The Amazon judge and jury

[MuirWannabe]

This is my rant about being wronged by Amazon recently. I’m pretty much in shock this really happened. Especially from a large company like Amazon.

Several days ago, I was logging into the Amazon account my DW and I share, to order something. When trying to login I instead saw a message saying my account had been locked. No other information was provided. We are prime members and use the Amazon firestick to do most of our tv viewing. I discovered we could not access tv due to the account lockout as well.

I called Amazon customer service. They told me they could provide no information but would submit a form to their Account Services department, who would then respond to me via email in 24-48 hours. I requested to speak directly with Account Services, but they made it clear that was impossible.

So, I was frustrated, but we waited. I did get an email the next day asking me to provide a credit card statement for a card ending in 37. We replied to the generic email address (address-verification at Amazon) stating we could not comply with their request as we do not own a card ending in 37.

Another day passes by with nothing. I call customer service again to explain the email exchange and that we cannot provide what is being requested. They again say they can provide no information, but will submit a form to Account Services. After another day, I again get the same email request for the card statement ending in 37.

At this point I’m googling what others have done to get out of this loop from hell Amazon has me in. One suggestion I saw was to email the jeff@amazon.com account and explain what’s going on. So I did this. The next day I received a reply from a surrogate of Jeff. The reply simply said my account had been permanently closed. Any new accounts I try to open would be discovered and closed. The reason stated was as follows word for word from their email.

We took these actions because our records show that this account is related to another account that was closed by Amazon. Due to the property nature of our business we are unable to discuss other accounts with you.

So, I’m banned for life from Amazon. I have no idea why and they aren’t going to tell me anything. And I’m unable even to discuss it with them. We were purchasers only. Not sellers. Probably bought about 4-5 things a month. Never did product reviews. Never used gift codes or gift cards to my memory. We are truly innocent, but very much wronged by Amazon. We are out about $170 for my prime membership fee plus some tv content I had purchased, plus the cost of my firestick.

Generally my customer service experiences are reasonably good with most major organizations. This was unbelievably bad in this day and age. I should probably count my lucky stars for not being able to do business with a company like this ever again. But it’s Amazon. We are discovering how much we miss the convenience already. Frankly I’m pissed and perplexed.

Muir

 

[Dash man]

Try writing an old fashioned letter to the CEO. It will still be handled by a subordinate, but if you explain what happened in a detailed, professional manner, you may get through to them. It has worked for me with other businesses.

 

[Aerides]

Wow. Seeing this on a buyer-only account is suprising.

I have nothing to say that will help, but since I sell on amazon I can guess from what you've posted there's no way they will talk to you further, let alone reopen your account. The messaging they've used is the same as when a seller is banned, and the "jeff" email is the exec team for escalations. If they leave you shut, there's no other way out. If you got the "we may no longer reply..." they mean it.

Typically, when sellers report this sort of thing (we have our own forums and see this daily), it means there's been some evidence of account linkage. IP, Physical Address, Shared Device, Bank/Credit Card, etc. Usually some pretty clear digital data connecting 1 and 2. (and on the seller side, same thing, if you try to open a 2nd account and they find similar evidence, they shut that down the same way). For example if a friend used your wifi or your pc to log into his amazon account, and HE has account issues, that can be a linkage.

Amazon somehow has you linked to a bad apple...

 

[harley]

That's bizarre, especially, as you said, from Amazon. I have no suggestions, but I hope it works out.

I'm in a similar situation with Razer.com. I tried to make a purchase ($5K+), and it was cancelled by their "identity protection" algorithm. I chatted (no phone support) with them to find the problem, waited a couple days, went through their identity verification process, and then was summarily rejected, no reason given. It's so weird, as I've ordered from them before, with the same billing and shipping addresses. My credit card companies approved the purchases, it's just their obviously buggy security software that is stopping me. They won't give an explanation as to the problem. I feel like I'm on the TSA No Fly list - no reason why, and no way to get off. And every step takes days because there's no phone support, only chat and email. I think some online companies are losing it.

 

[SumDay]

What Dash man said.


If that doesn't go anywhere, I find Twitter shaming VERY effective. I've used it several times, most recently for a trash company who just couldn't seem to see our barrels sitting at the curb. Get out your Twitter machine and include @amazon and @amznfulfillment in your 280 characters. And keep it up.


