Interesting Kindle 2 related story is developing in MobileRead Forums. In a nutshell – Amazon customer had his account banned for allegedly excessive returns of expensive electronics. That would have been the end of the story but he also happened to own a K2. And with his account banned he lost access to Kindle Store, Archived Items and official warranty. Returning the Kindle for a refund is also not possible. So currently he only has books that were present on his Kindle at the moment of Ban and two options of getting new books: 1) ones that are freely available for download and 2) illegal way of getting non-Amazon DRM books.
Two main conclusions from this story are:
- While you can only regular paper books by something like fire, theft or forgetful friends, DRM eBooks can be taken away from you by the service provider – in this particular case Amazon. On the other hand while you maintain a good relationship with them and they are in business – your books are safe from things that threaten paper books
- Be careful with your returns. It looks like Amazon doesn’t issue warnings before they ban your account.
Hmmmm
So we should
loosen our logic
and jump to conclusions
on one one-sided case?
It’s enough
to make us
lose our minds
:>(
no, don’t loose your mind – just consider it.
You mean that Amazon will let you “loose” from your account?
Lose the “loose” and your headline will actually make sense… ;>
I would think that is a breach of contract. The customer paid for the Kindle unit and the ebooks purchased. For Amazon just to shut it down is deeply wrong. I like my Kindle but if they’re going to be so anti-customer, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Stick with dead trees. Once you buy them, they’re yours.
Use your kindle to buy a spell checker, so you can use “LOSE” instead of “LOOSE”.
This story is not complete; the man in question resolved the problem with Amazon.com, and his account has been restored. Apparently he returned a lot of expensive electronics, and those returns triggered an automatic shutdown of his account. Once he talked directly to Amazon.com, his account was restored, with a warning about his excessive returns. He is once again a happy Amazon.com customer and I wish this story would either die its natural death, or at least be complete, with the accurate outcome.
Isn’t the point that what he does with regards to anything else should not affect his Kindle purchase.
Ok so he got the account unbanned. Good for him. But say he hadn’t.
Even if he deserved to have his account banned, what should happen is that he would still have access to a Kindle Purchases only account, where he could make kindle purchases, and oversee the purchases he made for the kindle, but nothing else.
Otherwise Amazon have sold him a lump of plastic he can do nothing with.
He shouldn’t have to ‘plead his case’.
If I buy a dishwasher then I expect it to be able to wash dishes, and regardless of how evil I am, if I bought it fair and square then I expect it to still be able to wash dishes in six months time without any interference from the manufacturer.
Amazon need to revisit their overall policies here. It should NEVER be possible to be banned from the Kindle aspect of his relationship with Amazon.
Story of Amazon gets worse. My account was recently closed due to “suspicious activity”. They can’t tell me what the activity was, only that I need to open a new account. And they are maintaining a position that no prior history can be transferred over. And that means I too have lost all access to my entire Kindle inventory.
I’ve not had one return to Amazon since they started in business. I’ve been a huge fan of Amazon since day 1. And I buy a lot for both personal and business. I really haven’t shopped in a store for the better part of 10 years. Books, electronics, office supplies – all of it comes from Amazon.
Do you think I’d ever buy a Kindle book from Amazon after this? And for everything they sell, I will be looking at alternatives.