still be worth a try to see if they can provide any general help, or get you in touch with someone who can assist.
 
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There was probably an internal directive within Amazon sent out to all customer facing personnel that said "say absolutely nothing about an account flagged in such and such a way" . There is probably someone in the company that has the authority to say something, but getting to that person is obviously problematic. There is apparently no defined escalation procedure, so the attention gaining tactics are about all that's available.
 
Aerides said:
I would at very least initiate a billing dispute via your CC for the refund on that prime fee and the other charges that you can no longer benefit from.
Click to expand...
Yeah. The "Mark" in the recently linked article got a pro-rata refund of his Prime fee when he was banned. Perhaps Muir's refund, if any, went to the other CC.
 
MuirWannabe said:
Geez. Think I need to lighten up.
Click to expand...
Don't worry about it, some people think it's easy for others to tell when they are joking or being sarcastic. It often isn't, and I didn't get the joke this time either.
 
I think you should file under their binding arbitration process. As long as the claim is not frivolous (arbiter decides this) they reimburse he filing fee (which is not cheap). Once you do this all the amazon doors will likely magically open and this situation will get resolved assuming that is the OP has been upfront about all the facts and circumstances and really is quite innocent in the whole matter.

Good luck.
 
Been reading stories about buyers being banned on Amazon and there are three main reasons; excessive returns, reviews that the seller compensated the buyer to post and commercial use of the account.
It is the latter that may be the downfall in the OP's case. Seems a lot of other sites list stuff for sale. They don't actually carry the merchandise, all they do is drop ship the item from Amazon. Lots of sellers on eBay do just that; list an item and when someone buys from them, the drop ship from their Amazon account. Amazon would probably consider that person's account being used for commercial purposes and ties your account though the eBay listing to your account on Amazon. In any case, you are the 'collateral damage' in the war between Amazon and unscrupulous sellers.

I may not have all the details right, but from what I read in the comments sections of articles dealing with buyer bans, this seems to be a trend and only recently has Amazon been cracking down hard on it.


Read the article, but more importantly read the comments;
https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2018/4/1522981522.html


Everytime I buy something on on another site and it comes from amazon drop shipping and prime abuse I always worry I will be somehow linked to the seller if they have too many returns or if they inaccurately describe an item forcing me to send back the item directly to amazon.



I am also afraid that a dropship seller will buy a product with a stolen creditcard leaving me to answer for their crime.
Click to expand...
 
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tmm99 said:
And maybe this has something to do with this too since the OP said he shared his account with family members?
https://consumerist.com/2015/08/04/amazon-isnt-cracking-down-on-shared-prime-accounts-reminds-everyone-of-actual-rules/index.html
Click to expand...

Right off the bat this article is not factual..I share my Prime with 2 adult daughters who have different address. Now of the 3 of I am the only one who has access to Prime video and/or music and games.

So believe what you read there with a grain of salt.
 
skipro33 said:
Been reading stories about buyers being banned on Amazon and there are three main reasons; excessive returns, reviews that the seller compensated the buyer to post and commercial use of the account.
It is the latter that may be the downfall in the OP's case. Seems a lot of other sites list stuff for sale. They don't actually carry the merchandise, all they do is drop ship the item from Amazon. Lots of sellers on eBay do just that; list an item and when someone buys from them, the drop ship from their Amazon account. Amazon would probably consider that person's account being used for commercial purposes and ties your account though the eBay listing to your account on Amazon. In any case, you are the 'collateral damage' in the war between Amazon and unscrupulous sellers.

I may not have all the details right, but from what I read in the comments sections of articles dealing with buyer bans, this seems to be a trend and only recently has Amazon been cracking down hard on it.


Read the article, but more importantly read the comments;
https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2018/4/1522981522.html
Click to expand...

Why should the OP have to "guess" what the problem is, apparently Amazon doesn't believe in transparency either.
 
MuirWannabe said:
Whoa. Hold up a minute. My wife, who oddly enough I live with, is the only person my account was shared with. Nobody else. Nor did I ever say otherwise.
Click to expand...
Sorry, my bad. :facepalm: It must have been someone else who mentioned he shared his account with family members.
 
ivinsfan said:
Why should the OP have to "guess" what the problem is, apparently Amazon doesn't believe in transparency either.
Click to expand...

If Amazon suspects abuse from another's credit card account, ending in #'s the OP is unfamiliar with, Amazon may interpret this is some sort of scheme involving multiple users sharing addresses, seller websites other than Amazon, abusing the free shipping, etc.

Think about this; say you are aware a seller on eBay is selling items drop shipped from Amazon with free shipping. The item sells for one dollar more than Amazon sells it for. You could buy it off the eBay seller's site and save the Prime membership fee or standard shipping Amazon charges for non-Prime customers.

I'm speculating. I can only assume that, since Amazon told OP that the issue involves another's account and a credit card that the OP is not familiar with, that there must me some sort of scam that the OP fit the parameters on. Regardless of how innocent he may be in the matter.

Obviously Amazon is not interested in clearing up false accusations, even to the extent of allowing a customer to explain their circumstances. Probably a business decision based on raw dollars. Certainly not based on any sort of customer service.

If I were the OP, I'd back track every on-line sale I've had over the past 6 months prior to Amazon's ban and see if there's any way a purchase could have been tied to Amazon. Like a drop ship from eBay for example.

I'll tell you what, I'm certainly going to pay closer attention to the sender address on anything I'm buying online not from Amazon. I am not interested in getting on their radar and getting banned!
 
skipro33 said:
If Amazon suspects abuse from another's credit card account, ending in #'s the OP is unfamiliar with, Amazon may interpret this is some sort of scheme involving multiple users sharing addresses, seller websites other than Amazon, abusing the free shipping, etc.

Think about this; say you are aware a seller on eBay is selling items drop shipped from Amazon with free shipping. The item sells for one dollar more than Amazon sells it for. You could buy it off the eBay seller's site and save the Prime membership fee or standard shipping Amazon charges for non-Prime customers.

I'm speculating. I can only assume that, since Amazon told OP that the issue involves another's account and a credit card that the OP is not familiar with, that there must me some sort of scam that the OP fit the parameters on. Regardless of how innocent he may be in the matter.

Obviously Amazon is not interested in clearing up false accusations, even to the extent of allowing a customer to explain their circumstances. Probably a business decision based on raw dollars. Certainly not based on any sort of customer service.

If I were the OP, I'd back track every on-line sale I've had over the past 6 months prior to Amazon's ban and see if there's any way a purchase could have been tied to Amazon. Like a drop ship from eBay for example.

I'll tell you what, I'm certainly going to pay closer attention to the sender address on anything I'm buying online not from Amazon. I am not interested in getting on their radar and getting banned!
Click to expand...


We have bought online from places other than Amazon. Never EBay as we don’t use that site and never have. But other retailers and places like Etsy. It would be very difficult to backtrack 6 months worth of purchases. And then I’ve no idea how to determine if any of those were something the vendor had done nefarious to Amazon. Finally, regardless what could be learned, Amazon doesn’t want to talk with me anyway.

You may be right with your guess as to what happened. I’ve no idea, but it’s an interesting hypothesis based on the one sentence Amazon provided as a vague explanation.

Still, wtf? The lesson here is never order online from anyone but Amazon. If you do, Amazon might shut you down. This is just crazy. Online buyers have no way of knowing if the seller is crooked in how they got their goods they are selling.

Ugh.
 
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