OT - Amazon closed my account for being a CAG

Ratchet & CAG

CAGiversary!
OT - Sorry not sure where to post this, feel free to move this to another forum if needed thanks.

So last month, I realized I couldn't log back in to Amazon, even after resetting my password, etc. I called Amazon CS and they said maybe it's a credit card issue which I thought was weird because it's the same credit card I've used there since I joined in 2004. I called my credit card company, nothing unusual. I later found out, that's the typical generic Amazon CS statement for people who get their accounts closed.

Last week a good 3 weeks after I couldn't log into my account, I got an email from Amazon saying my account has been closed. The reason they gave was too many "incidents".

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 [email protected].

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
Apparently that's a generic statement Amazon sends to people whose account was closed.

But what the hell were these "incidents"?

Searching for answers 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.

http://archive.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=908910

In my case, it was because I received too many discounts basically in the last 4-5 weeks leading to my account being closed.

Here are my last posts on CAG too along with the descriptions; basically in between August - September, I complained to Amazon CS that Amazon never gave me the promised advertised deals:

1) Sucker Punch - Amazon misadvertised the right set, using a customer uploaded pic that says BR+DVD+DC, but really only shipped the BR copy. Result = Offered me a $5 credit.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301660&page=3
2) Motorolla Smartphone - Amazon wouldn't allow me to cancel an order I placed a week before, because the price of the Smartphone I bought had gone down $17. Result = Offered me a $17 credit.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8790227#post8790227
3) Deus Ex Human Evolution - I basically pre-ordered this months before release for $10 credit. Amazon changed their pre-order credit to $20 in August, but when the item was shipped out to me, I only received $10, negating their price pre-order guarantee. Result = Offered me a $10 credit.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8785777#post8785777
4) Foldable Table "with Bag" - (Okay this isn't in CAG) but basically the title was Foldable Table, but the description says "with Bag" and yet I was just shipped the table. They said the Bag was a limited time offer. True, but I showed them the link that description still says "with Bag" (they forgot to take it off) btw the bag was selling for about $20 by itself. Result = Offered me a $15 refund (not credit - fine with me).
As mentioned I got a total of $47 in credits/refund applied to my Amazon account after bringing these issues up with Amazon.

Cool, I'm happy right?

Well, a couple of days later, I find out that I couldn't log back into Amazon, which later received an email saying my accounts are closed.

Worst is that the $32 credit they issued me, are all lost with the account.

Tip: If given the chance, it's best if you could ask for a refund rather than a credit.

To add insult to injury, my wife's Amazon account which she's had since 2008 and is totally separate from my account has been closed too. No warning, no emails, nothing. All my wife does is just buy books from the Oprah club to read like every other month or so.

Really Amazon? Just because my wife has my same last name and same billing address you close her account too?

So basically Amazon closed my 2004 account, and my wife's 2008 account just because of $47 refund/credit they issued me in a span of a month. While the tens of thousands of $$$ we, specifically I, spent in the course of 7 years from TV's, Computers, to even Refrigerators, and Lawn Chairs don't mean anything.

Nothing I can do about it, since Amazon reserves the right not to do business with anyone once you agree to register an account with them.

Anyway, hope you guys never gets shafted like we did. Just wanted to share this experience. Best to you guys all. Happy shopping.
 
Deal discussion is probably a better forum, but whatever.

Have you tried calling? Companies seem to give the cold shoulder via email, but generally are more flexible over the phone. At least, in my experience.
 
Let me ask you this; do you regularly complain about shipments coming in damaged when it actuality they are not. Do you complain about how you traded-in a game but it was not accepted for whatever reason and you then demand to be credited? If yes, then that's probably why.
 
Ouch, that's one of my worst fears. Amazon's ban is so harsh. I know some that try to nickle and dime Amazon's CSR's because they're so generous. I'm not saying that's the case here but for all those reading this, you need to be careful.
 
That's freaking wild. I'm surprised it hasn't happened to me (I've bought 2 LCD tvs from them among other things) because I get discounts and even went to task on them
For a Madden preorder where they just stopped answering my emails.

I love the, don't come back part of the email. I don't like how they gave those concessions and then punished. If anything, just don't give the credit back.
 
