Buying Amazon.com books from the UK.

[mattst]

Hi,

I know this has been discussed and various advice given but I'm worried by the article (linked below) about a Norwegian woman who had her Kindle wiped remotely and her Amazon account closed.

http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/...by-amazon-drm/

Some background - I live in the UK but want to buy a couple of Kindle ebooks (to start with) from amazon.com. Why not just buy them in paperback? Well, I have a high level spinal cord injury with only limited arm movement, no finger movement at all but despite that I can operate my Kindle Paperwhite very effectively. Reading paper books is very hard for me to do and requires regular assistance from my personal care assistants and I can't read in bed at all (I like to read after going to bed and when I wake in the morning). So I'd like to get these books for my Kindle but they are only available for the Kindle on amazon.com and not on amazon.co.uk.

So there seem to me to be 2 sensible options:

Option 1) Find someone in the US who can buy the books for me and email them to me. I can then use Calibre to do anything necessary before copying them over USB to my Kindle. I would of course pay for the books in advance using PayPal (or similar). I would also be happy to reciprocate if there was someone out there who is in the US and who would like in return access to Kindle books available on amazon.co.uk but not on amazon.com.

Option 2) Ask for step-by-step advice on how to buy the books myself from amazon.com while in the UK. Various threads here state how to buy books from .com if you're in the UK or from .co.uk if you're in the US, but there is conflicting advice and the posts are several years old. Some mention the need to use a US VPN, others say that is not necessary. Some suggest paying by buying a .com gift certificate from a .co.uk account to get around the lack of a credit card registered to a US address. They say that you need to find a genuine US postal address and enter it as your amazon.com account's address, and which clearly you have no right to use. I could use one of my old Kindles (my Kindle Basic, or my Kindle Touch) after de-registering it first, to help during this process.

I must admit to being worried about option 2) because of what happened to the Norwegian woman in the article linked at the start of this post. Clearly Amazon are not averse to closing accounts if they smell abuse even if they believe so incorrectly - and option 2) seems to be genuine abuse, at the very least it would be a deliberate manipulation of their system to achieve something they don't want you to do and I can't see them being very forgiving. Due to my disability reading on a Kindle has been a godsend for me and I'm reading twice as much as I was before I had one, back up to the amount I was reading before my spinal injury. I don't really want to do something that could jeopardise this and conceivably result in my Amazon account being killed and my Kindle remotely wiped (I have a full backup but that won't allow me to buy any more books).

But if option 2) is safe and people are still doing it (the threads I found all seem to be at least 3 years old) and someone was willing to tell me how to do it in 2014, as opposed to how it was done successfully in 2010, then I might risk it.

Option 1) seems like my best bet, if I can find someone. Any takers?

All replies and advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks all,

Matt

P.S. The Norwegian woman did get her account back after the article at the top was published, see here:

http://boingboing.net/2012/10/22/kin...azon-dele.html

[JoHunt]

Option 1: While we cannot discuss it here, only the person who purchases the book can do anything with it in Calibre.

Option 2 using gift cards is preferred by most Since you're not having anything physically sent to you, accuracy of US address is not important (of course you want your zip code to match your location).

Amazon will not remotely wipe your Kindle no matter what you do.

[DiapDealer]

And the Norwegian woman's Kindle was never 'wiped remotely.' Lost access to her purchased books for a time?... yes. But there was no remote wipe.

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

And the Norwegian woman's Kindle was never 'wiped remotely.' Lost access to her purchased books for a time?... yes. But there was no remote wipe.

Yes, I was going to make the same point.

And, even if it was "wiped" (which is highly unlikely), the device would still work. There would be nothing to stop her side-loading her books from the back-up copies that she no doubt had on a PC or laptop.

Mike

[mattst]

Thanks for the info.

Any chance that someone could confirm that option 2) is still working and letting me know what steps I should take to safely implement it?

