Amazon Banned Me Randomly For No Reason

km1500

you ***may*** get some insight if you write to one of the 'agony aunts' in the financial pages of a national newspaper -  they may take on your case, especially if you emphasise the loss of access to products you have previously purchased for example your echo device

Garsington

Many thanks for all the interesting responses, arguably they are somewhat affirming my own suspicions.  

My circumstances are fairly simple in that I live with just my wife - she is an Amazon Prime member and has never had any issues.  I can't see that the house can be blacklisted as per my original post.  I have on occasion sent presents to my parents directly to their address in the past but they haven't had any issues with their accounts.   

They do continue to provide access to previously "purchased" media via their website but if seems somewhat haphazard getting to it.  The key issue for me is the Echo devices which can't be used without an Amazon account and in effect become inoperable paper weights.  This is my argument, and in effect I am incurring a loss because I purchased them in good faith that the service would be accessible.  In practice, I have now registered them to my wife's account and they are working, but refuse to allow me to access alarms settings etc via the app and I don't like to sign in via my wife's account on the basis that they may associate her device IP with me and we find that she also gets banned..... because she knows somebody, that is alleged to know somebody that has been banned....  it really is utterly ridiculous!

Aylesbury_Duck

Garsington said:

Many thanks for all the interesting responses, arguably they are somewhat affirming my own suspicions.  

My circumstances are fairly simple in that I live with just my wife - she is an Amazon Prime member and has never had any issues.  I can't see that the house can be blacklisted as per my original post.  I have on occasion sent presents to my parents directly to their address in the past but they haven't had any issues with their accounts.   

They do continue to provide access to previously "purchased" media via their website but if seems somewhat haphazard getting to it.  The key issue for me is the Echo devices which can't be used without an Amazon account and in effect become inoperable paper weights.  This is my argument, and in effect I am incurring a loss because I purchased them in good faith that the service would be accessible.  In practice, I have now registered them to my wife's account and they are working, but refuse to allow me to access alarms settings etc via the app and I don't like to sign in via my wife's account on the basis that they may associate her device IP with me and we find that she also gets banned..... because she knows somebody, that is alleged to know somebody that has been banned....  it really is utterly ridiculous!

Yes, I think it wise to tread carefully.  You don't want to trigger closure of your wife's account as well.

It may appear ridiculous, but Amazon probably has some of the world's most complex and accurate behaviour tracking systems outside of the security services - in fact, theirs is probably better than the security services' because of the sheer volume of data they hold for tens of millions of people in the UK.  I very much doubt their system has just randomly taken action on your account for no reason.  If it behaved like that, the media would be full of people in your situation pretty quickly.  Whether you ever find out what's gone on is in doubt, but something's triggered the closure.

Garsington

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Yes, I think it wise to tread carefully.  You don't want to trigger closure of your wife's account as well.

It may appear ridiculous, but Amazon probably has some of the world's most complex and accurate behaviour tracking systems outside of the security services - in fact, theirs is probably better than the security services' because of the sheer volume of data they hold for tens of millions of people in the UK.  I very much doubt their system has just randomly taken action on your account for no reason.  If it behaved like that, the media would be full of people in your situation pretty quickly.  Whether you ever find out what's gone on is in doubt, but something's triggered the closure.

I don't necessarily disagree, but whatever has triggered it is nothing that i have done and as such the whole thing seems massively unfair.

Grumpy_chap

I can't help but I have one thought, triggered by the OP mentioning the account closure put the Echo devices beyond use.
I wonder whether the OP purchased the Echo devices brand new direct from Amazon or used / "unwanted gifts" or similar via any other reselling platform.
It would not surprise me if Amazon were able to track these devices and if devices are reported stolen then identified in use by Amazon, that the response would be to disable the account using the devices and, hence the devices.  It is not a good solution as it targets the innocent buyer of the "unwanted gift" device rather than the fiend, but it is a possibility.
There are quite a lot of "unwanted gift" smart speaker devices of various kind sold quite genuinely (following a promotional give away or such like) but that does give cover to the crooked to sell the devices also..
My thought and post are, also, speculation as I have no idea whether Amazon can track then in that way but I thought I'd put it out for consideration.

Aylesbury_Duck

Garsington said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Yes, I think it wise to tread carefully.  You don't want to trigger closure of your wife's account as well.

It may appear ridiculous, but Amazon probably has some of the world's most complex and accurate behaviour tracking systems outside of the security services - in fact, theirs is probably better than the security services' because of the sheer volume of data they hold for tens of millions of people in the UK.  I very much doubt their system has just randomly taken action on your account for no reason.  If it behaved like that, the media would be full of people in your situation pretty quickly.  Whether you ever find out what's gone on is in doubt, but something's triggered the closure.

I don't necessarily disagree, but whatever has triggered it is nothing that i have done and as such the whole thing seems massively unfair.

But sadly, you don't know that.  You may not have done anything with any intent or dubious motive, but they can close the account if they just don't like the pattern of purchases you make or how you use your account or linked services, for example.  I agree that it's unfair, but that's their prerogative.  At least you have access to things through your wife's account.  That's why firing off solicitor's letters or complaint emails is not a good idea.

prettyandfluffy

I can only imagine how deeply frustrating this is for you as I rely heavily on Alexa for all kinds of things from kitchen timers and reminders to the radio.  In the short term you can probably do a factory reset on the Echo devices and then link them to your wife's account so they will at least work.
I have also had the misfortune to encounter Amazon stonewalling and it was like nothing else I've come across.  In my case it turned out to be attempted fraudulent activity on my account but everything was locked down whilst they investigated and I had no clue as to what was going on.  I think the SAR suggestion is the way to go and I hope you can get this resolved.  Please come back and update us.

Garsington

Grumpy_chap said:

I can't help but I have one thought, triggered by the OP mentioning the account closure put the Echo devices beyond use.
I wonder whether the OP purchased the Echo devices brand new direct from Amazon or used / "unwanted gifts" or similar via any other reselling platform.
It would not surprise me if Amazon were able to track these devices and if devices are reported stolen then identified in use by Amazon, that the response would be to disable the account using the devices and, hence the devices.  It is not a good solution as it targets the innocent buyer of the "unwanted gift" device rather than the fiend, but it is a possibility.
There are quite a lot of "unwanted gift" smart speaker devices of various kind sold quite genuinely (following a promotional give away or such like) but that does give cover to the crooked to sell the devices also..
My thought and post are, also, speculation as I have no idea whether Amazon can track then in that way but I thought I'd put it out for consideration.

Good thought, but all purchased brand new...

Garsington

As a few of you have suggested, I think I'll pursue the SAR route and see if I get anywhere.  But like the dog with a bone I am, I can't see myself letting this go anytime soon! 

If there are any developments I'll let you know and thanks for taking the time to reply.

born_again

Garsington said:

As a few of you have suggested, I think I'll pursue the SAR route and see if I get anywhere.  But like the dog with a bone I am, I can't see myself letting this go anytime soon! 

If there are any developments I'll let you know and thanks for taking the time to reply.

The only issue with a SAR. Is that it will only get you anything to do with your account linked to your email. It will not report anything on any linked acc details. As they are not your account.
eg someone using your card details