[quote name='skateraXVIII']Let me ask you this; do you regularly complain about shipments coming in damaged when it actuality they are not. Do you complain about how you traded-in a game but it was not accepted for whatever reason and you then demand to be credited? If yes, then that's probably why.[/QUOTE]

No. Never traded in anything. Think I only received 1 damaged shipment that I complained about, but that was like 3-4 years ago. It was a microwave I remember. Ended up keeping the thing anyway. Never returned anything.

[quote name='Hydro2Oxide']Deal discussion is probably a better forum, but whatever.

Have you tried calling? Companies seem to give the cold shoulder via email, but generally are more flexible over the phone. At least, in my experience.[/QUOTE]

Amazon's CS telephone is different from Support Specialist whom phone numbers aren't given. Amazon CS knows nothing about these things and couldn't help me.

I sent Support Specialist an email over a week ago, but they have not responded.

Researching others complaints, it seems that once an Amazon account is closed, it is closed no matter how much you argue.
 
I don't care if this is OT, that's messed up. Amazon has won multiple Cheapy awards for Customer Service. I know I've been happy whenever I had an issue, I could contact their customer service and it got fixed. Now I have to worry that I'll get my account closed.

Amazon had stolen around 90% of my business from other companies. Gamestop, like 1 purchase a year. Best Buy, maybe a couple if I have gift cards. I even price check against Toys R Us when I'm shopping for children's birthdays. Do not want to deal with something like this in the future.
 
[quote name='Ratchet & CAG']No. Never traded in anything. Think I only received 1 damaged shipment that I complained about, but that was like 3-4 years ago. It was a microwave I remember. Ended up keeping the thing anyway. Never returned anything.



Amazon's CS telephone is different from Support Specialist whom phone numbers aren't given. Amazon CS knows nothing about these things and couldn't help me.

I sent Support Specialist an email over a week ago, but they have not responded.

Researching others complaints, it seems that once an Amazon account is closed, it is closed no matter how much you argue.[/QUOTE]

Have you emailed the account appeals department? They're probably the only ones that can fix the situation

this email, posted in the one sent to you: [email protected]
 
[quote name='Joker2007']What does OT mean?[/QUOTE]

I'm confused as well. I always thought it meant on-topic.

I wonder if the OP had any gift card balance or credit promotions unused, and what happened to all those funds. Send you a check?

Anyways, if it happened to me, I'd just create a new account.
 
[quote name='Joker2007']What does OT mean?[/QUOTE]


OT= off Topic
 
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[quote name='CaseX']I'm confused as well. I always thought it meant on-topic.

I wonder if the OP had any gift card balance or credit promotions unused, and what happened to all those funds. Send you a check?

Anyways, if it happened to me, I'd just create a new account.[/QUOTE]

He said he had credit, and from what I've read you lose any credit you have on a banned account. Someone at SD for instance had $200 in credit and can't get Amazon to give it back to them.
 
That sounds pretty extreme given the circumstances you wrote about. Are you sure that is all that happened? I would definitely call(not email but call) someone at Amazon and see if there wasn't something else they are blaming you for? I just don't see them banning you over that, maybe it's a mistake? I've had more returns/credits in the past year than that...
 
a few years ago amazon went on a banning spree with a whole bunch of "customers" as reported on slickdeals Lol. Basically it was for an excessive amount of returns within a short period of time but you probably know this when you googled.

Maybe people on here will take this as a warning and not make so many claims to amazon chat cs (real or not) expecting to take advantage of amazon's great customer service over a few dollars.
 
[quote name='CaseX']I'm confused as well. I always thought it meant on-topic.

I wonder if the OP had any gift card balance or credit promotions unused, and what happened to all those funds. Send you a check?

Anyways, if it happened to me, I'd just create a new account.[/QUOTE]


No reason to write OT in a place where you are "on topic"...hence the OT meaning off topic on a message board...at least that is what I always thought.
 
Amazon's price guarantee applies to the item's actual price (what you pay on your credit card), not for any promotion, so they do not match $10 in credit to $20 later on down the road.
 
