Beware: Amazon.com account closed due to exceeding purchase limits

Interesting read.

I just dealt with a scammer buyer who demanded a full refund because he said the CD he ordered arrived too scratched to play. CDs do get damaged in transit and I abide by Amazon's return requirements so I very nicely apologize and offer him a prepaid shipping label for return of the CD and a full refund (shipping included) once I receive it.

He then claims it's a waste of time and too much trouble and he already ordered the CD somewhere else and he just wants a refund or store credit. Explain the above to him again and he files an A-Z claim.

In his A-Z claim he makes up some lie about how he already "donated" the CD to a music store for it to be refurbished and how ridiculous it is that he has to return an item and how he's had to file 12 A-Z Claims since December. 12!

Usually, I just refund, but this was a particularly pricey CD and this guy had scammer written all over so I responded to Amazon, they found no fault for me and didn't force me to refund, but they still refunded that guy out of their own pocket.

Pretty ridiculous IMO and I asked them to look into that guys account because it sounds like he is abusing the system for free stuff.

/Rant

For GBA, it sucks, but you were violating the TOS and you knew it. It doesn't matter how much money you were spending, I think any buyer on Amazon is expendable. When you talked to CS about ordering the same thing on multiple accounts did you clearly state you wanted to purchase multiple copies of the same item on different accounts for YOU? Or did you just BS around it with the implication of "what if my bro wants to buy it too?" Because those are two very different questions and either way I would never trust a CSR, they don't have the power to grant exceptions to the TOS.

I'm pretty careful on Amazon as a seller because they are pretty hardcore about everything. If you make two seller accounts or they think you did then it's insta ban so you have to be careful about things like your address or phone number. Say another seller used to use the same PO Box? It might be flagged in their system when you try to use the same PO Box and they will think "Person trying to open to seller accounts, insta ban."

I'm less paranoid about buying just because they are pretty CS oriented and I don't do anything to abuse or get around their TOS. I've opened up a few A-Z claims over the years, but probably average 1-2 a year at most when I used to order tons of CDs. I've done a few returns over the years, but I'm not particular about dented boxes or things like that. I do think some of the returns "collectors" do can be a bit much so it doesn't surprise me they might be cracking down on too many nit picky returns.
 
[quote name='Finger_Shocker']LOL.....LOSEEEEEEEERS!.... if thats all you got to bitch about...[/QUOTE]


How old are you? You carry on like a high-schooler.
 
For the sake of the argument let's say that yes I did know I was violating Amazon's TOS.

Did I ever once think that I would have each and every account closed? No.

Do you know what happens if you buy more then the quantity limit on Newegg? They cancel the orders---even if you try to do so on multiple accounts. They then send you an e-mail about having to wait the 48 hour "cool down period" for that particular item. It might sound odd but some businesses... want business.


With the amount of garbage deals that get posted on CAG---like the recent "PM Best Buy President's Day sale prices at Target and still get the $10 GC" or the "PM $9.98 clearance games (Skyrim, MW3, BF3) from TRU at Best Buy" which are all in direct violation of those specific retailers price match policy---yet many CAGs do it anyways do you think they'd be surprised if they were banned from those specific B&M stores after trying to get the PM?

And for those like wiggy that have their heads in the sand and don't think the majority of CAG have multiple amazon accounts how do you think all those AC Liberation Vita bundles popped up for sale/trade? The ZE: VLR watches?
 
[quote name='GBAstar']For the sake of the argument let's say that yes I did know I was violating Amazon's TOS.

Did I ever once think that I would have each and every account closed? No.
[/QUOTE]
If you've heard about stories of other people getting banned too that detail is usually attached to it as well, so I'm surprised you didn't.

Do you know what happens if you buy more then the quantity limit on Newegg? They cancel the orders---even if you try to do so on multiple accounts. They then send you an e-mail about having to wait the 48 hour "cool down period" for that particular item. It might sound odd but some businesses... want business.
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So that means you do multiple accounts on Newegg too all the time, and you knowingly abuse systems from all retailers since you seem to have a pretty good grasp of what happens when you get caught by them. I'm not really sure you're making much of a case for yourself as being in the right about Amazon taking action against people like you.

With the amount of garbage deals that get posted on CAG---like the recent "PM Best Buy President's Day sale prices at Target and still get the $10 GC" or the "PM $9.98 clearance games (Skyrim, MW3, BF3) from TRU at Best Buy" which are all in direct violation of those specific retailers price match policy---yet many CAGs do it anyways do you think they'd be surprised if they were banned from those specific B&M stores after trying to get the PM?
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At B&M stores, the PM policies are at the discretion of each and individual store managers and employees on whether or not they want to do it for you. Yeah people take advantage of them, but PM policies on a B&M level can be overwritten dependent on the people who work there and whether or not they want to do it for them.

Violating those policies are up to the employees to do so in the end, and if they end up doing it, it is really their discretion as I've already mentioned. Obviously I'm not condoning whether or not it is the buyer is in the right, but at the end of the day at a B&M level they can still refuse to service that customer if they don't feel like it, but in most cases to hit numbers for the day, get product out the door, or to please the customer they will do what is necessary.

