Amazon.com has closed my account (UK one gone too)!

[anastasia]

I'm really annoyed. I've spent a huge amount with Amazon over the years (just counted more than 60 orders for Amazon US in the last 2 years, and 110 + orders for Amazon UK), but I received an e-mail last night from Amazon.com saying the following:

Hello from Amazon.com.

A careful review of your account indicates you've experienced an extraordinary number of incidents with your orders and corresponding shipments.

In the normal course of business, the occasional problem is inevitable. The rate at which such problems have occurred on your account is extraordinary, however, and cannot continue. Effective immediately, your Amazon.com account is closed and you are no longer able to shop in our store.

Please know that any accounts related to yours have also been closed. If you were to open a new account, the same will result and it will also be closed. In the event that you attempt to do so, we will not accept the return of any additional orders, nor will we issue further refunds in connection with any future orders. We appreciate your cooperation in refraining from using our web site.

If you require additional assistance, or have any concerns, feel free to contact us directly at account-appeals@amazon.com.

Please do not contact regular Customer Service again, as they will no longer be able to assist you.


Regards,

Account Specialist
Amazon.com

I have had 3 faulty DVDs from Amazon US, and at the beginning of the year there was a block of 5 orders that were well over-due for delivery and I e-mailed them to ask them to look into it (fully expecting them to say that I should give it a little longer as it was the Christmas period). They sent out replacements and then the originals turned up. I e-mailed them to let them know and asked them how I should go about sending them back to them, and was told to give them to charity and not worry about.

Other than that, the only correspondence I've had with them is to claim refunds in relation to their 30 day price promise.

Does that seem like an "extraordinary" number of incidents? I presume it's the 5 orders from Janaury that have caused the problem, but I offered to send them back and I still have them, gathering dust on the shelf so could send them back if they wanted.

To be honest, even if they reinstate my account I'd be wary of ordering from them again as you do occasionally get faulty items and I'd be worried that they'd think I was trying to defraud them. I just cannot believe it though, as I buy most of my stuff from Amazon (my UK account has gone as well as the US one). I guess I'll have to stick with Deep Discount and Tower for my US stuff, and HMV and Play for my UK stuff.

Really not happy with the implications of all this.

[evilsly]

I'm sure many more people will be having 'an extraordinary number of incidents with your orders and corresponding shipments.' thanks to Home Delivery Network

[omega man]

just cut them loose stuff em and move on

[Littc]

Why don't you email them these thoughts at the address they gave you. Probably do more good than on here and they'll probably back down.

[anastasia]

Originally Posted by Littc

Why don't you email them these thoughts at the address they gave you. Probably do more good than on here and they'll probably back down.

I have done. In fact I've gone as far as to go through all the e-mails I've got for the US site orders I've placed and have quoted the relevant orders.

I'm just venting. The thing that annoys me most is that my UK account has automatically been cancelled too. Even if they reinstate my account I really don't think I'd feel comfortable using them as much anymore in case they send me a faulty item or an order doesn't turn up. It's such a shame as they were my favourite retailer as their customer service was always fantastic.

Really don't like the tone of the e-mail either. Screw them. They're the ones losing out long term as I've spent thousands with them so far and would've spent thousands more.

[evilsly]

I wouldn't be surprised to get an email like that myself

I've had more problems with amazon orders, than every other supplier I've used on line, combined, over the past 8 years.

mainly due to courier issues

[anastasia]

I've only had a few problems (more with the US site than the UK one I think). I think it was the 5 orders at the beginning of the year that hadn't turned up. I wouldn't have minded, but I was happy to send them back (I've got no use for them, and I didn't want to sell them as it wouldn't feel right!)

I'm wondering if it's partly because I've had a lot of refunds recently, as part of their 30 day price promise. I don't see why that should go against me though - it's their ******* policy to do that!

[driver8]

what a bummer, anastasia, and yes - it is quite a harsh email, pretty much accusing you of fraud.

seems weird too that they would lock you after an incident way back in Jan. I wonder if they are implementing a new policy, and reviewing all accounts ?

I had my first ever problem with them (or rather : lost in post) earlier this year - got the same "we've sent another ... if the original arrives, give it to charity" email, but then 2 weeks later got a mail saying they'd got my returned item ... which I never rcvd or sent back !! (So maybe "returned to sender" by PO ?)

(Oh, and iirc, I only set up a .co.uk account, my .com was (surprisingly, to me) set up automatically - the 2 are linked somehow - might explain why you've lost both).

[evilsly]

most amazon accounts are linked (all except .jp I think)

I have ordered from .com, .co.uk, .de and .fr all using the same details

[blazeuk]

I've had about a similar number of problems with Amazon - probably a few more (mainly the US store - either with loose discs which have been scratched or not arriving at all), the US store the times i've emailed them have always said don't bother sending anything back as the cost isn't worth it.

I'd be pretty annoyed with an email like that too, especially when it's their decision not to ask for them back!