That shit is scary. Have you tried appealing to that link yet? Something just doesn't add up here because I'm sure I've complained enough to get the same ban on multiple occasions. I mean, your only crime was being an avid consumer and I guess if Amazon doesn't want your money, well they're fucking idiots. Sure they've gone downhill from recent years, but I don't know where I'd shop online other than them at this point. That's quite literally like if Walmart shut down in my area altogether.
 
I feel like this is hearing one person tell the story of why a couple got divorced. I'm sure there's a ton more to the story.
 
Wow, that really sucks. I pretty much buy everything from Amazon since I have Prime and don't get taxed.

I hope you're able to get it sorted out.
 
[quote name='Jodou']That shit is scary. Have you tried appealing to that link yet? Something just doesn't add up here because I'm sure I've complained enough to get the same ban on multiple occasions. I mean, your only crime was being an avid consumer and I guess if Amazon doesn't want your money, well they're fucking idiots. Sure they've gone downhill from recent years, but I don't know where I'd shop online other than them at this point. That's quite literally like if Walmart shut down in my area altogether.[/QUOTE]
It's really kind of "YMMV", googling other people's stories (funny becuase a lot of them happens to link you to SlickDeals).

I guess my misfortune was I received those credits in a close amount of time. They all happened between 4-5 weeks of each other. That's my guess anyway.

[quote name='ssjmichael']off-topic

I don't think you can really say it's because you're a CAG, kind of a sensationalized title there[/QUOTE]
Sorry, I guess it was just me being a typical CAGger fighting for all the deals I knew I should be getting.


[quote name='ssjmichael']Have you emailed the account appeals department? They're probably the only ones that can fix the situation

this email, posted in the one sent to you: [email protected][/QUOTE]
That's the email I sent.

Some people I read get a generic response that basically says, your account is closed, nothing they can do.

I'm just moving on.

Just sucks that it had to happen before Black Friday. No more Lightning Deals for me.

Oh well, time to move on.

Thanks anyway.
 
I was worried about something like this with my amazon account, since I was having stuff delivered to my work and apparently the UPS guy that delivers to my work hates cardboard and is out to destroy it, because basically every package would arrive destroyed. I never got a ban, but figured that if I didn't start shipping to a different address, they'd eventually ban me, since banning me is easier than addressing their horrible shipping issues.
 
[quote name='bdb2m']That sounds pretty extreme given the circumstances you wrote about. Are you sure that is all that happened? I would definitely call(not email but call) someone at Amazon and see if there wasn't something else they are blaming you for? I just don't see them banning you over that, maybe it's a mistake? I've had more returns/credits in the past year than that...[/QUOTE]

Amazon is pretty harsh about bans. I had my selling accoutn banned a few years back from some stupid reason I dont recall atm. I fought tooth and nail and lost like $100 from orders I had shipped that day it happened and I ahd to eat the money. MY aunt is even the personal assistent of the Ceo and she told im basicaly SOL.
 
The other day I couldn't access my shopping cart. It kept giving me errors, I got so scared that my account was banned or something. Thankfully someone else chimed in on here saying the same thing and it was resolved in about an hour.

I just can't imagine not being able to buy stuff from there. It sucks. Is there any possible workaround you think? Would shipping to a different mailing address even work?
 
I think if I got banned from Amazon I would honestly get a new credit card, move, and sign up for a new account with my middle name. No joke.
 
[quote name='ijustw1n']I feel like this is hearing one person tell the story of why a couple got divorced. I'm sure there's a ton more to the story.[/QUOTE]
Not trying to slight you OP, but the closing of the accounts is pretty extreme.

I dont think amazon would do that unless they elt some sort of abuse was occurring. This is just your side dude. But hey what do I know?

Good luck sir.
 
[quote name='CaseX']Anyways, if it happened to me, I'd just create a new account.[/QUOTE]

You can't create a new account. Amazon will auto-close any account that has anything at all to do with the banned account. They will close your family's accounts, etc. They are ruthless when this happens. It is even possible that completely unrelated people get screwed too, like the guy who now lives in the apartment you used to live in.