And if the store does have a problems with a customer they are indeed allowed to ban customers from their store, and in some cases even have police escort them off their premises if they refuse to leave, which is pretty much worse than a ban.

And for those like wiggy that have their heads in the sand and don't think the majority of CAG have multiple amazon accounts how do you think all those AC Liberation Vita bundles popped up for sale/trade? The ZE: VLR watches?
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People don't have to have multiple accounts to sell something they only want to flip and don't intend to keep. Just because it's a good deal for somebody doesn't necessarily equate to them wanting to keep one and then selling another. Maybe they just bought it for the sole purposes of flipping. Why would you need multiple accounts if you're not planning to keep one for yourself? Some people don't even own the systems the deals are for, and it wouldn't be the first time somebody has picked it up in hopes of purchasing the system eventually, but then decides to part with it. And when there are deals such as that on Amazon people tend to buy first then decide later since they don't last long when they do go on sale. It's not right for you to assume that everybody is working around the system now just because you've started reading up on some articles of people getting around the system.

You messed up. That's all there really is to it. Amazon could have probably given a warning, but they didn't, and they didn't have to.

Just be more careful in the future with some of the other retailers too because you never really know if they will one day decide to change/enforce their policies, and when that happens you shouldn't be surprised then of the consequences if it happens.

With all that said you've been slammed pretty hard in this thread, so you're taking it pretty well so far, but I think the last few times you've started to get a bit more flustered with some of the responses.

Anyways, good luck with everything.
 
[quote name='GBAstar']For the sake of the argument let's say that yes I did know I was violating Amazon's TOS.

Did I ever once think that I would have each and every account closed? No.

Do you know what happens if you buy more then the quantity limit on Newegg? They cancel the orders---even if you try to do so on multiple accounts. They then send you an e-mail about having to wait the 48 hour "cool down period" for that particular item. It might sound odd but some businesses... want business.


With the amount of garbage deals that get posted on CAG---like the recent "PM Best Buy President's Day sale prices at Target and still get the $10 GC" or the "PM $9.98 clearance games (Skyrim, MW3, BF3) from TRU at Best Buy" which are all in direct violation of those specific retailers price match policy---yet many CAGs do it anyways do you think they'd be surprised if they were banned from those specific B&M stores after trying to get the PM?

And for those like wiggy that have their heads in the sand and don't think the majority of CAG have multiple amazon accounts how do you think all those AC Liberation Vita bundles popped up for sale/trade? The ZE: VLR watches?[/QUOTE]

There are over 400K registered CAGs and 50K active members... I doubt a majority of CAGs have multiple accounts or abuse the system. I'm sure there's a notable portion that are flippers but I can't imagine it being a significant amount. Otherwise, every time there was an exploit, you'd see thousands of copies pop up no eBay and whatnot.

Seeing as how you lost your Target RedCard and now Amazon account, I think it's safe to say that you probably exceed some tolerance level when it came to your transactions.

Newegg might not care because they're a private company but Amazon and Target likely do things differently because they're public companies (and are much larger).

Amazon's scourged earth policy is nothing new though. They close multiple related accounts (even if it's a tenant at your house) whenever one account is banned.
 
[quote name='Squarehard']If you've heard about stories of other people getting banned too that detail is usually attached to it as well, so I'm surprised you didn't.[/QUOTE]

Yes I've heard stories of sellers getting banned and I've heard stories of those who try to contact amazon for too many concessions or make too many returns get banned. I've also heard of them getting warned first.

So that means you do multiple accounts on Newegg too all the time, and you knowingly abuse systems from all retailers since you seem to have a pretty good grasp of what happens when you get caught by them. I'm not really sure you're making much of a case for yourself as being in the right about Amazon taking action against people like you.
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I don't have multiple accounts at Newegg. There is no reason to because their software isn't created by a 3rd grader. 1 account or 100 accounts it will be able to do what Amazon apparently can't and detect that the order was created by the same user by checking for a combination of billing/shipping info. The only online retailer I've run into that seems to want to limit purchase quantity on an extremely conservative level is Amazon. They are hesitant to price match a widely available B&M deal and then when they do they cap it at one and ban you if you purchase two.


At B&M stores, the PM policies are at the discretion of each and individual store managers and employees on whether or not they want to do it for you. Yeah people take advantage of them, but PM policies on a B&M level can be overwritten dependent on the people who work there and whether or not they want to do it for them.
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"but"... yeah let's justify the behavior. A policy is a policy. People who create these bogus deals that rely on stretching price match policies know what they're doing just like I allegedly knew what I was doing. Your POV comes more from people still getting aroused by amazon for some reason and conversely thinking that big box B&M retailers are evil because they can put faces to the corporation whereas Amazon is faceless. So "poor amazon..." right? And Target and Best Buy deserve the be taken advantage of because they are big evil corporations!


Violating those policies are up to the employees to do so in the end, and if they end up doing it, it is really their discretion as I've already mentioned. Obviously I'm not condoning whether or not it is the buyer is in the right, but at the end of the day at a B&M level they can still refuse to service that customer if they don't feel like it, but in most cases to hit numbers for the day, get product out the door, or to please the customer they will do what is necessary.
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You might not be condoning the behavior but you sure are doing a lot of justifying.

