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Originally Posted by confoosious What if you harass a rep? And their supervisor? Or call 20 times to get $15 taken off of Madden? Aren't you wasting their time? Are they "allowing" you to waste their time so it's not their fault? No. Bad customers are bad customers. I doubt any local news outlet would give a shit about you being a bad customer.

Now, now. If they pick up on Xbox banning an autistic kid for "being too good at Games" they would run with this.

Now that was later proven that he got the recon armor from someone who hacked it for him, etc. but it did get some press.

I'm sure you're just joking but there's a human interest aspect to the video game kid. Being a pain in the ass is not a human interest story.

btw, wasn't it ultimately resolved that kid actually did cheat? Or at least someone used his account to cheat.

Folks shouldn't be surprised about any of this. It's a call center, and you're a customer. Everything is reviewed (your accounts, your calls). They have folks whose entire day revolves around listening to customer calls, and reviewing accounts.

So, if you abuse the system, whether you're legitimately complaining about an item or simply milking it, they will notice. I'm also certain that some of it is automated in some manner. Meaning, that if customer z made 5 calls into customer service within an x amount of time, he/she will automatically go into bucket 'y'. Where bucket 'y' automatically gets all of your calls, and purchases reviewed.

Originally Posted by jer7583 this is crazy talk. the customer should come first.This kind of attitude is crazy where they are nice and bend over backwards for you on complaints, until that final straw breaks their limits and they treat you like a criminal?

Amazon already bent over backwards for the OP, I preorder plenty of stuff and their policy has always been that the order is final once its reaches the "shipping soon" phase, meaning that you can't cancel and no more lower price adjustments, maybe the OP didn't know that or maybe he did, but the fact is he badgered Amazon into breaking their policy to satisfy him on his 2nd complaint and then he just kept coming back for more

Originally Posted by confoosious I'm sure you're just joking but there's a human interest aspect to the video game kid. Being a pain in the ass is not a human interest story. btw, wasn't it ultimately resolved that kid actually did cheat? Or at least someone used his account to cheat.

Yes it was (somehow that wasn't in the orginal post but added in there now).

My point is wait until they have ban a family account that has a multiple family member and one of them being disabled in some way. That person would access the account and find that they cant because they have been perma-banned, and they will report it. Just like the lady in the story didn't have the full story (or give the full story) neither will that person and the news will run it

Those of you who think businesses will only treat abusers this way may be right... for now. But look at the bigger picture of consumer spending. Already, the richest 10% account for 50% of all consumer spending (http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2009/...r_50_of_c.html). That is only going to increase if the trajectory of growing wealth disparity continues. That means that it is not at all unlikely that businesses will begin (and some already do) to make the "rational" decision that it doesn't make economic sense to deal with non-affluent customers at all. It is not a stretch to think that in their minds middle-class consumers will become "devil" customers automatically, in light of the fact that they are more price-sensitive. This is already happening in major cities (e.g., NYC).

That's quite a leap. Businesses don't care where the money comes from as long as they make a profit.

If 90% of people who buy video games were below the poverty line, they'd cater to people below the poverty line. And if 99% of those 90% made them money, they'd still try to kick out the 1% that were abusers.

Businesses catering to affluent customers who are less price senstive? That's been a strategy since the dawn of business.

I'm not sure why you're turning this into a class issue. Businesses are very easy to figure out. Other than a few whose stated goal wasn't profit maximization and increasing shareholder value, they are out to make money. Money is money. The poor people are the ones who buy your products? Target the poor people. The middle class has your money, target them. The affluent have your money, target them.

There is always someone willing to meet a market demand. There is no class issue.

Originally Posted by io . In any case, I want to thank the OP for telling his tale in such detail despite the jackass responses he's gotten from a few CAGs. I don't see him getting anything out of posting his story here except providing a warning to others. If it causes people to cut down on Amazon CS abuse or at least be aware of the potential for such a banning, then it is worthwhile no matter how you feel about his particular "transgressions". I don't want other people who have had similar issues scared off from posting because they are afraid of being attacked by other CAGs.

I agree. I give the OP credit for having the balls to at least share knowing he was going to get flamed a bit while basically giving everybody a heads up to just be careful. It's easy to pile on the guy when he's down but I highly doubt the same critics would ball up to post up a similar experience if they had gone through one. Him posting on here is obviously not going to do anything for his appeals.

The OP's message to all the AMZ abusers out there is that to all the folks contactings CS to PM a deal they saw elsewhere 10x over to quit being a PITA or risk getting banned and just use the "report a lower price" link instead.

Originally Posted by ShockandAww I'll try and remember a bunch of shit I almost got my account closed for last year.

Almost got your account closed? Holy shit I'm shocked you weren't banned.

I will say that if you only want to do business with the people in the world who are nice and civil you're missing out on a pretty huge percentage of rude people who have money.

I don't understand how these policies are defensible at all.
Offer customers special adjustments and changes to policy-
then ban those customers without warning or reason.

I sell regularly on ebay and I rather not have a sale than to deal with PITAs because you usually end up losing money on them

Originally Posted by Ratchet & CAG I came across others who got their Amazon accounts closed too from varying reasons that included getting too many discounts, returns, shipping too many items as gifts, and even not buying from them for long periods of time, etc.

Why would they ban someone for buying gifts? Anyone has any insight on this?

