I'm scared, frustrated, don't know who to go to anymore

[TimW]

Originally Posted by jrw93

Hello All --

Tim, my downloaded content on the Kindle is gone. I do not know how this is possible, and just sent a e-mail to Amazon a hour ago to see if I could get a response. Hopefully I can get a answer, as I did not do anything and my content on my Kindle is gone.

To those who had questions regarding why I logged onto my kindle via a closed account, it was to see if maybe I could access my archived books on my kindle. I know I couldn't access it on Amazon.com, but maybe there was a slight chance that I could access them through my archive as that does not require entering an amazon e-mail and password. I guess upon turning my wifi on and clicking the "archived books" line, my Kindle was automatically flagged and blacklisted.

If books disappear from a deregistered Kindle, they must have been removed manually or the device must have been reset to factory conditions. I suppose a malfunction could have resulted in deleting books without affecting any other function although I haven't heard of such a thing.

You don't "log-in" on a Kindle. When the device is registered to an account and the WiFi is on, you're always "logged in." If you attempt to register to a closed/non-existent account, the attempt will fail. Since the connection to Amazon remains severed, they have no access to the Kindle to "punish you" for the attempt. Is it possible that a floor lamp might still illuminate after the power cord has been unplugged from the electrical outlet? No. It's either plugged in or it isn't.

What model Kindle do you have? You've never mentioned it.

[GA Russell]

I find it hard to believe that a major company would close an account without a warning and without an explanation of the objectionable conduct.

If Amazon did so, I believe that they owe the OP all of his eBooks.

And if Amazon did so, I have to think that there are class action law firms which would be interested in representing the OP.

[JoHunt]

Amazon has given the OP the reason for banning: his account was linked to a previously banned account. Numerous emails to CS and one to the executive team have confirmed that they saw wrongdoing and that the ban was warranted.

As for the OP's books disappearing from his Kindle, perhaps it wasn't deregistered prior to him attempting to access his archive (I assume this to be the case, otherwise he would have had to register before "clicking the archived books line" which resulted in the deletion). I think that books will be removed from a Kindle which is linked to a banned account.

As for having multiple accounts, it is wise to have separate seller and buyer accounts. Since feedback is open for all to check, sellers just may not want potential buyers to see what they themselves have been buying , but of course the accounts should never interact with each other.

[Filark]

I wonder if someone at Amazon would be interested in responding to this thread and explaining their policies and procedures. Do they ever do that?

[VictoriaP]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

If Amazon did so, I believe that they owe the OP all of his eBooks.

Read the Terms of Service from Amazon. They don't "owe" him, you or me, the books we paid for, because we didn't buy books. We bought licenses to files, and those licenses can be revoked at any time. And it's been going on for years, long before Kindles existed. If there was a potentially successful class action suit to be brought, I'd imagine someone would have done so already.

Yes, it's ridiculous that we're paying "book" prices for the mere right to download and read the book. But that's exactly what we're doing. And it's not just Amazon--every ebook dealer has the same nonsense in their TOS. That's why so many people in this thread have chimed in with "back up your books", and why so many use Apprentice Alf's assistance to hang on to items they paid for with hard earned cash. Future technology shifts and seemingly arbitrary business decisions (or for that matter, companies that end up in bankruptcy) won't keep what most of us feel *should* be yours from you if you just back it up!

Irritating as all that is, we signed up for it, most likely by never reading the TOS at all, just hitting the "I agree and have read..." button.

What baffles me is that Amazon (or any company, for that matter) will provide zero information on what triggered the cancellation, citing "privacy concerns". Unless they somehow think that you're not the account holder (something they should be able to verify for the most part), whose privacy is being violated by stating the reason the action was taken? Only the person most concerned with the cancellation: the account holder. They have to know that this stuff makes it out onto the Internet, and it generates nothing but bad PR, paranoia, rumormongering and the like.

[Beryll Snyder]

xxxxx

[Beryll Snyder]

Originally Posted by Filark

I wonder if someone at Amazon would be interested in responding to this thread and explaining their policies and procedures. Do they ever do that?

I am sure we would be confronted with a completely different set of "facts" ...

