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Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!!!
 

I made several laptop purchases and returned 2 of them, which left 2K in store credit balance in my Amazon account. My account didn't have seller's account. This was strictly for buying. Nothing shady in my buying activity either.

I think I must have logged into one of my neighbor's network that had an account which was banned. I got banned the next day and I realized I was connected to an open wifi in my building. FML.

I emailed the account specialists and Jeff Bezos and all I got was "the decision was correct. no reinstatement. no refund." Amazon basically straight up said they will not give any refund back for my gift credit in my account. They're basically gonna lock me out of my account and keep my gift balance... WTF This is straight up unethical and unfair business.

Any chance I can get my account back? Amazon is ignoring all my emails... I am so furious. Someone please tell me I have some options...

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

I assume this is a fully legitimate account with your real info on it.
For that much I would contact a lawyer.
Contact Amazon's costumer service and ask them for their legal department contact info first. Get that number and call them up. That might be enough to get them to release those funds back to you. If it does not get their full contact info including address and email and get that info to your lawyer and he will take it from there. Im sure one registered piece of mail from him will be enough but if its not then take it all the way - theyll have to pay the legal fees once they lose. This of course assumes youre COMPLETELY legitimate in your claim.
I find it very hard to believe that if all the info is your real legitimate info and you have no selling activity or shady business going on with Amazon that they will be able to just outright steal from you.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Agree with the legal approach - forums can't really help further than this. Amazon is known for being steadfast on banning.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

It would be well worth talking to your card company that you used for the purchases.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Firstly how did you buy the laptops, if it was with Visa/Mastercard or Amex forget lawyers and put in a dispute claim with your card provider. If what you say is true you will get your money. However I don't understand why your card was not refunded by amazon on return of the goods and why you have a gift balance. Please explain the gift balance?

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Yeah i dont get this part either :/

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

OP:

What you say is not exactly smelling sweet.

amazon works in certain ways.

You appear to be trying to get something that may not be your right.

Bull dust does not work here.

:mad:

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

When you said you purchased and returned several laptops, this makes me cringe, no offence.

Amz probably do not like this sort of buying and returning practice.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Returning several laptops...you're on a seller forum...and asking info as a "shady" buyer...careful OP

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

The gift card credit doesn't make sense at all, unless that's how they paid originally, I received the wrong ink cartridges and the credit went back to my credit card that made the purchase

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Its been a while but I vaugely remember buying something from a third party seller and another item from a different seller. Both items were expired when I got it so I filed a dispute on both of the sellers. One of the sellers refunded my card but for some reason the second seller didn't. We went all the way through the dispute process and Amazon ended up giving me a credit on my account and not refunding to my original payment card.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Where did you get this part rsot? The OP said purchased several laptop and returned 2.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Did your neighbor get banned for the same reason for returning too many items or opening a-z claims?

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

If you email cis@amazon.com they can send you a check in the mail for the amount you listed. They cannot keep your money, remember that.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Don't know that e mail address can you enlighten the forum, but dude, amazon can do WTF they like, remember that.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

LetItBe OP has not returned with follow-up yet - oh well

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Those are the account specialists, they will be able to mail you a check for whatever balance they owe you. I had the same issue with them, they had $400 AGC of mine and I simply emailed them back when they told me my account got closed, and they informed me I'd be getting a check in the mail for the balance they owe me as they don't want me to be on Amazon anymore(lol but I still am).

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Hey guys,

Ok full disclosure: I bought my gift card from a third party because I had planned on shopping on Amazon anyway but wanted to get some discount on it. The gift card seller ordered it directly from Amazon. I received it directly from Amazon to my email. I bought some school supplies, including computers. I returned a laptop and some computer parts, totaling about $1800 or so. I was given advanced credit for my returns but chose not to use them until I shipped out my returns and had no problems.

My account got locked after tracking data for return shipment updated. For about a month now I have been emailing address-verification@amazon.com and jeff@amazon.com.

At first they said they suspended my account because it was related to another closed account. Now they are saying "We had a problem processing your gift card as payment. Contact the person who sent you this gift card..."

They actually wanted me to contact the third party who gave me the gift card, which makes no sense because how would they know I even have the ability to contact the third party? I only get canned response from address-verification@amazon.com

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

I also sent an email to payments-funds@amazon.com (i think it was) and they said my account couldn't be found, presumably because account specialists locked it.

How do I find the legal department email?

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Typically amazon holds firm on any decisions they make. You can appeal, but even then chances are they've already made their decision. Time to go rogue!

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

It sounds to me like the person who sold you the gift card may have committed some sort of fraud to purchase the gift card in the first place. This can happen when someone steals credit card information and buys gift cards. The real account holder may not see the charge on their account for at least a couple of weeks or as long as a month, so there is no immediate alarm.

After Amazon was notified that the charge on the credit card was disputed, they probably blocked your gift card and closed your account. This is my GUESS, of course.