So far though, i've had nothing but good experiences with Amazon CC (the best online i'd say), it'd be a shame if they started taking the route of accusing people of fraud after a couple of problems out of hundreds of orders. As others have said, it does seem harsh.

[anastasia]

I got up this morning to find a spam e-mail from Amazon UK, and then later got one from Amazon US! This was the icing on the cake I think.

I am still really ****** off with them, so I've fired off an e-mail to the managing director of Amazon UK (hopefully I've got the address right). If nothing else I'd like them to think about changing their current process for dealing with things like this - clearly they didn't bother to read all the correspondence I had with customer services, and just deleted it without at least giving me the courtesy of contacting me to discuss it. I think that's really poor customer service and isn't very helpful at all.

Even if my account is reinstated I won't be using Amazon again. There are plenty of other decent online stores to use. In some cases I chose to use Amazon US over other American sites, even when it cost a little more to do so, as I've always found their customer service to be great.

Their loss.

[beeleebme]

It's annoying and I see your point completely but I guess they flag all accounts and where they are losing money on an account to the issues you raised they simply close it. Just business economics and I guess for every one that's a little more genuine like yours there is probably several there glad to see the back of. No doubt you fell into the criteria they have to close the account and as a large online business it's easier to have a blanket policy in this regard than to evaluate every single one independantly.

[mamboboy]

A guy on another forum had the same email. Are you sure that's the only things you've returned? He admitted to abusing the service a little. Basically returned product after product and Amazon just kept sending him replacements until he was finally pleased (5-6 replacements)
You'll be surprised about the amount of people that would buy a huge 50" plasma TV for some sporting event. Use it once, and then return it. This obviously screws Amazon big time because (AFIAK) they don't sell b-grade or returned things on their site...

I've personally never returned anything (hardware related anyways) that i've bought online, well, apart from an LCD monitor from big pockets, but it was severely damaged on arrival. I always read a ton of reviews before I purchase so i'm 100% sure it's the correct purchase.

[rbullivant]

Were any of the items missing of a high value?

[neverland]

Well the 5 orders that went missing were all worth under £18 for obvious reasons. Any other stuff needing replacement were also sub-customs level DVDs. It's not like we bought a PS3 and sent it back when we decided real time weapon switching was over-rated.

I would also say that the number of rattlers needing replacement weren't especially significant in relation to the number of DVDs we've been buying.

I'm pretty sure it's the 5 heavily delayed orders that we thought had gone missing that have caused the problem.

[driver8]

any (non-spam) replies to your emails yet ?

[anastasia]

No replies to any of the e-mails yet. I've not had a read-receipt for them yet. Not really that surprising I suppose, given it's the weekend.

As hubby said, each of the 5 orders was under £18, and contained 2 DVDs (I think it was some of the orders I placed in last years Black Friday sale, or whatever it was called.)

I've gone back through all my US e-mails and checked, and those 5 orders and the 3 faulty DVDs already mentioned were the only 'incidents' on the US account, unless they class refunds from their 30 day price promise as an incident.

I haven't gone back through all of my UK e-mails, but I don't recall having to send anything back to Amazon UK, or having any missing packages. I'm sure there will have been something over the last 6 years, but i can't remember at the moment (and I don't have time to go through all of those e-mails.)

If I'd been taking the **** I'd have held my hands up and said fair enough. I haven't.

[anastasia]

Originally Posted by mamboboy

A guy on another forum had the same email. Are you sure that's the only things you've returned? He admitted to abusing the service a little. Basically returned product after product and Amazon just kept sending him replacements until he was finally pleased (5-6 replacements)
You'll be surprised about the amount of people that would buy a huge 50" plasma TV for some sporting event. Use it once, and then return it. This obviously screws Amazon big time because (AFIAK) they don't sell b-grade or returned things on their site...

I've personally never returned anything (hardware related anyways) that i've bought online, well, apart from an LCD monitor from big pockets, but it was severely damaged on arrival. I always read a ton of reviews before I purchase so i'm 100% sure it's the correct purchase.

The only things we've had issues with were 5 orders that we thought were missing and 3 faulty DVDs. I've never bought anything and then changed my mind about it. This is Amazon US that we've had the problems with. I wouldn't have been buying something like a 50" plasma from them, would I? And if I had I wouldn't have returned it unless faulty.

I'm sorry, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the items you buy to actually (a) turn up and (b) work.

[AndyWilson]

Athough you consider the 5 "missing" orders as one incident - it seems that Amazon are viewing it as 5 incidents - which in less than a year is indeed an "extraordinary number of problems"

Even if it isn't your fault, if you live somewhere where amazon perceive the postal service to be unreliable it's probably in their interest to refuse to supply you.

Saying that, at least they do provide a means of appeal and I wish you luck. The most important thing is probably to emphasise that the 5 orders at the beginning of the year were actually due to a single delay.

[SIMON ADEBISI]

Ive used Amazon 3 times in my life and twice had problems. I just assumed they were useless *****.