Comments on: Amazon bans account – customer loses all Kindle books

By: onemama

onemama — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:44:15 +0000

May you please elaborate with us what were the items you had to return and why? and how much they cost?
I’m really scared now because since i got the kindle i have been buying books like mad. I live abroad, its the easiest way for me than to wait for shipping and high shipping costs abroad…

By: Irish B

Irish B — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:35:20 +0000

Go ahead Christine. You know you’re telling the truth.

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:27:30 +0000

I think Amazon is counting on nobody finding out about the people they ban for stupid reasons. And it’s extremely ridiculous to ban someone for returning defective products. That is pure greed on their part. The customer should keep the defective product and be glad they have the ability to purchase more.

Yeah, if it hit the evening news that’d get Amazon’s attention. I think these companies get very powerful and just don’t care. We all help them when we either don’t spread the word, or continue buying there even though we’ve been warned. You want to change something, you get their attention by negatively affecting their bottom line.

By: Irish B

Irish B — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:36:04 +0000

It’s me again. I’ve looked further into this story and discover 1) Ian is a he, not a she, and 2) His situation is not unique, nor unusal, as Amazon has banned other accounts due to returns (small or large), and that’s very unfair. Makes me think twice about purchasing anything from them.

Sorry Ian – that was crappy of Amazon. I hope that this story hits the general mainstream media.

By: Irish B

Irish B — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:46:54 +0000

Okay folks, where did you get the idea that she returned only 3 items due to a defect? It was stated that she had an EXTRAORDINARY rate of returns for various reasons. I believe there’s more to this story than what is given here. I’m not a fan of the Kindle, though I do buy books from Amazon from time to time. When I read a book online, I tend to do so from a laptop or desktop. If I was (and I do plan on doing so) to purchase an extra device to read books electronically, it would be an iphone.

By: Irish B

Irish B — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:44:21 +0000

Okay folks, where did you get the idea from that she returned only 3 due to a defect? It was stated that she had an extraodinary rate of returns for various reasons. I believe there’s more to this story than what is given here. And I am not a fan of the Kindle, though I do buy books from Amazon from time to time. When I read a book online, I tend to do so from a laptop or desktop. If I was (and I do plan on doing so) to purchase an extra device to read books electronically, it would be an iphone.

By: Cat Faber

Cat Faber — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:13:06 +0000

It is mightily ironic that I will now be buying less stuff from Amazon because I am afraid I might lose my Amazon buying privileges.

But I want to keep my Kindle working, so I just can’t risk buying something expensive I might have to return.

I don’t think this is how Amazon intended it to work. But as long as the number and/or dollar value of returns that triggers banning is a secret, what else can I do?

By: Stephen Peters

Stephen Peters — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:26:54 +0000

Since this was an isolated incident and has since been rectified, the real issue is future access to purchased DRM content. I just can’t believe that a company with such a solid upper hand in the market would continue to shoot itself in the foot with things like three-month wait times, the text-to-speech reversal and now this.

By: RC

RC — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:26:20 +0000

Very jackboot, that action by Amazon.

One reason it is a Sony and not a Kindle winging my way by UPS today is I shall have no corporation looking over my shoulder while I read.

Sony is no angel in DRM matters clearly. But in seeing fit to lord these powers over its Kindle renters, Amazon is saying it wants a feudal relationship.

Good job Teleread in helping publicize this travesty.

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:07:48 +0000

Mobi ebooks can be purchased but the kindle won’t let you read drm mobi books, you have to find drm free. Personally that’d be fine with me but some people are big on reading the bestsellers, and why shouldn’t they be? Also, the dictionaries for the readers are drm.

This is the main reason I bought a cybook instead of sony or amazon. That’s just too much power and trust to give someone for my money. They abuse their power to your detriment and it effects them zero.

I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that they ban a customer for returning defective products. How about they stop selling defective products and APOLOGIZE?? Isn’t that by far the most rational and decent thing?? Somebody please tell me what ever happened to customer service! This is so wrong and they have the power and apparently no concern for their customers so it doesn’t effect them at all. You’re just out of luck. Sounds like an excellent reason for me to avoid amazon.com forever.

By: ryber

ryber — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:08:17 +0000

And if push came to shove, if you’ve backed up your Kindle purchases they could be . . . opened, shall we say, so that they would once again be usable. Not necessarily legal, but then again, neither is saying “Thanks for buying all this stuff, we just won’t ever let you see any of it again!”

By: Mark Coker

Mark Coker — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:46:20 +0000

The Kindle needn’t become a brick. .Mobi ebooks can be purchased and loaded elsewhere, even if for whatever reason a Kindle owner ceases to remain an Amazon customer. The $9.99 boycotters have the same option.

By: FrancisT

FrancisT — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:57:48 +0000

[Note that the original poster has had his amazon account reinstated according to a follow up comment]

However, and perhaps more relevantly, the problem here is that it is clear that you really only rent the stuff you have on your kindle. Combined with the Kindlepid.py actions this makes me extremely reluctant to buy anything non-physical from Amazon. Of course I can’t personally buy a Kindle since I’m not a resident of the USA but I’m quite certain that I now never ever will.

By: Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:33:12 +0000

If I was on the fence about the Kindle before (which I wasn’t), I’d be off that fence like a shot now, and heading for more open devices. Why invest in a device that can be so easily bricked, depriving you of further use (or potentially, of the use of products you’ve already purchased) when you can get a device that reads multiple formats and is not tied so tightly to a restrictive service?

By: Michael Harris

Michael Harris — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:15:14 +0000

The customer was banned because of their history of returning items. They stated that they had returned three items that were defective. This is not unusual. Many years ago, I had a retail account closed down because of my return history. Typically the retailer takes the return very nicely, and then bans you — this is the experience reported by this costumer.

The wrinkle is that the Kindle only allows DRM books (most recently releases) from Amazon. When they lock you out, you are left with a reader that only reads Gutenberg books and Baen books (plus a few small independents). You lose access to all of the Kindle books your previously bought and you can’t buy new ones. In addition, you have overpaid, since you can get a basic eink reader without Amazon access for $229 (Astak on sale from Fry’s).

This is another problem with DRM. You don’t really ‘own’ stuff you buy.

Michael