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Originally Posted by JoeD
But they've told her it's because her account has been linked with another banned account, which would be less than truthful if the reason was actually finding a way around restrictions on buying books from another store she's not meant to.
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And that is probably the extent of what they could see, at that support level. Not to mention that if you are a banned account (truly), they probably suspect you will try to open more accounts and do whatever it was that got you banned -- which can be stupid things, often, but includes fraud, using stolen cards, massive returns (I've seen some boast of ordering an HDTV and returning it multiple times to find a "perfect" one and I suspect some treat their clothing division as a rotating closet, as they do to local stores), etc.
One big problem (esp with identity) with online accounts is that if there is a problem, it can be difficult to work thru, as there is no face-to-face transaction possible.
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I understand they don't want to say how they've identified the two accounts are linked, since people can then use that to tweak how they avoid the rules. That wasn't my point though, my point was, if the reason for account closure was really because she's buying books from a store she's not meant to be and/or working around the systems they have in place to protect that, they should have simply stated that as the reason.
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I'm not sure that was even an issue - in one article, she said she bough books in the US store, which is where she should have been. She bought the Kindle while in the UK, so from the UK store, gave it to her mom, then picked up a used one locally. It wasn't clear which one was replaced, but the current replacement was her second and she was trying to get it from the UK (her original source of a Kindle), which may or may not be what flagged the account (out of country replacement, since the US handles the US for now).
What you can guarantee is that no one else that tried to call Amazon was likely to get any info at all (nor should Amazon give out such info to third parties). I also doubt she received any information until it was normal working hours and it's obvious that it was quickly cleared up at that point, since she got her book access back, then.
Amazon's rules on freezing of an account for investigation have been there for years, long before e-content. And doubtless need to be overhauled, now that they have a lot of content (that they sold and that you've uploaded on your own, for many) hostage.