[Redcard]

So now the OP is telling us something happened that we know can't happen.. and we still have people trusting him and believing that amazon is likely in the wrong here?

Look, here's the way I see this: Amazon is not saying anything. The OP here has been inconsistent, untruthful, and misleading throughout his entire time here. While it's impossible to say whether Amazon is in the wrong or not here, it IS possible to say that the OP's story is highly suspect.

And if the OP's story is highly suspect, I don't think we can really take what he's saying at face value. There's something he knows, and is not telling us, and I suspect it'd make a large difference in our perceptions of what happened.

I'd be willing to believe Amazon is in the wrong if there weren't so many issues with the complaint itself.

[jrw93]

**IMPORTANT UPDATE**

After e-mailing Amazon.com multiple times, a account specialist finally allowed me to access ONLY my Kindle content (thank GOD).

The specialist opened up only a portion of my account under:

www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle

Everything else is still locked out to me. This includes MP3, Movies, and Amazon Apps. This also includes previous orders as well as my seller account. I also am not able to place orders or contact Amazon/Kindle customer support using the "sign in" button.

I am currently downloading and backing up all my kindle content and removing DRM/storing via Calibre. I won't make the same silly mistake again.

I'm going to try and see if I can get my other digital content back, but it was already mentioned that those will not be re accessible.

For all who are questioning my story -- Please make sure you are reading every post before commenting. You will notice I made new posts that should clear up any misunderstanding.

Thanks for everyone's help, at least I got some of my products back and if it wasn't for MobileRead's community, I probably would have given up already.

[Asawi]

I'm glad you got your Kindle content back at least!
I'm guessing/hoping your MP3 content probably is safe on some sort of device as well.
So a littlebit brighter than before anyway!

[jrw93]

Unfortunately, I did not back up my MP3 content as I always stored those in the cloud and streamed them via my mobile carrier's network or wifi (STUPID, STUPID mistake). I do have SOME applications on my phone that I purchased via Amazon's appstore (angry birds, ripetide GP, swiftkeyboard x) but I can't redownload them in the future. So if I decide to switch phones, I won't have access to those apps again.

However -- I could just extract the APK files and transfer them over to my new device and install using Astro file manager, but I won't get any future updates if developers decide to release any of them. I wish I could download all my applications, but I don't have access to all of them in amazon's cloud, just the ones on my phone. I'll let you guys know in future updates if Amazon allows access to the rest of my digital content but from what I've seen in their e-mail responses, it doesn't look like it.

And to the previous poster, I have the Kindle 4 non-touch. Specials offers, got as Christmas present for $79

[ApK]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

I find it hard to believe that a major company would close an account without a warning and without an explanation of the objectionable conduct.

If Amazon did so, I believe that they owe the OP all of his eBooks.

That doesn't follow in the least. "You were stealing and defrauding us, but we didn't tell you that when we caught you and stopped you, so we'll just give you all the stuff you stole back."

[TimW]

Originally Posted by jrw93

(snip)
For all who are questioning my story -- Please make sure you are reading every post before commenting. You will notice I made new posts that should clear up any misunderstanding.

(snip)

I've read all your posts...they paint a murky picture. It's rather difficult to discern. I see you edited your initial post where you related that you had "other active accounts" that were also closed. I see you clarified that post by removing that reference. If you make mistakes, it's good to correct them.

BTW, congrats on getting partial access to your account...I had no idea that was possible. That's good to hear. Good luck to you.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by TimW

I've read all your posts...they paint a murky picture. It's rather difficult to discern

...And that's on top of the fact that anything posted here could be an outright lie, or a publicity stunt for a new novel....

(Back off, writers, it's my idea!)

[jrw93]

Originally Posted by ApK

...And that's on top of the fact that anything posted here could be an outright lie, or a publicity stunt for a new novel....

(Back off, writers, it's my idea!)

Haha, it's definitely not a publicity stunt for a new novel. I'm studying as a Finance, Accounting and Economics triple major hoping to get into private equity focusing on energy/natural gas, REALLY far fetched from anything that has to deal with literature.

If you believe that everything I am telling is a lie, you can believe that. I am just telling my story from my perspective. At least now I can finish Reminiscences of a stock operator -- Great book!