And if the store does have a problems with a customer they are indeed allowed to ban customers from their store, and in some cases even have police escort them off their premises if they refuse to leave, which is pretty much worse than a ban.
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Yes and I'm sure before that happens someone speaks with the customer. In those instances the customer is usually banned and escorted out because of unruly behavior. Amazon is just passive aggressive.


People don't have to have multiple accounts to sell something they only want to flip and don't intend to keep. Just because it's a good deal for somebody doesn't necessarily equate to them wanting to keep one and then selling another. Maybe they just bought it for the sole purposes of flipping. Why would you need multiple accounts if you're not planning to keep one for yourself? Some people don't even own the systems the deals are for, and it wouldn't be the first time somebody has picked it up in hopes of purchasing the system eventually, but then decides to part with it. And when there are deals such as that on Amazon people tend to buy first then decide later since they don't last long when they do go on sale. It's not right for you to assume that everybody is working around the system now just because you've started reading up on some articles of people getting around the system.
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Again you're being extremely naive. There are people who were selling multiple AC3 Vita systems and multiple copies of the DLC that AZ offered as an exclusive. How did they get those when they were capped at one per customer/household without having a second account? Open your eyes. If I was bored I could skim tradelists and point out multiple items that were purchased in violation of the quantity limit on Amazon.

You messed up. That's all there really is to it. Amazon could have probably given a warning, but they didn't, and they didn't have to.
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Yes I did. And no they didn't. I've mentiond many times that I'm bummed by the situation. Can you find one instance where I've demanded that they reinstate my account? If I appeal it is to get my brother/mother's accounts reinstated as they had credit attached to their account. I think my mom, who is a teacher, even had like $300 in reward points from her AZ Credit Card attached to her account. And as I only use my card to make purchases she should still be allowed to cash out those points.

Just be more careful in the future with some of the other retailers too because you never really know if they will one day decide to change their policies, and when that happens you shouldn't be surprised then of the consequences if it happens.
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Yep. I look forward to big business turning away business.

With all that said you've been slammed pretty hard in this thread, so you're taking it pretty well so far, but I think the last few times you've started to get a bit more flustered with some of the responses.

Anyways, good luck with everything.
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People talk like Amazon is the greatest thing ever.It is in essence a virtual Wal-mart but smaller in size because Walmart.com does more overall business.

Like Walmart they too put small businesses out of business and have made some shitty decisions in the past like ending all affiliate accounts in states that have proposed or enacted legislation to force Amazon to add sales tax for their residents.

And I'm not sure how long of a Amazon customer you've been but some of the return problems they have brought upon themselves when they ended the Post Purchase Price Protection or whatever they called that a few years ago. In fact once they ended that their CSR reps actually recommended that customers refuse or return packages and reorder at the lower price. What they aren't telling customs is that they track that information and will use it against the buyer to ban them from their site. How's that for fair?

Yes do it.. we want you to do it... we're banning you because of it..



Edit:

[quote name='Vinny']There are over 400K registered CAGs and 50K active members... I doubt a majority of CAGs have multiple accounts or abuse the system. I'm sure there's a notable portion that are flippers but I can't imagine it being a significant amount. Otherwise, every time there was an exploit, you'd see thousands of copies pop up no eBay and whatnot.
[/QUOTE]

I'm willing to bet that a large percentage of the CAG users with tradelist and those selling retailer specific DLC in multiple quantities have done or are currently doing what I was banned for.

Again as I've stated before I didn't create this thread to say "poor me". I created it to shed light on what the consequences are; if I thought everyone was aware of the consequences why would I have created the thread?

It's amazing how outspoken people become when they think someone is abusing Amazon in any aspect but the amount of abuse that gets promoted towards Big Box retailers is on an exponentially different level.

But I would assume the people that do such think they're hip because they support small eco friendly companies like Amazon, Starbucks and Apple.
 
You know guy, sooner or later you be uber rich, considering you will be banned from ever spending your money at any store left... I don't know if you should be angry or grateful...

You probably had more then 3 AMZ accounts and thats just being conservative estimate ( kinda like you in life/politics as well ). In fact you must have like over 5 AMZ accounts, doing whatever you were doing.

Im pretty sure having 2 accounts won't hurt, but I'm betting you have way more and you pissed the wrong company off.
 
[quote name='Finger_Shocker']You know guy, sooner or later you be uber rich, considering you will be banned from ever spending your money at any store left... I don't know if you should be angry or grateful...

You probably had more then 3 AMZ accounts and thats just being conservative estimate ( kinda like you in life/politics as well ). In fact you must have like over 5 AMZ accounts, doing whatever you were doing.

Im pretty sure having 2 accounts won't hurt, but I'm betting you have way more and you pissed the wrong company off.[/QUOTE]

As I said before I'm not embellishing anything in my favor. The number of accounts was correct. My account was the main Prime Holder account and I didn't even get the "banned" e-mail. It was sent to my brother's e-mail account.

I invited him and my mother onto my prime membership two or so years ago. That makes three. Recently my girlfriend joined the party but I've never purchased anything from her account.

I have no reason to lie or embellish like those who do the "I only traded one game in and Best Buy banned me".

I'm not helping anyone in this community if I lie.