[zxczxc]

not to sound blasé or anything, but i didn't think this was that big of a deal.
i have bought books from .com, .co.uk, even .co.jp (although .co.jp use a different account system, with .com and .co.uk you can login with your existing email address and password)

here are 4 pictures i just made that should help you do what you want
http://postimg.org/gallery/bk7cyacg/8839fa1c/

if you need any other help i'll help you out more if you want.
if you do not have an address that you can use for the american address, just pick something simple like a hotel, find one on google etc, like 'florida hotel'.

for the payment, your card should already be on the account, and it should work just the same as from the uk.

-edit. i'm not sure for ebook purchases, but when using your 'foreign' card on the other store, usually amazon gives you the option to pay for the item in your own currency, as in, you will not get 'hit' by your bank with a $2, £2, whatever, foreign transaction fee. but kindle purchases use 1 click ordering right... so you might not see that screen? either way, nothing at all to worry about in the slightest

[Mike L]

I've been using the "gift card" method for five years now, without any problem.

Mike

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by mattst

Any chance that someone could confirm that option 2) is still working and letting me know what steps I should take to safely implement it?

I can assure you that it works. On Amazon, go to “Manage your Kindle” page and click on “Country Settings”. There, change the country settings to the United States. But before buying, I suggest you change your address to a US-based address, like joehunt stated, accuracy is not important since ebooks are digitally delivered. Then, you can either pay using a gift card or your own credit card; it doesn’t have to be a US-based credit card, as long as it is valid.

[zxczxc]

Originally Posted by Gazella

But before buying, I suggest you change your address to a US-based address, like joehunt stated, accuracy is not important since ebooks are digitally delivered.

not just suggest, but we are required to add an address, you cannot simply change the country setting from 'UK' to 'US', you need to enter a whole address for it to change

[Gazella]

My apologies. I may not have explained it clearly in my post, yes, you're right, in order to change the country in "Country Settings", you need to enter a new address, in this case a US one. Enter your name, choose any US street address, city, state, ZIP (has to match the city), and phone number.

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by Gazella

... in order to change the country in "Country Settings", you need to enter a new address, in this case a US one. Enter your name, choose any US street address, city, state, ZIP (has to match the city), and phone number.

If you take that approach, make certain you don't accidently use your credit / debit card (the one linked to the same payment method as the fake address) to make a physical purchase - even if the delivery address is correct. That's easy to do if you have 1-Click enabled.

If you do, it might look to the card issuer as if someone was trying to use the card fraudulently, and they might then block the card, which could cause rannygazoo.

Mike

[Gazella]

Yes of course. OP, make sure you read Mike's advice. Just use this to make ebook purchases and not for something that should be physically delivered.

[mattst]

OP here... Sorry to take a few days to reply.

Thanks everybody for all the help and advice you've given me, it's really appreciated. I've now successfully managed to buy the books I wanted using the gift card method and will know how to do it next time.

Thanks again,

Matt

[KunoK]

I live in EU and had a US address on my kindle. I received an email from amazon beginning:

"We are writing because the home country registered to your Kindle account may not match your country of residence. Due to publishing rights, the home country registered to your account must match your country of residence."

The mail goes on with will I please supply proof that I actually live in the US, but the meaning is that they want me to register my kindle address in the country where I live.

I did use a credit card, which I have also used to buy stuff, that was sent to my home.
So I wonder why many others can do it for years. I might try using gift cards.

If that give me problems, I will buy more e-books from kobo.

[Ian.M]

The issue here is distribution rights. If the publisher/author have withheld the non N.A. ebook rights, Amazon *MUST* make a reasonable attempt to prevent sales outside N.A.
If they detect that you have made such an out-of-area purchase, as you have tried to make them breach their contract with the publisher/author, your further custom may cost them more than it earns so you and/or your devices may get blacklisted.

As such, you need to prevent the out-of-area purchase being easily linked to your main Amazon account or physical devices. I strongly advise setting up Kindle for PC + a web browser in a VM then set up and use a separate Amazon account with a different email address and completely different means of payment (i.e. not from the same bank). Do *everything* within the VM.