Amazon refuse to reinstate hacked account

Undervalued

D3bs_R said:

Undervalued said:

cx6 said:

Yes to the latter point - I have had 2FA on my Amazon account for ages ie a text PIN is required to log in.

Oh, and don't get me started on the wisdom of keeping your music, audio books, photos etc 'somewhere out there' without having an identical copy on your hard drive.
 

I agree although, to be fair, the OP says he has copies of his photos.

I think the only possibly valid issue the OP has here is losing access to material he has "bought" but can no longer be viewed / read without a the Amazon account. I don't think films "bought" on Fire TV can be downloaded for local storage.

The legal position on that interests me but I don't know the answer. It may be that "bought" isn't the correct word and that is how they get round it?

I do have copies of my photos I pleased to say. My issue is the Audible and Kindle, years of books bought and just disappeared into the either. One Art book, not cheap I've not even read! 2 months of Audible subscription paid and unused. I changed my password regularly, was definitelynot phished I'm wise to that, they lost nothing as I spotted the first false purchase and informed them within an hour, I have emails saying further attempts were blocked. My real gripe is no one actually will tell you 'No you'll never get your accounts back' just promises of a call back in 24 hours, try Audible, try Kindle. And of never being able to speak to anyone who is of any help. Imagine having a business where there's no one knowledgeable to answer customers queries or issues with that business. I was just looking to see if anyone had the same and what was the outcome. After ringing twice weekly I think I'll give up, but I will never have another Amazon account. An Alexa going cheap lol!

I sympathise, not that it is of any help!

If you took all reasonable steps regarding account security, so have been denied access to your account unjustly, I suspect you may have a legal claim regarding the "bought" films and books. Whether it is worth pursuing or whether Amazon would settle if you threatened / commenced action who knows.

I once got a gift card out of them by way of settlement, valued at about double the amount in dispute, basically by never letting up and contacting them repeatedly as soon as every promised deadline for a response elapsed. As far as possible this was by online "chat" so that I had written evidence of everything and / or by insisting on a email confirmation of what was promised before I would hang up / end the chat. Eventually, after about three weeks, I badgered them enough to put me through to a manager who had sufficient authority to settle the matter. Up to what level they have authority to go I simply don't know.

Obviously without access to your account this is harder. Their are websites that collect direct unpublished contact details for more senior people in large organisations. These can sometimes be useful although they tend to go out of date.

You could also try the "consumer champion" type columns that most newspapers have, to see if they will take it up. Obviously they get thousands of requests for a handful of articles. However, this may be of wider interest so you might strike lucky.

Manxman_in_exile

The OP may find this thread on Consumer Action Group of interest:  Amazon won't let me have my purchased digital content? - Online Stores - Consumer Action Group

In that case Amazon closed the customer's account because* they were making far too many returns, but Amazon told the customer that they would still be able to access their digital content, even though the account was closed. 

As it turns out, that was an error on Amazon's part, and once the account was closed, access to digital content simply was not possible for technical reasons as it required an existing Amazon account.  If I recall correctly, because Amazon had given the customer duff info, they agreed to give the customer a full refund of the purchase price of the digital content - even though Amazon's T&Cs do not allow that.  They did it from goodwill and to acknowledge their error in telling the customer they could still access their digital content.

The customer was wanting to sue Amazon for the cost of replacing the digital content that they had lost access to, but I think they must have given up.  (Anybody who is interested in the detail needs to read the thread).

If I were the OP here, I would persist in trying to get through to Amazon and I'd be asking for a refund on the purchase price of the digital content.

*The OP needs to read the CAG thread, but I think that in that thread there is an extract from Amazon's T&Cs that make it clear that the customer is responsible for maintaining security on their account, and if it breached, Amazon can close the account.

Undervalued

Manxman_in_exile said:

The OP may find this thread on Consumer Action Group of interest:  Amazon won't let me have my purchased digital content? - Online Stores - Consumer Action Group

In that case Amazon closed the customer's account because* they were making far too many returns, but Amazon told the customer that they would still be able to access their digital content, even though the account was closed. 

As it turns out, that was an error on Amazon's part, and once the account was closed, access to digital content simply was not possible for technical reasons as it required an existing Amazon account.  If I recall correctly, because Amazon had given the customer duff info, they agreed to give the customer a full refund of the purchase price of the digital content - even though Amazon's T&Cs do not allow that.  They did it from goodwill and to acknowledge their error in telling the customer they could still access their digital content.

The customer was wanting to sue Amazon for the cost of replacing the digital content that they had lost access to, but I think they must have given up.  (Anybody who is interested in the detail needs to read the thread).

If I were the OP here, I would persist in trying to get through to Amazon and I'd be asking for a refund on the purchase price of the digital content.

*The OP needs to read the CAG thread, but I think that in that thread there is an extract from Amazon's T&Cs that make it clear that the customer is responsible for maintaining security on their account, and if it breached, Amazon can close the account.

I would expect there is such a T&C.

In a way this is a bit like the banks refunding fraud losses (even if it is not the bank's fault) but only if they feel the customer has complied with all their security rules and has not be negligent. Ultimately, if it goes to court, it will come down to what a judge thinks is reasonable.

Another example may be the level of security on your house. An insurance company will require a certain level but obviously if a householder increases the physical security to bank vault or national museum level they are far less likely to be burgled. However the cost could easily be disproportionate so again it comes down to what is reasonable.