Writtenwyrdd

Amazon are idiots

Somehow, using the British grammar rules to talk about Amazon seems more appropriate.  Maybe because a collective noun taking a verb in 3rd person feels more like what I've gone through.  That is to say, I've had a good six responses to emails, two chats and three phone calls dealing with the idiocy that was Amazon's response to my account with them being hacked.  And I feel like I've hacked my way through a jungle of stupid to write this post this afternoon.

I swear these people get my emails and can't read English.  In the most recent, I go to the link that I was given, tell them the name and email my new account is under, and explain that I was told they would transfer the outstanding credit for a gift certificate.

The respondant obviously didn't read the emails and was too numb to even read the email he did have.  (I say 'he' because the name was Josh, but it could have been any one of any gender, really.)  At least this guy didn't blame me for their system getting hacked.  (No, Amazon, I didn't give anyone my password like you accused me of.)  The other thing they keep insisting is that they can't give me my order information because they can only give the fraudulent order info to the cops, but will gladly do so if I give them the information--this, after a number of explanations that I do not want that order info, I already have it as I reported the hack, and I just want to know what I've ordered and when/if it will ship. 

Gah.  Makes me want to reach through the phone and commit violence upon their noses with my fist.  But that would be adding insult to injury, cuz obviously their mamma's dropped them collectively on their pointy lil' haids when they were babies. 

Amazon's continued stonewalling

I thought you might be interested in my live chat of this morning.  I have deleted anything extraneous:

You are now connected to Tulsi from Amazon.com.

Me:You have closed/put a hold on my account and are not responding to my Qs. This is related to an unauthorized access to my account a few days ago, which I notified you about. I have replied to the last email, and you have failed to take any action, e.g. remove the hold on my account, and you also have failed to respond to my last email or any of them with useful or correct info. I spoke to customer service and they said my account or a response should be arriving soon, and that was 2 days ago. 9:20:13 AM

Tulsi:Hello, my name is Tulsi. I'll be happy to help you today.9:20:23 AM

Me:I am waiting for my account to be taken off hold. Please read the first post.9:21:05 AM

Tulsi:I am really sorry to hear about this.Let me check what best I can do for your to resolve it.9:22:27 AM

Me: Thank you. As I said in emails and speaking to customer service, your emails said you closed my account, and I have open orders as well as gift certificate money which hasn't yet been redeemed.9:23:18 AM

Tulsi:I'm sorry you've been unable to access your account. As you're probably aware from the email you received, our Account Specialists found there may have been unauthorized activity on your account, and to prevent further access, your account was placed on hold.9:26:25 AM

Tulsi:This is not intended to cause you inconvenience -- it was done to keep your account information secure. Although I'm unable to provide you with full details, I can contact an Account Specialist to let them know you called. I just need to get some information from you, and they will follow-up with you within 24 hours.9:26:35 AM

Me:This will be the third time, but okay. I am the one who caught the unauthorized access, and the fact is that your system was hacked to provide that access. I removed my payment options immediately and deleted the order immediately, as I was sitting there when your order confirmation came in. I changed my password immediately, as well, because the hacker changed it first. So, you should at least allow me to see what is what and where my Christmas orders are at. 9:28:30 AM

Tulsi:I have forwarded your concern to our account team and they will get back to you.9:31:35 AM

Tulsi:withing 24 hours.9:31:40 AM

Now, ask me if I'm expecting that promise to come true.  Cuz I'm not!

More on my 'issues' with the Giant Internet Megacorporation

I'm still dealing with Amazon's draconian closure of my account after it got hacked yesterday, but a found a spot where they will call you if you select it in the help section of their site.  I'd overlooked it yesterday.  They are now telling me that they didn't really close my account, just put a hold on it 'to ensure no illegal activity now that the barn door is opened' basically.

I tell you, the initial email says they closed the account and tells me to open a new account if I want to do business with them, no recourse or offers to straighten out the ensuing mess.  The phone representative spoke perfect English, although she was, I'm sure, Indian by her accent, and she was apologetic and couldn't see into my account due to the hold.  Her supervisor also said the same but assured me that Amazon would get back to me and my issues were being relayed.  (Basically, I've spent my Xmas gift certificates and if they shut me out, all that money is essentially stolen from me by Amazon, as well as all my previous order information and info about pending orders.)

They asked me to be patient and felt it would all be fixed in a day or two.  I'm no overly optimistic.  I'll keep you all updated.

Now, to be realistic, Giant Megacorporations Who Operate On The Internet are used to being faceless entities that can pretty much fire off emails about issues without much thought.  (Not that that's fair to the customers.)  So little puny me having a complaint means that it's not going to be an immediate or immediately human response.  Because that's the way they operate.  It does not make me wrong, however, and when I get this pissed about something, I don't let it go. 

Meantime, I don't have to like their stupid system, but I'll have to work with it.  They need to be fair to me as the victim of the hacking event, though. 

By the way, the rain stopped maybe 2 or 3am and the waters receded.  They got the one road filled with gravel so you can drive it, and the other didn't wash out enough to collapse.  But it was 11 degrees for some friends down in Atlanta area, but 57 here yesterday, which just beats all for weird weather, doesn't it?