I
 
Eh, what can you expect? This site has many members that think farting upwind of someone is illegal and seem to be under the impression that they are on the payroll of these giant companies that they so vehemently defend. The reaction to your situation has been mild compared to what it could be. You've made your point; I would just stop posting in this thread, if I were you.
 
[quote name='GBAstar']As I said before I'm not embellishing anything in my favor. The number of accounts was correct. My account was the main Prime Holder account and I didn't even get the "banned" e-mail. It was sent to my brother's e-mail account.

I invited him and my mother onto my prime membership two or so years ago. That makes three. Recently my girlfriend joined the party but I've never purchased anything from her account.

I have no reason to lie or embellish like those who do the "I only traded one game in and Best Buy banned me".

I'm not helping anyone in this community if I lie.



I[/QUOTE]

Seriously, adding 3 people to Prime....? Why didn't you just buy their stuff for them from your account..

Lesson: 1 Prime account = 1 Prime user... adding numerous people to your Prime account was probably your undoing. Amazon probably don't like freeloaders much.
 
[quote name='Finger_Shocker']Seriously, adding 3 people to Prime....? Why didn't you just buy their stuff for them from your account..

Lesson: 1 Prime account = 1 Prime user... adding numerous people to your Prime account was probably your undoing. Amazon probably don't like freeloaders much.[/QUOTE]

Amazon are extremely loose with who you can add to your prime account. A friend of mine and I shared one for a couple of years. He had his whole family on his (all their accounts) as well as mine. All of my orders went to a completely different address--in a different city even. There was never a problem. Amazon mom could also be easily abused--while it was still around--on as many accounts as one wanted regardless of the supposed limit. Hell, even the free trial of prime can be used over and over again, as long as you do it on different accounts.
 
[quote name='Squarehard']I'm curious to know as to what got you banned from Paypal.[/QUOTE]


To be honest I still don't totally know. I got an email telling me that they were suspending my account and that I would have to talk to someone from paypal to see if I can do anything about it. Called them that day, they put me on hold for a few minutes(supposedly looking at my account details) and then came back on the phone and said I am permanently banned from using their service. I asked why, and they said something in my info matched something of somone they banned before, so to be safe they are banning me as well. When I asked what that info was, they said they could not tell me over the phone, and I would have to subpeona them to get that info.

Now I've been selling on ebay since, man, I'm guessing early 2000's, and using paypal for years(mid 2000's I'm guessing), and have had maybe 1 or 2 refunds, and never any other problems, hell i still have a 100 percent rating on ebay. I tried other merchant accounts, but once you can't use paypal on ebay, your store is pretty much shut down. I've been considering selling on amazon recently, since I won't have that problem there.
 
[quote name='GBAstar']For the sake of the argument let's say that yes I did know I was violating Amazon's TOS.

Did I ever once think that I would have each and every account closed? No.

Do you know what happens if you buy more then the quantity limit on Newegg? They cancel the orders---even if you try to do so on multiple accounts. They then send you an e-mail about having to wait the 48 hour "cool down period" for that particular item. It might sound odd but some businesses... want business.


With the amount of garbage deals that get posted on CAG---like the recent "PM Best Buy President's Day sale prices at Target and still get the $10 GC" or the "PM $9.98 clearance games (Skyrim, MW3, BF3) from TRU at Best Buy" which are all in direct violation of those specific retailers price match policy---yet many CAGs do it anyways do you think they'd be surprised if they were banned from those specific B&M stores after trying to get the PM?

And for those like wiggy that have their heads in the sand and don't think the majority of CAG have multiple amazon accounts how do you think all those AC Liberation Vita bundles popped up for sale/trade? The ZE: VLR watches?[/QUOTE]

Evidently you have multiple accounts on multiple retailing sites. You violate terms on all of them. You have to say eventually one was going to ban you, it just happened to be amazon. Amazon don't aim to make money, they aim to break even and get loyalty from customers, so that they build up a base and then they will aim to profit. Right now profit isn't there main objective. Therefore somebody like you who possibly stops them gathering new loyal members as they miss out on deals and instead pay you for them somewhere else, is completely what they do not want, hence they had no issue banning you.

I suggest you explain that you made a mistake doing what you did, and you'll adhere to TOS in future, and try and see if they'll allow you back.
 
What does it matter if a million other CAGs are violating the policy too? They haven't been caught yet. You seem to think that's some sort of justification. You come off sounding like the speeder foaming at the mouth about the other cars that are also speeding, so what?

And B&M stores are much more different. It's easier to just do IP ban, account ban, address ban, etc. on an online system that try to physically ban someone from a store. What are you going to do? Give a security guard photos and have him check ever person who walks in? Ban your credit card info? Then you would just have a friend buy you gift cards and use that to pay. You try to play the victim by saying you were banned for spending too much, but that's obviously not the reason. I assume just as with Amazon, your red card was used to consistently buy out tons of copies of the same clearance item, sales item, etc. Now, do you or do you not resell items online or elsewhere or do you flip a lot? You never gave a straight answer to that question. I mean what other reason do you have for ordering multiple copies of the same thing?

