At least as far as its investors are concerned, Amazon can do no wrong. However, some customers who've been banned from shopping on Amazon's website, sometimes for seemingly arbitrary reasons, are starting to speak out, demanding more details about why they were suddenly cut off from a service that had become increasingly intertwined with their daily life, according to an expose published Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal.
In a report that we imagine will only strengthen President Trump's zeal to push back against the company's growing influence, users shared similar stories about being cut off from the company's service, sometimes losing access to hundreds of dollars in company credit.
Others accused Amazon of clearly ignoring the stated reasons for their returns (for example, one user said they requested reimbursement for a product that was ordered but never shipped).
@amazon - wow, great customer service, so personal and caring! Do u even read my return reasons (like 6 purchases in the last year...and that’s too many?) and a replacement for something I NEVER rec’d. #BadCustomerExperience #onlineshopping #Horrible #ShopLocal #BoycottAmazon pic.twitter.com/2DY1qHmFka
Nir Nissim, a 20-year-old Israeli, said he received an email in March notifying him that Amazon had closed his account, purportedly for violating the company's user agreement. "You cannot open a new account or use another account to place orders on our site,” Amazon wrote, according to an email he supplied to WSJ.
Nissim was furious because he said he had a $450 gift card balance with Amazon at the time he was banned. After calling customer service every day for two weeks, and even going so far as to email CEO Jeff Bezos, he said his account was finally reinstated.
The 20-year-old, who works at an ice cream shop in Israel, said he had a $450 gift card balance that he could no longer use. “I contacted them almost every day for a week or two,” he said.
Eventually a customer service agent told him that his account had been closed due to his return activity. Mr. Nissim said he has returned just one item this year—a computer drive—and four items last year. He sent more messages to protest the ban, including one to Chief Executive Jeff Bezos. An Amazon employee—responding on behalf of Mr. Bezos—notified him he was reinstated.
"We want everyone to be able to use Amazon, but there are rare occasions where someone abuses our service over an extended period of time," an Amazon spokesman said. "We never take these decisions lightly, but with over 300 million customers around the world, we take action when appropriate to protect the experience for all our customers."
Amazon declined to disclose...