What an unbelievable story. I wouldn't give up on this one - so ridiculous!!!

 

[HI Bill]

There was an article that came out yesterday about a couple who opened dozens of Amazon accounts, then proceeded to steal $1.2M in merchandise over a ~5-year period. I can't help but wonder if someone used your account info.

 

[kgtest]

I've heard people get banned due to frequent returns. Did your account, or the account yours was associated with, get banned for that reason?



Perhaps try opening a business account instead?

 

[MuirWannabe]

Wow. Seeing this on a buyer-only account is suprising.

I have nothing to say that will help, but since I sell on amazon I can guess from what you've posted there's no way they will talk to you further, let alone reopen your account. The messaging they've used is the same as when a seller is banned, and the "jeff" email is the exec team for escalations. If they leave you shut, there's no other way out. If you got the "we may no longer reply..." they mean it.

Typically, when sellers report this sort of thing (we have our own forums and see this daily), it means there's been some evidence of account linkage. IP, Physical Address, Shared Device, Bank/Credit Card, etc. Usually some pretty clear digital data connecting 1 and 2. (and on the seller side, same thing, if you try to open a 2nd account and they find similar evidence, they shut that down the same way). For example if a friend used your wifi or your pc to log into his amazon account, and HE has account issues, that can be a linkage.

Amazon somehow has you linked to a bad apple...

Thanks Aerides. You’ve pretty much described my situation and Amazon’s behavior exactly. The only thing is I don’t understand what is meant by my account being linked to another account. What does that even mean? Amazon’s not gonna tell me. They are done with me.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I've heard people get banned due to frequent returns. Did your account, or the account yours was associated with, get banned for that reason?



Perhaps try opening a business account instead?

Yes, I’ve heard about them punishing frequent returners as well. We have returned product before. But not very often relative to our purchases. And they never said anything about returns being the issue. Of course, they never said much to us period.

 

[Chuckanut]

We replied to the generic email address (address-verification at Amazon) stating we could not comply with their request as we do not own a card ending in 37.

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

One thing that comes to mind is identity theft. Especialy after reading about the credit card you don't have.

Get your free credit reports ASAP and see if anything is wrong with them. Sign up for Credit Karma and review you credit status at least once a month using their service.
After doing that, freeze your credit. Thanks to the Equifax breach, nobody is safe.

 

[audreyh1]

Yeah, I would be worried about identity theft, since you account had been associated with another one.

 

[MuirWannabe]

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

One thing that comes to mind is identity theft. Especialy after reading about the credit card you don't have.

Get your free credit reports ASAP and see if anything is wrong with them. Sign up for Credit Karma and review you credit status at least once a month using their service.
After doing that, freeze your credit. Thanks to the Equifax breach, nobody is safe.

I’ve done exactly that. Everything looks fine on Credit Karma.

I would’ve been very hesitant to provide them with a credit card statement via generic email. But given they wanted a card ending in 37 which we don’t have, it resolved that worry.

 

[REWahoo]

Found this on the web in an article primarily about getting banned for too many returns. Not very encouraging:

Let’s keep something front and center: Amazon is a private company, and as such can refuse to do business with you for practically any reason, and owes you no apology, explanation, or chance to appeal. It could pretty much ban you tomorrow if it decides it no longer wants you as a customer. And the evidence is that it indeed exercises this power, and usually does not reconsider its decision, ever.

https://www.richmiser.com/index.php/2017/10/11/can-you-really-get-banned-from-amazon/

 

[audreyh1]

Well this is really upsetting. I can only imagine how shocked and outraged you must be.

 

[Aerides]

Perhaps try opening a business account instead?

That won't work. Or it might, for a few days, or weeks, until they realize it's the same person and then WHAM all closed again. And now, having opened a 2nd account, any chance for appealing would be lost, since you'd have basically proved their case that you are linked to multiples.

On the seller side, whenever anyone has that idea it's shot down real quick.

Social media shaming might work on some things, but with all the recent news of customers getting banned for return abuse, the timing isn't that great to try.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Well this is really upsetting. I can only imagine how shocked and outraged you must be.

Yes. I am.