Something similar happened to me several years ago. Amazon closed my seller account because I got two bad feedbacks in a short period of time. One was from a buyer who didn't receive an item. I contacted her and sent her a replacement, but all my emails went to her spam filter. When she received the replacement she sent an apologetic email and we got it all settled, but she couldn't figure out how to remove the feedback and I let it go because I didn't think it was a big deal.

The second feedback was from a guy who ordered a DVD and literally THE NEXT DAY after ordering left me feedback that said "rude seller never sent item." Just out of the blue like that. Maybe he meant to leave feedback for a different order.

Anyway, soon after that, bam. Seller account closed permanently. Girlfriend's seller account closed permanently. Brother's (who lives in a different state) seller account closed permanently.

I did some research after that and discovered that it's not uncommon, and that appealing is virtually impossible.
 
You sure did you mass flip or call in "never got here shipments" or send in tons of emails complaining about like .01 that amazon owes you or numerous other things.

Maybe your a horder or a scammer who feels guilty.

or maybe amazon messed up :D
 
I don't know, I want to have sympathy for you, I really do, but even by your own admission you are a picky ass customer.

However what are you going to do. In any reasonable case if Amazon has written guarantees according to certain policies, they shouldn't ban you for expecting them to make good on what they offer.

However it comes down to a "how much is this person's business worth to me" It's hard to do thought experiments sometimes but imagine Amazon not as this huge international multi-billion dollar corporation, but as a small corner store that sells all the items you want. Imagine if you went in there after every sale a few days after the fact and started demanding credit, or refunds, or exchanges. Eventually that business owner is going to get tired of dealing with you, and ban you from his store. In reality this really is no different.

In the information age, these companies keep detailed records on every customer. Even Gamefly keeps an eye on how many times you complain about something and will discontinue service essentially because they can't seem to please you, so they are just going to stop trying.

Obviously if the ban is to be effective they had no choice but to ban your wife's account as well. Still if in every case you were trying to get credit applied because of an Amazon error, construct a very detailed, informative report and send that to them. If Amazon's CS is up to snuff, I'm sure they can reverse the ban.

I'd say try and appeal the decision to close your account. I mean it's not outside the realm of reality to expect that these "credits" are simultaneously labeled as "incidents as well, and it's just like an automatic thing that they close accounts that have to many.

My guess though is there is a lot you aren't telling us.
 
I just returned something back to Amazon today but I think it's my first return of the year so I should be okay (*paranoid*). Just hate hearing stuff like this,
 
If someone has had an account since 2004, I can't see Amazon shutting down their account because of multiple complaints over a month. I feel bad for the TC, but like others I think there has to be more to the story. There's no way that they could prevent you from having an account forever. It might be a little more work, but ship items to a friend of PO Box if you have one.

It's only normal that there would be some problems with shipped items over a 7 year time period. I'm nervous though. Earlier this week I got 50% refunded on a game that was opened when it was supposed to be new, and today they gave me a $10 promo when I simply called to ask if I could get the $20 promo on BF3. I didn't ask for either of these "rewards". Hopefully they don't think I'm trying to scam them.
 
[quote name='dancing_boy']posts like these generally withhold information.....
just sayin.[/QUOTE]

Exactly, I've bought more and done more than what he's described and nothing has happened to me. Granted I've yet to return anything but I have similar things with the 4 he listed and then some, either this is a computer error or he's withholding info.
 
haha good for them, Im actually jealous. I wish I could ban annoying customers from my store as well.

There are good customers out there and then there are customers that annoy the shit out of you for 10 cents, make huge scenes and the worst part is they are unprofitable customers as in you lose money every time they come to your store.

Good for amazon for not putting up with it.
 
Best Buy won't do this would they?

I spent all last week arguing them to honor my Gamers Club coupon and give me Ico Collection / God of War for $15.
 
This should be left here for a little while. Maybe archived and stickied somewhere.


I'm sorry this happened to the OP since he wasn't an abuser. We have seen bans occur exactly like this before so i know its a legit story. They will ban the account in question and any related account. CAGs time-and-time again abuse Customer Service over petty little issues....my game arrived one day late, i didn't get a shipment confirmation email, my game dropped a couple bucks in price, i have a dent in my game case, etc, etc. Amazon logs everything.
 
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