At first you seemed to just be wanting to vent, whatever, we all want to vent sometimes. Now you are just coming off as the person who got caught so now you want to tattle on the world. Yes, a lot of threads here involving PMs and pricing glitches might have questionable morals for some. That's what the shopping morals/ethics thread is for. Some people don't do it. Some people do it at their own risk.

Over the years there's been numerous stories of people being banned from trading at GS or BB or being escorted or kicked out of stores by upset managers, etc.

Some people understandingly get upset at people like you and flippers because they feel every person like you buying up multiples of things and skirting around store policies deprives people who actually want to buy an item and forces them to then go to the secondary market and pay upcharges.

Also, for the VLR watches, I was able to order three from Amazon on my own account. No need to cheat the system.
 
[quote name='GBAstar']I'm willing to bet that a large percentage of the CAG users with tradelist and those selling retailer specific DLC in multiple quantities have done or are currently doing what I was banned for.

Again as I've stated before I didn't create this thread to say "poor me". I created it to shed light on what the consequences are; if I thought everyone was aware of the consequences why would I have created the thread?

It's amazing how outspoken people become when they think someone is abusing Amazon in any aspect but the amount of abuse that gets promoted towards Big Box retailers is on an exponentially different level.

But I would assume the people that do such think they're hip because they support small eco friendly companies like Amazon, Starbucks and Apple.[/QUOTE]

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't saying that most people don't flip (hell, even I do) or trying to berate you for doing so. I'm just saying that you did something that went beyond Amazon and Target's normal thresholds... I just wish we knew what it was.

We've seen plenty of people get banned from GS and Amazon over the years so a lot of us older users are already pretty familiar with the such bannings.
 
Three people on Prime, 4 accounts total, high volume of purchases, of course you were bound to get your number called before others. That is enough of a significant deviation from whatever formula they use to take a closer look at your account. Would it have been nice if they warned you? Sure, on your end of course it would be.

If your intent was to give people a "warning" of what could happen, that has been accomplished, and thank you for the consideration. A lot of us have seen it multiple times, but a refresher is always good for those who may have missed it. Maybe your situation will be helpful to others. Maybe we should leave it that, instead of people trying to play detective.
 
the prime thing has nothing to do with it. Back in the day there was prime sharing section here on CAG. Literally hundreds of groups of 5 were set up thru CAG and I never once heard of a single ban.
Unless youre using Amazon to ship things out for you, or frequently making single item purchases of items under $10, I dont think youre risking anything as far "flagging"
 
[quote name='CheapLikeAFox']Also, for the VLR watches, I was able to order three from Amazon on my own account. No need to cheat the system.[/QUOTE]

I got multiples on one account too. Just saying.

For the record, I don't have a second account at any retailer. Don't lump me into your imaginary majority.
 
[quote name='GBAstar']

If I complained every time an item was late or arrived damage I would have had my account closed a long time ago.
[/QUOTE]

Heh, Amazon just lost a sale tonight when I had game of thrones season 2 in my cart and was ready to click the "order" button and then remembered how 90% of the stuff that comes from amazon looks like a pro wrestler sat on it and decided that PM'ing and paying tax at BB was better than getting a smashed up copy of the show. Amazon shipping is horrible.
 
[quote name='DerClaw']Heh, Amazon just lost a sale tonight when I had game of thrones season 2 in my cart and was ready to click the "order" button and then remembered how 90% of the stuff that comes from amazon looks like a pro wrestler sat on it and decided that PM'ing and paying tax at BB was better than getting a smashed up copy of the show. Amazon shipping is horrible.[/QUOTE]

I wrote a letter to the appeals department asking if they would reinstate the accounts or at the very least reinstate the secondary accounts (brother, mother, girlfriend) on the condition that they change their passwords so that I no longer have access.

I got this in response [yes, "cancellation" was misspelled in the letter]:

Hello,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts regarding the cancelation of your Amazon.com customer account.

We understand your viewpoint, and we're sorry that you're so disappointed by our decision.

We respect your opinions and value your feedback. Thanks for your understanding.

Best regards,

Account Specialist
Amazon.com


^ which basically tells me that no one reads any of the appeals as that makes very little to no sense when you factor in what my original inquiry was about.


Then this morning, about 72 hours after my account was closed I got two charges from Amazon in the amount of $51.99 and shipping notifications for two vanilla copies of MGR Revengeance that I preordered back in 2011 when the game was $56.99 (you saved an additional $5 when you purchased MGS HD Collection AND preordered MGR Revengeance).

Anyways a little frustrated that they didn't cancel all my pending orders because I have no way to track what is shipping and what was cancelled and they made it clear I can't return anything.
 
[quote name='starmask2k3']They don't have the right to closed a account go to The BBB you will get your account back up with a 50$ Gift card for your troubles[/QUOTE]

You have no idea what the Better Business Bureau actually is, do you?
 
[quote name='GBAstar']I wrote a letter to the appeals department asking if they would reinstate the accounts or at the very least reinstate the secondary accounts (brother, mother, girlfriend) on the condition that they change their passwords so that I no longer have access.

I got this in response [yes, "cancellation" was misspelled in the letter]:

Hello,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts regarding the cancelation of your Amazon.com customer account.

We understand your viewpoint, and we're sorry that you're so disappointed by our decision.

We respect your opinions and value your feedback. Thanks for your understanding.

