Kindle support rocks... or why I'm still happy with my Kindle 1.

pilotbob · 08-17-2010, 02:20 PM

This will start as a rant...

Audible and Amazon support SUCKS!

I accidentally created a new Audible account with my Amazon credentials when trying to buy a gift certificate for my Mom. Yesterday was her 70th birthday. It went in as a membership on this new account I created.

My mom told me she wasn't able to pay for her annual membership with the last gift cert I bought her so not to get that. So, I decided to ask for a refund and I would buy her a Kindle 3... as we were talking about it yesterday and she decided she wanted one.

So this AM I called Audible and asked for a refund and told them I didn't need that new account, I would keep using my current Audible account. He said, ok I will remove that account.

Next I went to amazon to pre-order my mom's Kindle 3 and it would not take my password. I tried to do password recovery and didn't get the email. I called Amazon and they told me... oh, you account is closed. I said, Audible must have done that and please reopen it. No can do.. WTF???

The only recourse... create a new amazon account, you can still use the same email address. Wait... what about all my Kindle books? Transfer them... no can do... we'll connect you to Kindle services support.

Now... This is the Kindle support ROCKS part. I talk to a nice guy named Perry.... he said... oh thats not good and I can't move them. How about if I just refund all your kindle books and you just rebuy them on your new account.

I was shocked.... but said that would be great. He went through and sent me a list of all my Kindle books... with a list. I told him several were free when I bought them and they might not be now. he said... no problem, I'll just give you some gift credit for that... he put $25 credit on my new Amazon account and told me if it didn't cover it... let him know and he would take care of it.

So... I went from oh crap... I lost all my Kindle library (well, I had all the books backed up locally so I still have the books) to AWESOME this guy is so helpful.

So... bad Amazon for not being able to open an accidentally closed account... Kudos to Kindle support for hooking me up and making it right.

BOb

abookreader · 08-17-2010, 02:29 PM

I'm really glad they worked it out for you Bob. But I've heard this a couple of times now where somebody has gotten their account closed accidentally. One time the account was compromised and Amazon closed it ... and they had to do this refund/set-up new account/rebuy Kindle books thing.

It kind of leads me to thinking, I just went and looked and I'm up to around 22 pages of purchases of Kindle books. Say that were to happen 3 to 4 years from now it could easily be 100+ pages of books. Rebuying certainly not be a very viable option then, it would be hours of work for the customer.

They really need to fix that and quite frankly it is one pretty solid reason to have all your eBook purchases liberated and backed up on your own computer.

Skydog · 08-17-2010, 02:31 PM

Wow! Other than Amazon, I cannot think of one other company with that level of service.

Well... perhaps Zappo's but they are owned by Amazon.

Happy shopping!

AnemicOak · 08-17-2010, 02:38 PM

Wow, I've currently got 538 books on my account (a bunch were freebies of course). I can't imagine having to go through and 'rebuy' all of those.

Good thing I have backups.

Glad they got you taken care of.

texasnightowl · 08-17-2010, 02:42 PM

There's more than one reason why DRM is bad :>

All my non-Topaz Amazon purchases get deloused and are on my main PC, my WHS, a USB drive, and now Dropbox.

pilotbob · 08-17-2010, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Wow, I've currently got 538 books on my account (a bunch were freebies of course). I can't imagine having to go through and 'rebuy' all of those.

Good thing I have backups.

Glad they got you taken care of.

Yea, I guess I'm lucky that I only have 47 Kindle books. 28 of them where purchased for $0.00... cause I keep an eye on freebees.

BOb

Alisa · 08-17-2010, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

There's more than one reason why DRM is bad :>

All my non-Topaz Amazon purchases get deloused and are on my main PC, my WHS, a USB drive, and now Dropbox.

Google "skindle".

SpiderMatt · 08-17-2010, 04:11 PM

Something similar happened to me last year. Amazon closed my account because it was hacked. I caught it before they did, changed my password, and cancelled the order that had been placed on my account (to somewhere in Turkey). I was fine with keeping the account but Amazon was not and they shut it down as soon as they figured it out. I was pretty irritated at this not just because of my Kindle books but also because of my purchase and browsing history, which has led to some good recommendations in the past. Oh, well. They did reimburse me for all the e-books I purchased (they know which ones were free at the time of purchase) and I have them all backed up sans DRM. So while Amazon's policy of never reopening an account is kind of stupid, at least we can get some free e-books out of it. ;-)

JeremyZ · 08-17-2010, 11:05 PM

I have had nothing but good experience with Amazon customer service. A lot of companies cannot get their heads around why Amazon is so popular. To me, it is a simple formula: good product + fair price + great customer service = loyalty & success.

