Amazon Customers Vent Online over Account Closures

by: angryllama

Any additional info on whether ANY or MANY of these Canceled accounts were also PRIME members?  NOT defending Amazon, but what if the REASON for cancelation were for the customer's PRIME discount and/or ACCESS CODE to PRIME Video were being used by entirely TOO MANY access points?  I rarely BUY from Amazon, but the PRIME Video access is pretty much WORTH the yearly PRIME yearly fee ALL BY ITSELF.

by: RKTOYS

Amazon seller forums are a poor place to look for evidence of Amazon's wrongdoing.  They're as quick to censor inconvenient truth as the clowns at Lithium/eBay.

by: funkygrrl

Amazon confirmed this problem
But I can't paste the link.  

by: frustrated

Letter posted to slick deals forum:


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
http://www.amazon.com

I would like to say IT'S ABOUT TIME.

by: frustrated

Despite the post above that I made. There is one thing they're doing that I don't think they can legally do.  They are refusing to refund remaining balances on gift cards, and unused Prime fees.

Not sure that is legal.

by: Barbbie

So I hear, Amazon will close a bad buyers account, especially if it is Amazon they are taking advantage of.
Maybe some of these people just had the time to log on yesterday and just discovered that they are now banned.
I don't think that just because people joined a group that it means they were all banned at the same time.
Good for Amazon.

by: Barbbie

@frustrated
Thanks for posting that, it is nice to see it in writing!

Prime fees, I think the standpoint there will probably be that it is used once and therefore no refund warranted. I am sure they put a no refund on that in their TOS for it.

The gift card balance, I think would need to be returned, however, if they were to transfer the balance, that buyer would also lose their account as being related.  But they may just be holding it for a time until they refund it or maybe the person has to contact account appeals to request the money.  The letter doesn't say anything about no refunds on that, just no refunds on orders still outstanding.

Also, some of the "gift cards" you have heard about could be from amazon customer service, last Christmas they gave me a 10.00 credit for use only on amazon purchase not any 3P seller item due to an amazon purchase that was received 3 weeks late. If someone is just calling racking up these credits from amazon, I can see how amazon would not want to allow them to use them nor refund them but the buyer may see it is a gift card.  

by: thehosst

I'm always shocked to see how many ignorant sellers exist. They pay attention to nothing other than their few sales, and they happy with that. Both Amazon and eBay are under attack by the same people for months now. They are the ones who decide who sells and who is suspended, what listings show and what does not. And if you still don't have a clue, just do multiple random searches and for once in your life, check where the listings are shipped from and where is the seller from. Same people issuing the suspensions and listing warnings are the very same who decide. The very same who answer the emails, the very same who answer the phones just to put you on hold ten times, ask you to spell your name over and over, just to put you on hold and transfer you again. I have seen so many items banned and delisted, but for some reason, there is never a problem if they come from certain sellers and countries. Yea angryllama, keep praising Amazon Prime, lets see how you are going to pay for it.  

by: epuise

I expect eBay will follow this model when 'Free Returns' are abused on its site, as well.

by: thehosst

Ina, by the way, you know the new Trick to shut down sellers? They order cheap stuff, ship it to some people who never order it, and as verified "buyer" they are able to leave negative feedback. They do this to account with few feedbacks so that ONE single negative feedback affects the accounts. Then their cousins, who are the ones who decide about account warnings and closures, take care of those accounts. If you are still wondering who places those fake $3 and $5 "purchases" just search online and you can always find a starving bottom-feeder who will sell their services for a dollar to affect so many American and European sellers.  

by: mcposty

Hopefully amazon goes bankrupt

by: Miller76

"Indications are that Amazon believes bad actors may be behind the social media campaign and its systems are secure."

Where did this indication come from? No source cited and indications from Amazon through the multiple screenshots posted is Amazon is pulling excuses out of a hat and telling people whatever..  

by: Golddustwoman

Hmm, it would be interesting to know if any of these closed accounts belonged to sellers from China. I think not.

by: Frank F

SO, it would be nice if Amazon went after all the trademark infringing Chinese sellers too!  Trump needs to put that on stage too as ebay and Amazon are supporting this anti-American activity and protecting the Chinese criminals. Its ridiculous when they are stealing from American companies, pay no federal taxes, etc.  Its just a big sucking noise as American prosperity and wealth is sucked out of our country... This is why American small businesses, jobs, retail stores and malls are being destroyed in our country as these Chinese are direct retailing to America now and Amazon and Ebay are business partners in the destruction.....

by: Ming the Merciless

Let's hope ebafia apes Amazon on this one. In addition to the scum buyers ebafia already attracts, it's no mystery where the Amazon rejects will start shopping.

by: comments

This is VERY scary! I wonder if the buyers who faced account closures were linked to suspended accounts from items purchased 3rd party marketplace middleman dropship resellers?

This is something that always scared me. If a buyer buys an item from a seller and seller in turn buys it off amazon in the buyers name with a stolen creditcard/return abuse account/rule violator account the unsuspecting buyer can look like they were the rule breaker or criminal. This is why marketplaces MUST stop amazon/walmart/samclub dropshippers immediately!

by: donald

@ Ming   LOL

@ Frank  I agree with you 100%

by: userfish

They close my account as well with no real reason.
I used to think ebay has bad CS. Amazon sucks.

Just finished my hour long survey about eBays new fulfillment centers they am sure will open soon.

I gave the gloomiest scenario of what that would do to them only because the blatantly admit is the second paragraph that joining would boost visibility to users. Dont have to be Sherlock to deduce where not users items will show, if they show at all.
After my son cursed under his breath last month after getting beat on to buyer returns, many oif his items were not showing up at all including one that was rated second most bought of its kind. A cheap FB ad directing to that item got more sales than ever!

by: eXtinctBay

@epuise

''....I expect eBay will follow this model when 'Free Returns' are abused on its site, as well.....''

NOT A CHANCE. There are three differences here:

(1) Amazon owns most of their merchandise, so if they are scammed, the profits come out of THEIR POCKET. So they can and do take action against less-than-honest buyers.

(2) Since eBay is desperate for buyers, they will continue to throw their sellers under the bus. And the only option is to simply STOP SELLING on eBay if you don't like it.

(3) When an Amazon customer is NARU'd, they block their IP address, so, in most cases, that user has to either spoof another IP, or assume an entire new internet identity to open another account. On eBay, it is very simple to just start over with a new User ID (or IDs), or just shop as a ''Guest''.

Again, since eBay does not have any investment in the merchandise offered on the site, they do not lose money on returns. In fact, they count the transaction as a sale regardless to add to their bottom line.

by: Mothergoose

I have been a customer of Amazon from the very start and bought a lot of stuff over the years, but I was really shocked recently when I went to log into my account and it displayed "No Such Account".  What???  I tried over and over, thinking I had cap locks on or something, but nothing, so I called customer support and they couldn't find my account either.  They immediately transferred me to the fraud department which was more than helpful.  They asked if I had ever bought anything from the site?  I told them "in fact, I bought something a week ago".  They asked if I still had the box with the label?  I said sure, tomorrow was trash day so it was still around.

She asked me to retrieve the box and label and tell her the tracking number.  When I did, she said she was able to back track and find my account.  Someone had breached my account and DELETED everything:  name, address, phone number, email address, etc. so they didn't know where to look to find my account info.

I was shocked!  She assured me that the credit card division was in a totally different place (on purpose) and that division had not been breached.  She returned my account with all it's history and suggested I change the password and keep doing it often and to NOT remember it on my computer.  Alarm bells went off when I read above the statement to NOT contact Amazon.  Make sure it truly is from Amazon.