As the article Rewahoo posted notes. They are a private company and can choose not to do business with me if they wish. Just as I choose who to do business with.

But dang. It’s Amazon. It’s almost hard not to do business with them. They practically run the world. Plus I paid for roughly $170 of services that I’ll get nothing for. Yes, I’m in shock they’d treat me this way.

 

[GrayHare]

Plus I paid for roughly $170 of services that I’ll get nothing for. Yes, I’m in shock they’d treat me this way.

If they continue to put you on ignore, sue in small claims court merely to get their attention on the matter.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Yes. I am.

As the article Rewahoo posted notes. They are a private company and can choose not to do business with me if they wish. Just as I choose who to do business with.

But dang. It’s Amazon. It’s almost hard not to do business with them. They practically run the world. Plus I paid for roughly $170 of services that I’ll get nothing for. Yes, I’m in shock they’d treat me this way.

Take them to small claims court for theft for the $170?

 

[Go-NoGo]

Yes. I am.

As the article Rewahoo posted notes. They are a private company and can choose not to do business with me if they wish. Just as I choose who to do business with.

But dang. It’s Amazon. It’s almost hard not to do business with them. They practically run the world. Plus I paid for roughly $170 of services that I’ll get nothing for. Yes, I’m in shock they’d treat me this way.

Sorry to hear that MuirWannabe, hope you get that sorted out quickly. Can you recall if you shared your Prime membership with another person and they caused this problem?

Also a good reason for other Amazon customers to enable 2FA on their accounts asap.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Sorry to hear that MuirWannabe, hope you get that sorted out quickly. Can you recall if you shared your Prime membership with another person and they caused this problem?



Also a good reason for other Amazon customers to enable 2FA on their accounts asap.

No, we did not share our account with anyone.

 

[RunningBum]

I would file a claim in small claims court for the $170. I think they'd have to come up with a reason for keeping it and at least you'd find out. More likely they'd just pay it to avoid that. Unless there's something you aren't telling us, and I have no reason to think you are, it's a case of mistaken identity or someone somehow linked your account and did bad things. You can show your credit report to the courts and show their's no CC in your name ending in 37. Who uses 2 numbers in credit card ID anyway? I always see 4.

 

[Chuckanut]

FWIW, Amazon while it is the gorilla is not the only game in town.

Some places can be cheaper. Walmart, Target, Boxed Ebay, Overstocked.com for example.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I would file a claim in small claims court for the $170. I think they'd have to come up with a reason for keeping it and at least you'd find out. More likely they'd just pay it to avoid that. Unless there's something you aren't telling us, and I have no reason to think you are, it's a case of mistaken identity or someone somehow linked your account and did bad things. You can show your credit report to the courts and show their's no CC in your name ending in 37. Who uses 2 numbers in credit card ID anyway? I always see 4.

I don’t know anything about small claims court. Several posters have suggested this course of action. How much would it cost? Do I have a lawyer or represent it myself?

I’m not really interested in chasing this further, costing myself more frustration and possibly money. But I’m not gonna lie. I have fantasies of somehow making Amazon realize how wrong they’ve done a good customer of theirs. Stupid I know. They could care less obviously.

 

[ivinsfan]

The Amazon arrogance just continues to escalate. Apparently they think they are perfect, never make a mistake and don't believe in innocent until prove guilty.

To simply refused to elaborate, to blame it on their secret business algorithms, to tell you to go F yourself and refuse to even refund your prime membership money. Let's see how this works when they take over the food market, the drug market and any other market as they see fit.

If your state has a pro-active Attorney General lodge a complaint. It looks as though you would quality for a small claims court so go for it. If I was you I would tack on the value of any Fire Sticks, unusable Fire tablets or kindles and any digital content.

Are you 100% certain you have no inkling of what triggered this, ? Even the smallest thought of what might have been misconstrued... Start raising a stink and see what you kick up.

 

[RunningBum]

I don't know much about small claims court either. I think you usually represent yourself. Someone else will chip in here, I'm sure, otherwise I'd google it to figure out the process. Or buy a book on it on Amaz...scratch that!

Another option would be to get the money back through the credit card you used. They sold you the prime service, and didn't deliver. You might get the money back, but I think you'd be a lot less likely to get answers.

You're probably right in just not chasing it further but it would frustrate me greatly too.