Amazon closed my account, I am totally perplexed and can't speak to a human or chatbot

Gowiththeflow_Jo

I realise (having looked at threads on this site and others) that there is no consumer right to have an Amazon account but my husband and I have both been told that our Amazon accounts have been terminated due to misuse of services.  We are totally perplexed as to why and I don't recall seeing an email which they said I have, my husband vaguely recalls seeing one but it looked suspicious so he didn't open it.  If you try to contact customer help they ask for your account details and then don't allow you to proceed as the account has been closed.  We are 50 something law abiding citizens, we are avid readers and this now means we can't download books to our Kindles - this is how we first realised the accounts have been closed.  We wonder if we have been victims of fraud without realising perhaps but our bank details appear to be intact.  We don't know how to progress this and find out what we have allegedly done to warrant this.  Kindle does  dominate the market for e-readers and this will severely limit our options for reading, I do not want to go back to printed books, the Kindle is such a great product as back lit and you can alter the font size - handy for those of us in our 50's.  We of course also use Amazon to make purchases although don't have Prime and I wouldn't say we are prolific customers of Amazon.  Any help much appreciated and a helpline number - but no scam numbers please we will check them out first as feeling on high alert in any case re this.

libra10

There is a list of different ways to contact Amazon, as follows.

https://www.wikihow.com/Contact-Amazon-UK

HTH

TadleyBaggie

Did you return lots of items?

Alderbank

Perhaps try the Amazon Support forums?

They are hosted by Amazon but managed by volunteers and are accessible to everyone, not just Amazon account holders.
The general Kindle e-reader forum might be helpful but there are many others as well

https://uk.amazonforum.com/s/topic/0TO4P000000t6mPWAQ/general-kindle-ereader  

Melissi

The same thing has just happened to me. Amazon said my account was closed because of misuse, and when i took it up with customer service i got an email to say they had previously closed an account for violating their conditions of use agreement. Hard to see how as i only very occasionally place an order, i have never returned an item and do not sell items. I do buy some books for my Kindle, or rathsr did, as that is no longer possible.  
I have made 3 attempts to get an explanation - 3 long conversations with customer service people, explaining why I really need to know exactly how I 'violated the terms', as I fear my account must have been hacked,  resulting in dismissive emails after the first two and silence after the third.

Has anyone found a way of resolving this?

sheramber

Have you or anyone at your address had an account closed previously?

CardinalWolsey

I wonder whether submitting a subject access request would return information that might give you an indication as to why they've closed the account?

atlantis187

Sorry off slightly off topic but if you have a couple of hundred pounds of gift card balance and amazon closed the account, what would happen to this balance?

Alderbank

atlantis187 said:

Sorry off slightly off topic but if you have a couple of hundred pounds of gift card balance and amazon closed the account, what would happen to this balance?

This crops up from time to time on various discussion forums. Reported by people to whom this has happened that when Amazon close an account they return any unredeemed balance from a gift card to the bank account which purchased the gift card.

So if your mother gifted you a £500 gift card paying with her debit card and £350 remains unspent in your account when Amazon close it they refund the £350 to your mother's bank account.

Sounds fair.

atlantis187

What if the gift cards were bought or redeemed from various other places. How would they know where u got it from.
As currently I have over £500 GC balance on amazon from various places.
Topcashback
Tesco
Quidco
Shopand Scan
Loads of other places I cant even remember.

user1977

Why are you letting it pile up? If you want to mitigate the risk, surely the obvious answer is to spend it rather than leave the balance there?