Lose Your Amazon Account and Your Kindle Dies

Mike writes "If you buy a Kindle and some Kindle ebooks from Amazon, be careful of returning items. Amazon decided that one person had returned too many things, so they suspended his Amazon account, which meant that he could no longer buy any Kindle books, and any Kindle subscriptions he's paid for stop working. After some phone calls, Amazon granted him a one-time exception and reactivated his account again." Take this with as much salt as you'd like.

Comments

Just another reason to not support DRM

[TheLinuxSRC]

This is just another reason why DRM is not a benefit to the consumer and why consumers should *not* support DRM.

Re:Just another reason to not support DRM

[pleappleappleap]

Indeed. I was planning on buying a Kindle (I read a LOT), but now I'm not going to. This is inexcusable, even if the complainant in the thread is in the wrong.

Re:Just another reason to not support DRM

[TheLinuxSRC]

Can you show me somewhere that the guy was being a dick? He returned some items. Apparently there is an unwritten policy at Amazon that if you return X number of high-ticket items (regardless of whether the CS rep says to do so or not) you are banned. No warning, nothing - just banned.

Regardless there is no reason his Kindle should be effectively bricked. Yes, he can use the content he has already purchased, however he can never (legally) obtain any new content for that Kindle; a "feature" designed into the Kindle by Amazon. This sounds like a fundamental problem with DRM to me. Where do we draw the line? Also, not only can he not purchase new content, he cannot even use the warranty on the Kindle should he need to. All at the whim of Amazon.

As far as karma goes, mine is excellent and I don't need it. Why don't you quit being an asshat and go read the article?

Re:Just another reason to not support DRM

[nine-times]

What are you talking about? The guy bought books for his Kindle. He *bought* them. Say what you will about, "No, this is licensing," but check Amazon's website and there's a button that says, "Buy now with 1-click". *Buy*.

So he bought these books, and now because Amazon doesn't like his behavior, they're denying him access to books that he bought. Of course this is an example of why DRM is bad. Imagine you went out to Barnes and Noble and bought physical books. Then, later, because you returned too many purchases to Barnes and Noble and they didn't like that, they went into your house and took back the books you previously purchased without giving you a refund. After complaining, they said, "Ok, we'll return these books, but just this once!"

Re:Just another reason to not support DRM

[mikec]

Not to defend Amazon, you have misstated the situation. They books he bought are still on his Kindle and still readable. He can't buy any new ones, and his subscriptions are canceled -- meaning he doesn't pay for them, and he doesn't receive them. The stuff he *bought* is all still there.

Re:Just another reason to not support DRM

[commodore64_love]

You're right - it's not a DRM problem.

It's a rental problem wherein our corporate overlords are trying to convince us we are "buying" books when it fact we are only renting them, until the corporation decides to block access to the servers (or the company goes out-of-business). Now there's nothing wrong with renting, but the overlords should be honest about it, and the rental rate should be lower than if I bought the physical book. In most cases, neither is true.

A right to do what?

[brunes69]

So you are saying if I buy a lawn mower from Home Depot and then I go in the next day and streak the place and get banned, they should also have the right to re-possess the lawn mower I legally purchased?

How is this any different? He bought a kindle, he bought books for it, then did something totally unrelated Amazon did not like, and they essentially remotely deactivated his device.

Re:A right to do what?

[Amazing Quantum Man]

No, because the stuff you bought at Costco will still work, even if your membership is canceled.

Re:A right to do what?

[MBGMorden]

On the third hand, if your ebooks are already on the Kindle they cannot be removed by Amazon. So they're removing the privilege of buying more from them. Oh no!

But DRM ensures that just because you have a file doesn't mean that you can use it. Depending on the scheme (I have the Kindle Software for my iPod Touch but haven't used it so I'm not really familiar with it), losing your account can make the file you purchased stop working. DRM applied to subscription music services works that way (ie, if you cancel your service the music that you downloaded might still be on your computer, but it won't play), but in those cases it was understood that it was a SUBSCRIPTION service and losing access was to be expected. In this case it appears that Amazon cut him off from using PURCHASED content. That IS an "oh no" situation.

Re:A right to do what?

[PopeRatzo]

As for his kindle stuff not working, that sucks, but he got them back in the end.

No. He "got them back in the end" because he was aggressive enough to make what was probably multiple phone calls, having to wait in queues and talk to "supervisors". Not all consumers will go to those lengths (nor should they have to).

As long as corporations are going to use "licenses" and "copyright" and DRM in such a punitive way, the most appropriate response is to punish any company that does so by not using their products or services. Further, I applaud all efforts to defeat DRM in all its forms.

There is a shocking level of hostility toward consumers coming from many of the most successful corporations. Unfortunately, the only way for corporations to learn is when their bottom line is affected negatively. As long as they're making money that have absolutely no incentive to treat customers decently.

Online accounts and other devices - G1, etc.

[Kelson]

This makes me wonder what would happen with my G1 if for some reason I lost access to my Google account. (You basically can't do anything on the phone without being signed in, though you can create a new account from the phone itself.)

I suspect I could just link it to another account and re-sync contacts, calendar, etc. But then there's the question of purchased apps. Are they linked to the phone, to the cellular plan, or to the Google account? It's something I hadn't thought about before.

KindlePID deletion

[tepples]

register your Kindle's PID

How do you find your Kindle's PID when Amazon makes sites delete information about KindlePID?

Dont be a dumbass

[Hadlock]

If your account is flagged for returning shit, you're just dumb. Don't buy crap and then return it and expect to stay in a company's good graces for long. I think I speak for all people who ever retail when I say this to people who return more than 1 item every 6 months: Eat Shit And Die. You wouldn't abuse your friends and family like that, so why harrass stores and their employees, even if they're owned/employed by a soulless corperation. Something like 15% of items are returned (dollar amount perhaps), which significantly cuts into profits and drives up prices for everyone else. Fuck You.
 
/rant off.
 
i would kill myself before working retail again.

Re:Read through his posts...

[barik]

It's one thing to tell someone that they're no longer welcome to order anymore, but it's quite another to retroactively disable anything that they've previously purchased. That's the distinction.

Many people abuse the flexible Costco return policy. Some of these people get their memberships revoked. At no time does Costco come in and say that they can no longer use items they've already bought.