Apple's is: great product + high price + good customer service = loyalty & success.

Sony's is: good product + fair price - bad long-term support = @$$ kicked by Amazon and Apple.

luqmaninbmore · 08-17-2010, 11:31 PM

To be fair sony did go above and beyond in its support of the prs 500, physically upgrading them at their own expense even though the warranties had often expired.

jhempel24 · 08-18-2010, 01:57 AM

Wow, that's absolutely incredible! Cool to hear good customer service for once!

pilotbob · 08-26-2010, 04:56 PM

Well, I just checked and re-ordered all the Kindle books that I (wanted) and checked the price on them all. Many of the books that I had "bought" for $0 were no longer free. The difference was $130. I emailed Amazon and they promptly added $130 promo credit to my account.

BOb

daffy4u · 08-26-2010, 04:59 PM

Amazon continues to rock! Good for you BOb.

Sydney's Mom · 08-26-2010, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Well, I just checked and re-ordered all the Kindle books that I (wanted) and checked the price on them all. Many of the books that I had "bought" for $0 were no longer free. The difference was $130. I emailed Amazon and they promptly added $130 promo credit to my account.

BOb

Wow. Bezos is really serious about this ebook thing, if he gives his reps that kind of authority. Congratulations!

pilotbob · 08-26-2010, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Wow. Bezos is really serious about this ebook thing, if he gives his reps that kind of authority. Congratulations!

Yea, if only they would change there stupid policy of not re-opening closed accounts. I really see no rhythm or reason to that. My account was closed accidentally by someone at Audible which I bet didn't know when I said I didn't need two Audible accounts closed my Amazon account.

I still lost all my wish lists, my order history, my recommendation history, etc.

Argh...

BOb

08-17-2010, 02:20 PM	#1
pilotbob Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,832 Karma: 11844413 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Tampa, FL USA Device: Kindle Touch	Kindle support rocks... or why I'm still happy with my Kindle 1. This will start as a rant... Audible and Amazon support SUCKS! I accidentally created a new Audible account with my Amazon credentials when trying to buy a gift certificate for my Mom. Yesterday was her 70th birthday. It went in as a membership on this new account I created. My mom told me she wasn't able to pay for her annual membership with the last gift cert I bought her so not to get that. So, I decided to ask for a refund and I would buy her a Kindle 3... as we were talking about it yesterday and she decided she wanted one. So this AM I called Audible and asked for a refund and told them I didn't need that new account, I would keep using my current Audible account. He said, ok I will remove that account. Next I went to amazon to pre-order my mom's Kindle 3 and it would not take my password. I tried to do password recovery and didn't get the email. I called Amazon and they told me... oh, you account is closed. I said, Audible must have done that and please reopen it. No can do.. WTF??? The only recourse... create a new amazon account, you can still use the same email address. Wait... what about all my Kindle books? Transfer them... no can do... we'll connect you to Kindle services support. Now... This is the Kindle support ROCKS part. I talk to a nice guy named Perry.... he said... oh thats not good and I can't move them. How about if I just refund all your kindle books and you just rebuy them on your new account. I was shocked.... but said that would be great. He went through and sent me a list of all my Kindle books... with a list. I told him several were free when I bought them and they might not be now. he said... no problem, I'll just give you some gift credit for that... he put $25 credit on my new Amazon account and told me if it didn't cover it... let him know and he would take care of it. So... I went from oh crap... I lost all my Kindle library (well, I had all the books backed up locally so I still have the books) to AWESOME this guy is so helpful. So... bad Amazon for not being able to open an accidentally closed account... Kudos to Kindle support for hooking me up and making it right. BOb

08-17-2010, 02:38 PM	#4
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	Wow, I've currently got 538 books on my account (a bunch were freebies of course). I can't imagine having to go through and 'rebuy' all of those. Good thing I have backups. Glad they got you taken care of. Last edited by AnemicOak; 08-17-2010 at 02:44 PM.