The thing is, Amazon is not likely to cancel a buyer account just because you accidentally may have logged on using your neighbors wifi, even if he was committing some sort of fraud as a seller. And it would be even MORE UNLIKELY that they would withhold funds from a legitimate transaction that way.

Amazon's standard operating procedure when they close accounts for any type of fraudulent activity is to not respond to you. You can call them and email them all you want, but you probably won't get a response.

I doubt you will be able to reach the person who sold you the card, but it might be worth a shot. Although don't expect them to ADMIT anything. But they may be so freaked out that they give you a refund.

The other option is to get an attorney involved, however I don't think there will be much they can do if the gift card was obtained by fraud in the first place.

This is one of the problems with buying gift cards for a discount. Who is likely to buy a $2,000 gift card on Amazon and sell it for $1,800? Or whatever the amounts are? Why not just NOT buy the gift card in the first place? Yes, it could be that the buyer had a use for the gift card, but no longer needs it, but Amazon sells many, many, things and most people would not be willing to take a 10% loss. If it were me, I would have just kept the card and used it myself, over time, if I could not get a refund.

Of course, I could be wrong, but this just looks like fraud to me. Not that the OP committed fraud, but the original purchaser of the gift card probably did.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

So Amazon gets to keep the gift balance? Isnt the gift card supposed to be treated as cash? The real fraud is the gift card seller can just claim they were lost or stilen and get both money and gift card. Why does Amazon keep the balance?

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Amazon I would imagine will get a charge back from the credit card company so the money is returned, they will not keep it. Basically you lose sorry unless you can find the seller of the gift card and pursue him for your lost money.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Actually, if the gift card is purchased with a stolen credit card, the credit card company does a "chargeback" and Amazon has to refund their money.

In that instance, Amazon does not have the cash, the person who sold you the gift card does.

For all Amazon knows, you could have been in on the scam. So, they are not going to be very forgiving in that instance.

Now, I'm sure you didn't do anything wrong in this case, but trusting someone selling a gift card is a gamble, because you are taking a chance that they obtained the gift card through fraud. If that happens, with Amazon or any other store, they will invalidate the gift card.

Here is the section of Amazon's policy that applies to gift cards obtained through fraud:

Fraud.

We will have the right to close customer accounts and bill alternative forms of payment if a fraudulently obtained Gift Card is redeemed and/or used to make purchases on Amazon.com or any of its affiliated websites set forth above.

The bottom line is, be VERY CAREFUL when buying gift cards, unless you are buying them directly from the source.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Yeah sounds like Jeff is right on the money, never trust someone selling an amazon gift card especially if there was a big discount you should right away assume something fishy is going on. Sounds like your gripe should not be with amazon but the person who sold you the card.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

1. Why would you buy an Amazon gift card from a third party in the first place? Because it cheaper or else?
2. If it is cheaper than the face value then there is something wrong with that seller if he/she have to order full price from Amazon and also the seller fee to sale that giftcard to you. => Smell something here.
3. If the price is the equal the face value then there is something smell on your end.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Amazon stopped replying.
I guess if someone really wanted to they can sell gift cards at slight discount then call Amazon and say they were stolen. Amazon will return it to the seller...

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Btw Amazon gave same "problem processing gift card as payment" way before this happened. I got advanced credit for a return and when I tried to use it I got the error. Then my account was locked. I had the gift card seller email Amazon and I got it released. I really think Amazon screwed up or got something mixed up. This has happened before.

I really dont think there was anything wrong with the seller or the payment. I think Amazon just keeping it for another reason not related to suspecting fraud. Gift card is treated as cash. Why would they ban account if chargeback didnt even occur?

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

Well, you don't KNOW that a chargeback did not occur. And when Amazon finds accounts involved in fraud, their response is to close them ALL, even though they might be closing a buying account of an innocent person.

The only recourse I see for you at this point is to contact the person who sold you the gift card.

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

If I can get the seller to email account specialist that the gift cards are not fraud or chargebacked would they reinstate my account?

Re: Buyer Account w/ $2K GC CLOSED for "being related to another closed account" WTF!
 

If an innocent mistake was made somewhere down the line, then it is possible. But the original purchaser of the gift card is going to have to work out whatever the problem is with Amazon. That is assuming, of course, that he did not obtain the card through fraud.

The problem is, you do not know what the history of the gift card was before you got it. Only the original purchaser does. So, he or she would be the only person in a position to argue the point with Amazon.

I feel for you, LetItBe, I really do. I know that is sucks to get scammed, because I have been scammed before. Back in the early 1990's, I didn't have very much money - in fact, I was dead broke most of the time. Then someone scammed me out of $350 or thereabouts. That REALLY, REALLY hurt! I already couldn't afford the $350, much less losing it to a scammer. It took me a couple of months volunteering for overtime to make up that loss. And it damaged me psychologically. It took awhile before I started trusting people again. Maybe that experience has made me more careful, so perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. But mostly I just remember being hungry because of it. It was NOT fun!