Best regards,

Account Specialist
Amazon.com


^ which basically tells me that no one reads any of the appeals as that makes very little to no sense when you factor in what my original inquiry was about.


[/QUOTE]

Wow...I would email them back just to call them out even though nothing would come from it :/
 
[quote name='highoffcoffee496']Wow...I would email them back just to call them out even though nothing would come from it :/[/QUOTE]

Probably not. If they go to the extreme of cancelling an account it's probably for good reasons so I'd imagine they don't really want to waste any time debating back and forth with someone who has had their account cancelled.

Besides, even if his family changes their passwords that means nothing. They could easily share with him.


I do think that Amazon shouldn't have shipped out his games though after the account was cancelled. That's kind of messed up since a cancelled account give the impression that preorders would also be cancelled.


P.S. Cancellation can be spelled with one or two l's.
 
I see that you said that it might happened due to cancelling a pre-order a week or so before the release and I'm just wondering if I should worry. I have done it once but I think I have to do it again for Tomb Raider as I don't think I'll have the funds with it and also it's my 4th account I made so I can use the free month of prime. But when I do make a new account it's just for one item or 1-3 games that come out within that month.

It's a shame you got banned though hopefully you get it back and you did give me them a lot of business don't see why the can't give out alerts of somekind.
 
Even with my bank of knowledge on the subject, I can't say that it has anything to do with it. You really don't need to worry about it.
 
[quote name='diazt350']I see that you said that it might happened due to cancelling a pre-order a week or so before the release and I'm just wondering if I should worry. I have done it once but I think I have to do it again for Tomb Raider as I don't think I'll have the funds with it and also it's my 4th account I made so I can use the free month of prime. But when I do make a new account it's just for one item or 1-3 games that come out within that month.

It's a shame you got banned though hopefully you get it back and you did give me them a lot of business don't see why the can't give out alerts of somekind.[/QUOTE]

No I would say that cancelling an order on occasion would rank near the bottom of things they will ban accounts for.

I got into the habit of preordering CE's (Guides, Games, etc.) as soon as they were announced for presale on Amazon. When it came closer to release (1-3 weeks) and it was pretty obvious they weren't going to be in high demand [Aliens: Colonial Marines, MGR: Revengeance, etc.] I would cancel the preorders.
 
[quote name='DerClaw']Heh, Amazon just lost a sale tonight when I had game of thrones season 2 in my cart and was ready to click the "order" button and then remembered how 90% of the stuff that comes from amazon looks like a pro wrestler sat on it and decided that PM'ing and paying tax at BB was better than getting a smashed up copy of the show. Amazon shipping is horrible.[/QUOTE]

Glad I have much better luck than you. Much better.
 
If they ban you solely for cancelling pre-orders they can go fuck themselves, seriously Amazon has been in a bad habit of just matching competitor prices vs trying to beat them.
 
[quote name='pjb16']Glad I have much better luck than you. Much better.[/QUOTE]

It's probably more UPS dependent than amazon dependent (though I do feel like amazon should flex its muscle more in those situations to get all relevant UPS delivery people up to par, since they could switch carriers etc.). But, yeah, if it's a game/dvd/br that I plan to keep in my collection, non-smashed is a priority and it got to the point where I was e-mailing/live chatting with amazon on basically every order. Even without worrying about getting banned for complaining too much, it was getting stupid to have to spend time messing with it.
 
[quote name='skiizim']If they ban you solely for cancelling pre-orders they can go fuck themselves, seriously Amazon has been in a bad habit of just matching competitor prices vs trying to beat them.[/QUOTE]


He's not just cancelling a pre-order. He's cancelling multiple items at once, as soon as he realizes he can't make a profit flipping them.

That can actually hurt a company if you make them get a huge allotment and then leave them stuck with it because you're a reseller.

This isn't like he just cancels a pre-order because he had a change of mind about the game.

You can try to say you spend X amount of money and so on but if they wanted his business they wouldn't have banned him.
 
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Gbastar I gotta ask how much you spent at Target to get your red card cancelled... Seems like it would have to be in the millions because I've easily spent $100,000 they over the past year and have yet to have my card cancelled...* Knocks on wood*
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']Gbastar I gotta ask how much you spent at Target to get your red card cancelled... Seems like it would have to be in the millions because I've easily spent $100,000 they over the past year and have yet to have my card cancelled...* Knocks on wood*[/QUOTE]

I didn't spend anywhere near that much. To be honest prior to getting the Red Card I did very little shopping at Target because the deals were luke warm and the clearance section at mine is non existent.

I spent maybe a few thousand a month until they cancelled it.
 
You circumvented their rules to exploit by using multiple accounts. Your warning was "Limit 2 per customer"..."Limit 1 per customer"..."Limit X per customer" on every limited item order page. You knew this, or you wouldn't have needed to use a separate account.

Where's the confusion?

How many different outfits can you put on to get the free mini hotdog toothpick samples before the store asks you to leave?


EDIT: Sorry, I usually don't make comments like that, but six pages of "How could they do this?" was enough to break me.
 
[quote name='GBAstar']I didn't spend anywhere near that much. To be honest prior to getting the Red Card I did very little shopping at Target because the deals were luke warm and the clearance section at mine is non existent.

