Amazon account closed with £300 Gift card.

RFW

Every article I've found that claims to be a beginner's guide appears to be written in a different form of English to any I know! This article almost helps us luddites

http://www.techopedia.com/2/30111/trends/web-services/what-the-is-bitcoin

I think it attracts shadiness almost the same way Ebay does, anything that makes an anonymous money trail is going to attract a criminal element. In theory it sounds useful, in practice, not so much.

It seems to be accepted a little more than I had ever noticed. I have no real knowledge where I would get a Bitcoin from though, but at $1200 a pop I wouldn't turn them down if anyone wants to send me some;)

xsellize

Hey guys, just an update. I got this email back:

Thank you for contacting (text removed by MSE Forum Team) with your enquiry. I am part of the Buyer Account escalations team and your email has been passed to me for review. Chris will receive a copy of this e-mail.

Unfortunately, after a review of your details, we have determined your Amazon.co.uk account will remain closed and all pending orders have been cancelled. We're sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

We have now clearly set out our position on this matter, to which we have nothing further to add.

For this reason we will not enter into any further correspondence.


Kind regards,

How shall I go about responding to this? I don't care if the account js closed anymore, I just want my money. How can I word this in a way which they'll understand?

RFW

xsellize wrote: »

How shall I go about responding to this? I don't care if the account js closed anymore, I just want my money. How can I word this in a way which they'll understand?

You can't, they won't answer you. You either have to go down the legal route with Amazon or chase Pockio.
What are Pockio saying? Have you forwarded the messages from Amazon to them?
If you keep chasing Amazon you'll keep getting nowhere.
Have you contacted Trading Standards or Citizen's Advice for some help?

Ed-P

Although your situation is tricky Amazon are extremely reasonable - On several occasions they have really impressed me with their customer service.

Ring them up, see what they say. Alternatively go through the legal route which is a lot harder.

MsCasey

Wow this thread took some reading. I have one question why buy a gift card online when you can pop into Argos and buy one? It sounds to me like somewhere along the line this company who sold the GC has debts with Amazon, ironic how they change their name as well when this is happening. I wonder if they are in the midst of bankruptcy. If I was the OP I would seek some legal advice. I think Amazon's replies have been rude and unhelpful.


Perhaps the OP could contact BBC's Watchdog?

RFW

MsCasey wrote: »

Wow this thread took some reading. I have one question why buy a gift card online when you can pop into Argos and buy one?

You didn't read it very well did you? The purchase was made with cryptocurrency. As far as I know, not currently accepted in Argos.

MsCasey

RFW wrote: »

You didn't read it very well did you? The purchase was made with cryptocurrency. As far as I know, not currently accepted in Argos.

I read it clearly thank you! The point I was making is that if the OP saved up £300 as they said they did, why not just buy a gift card in a shop, why use some cryptocurrency to buy one? Or even better pay for the iPad they wanted with a debit card!

Simples...

RFW

MsCasey wrote: »

I read it clearly thank you! The point I was making is that if the OP saved up £300 as they said they did, why not just buy a gift card in a shop, why use some cryptocurrency to buy one? Or even better pay for the iPad they wanted with a debit card!

Simples...

He saved up the money IN cryptocurrency, that was the point.

rustynash

Hi,

I’m Rusty, one of the Founders of Gift Off (formerly pockio), long time MSE user/lurker. Someone kindly brought this thread to our attention so we can shed some light on the situation.

Firstly, Gift Off is a UK based company that sells gift cards in exchange for digital currencies, allowing customers to spend these currencies at stores that don’t currently accept them. Over the last 13 months we have amassed over 4000 users, many of whom are regular customers and the number of users is growing each day.

We did indeed rebrand quite recently following some investment in the company. The changes also helped to improve the service for our customers. This is pure coincidence and understand that this could be some concern to a customer who was, at that time, mid-way through dealing with a support issue with us. Please let me reassure you that the company is exactly the same people, same service, just improved in the look and feel. The rebrand had been a long time in the making and as I’m sure you’ll appreciate it would be impossible to redesign a site and trademark a new name overnight. We made sure that it was clear that pockio had been rebranded, with a message on site for two weeks, a blog post and announcements on forums, reddit, social media, etc. We even received endorsements from Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert on Twitter after the rebrand.

The situation that the OP has faced has happened to both OP and their friend. Our support team and I personally, have worked on finding a solution to this issue, however Amazon will not discuss specifics about OPs account for obvious reasons. When contacting Amazon over numerous phone conversations and email they did provide some information and next steps for the OP which we sent on to them. Our response was as follows:

We have now been able to speak to Amazon in more detail about this matter, and we now have a fuller understanding of what is still required to reach a full resolution.

As previously stated, Amazon flagged your account for suspicious activity, and this caused your account to be frozen. The resulting, ongoing investigation is specifically a matter that must be resolved between Amazon and yourself. We have been informed that we cannot advocate on your behalf, and also that there are no issues with the gift cards themselves; it is the behaviour around your personal Amazon account and linked accounts, which is under investigation. As such, refunds cannot be issued to ourselves from Amazon. Apologies for any confusion caused regarding this. Reopening your account requires you to speak directly with the customer service team at Amazon on 0800 496 1081.

We have been notified that you may request a goodwill gift card(s) of the same value from Amazon customer services. Goodwill gift cards are issued only at the discretion of Amazon and can be issued in place of the revoked gift card(s). This can be done once your Amazon account has been reopened, and the investigation has been completed.

I hope that answers your questions, and please let us know if you have any further queries that we can assist you with.

We received no further response from the OP and their friend other than less than courteous responses on Twitter, to my personal account and the Gift Off Facebook page. Despite this we did all we could to assist OP.

Gift Off prides itself on good customer service and we will always go out of our way to help customers. We support the digital currency community, so having a legitimate, trustworthy business is key to ensuring that digital currencies can be used safely and enjoyed by users as well as gaining broader acceptance. We have no interest in leaving customers out of pocket. In this instance the funds lie with Amazon and OP needs to follow the steps as advised to get their money back.

We hope this provides satisfactory information as to what has gone on. We’re happy to assist OP in future with any further questions they may have.

- Rusty

RFW

Thanks Rusty.

Back to OP. I'd suggest getting some advice from Trading Standards or CAB or find a solicitor with a free drop in session that may help. You may need to enlist the help of someone over 18 (if you are still under) to assist with Amazon.

Go back to the other account that had a problem with Amazon, if that other account had a debt/problem that Amazon have tied in with it.

As others have said Amazon aren't usually that rude, so there must be something else going on.