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

[LetItBe]

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...

[slokor]

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.

[rsot]

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

[JamesNorth101]

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

[MICKY H]

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?

[user3657]

Originally Posted by MICKY H

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?

Yeah i dont get this part either :/

[GreenBean]

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.

[eBay King]

Originally Posted by LetItBe

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...

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.

[rsot]

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

[Dmshark25]

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

[guitarca18]

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.

[TonyAlmeida]

Originally Posted by rsot

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

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

[user3657]

Originally Posted by guitarca18

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.

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

[zexaah]

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.

[MICKY H]

Originally Posted by zexaah

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.

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

[rsot]

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

[zexaah]

Originally Posted by MICKY H

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

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).

[LetItBe]

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

[LetItBe]

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?

[elmo]

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!

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by LetItBe

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

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.

[LetItBe]

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?