I spent maybe a few thousand a month until they cancelled it.[/QUOTE]

And they canceled it because you spent too much money? Thats very odd...
 
[quote name='page305']


EDIT: Sorry, I usually don't make comments like that, but six pages of "How could they do this?" was enough to break me.[/QUOTE]


Learn to use CAG more efficiently. I'm on page 2.

I wonder how people in the BB trade-in threads would feel if not only did they lose their trade-in privileges they also forfeited all their RZ points and any certificates tied to their account when they were got banned.

Now had all those orders from the other accounts gone to the main shipping address tied to the account instead of mine then Amazon would have had no problem?


[quote name='animemaniac14']And they canceled it because you spent too much money? Thats very odd...[/QUOTE]


Yes I don't remember word for word but the cancellation letter I received said something to the effect of my spending habits were not Representative of an "individual" and that effective immediately my account would be closed. They did say I could apply for a business Red Card.
 
[quote name='GBAstar']Learn to use CAG more efficiently. I'm on page 2.
[/QUOTE]

... because that's much less whine, 2 pages or 6, it's the same amount of posts. You got busted and you're pissed. Put on a wig and go for one more free hotdog sample, they'll never know!
 
Also if they still shipped you the Metal Gear limited editions I would definitely call the Better Business Bureau and report that. If they're going to cancel your account then it's all or nothing... clearly charging you for an order they were supposed to cancel is a manipulation of your account. And the a BBB will definitely look down on that

And of course as a side note while filing that complaint I would add the credit withholding in there
 
[quote name='page305']... because that's much less whine, 2 pages or 6, it's the same amount of posts. You got busted and you're pissed. Put on a wig and go for one more free hotdog sample, they'll never know![/QUOTE]

Yes I'm pissed and disappointed but the comparison between a mooch (i.e. the free sample eater/taker) and someone trying to PURCHASE more then allowed isn't the best analogy.


[quote name='animemaniac14']Also if they still shipped you the Metal Gear limited editions I would definitely call the Better Business Bureau and report that. If they're going to cancel your account then it's all or nothing... clearly charging you for an order they were supposed to cancel is a manipulation of your account. And the a BBB will definitely look down on that[/QUOTE]

It wasn't the LE; it was two copies of the Standard Edition that I had locked in at $51.99 when they were giving a discount towards MGR Revengeance when you purchased MGS HD Collection.

The charge went through on Monday after I had my account closed on Thursday or Friday. I'm going to guess they just cancelled everything in 2012 and 2013 and forgot to go back further (this order was placed in 2011).

Either way I don't want them but I can't refuse delivery or return them because their is a chance they won't refund me (without a fight). I thought about just filing a chargeback but I don't to be a dick about.

Here's the e-mail they sent when I asked why I was still getting charges and what they were for (at the time I didn't know)


Hello,

I found two charges of $51.99 on February 17, 2013 for the item listed below from order #xxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxxx:

Metal Gear Solid: Rising .

The order was per-ordered on November 9, 2011 and has entered shipping process now. You will receive the order by February 19, 2013.

I hope this information helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Best regards,

Account Specialist
Amazon.com


What's awesome is that I'm getting some super rare game called "Metal Gear Solid: Rising"
 
[quote name='GBAstar']Yes I'm pissed and disappointed but the comparison between a mooch (i.e. the free sample eater/taker) and someone trying to PURCHASE more then allowed isn't the best analogy.
[/QUOTE]

It's the perfect analogy. The store said you could have ONE but you decided you were entitled to more... so you used more accounts (digital wigs if you will).

You're probably the guy that pre-orders 5 of the CE's then sells the pre-orders to people that were shopping the legitimate way and missed out. That's called being a shyster.

IE, this guy: http://www.amazon.com/Bioshock-Infi...d=1361305530&sr=8-1&keywords=songbird+edition

As far as the charge-back... I would absolutely file one if I were you. They left you with no way to cancel the order so they kinda' forced it on you.
 
Why would you have multiple accounts tied to one amazon prime account? I thought that was frowned upon? Also, why buy multiples of any game if not for malicious intent? Only defense I could see is if you bought something $25 and under and didn't see anything else you wanted so you bought two to get free shipping. However, you have prime... so I am confused.
 
[quote name='Steggy']Why would you have multiple accounts tied to one amazon prime account? I thought that was frowned upon? Also, why buy multiples of any game if not for malicious intent? Only defense I could see is if you bought something $25 and under and didn't see anything else you wanted so you bought two to get free shipping. However, you have prime... so I am confused.[/QUOTE]

Maybe I don't understand Amazon prime but I thought it was completely acceptable to invite family members onto your account. No?

Malicious? Collecting and reselling is malicious? GTFO.

I used to laugh my balls off when people would order say one of P4G SG Edition and have it shipped in a bubble mailer and bitch and moan because it arrived damaged; meanwhile I ordered three, guaranteeing it would ship in a box, that I'd get a mint copy, and get two other mint copies that I could resell to offset the costs of the one was I was keeping for my collection.

Rinse. Wash. Repeat. I have a collection that's so big I don't know what to do with it sometimes (I got bored and started my CAG Giveaway thread) and spend pennies on the dollar to keep it going.