I ask because during the holiday season I buy TONS of items as gifts. And when I say tons I mean TONS. Last year I think I probably shipped closed to 50 gifts during the holiday season for friends and family. Is that grounds for banning? I also ship birthday gifts for family members all years long, (And my family is HUGE), and I routinely buy clothes, shoes and videogames and ship them to my wife's office as gifts to surprise her (You have to try being married to a gamer girl. Best thing since sliced bread. But I digress) . I probably do this once a week! Am I in danger of getting banned because of this? What gives? Who am I hurting? Anyone has any idea where this nonsense comes from?

Originally Posted by TheBigmac Anyone has any idea where this nonsense comes from?

The Internet.

Originally Posted by TheBigmac Why would they ban someone for buying gifts? Anyone has any insight on this? I ask because during the holiday season I buy TONS of items as gifts. And when I say tons I mean TONS. Last year I think I probably shipped closed to 50 gifts during the holiday season for friends and family. Is that grounds for banning? I also ship birthday gifts for family members all years long, (And my family is HUGE), and I routinely buy clothes, shoes and videogames and ship them to my wife's office as gifts to surprise her (You have to try being married to a gamer girl. Best thing since sliced bread. But I digress) . I probably do this once a week! Am I in danger of getting banned because of this? What gives? Who am I hurting? Anyone has any idea where this nonsense comes from?

Because they aren't really gifts. There's more to the story than whoever posted on slickdeals or the internet would have you believe. People sell stuff on ebay, then buy it from amazon, and then "gift" it to the ebay buyer using amazon's prime service. Get it?

I send gifts all the time. But there's a difference between 10 or even 50 gifts around the holidays to a handful of addresses and 500 gifts all year round all to diffferent addresses.

Sucks for the OP if he's telling the truth and listed all of the incidents. My friend got Banned from Amazon for abusing the free prime trials.

Originally Posted by confoosious Because they aren't really gifts. There's more to the story than whoever posted on slickdeals or the internet would have you believe. People sell stuff on ebay, then buy it from amazon, and then "gift" it to the ebay buyer using amazon's prime service. Get it? I send gifts all the time. But there's a difference between 10 or even 50 gifts around the holidays to a handful of addresses and 500 gifts all year round all to diffferent addresses.

Ok, that's makes more sense. I don't ship 500 gifts a year but If I had to guess I'd say maybe I ship a hundred? As for amazon prime, even thou I am a prime member, I rarely ship my gifts via prime since I had and incident once of a gifts being left in a doorstep and getting lost, so since then I ship all my gifts via standard shipping which is handled by USPS and ends up locked up in someone's mailbox. I tend to reserve the free two day UPS shipping for the things I buy for myself. Maybe that doesn't make it that bad? Still I'm curious to know where is the threshold where gift shipping can get you in hot water with amazon 100? 200? 300 gifts a year? What If I already crossed the threshold? This thing is scary. Amazon even ships the cereal for my breakfast to my doorstep. A banhammer would be a major pain for me. Maybe I'll start top reconsider shipping those Nintendo 3ds games for my nice and nephew so often. Maybe I'm spoiling them. Yes, yes, I might be spoiling them (Who am I kidding, I'm freaked out by big brother and I need my cereal!)

Originally Posted by TheBigmac Ok, that's makes more sense. I don't ship 500 gifts a year but If I had to guess I'd say I may ship 100? As for amazon prime, even thou I am a prime member, I rarely ship my gifts via prime since I had and incident once of a gifts being left in a doorstep and getting lost, so since then I ship all my gifts via standard shipping which is handled by USPS and ends up locked up in someone's mailbox. I tend to reserve the free two day UPS shipping for the things I buy for myself. Maybe that doesn't make it that bad? Still I'm curious to know where is the threshold where gift shipping can get you in hot water with amazon 100 ? 200? 300 gifts? a year? What If I already croosed it? This thing is scary. Amazon even ships the cereal for my breakfast to my doorstep. A banhammer would be a major pain for me. Maybe I'll start top reconsider shipping those Nintendo 3ds games for my nice and nephew so often. Maybe I'm spoiling them. Yes, yes, I might be spoiling them (Who am I kidding, I'm freaked out by big brother and I need my cereal!)

How many of your 100 gifts are to different addresses?

If you send 100000 gifts to one or 2 or even 5 addresses, I don't amazon would mind.

When you read about bannings on the internet, everyone spins the story like it was all very arbitrary and they did nothing wrong. I doubt amazon just bans people who do nothing wrong. The people who got banned for gift giving are the ones who really are ebay resellers.

If you're giving gifts in the normal course of being a person, you will be fine.

Originally Posted by kodave Almost got your account closed? Holy shit I'm shocked you weren't banned.

Yeah like I said it was basically a warning email. Looking back I'm surprised too. I learned my lesson. I think I've contacted them twice since the email...and only with legit questions.

It just makes me question the amount of "persistence" the OP used and if there was anything else he wasn't telling. Maybe it helped slightly that I was a Prime member? I wouldn't really think so but maybe just enough to keep them from banning me.

Originally Posted by ShockandAww Yeah like I said it was basically a warning email. Looking back I'm surprised too. I learned my lesson. I think I've contacted them twice since the email...and only with legit questions. It just makes me question the amount of "persistence" the OP used and if there was anything else he wasn't telling. Maybe it helped slightly that I was a Prime member? I wouldn't really think so but maybe just enough to keep them from banning me.

One thing that is kind of telling is that several people have asked the OP if he had Prime and he hasn't responded. Makes me wonder if he can't answer a simple question like that.

There's just no logic in the banning thing.

Ban someone, they're never able to buy from you.
Tell someone no 10, 100, 1000 times to various insane or extreme requests regarding price matches and discounts, etc, maybe you'll piss them off, but there's still a chance they'll buy from you.