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08-17-2010, 02:29 PM	#2
abookreader Wizard Posts: 1,516 Karma: 2567610 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Kindles - Keyboard, Fire, 2-US, iPhone, iPAD	I'm really glad they worked it out for you Bob. But I've heard this a couple of times now where somebody has gotten their account closed accidentally. One time the account was compromised and Amazon closed it ... and they had to do this refund/set-up new account/rebuy Kindle books thing. It kind of leads me to thinking, I just went and looked and I'm up to around 22 pages of purchases of Kindle books. Say that were to happen 3 to 4 years from now it could easily be 100+ pages of books. Rebuying certainly not be a very viable option then, it would be hours of work for the customer. They really need to fix that and quite frankly it is one pretty solid reason to have all your eBook purchases liberated and backed up on your own computer.

08-17-2010, 02:31 PM	#3
Skydog Wizard Posts: 2,243 Karma: 7400001 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Circling Earth @ Mach .83 Device: Elipsa 2E, Sage, Forma, Libra 2, Clara 2E, Kindle Oasis3, Voyage	Wow! Other than Amazon, I cannot think of one other company with that level of service. Well... perhaps Zappo's but they are owned by Amazon. Happy shopping!

08-17-2010, 02:42 PM	#5
texasnightowl Guru Posts: 699 Karma: 1001556 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Texas Device: Oasis 3, K4B(NT), K3/KK	There's more than one reason why DRM is bad :> All my non-Topaz Amazon purchases get deloused and are on my main PC, my WHS, a USB drive, and now Dropbox.

08-17-2010, 04:11 PM	#8
SpiderMatt Grand Arbiter Posts: 447 Karma: 1574837 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Arizona Device: iPod Touch, Amazon Kindle, Motorola Droid	Something similar happened to me last year. Amazon closed my account because it was hacked. I caught it before they did, changed my password, and cancelled the order that had been placed on my account (to somewhere in Turkey). I was fine with keeping the account but Amazon was not and they shut it down as soon as they figured it out. I was pretty irritated at this not just because of my Kindle books but also because of my purchase and browsing history, which has led to some good recommendations in the past. Oh, well. They did reimburse me for all the e-books I purchased (they know which ones were free at the time of purchase) and I have them all backed up sans DRM. So while Amazon's policy of never reopening an account is kind of stupid, at least we can get some free e-books out of it. ;-)

08-17-2010, 11:05 PM	#9
JeremyZ Addict Posts: 303 Karma: 1000702 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Chicago Device: Nook ST, Kindle 2, Samsung Galaxy Stellar phone	I have had nothing but good experience with Amazon customer service. A lot of companies cannot get their heads around why Amazon is so popular. To me, it is a simple formula: good product + fair price + great customer service = loyalty & success. Apple's is: great product + high price + good customer service = loyalty & success. Sony's is: good product + fair price - bad long-term support = @$$ kicked by Amazon and Apple.

08-17-2010, 11:31 PM	#10
luqmaninbmore Da'i Posts: 1,144 Karma: 1217499 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Baltimore Device: Toshiba Thrive, Kobo Touch, Kindle 1, Aluratek Libre, T-Mobile Comet	To be fair sony did go above and beyond in its support of the prs 500, physically upgrading them at their own expense even though the warranties had often expired.

08-18-2010, 01:57 AM	#11
jhempel24 Wizard Posts: 2,157 Karma: 7068605 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, B&N Nook Colro	Wow, that's absolutely incredible! Cool to hear good customer service for once!

08-26-2010, 04:56 PM	#12
pilotbob Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,832 Karma: 11844413 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Tampa, FL USA Device: Kindle Touch	Well, I just checked and re-ordered all the Kindle books that I (wanted) and checked the price on them all. Many of the books that I had "bought" for $0 were no longer free. The difference was $130. I emailed Amazon and they promptly added $130 promo credit to my account. BOb

08-26-2010, 04:59 PM	#13
daffy4u I'm Super Kindle-icious Posts: 6,734 Karma: 2434103 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Long Drive, Calinadia Candafornia Device: KDXG, KT, Oasis	Amazon continues to rock! Good for you BOb.

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