Malicious. Okay.
 
[quote name='GBAstar']

Yes I don't remember word for word but the cancellation letter I received said something to the effect of my spending habits were not Representative of an "individual" and that effective immediately my account would be closed. They did say I could apply for a business Red Card.[/QUOTE]
So, in other words, it was clear when looking at your purchases that you were a reseller. It wasn't dollar value that got you pinched but rather multiple purchases of the same item.
 
Buying for resale on items that have a specific limit is malicious intent to deviate from Amazon's policy...

They limit quantities sometimes not at Amazon's discretion, but the manufactures discretion.


[quote name='GBAstar']Maybe I don't understand Amazon prime but I thought it was completely acceptable to invite family members onto your account. No?

Malicious? Collecting and reselling is malicious? GTFO.

I used to laugh my balls off when people would order say one of P4G SG Edition and have it shipped in a bubble mailer and bitch and moan because it arrived damaged; meanwhile I ordered three, guaranteeing it would ship in a box, that I'd get a mint copy, and get two other mint copies that I could resell to offset the costs of the one was I was keeping for my collection.

Rinse. Wash. Repeat. I have a collection that's so big I don't know what to do with it sometimes (I got bored and started my CAG Giveaway thread) and spend pennies on the dollar to keep it going.

Malicious. Okay.[/QUOTE]
 
[quote name='RedvsBlue']So, in other words, it was clear when looking at your purchases that you were a reseller. It wasn't dollar value that got you pinched but rather multiple purchases of the same item.[/QUOTE]

I would assume that's correct, yes.

But answer this... what is the difference between having an individual red card or a business red card?

Both save 5% on every purchase (at target) and to be honest I'd imagine the interest rate would be higher on the individual red card (i.e. more profitable for target).

So hypothetically you can go bat ass crazy with one card but not the other?


[quote name='Steggy']Buying for resale on items that have a specific limit is malicious intent to deviate from Amazon's policy...

They limit quantities sometimes not at Amazon's discretion, but the manufactures discretion.[/QUOTE]

So my mistake then was occasionally using two other real accounts and having the purchases mailed to my address. In hindsight I should have kept the same purchase behavior but had the items shipped to the addresses tied to the other accounts and just picked the items up?

I mean what is the difference between me ordering 9 items across three accounts or having two other people also order 3 of an item (9 total).
 
[quote name='GBAstar']I didn't spend anywhere near that much. To be honest prior to getting the Red Card I did very little shopping at Target because the deals were luke warm and the clearance section at mine is non existent.

I spent maybe a few thousand a month until they cancelled it.[/QUOTE]


wtf do you buy at target to warrant spending a couple thousand a month and also with the multiple amazon accounts and preordering every single ce and le of every game and limited item that is about to come out to resell. So like is this your main income or something?
 
Do you believe in second chances? I just received this e-mail:

Hello GBAstar,

I'm [name removed] of Amazon.com's Executive Customer Relations team. Jeff Bezos received your email and asked me to respond on his behalf.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us about your account and the others affected. We’ve reviewed your account and purchasing history, and have decided to reactivate it.

As mentioned earlier, we want as many customers as possible to be able to enjoy the items we sell, and so for some popular items we've limited the quantity that may be purchased from our store.

We have these quantity limits in place for several reasons, and to ensure a fair experience for all of our customers, we must enforce them. If you exceed the limit in the future on any of the accounts, we may close them and you wouldn't be able to make any further purchases on our site.

Thanks again for writing to us; we appreciate your cooperation and understanding.


Regards,

[named removed]
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com


Edit: I sent an e-mail over the weekend to [email protected] and basically told them that I was guilty as charged and that I wasn't aware that what I was doing had a negative effect on Amazon and its other customers. I said I would accept their decision to close my account but asked that they reinstate the others.

Unreal.
 
[quote name='page305']It's the perfect analogy. The store said you could have ONE but you decided you were entitled to more... so you used more accounts (digital wigs if you will).

You're probably the guy that pre-orders 5 of the CE's then sells the pre-orders to people that were shopping the legitimate way and missed out. That's called being a shyster.

IE, this guy: http://www.amazon.com/Bioshock-Infi...d=1361305530&sr=8-1&keywords=songbird+edition

As far as the charge-back... I would absolutely file one if I were you. They left you with no way to cancel the order so they kinda' forced it on you.[/QUOTE]

The guys selling the songbird edition are all violating Amazon seller account Terms of Service... if they manage to sell any.. Amazon will likely cancel their account for violating those terms and they'll be out whatever money they make for the next 90 days. Also keep in mind Amazon was not the only place to preorder it and those people that were "legitimately" shopping obviously were not being weary of the possible limited production of the limited editions
 
[quote name='HenDoggy']wtf do you buy at target to warrant spending a couple thousand a month and also with the multiple amazon accounts and preordering every single ce and le of every game and limited item that is about to come out to resell. So like is this your main income or something?[/QUOTE]

Plenty of people make a living off of flipping. Myself being one of them. Prob make more than a majority of "real" jobs. Only reason cags hate flipping is because it robs them of the chance to pick up games/movies/whatever. If flipping propane tanks was the big thing here i guarantee no one would give a shit.
 
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