Amazon fail (again)

This time, it's me.  I was one of the thousands of people that had an account hacked.  Amazon denies any responsibility, of course.

What happened was really odd.  I get up early, supposedly to walk on my treadmill or wave my way gently through a desultory attempt at tai chi.  So, like usual, I was playing Farmville on Facebook, and I saw an email arrived from Amazon saying I'd ordered something.  I hadn't. 

So I try to sign in to my account, but the password didn't work.  I reset the password, found a $200 order for a computer part addressed to some guy in SoCal with United Arab Emirates at the bottom of the address (made no sense, I know); and they had even entered someone else's credit card info to purchase the stuff!

After deleting both the order and all my payment options, I contacted Amazon.  The only way you can get them is via email, and I heard back just now, them saying it wasn't their fault.  I must have given away my account information, they say. 

Sure, Amazon. Sure I did.  Like I would hand some stranger my password.  And no I never respond to emails requesting information like that, and like I have had one asking for my amazon password in recent days.  Sheesh.

Long and short:  Call and check recent activity on all your credit cards.  I have been told that a hack of a few thousand account occurred yesterday/last night, and it may include you, too.

All things considered, this whole thing appeared really weird and made no sense.  They didn't charge my account, but someone else's credit card.  Since less than 10 minutes passed between order notification and my deleting the order, no harm done.  But amazon deleted my account and I don't know if my pending Christmas orders are going through or not.  And I don't know if they refused payment to the third party vendors from whom I was ordering!  So I don't know what to reorder.  Gah.  I think I will go with Barnes & Noble after this.  First blaming me, then the draconian response without clueing me in first?  Thanks so much.  After the at least $10,000 I've spent through them, you would think that they could be a bit more considerate!

Rant over.  For now.  *grumble grumble*

Amazon:fail roundup

Charlie Stross has an excellent explanation of what's going on with the Amazon/Macmillan book fiasco I fondly call Amazon:Fail. (Because, you know, Amazon still has Macmillan books delisted.)

Tsk, tsk, Amazon

Quel surprise.  Amazon is still playing fast and loose with the truth.  If you look up a Tor or Macmillan title of any flavor, the amazon links to buy new are still not there.  It's Thursday.  They capitulated several days ago, didn't they?

Amazon caves--and it's not even Monday yet, lol

See the Washington Post article here.

Charles Stross explains the Amazon:Fail! in clear terms

"[T]o customers, Amazon would like to be a monopoly (i.e. the only store in town). To suppliers, Amazon would like to be a monopsony (i.e. the only customer in town). Their goal is to profit via arbitrage, and if they can achieve those twin goals they will own everybody's nuts -- the authors, the customers, everyone. They are, in fact, exactly the kind of middle-man operation that the internet tends to squish, gooily. And if you think things would be different if I, Charlie Stross, went into self-publishing and sold my wares directly without any icky publisher to 'help' me ... do you really think I'd get better terms out of Amazon than a huge publishing conglomerate?" Charles Stross

Please read the entire article here.  It's very lucid and clears up any confusion as to what is going on.

Oooh! We learn the events leading up to the stupidity!

Found on Scalzi's Twitter is this link to a letter from Publisher's Lunch.  In it, John Sargent states,

This past Thursday I met with Amazon in Seattle. I gave them our proposal for new terms of sale for e books under the agency model which will become effective in early March. In addition, I told them they could stay with their old terms of sale, but that this would involve extensive and deep windowing of titles. By the time I arrived back in New York late yesterday afternoon they informed me that they were taking all our books off the Kindle site, and off Amazon. The books will continue to be available on Amazon.com through third parties.

Your ball, your rules, Amazon?  Turns out, it isn't your playing field.  Amazon: Fail!

Here's the reply Amazon sent me:

We are working with the publisher to make their titles available as soon as possible and at the lowest possible prices for our customers.

We will e-mail you when these titles are available, which we hope will be soon.

I declare this Amazon: Fail! for the 'amazing' (and unsurprising) spin doctoring.

Amazon Ass-hattery???

Reading John Scalzi's Whatever blog, I discover that, yesterday, Amazon has apparently done something remarkably stupid AGAIN:  All Macmillan books (which includes Tor, Scalzi's publisher) are no longer listed.  The issue, according to Scalzi, has to do with Macmillan wanting to raise ebook prices.  Amazon apparently disagrees because they want more people to buy their stupid Kindle with its stupid DRM that means you don't own the ebooks you pay for.  And, according to Slash gear, Amazon may be in a snit because Macmillan signed on as an initial iBooks member with Apple, whose new iPad is direct competition with the Kindle. 

In any case, he's correct.  Every Macmillan or Tor book I checked for only has other sellers (e.g. used market) listed.  No new from Amazon. 

Spread the word, please.  Let's raise a shit storm so that authors are not injured by a dumb move on the part of Amazon.  Because the authors, the little guys in this 'debate' over who gets to set ebook prices, are the ones who'll suffer if people like me can't order new from Amazon.  (Frankly, I like the free super saver shipping and would rather keep buying from Amazon just for that reason.)

I’ve dashed off a nastygram to Amazon.com’s customer service department and threatened to move my business elsewhere. If they get a shitstorm of such emails and boycott threats, they’ll likely stop the nonsense.