Joined Feb 2007
L3: Novice
Forum Thread
Amazon Issue
January 28, 2024 at
08:40 PM
I am needing some direction on an issue I'm having with Amazon. In mid-November my email got hacked, and I started getting a lot of issues with emails saying Amazon or other retailers were refunding me for purchases I didn't make, or for password resets, and at first just thought it was junk mail because I get tons anyway. I got one that was for an item I actually did order from Amazon so I called them thinking this might have been a mistake refund, and of course the order number was fake, and the rep sent me an email to verify it was me. I got that, but he sent the password reset email three times and none came through. Amazon blocked my account until I got the email issue resolved and told me to just call after I had the email issue checked.
Turns out there was a hacker, and they put a rule in my account that diverted emails with certain keywords to another account. I got that removed, changed all my passwords and called Amazon. Amazon had evidently added 2 factor authentication, which I have and I use for my job and other things, but it would not work for Amazon. I didn't even want it there to begin with. So Amazon said they could have their techs remove it but it would take 24-48 hours and then they would send me the link to reset the password without the Authenticator.
I have S&S and I keep a lot of things on that list to get or skip every month, mostly from SD bargains. Despite my account being blocked, Amazon sent me all of the items in December from my S&S. Evidently the account was blocked for me, but not for them. The reps said this wouldn't be an issue since they could tell I couldn't access the account to get or skip anything so I would get refunded, and I still hadn't gotten the Authenticator lifted. They had no answer when I noted that I couldn't initiate a refund without access to the account.
From early December until this week I have made 17 calls, got told that same thing each time, and have yet to get a response letting me back into the account. On the day that would've been the cutoff for January S&S, I knew this was going to happen all over again, and Amazon again said not to worry and wait 48 hours for the Authenticator to be lifted. They already had me send copies of my ID and things to verify it was me. I called my bank and told them what happened and they were pretty shocked. They asked me for the last purchase I actually made back in November, they shut down the card and disputed every charge after.
That got a response from Amazon. They emailed me that since there are disputed charges I needed to have my bank clear the dispute and give them my banking info to pay for my purchases.
In those first 17 calls, that I made and that their FB team told me to do, it was the same thing every time. On the 18th call I spoke to a supervisor. He told me my account is on hold pending my bank info to pay for my purchases. I said I need access to my account before anything else happens and again explained what had happened. He told me there was nothing showing about anything except the Amazon hold for banking info. He said there was no notation at all about lifting the Authenticator and he needed info to submit the form. Nobody had mentioned a form before.
It took three questions before I asked if they didn't already have that info, and he said he needed it exactly as it appears with my bank. He was trying to trick me into giving permission for the bank to stop the dispute. I asked him if that was what he was aiming to do, and he hung up.
Sorry to be so wordy, but this is where things stand now. Amazon is pushing me to have my bank drop the disputes and they have not allowed me access to my account, so if I gave them that info, they can continue to charge my account to infinity and there is nothing I can do about it because I can't edit S&S if I can't access my account, and clearly that isn't going to change. The shady supervisor was beyond the last straw.
Any thoughts on how to resolve this? All the S&S is still boxed up and untouched. I am pretty sure as cut-throat as that supervisor was they will likely come after me legally one way or another.
Any thought or ideas would be greatly appreciated.. thank you.
Turns out there was a hacker, and they put a rule in my account that diverted emails with certain keywords to another account. I got that removed, changed all my passwords and called Amazon. Amazon had evidently added 2 factor authentication, which I have and I use for my job and other things, but it would not work for Amazon. I didn't even want it there to begin with. So Amazon said they could have their techs remove it but it would take 24-48 hours and then they would send me the link to reset the password without the Authenticator.
I have S&S and I keep a lot of things on that list to get or skip every month, mostly from SD bargains. Despite my account being blocked, Amazon sent me all of the items in December from my S&S. Evidently the account was blocked for me, but not for them. The reps said this wouldn't be an issue since they could tell I couldn't access the account to get or skip anything so I would get refunded, and I still hadn't gotten the Authenticator lifted. They had no answer when I noted that I couldn't initiate a refund without access to the account.
From early December until this week I have made 17 calls, got told that same thing each time, and have yet to get a response letting me back into the account. On the day that would've been the cutoff for January S&S, I knew this was going to happen all over again, and Amazon again said not to worry and wait 48 hours for the Authenticator to be lifted. They already had me send copies of my ID and things to verify it was me. I called my bank and told them what happened and they were pretty shocked. They asked me for the last purchase I actually made back in November, they shut down the card and disputed every charge after.
That got a response from Amazon. They emailed me that since there are disputed charges I needed to have my bank clear the dispute and give them my banking info to pay for my purchases.
In those first 17 calls, that I made and that their FB team told me to do, it was the same thing every time. On the 18th call I spoke to a supervisor. He told me my account is on hold pending my bank info to pay for my purchases. I said I need access to my account before anything else happens and again explained what had happened. He told me there was nothing showing about anything except the Amazon hold for banking info. He said there was no notation at all about lifting the Authenticator and he needed info to submit the form. Nobody had mentioned a form before.
It took three questions before I asked if they didn't already have that info, and he said he needed it exactly as it appears with my bank. He was trying to trick me into giving permission for the bank to stop the dispute. I asked him if that was what he was aiming to do, and he hung up.
Sorry to be so wordy, but this is where things stand now. Amazon is pushing me to have my bank drop the disputes and they have not allowed me access to my account, so if I gave them that info, they can continue to charge my account to infinity and there is nothing I can do about it because I can't edit S&S if I can't access my account, and clearly that isn't going to change. The shady supervisor was beyond the last straw.
Any thoughts on how to resolve this? All the S&S is still boxed up and untouched. I am pretty sure as cut-throat as that supervisor was they will likely come after me legally one way or another.
Any thought or ideas would be greatly appreciated.. thank you.
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Turns out there was a hacker, and they put a rule in my account that diverted emails with certain keywords to another account. I got that removed, changed all my passwords and called Amazon. Amazon had evidently added 2 factor authentication, which I have and I use for my job and other things, but it would not work for Amazon. I didn't even want it there to begin with. So Amazon said they could have their techs remove it but it would take 24-48 hours and then they would send me the link to reset the password without the Authenticator.
I have S&S and I keep a lot of things on that list to get or skip every month, mostly from SD bargains. Despite my account being blocked, Amazon sent me all of the items in December from my S&S. Evidently the account was blocked for me, but not for them. The reps said this wouldn't be an issue since they could tell I couldn't access the account to get or skip anything so I would get refunded, and I still hadn't gotten the Authenticator lifted. They had no answer when I noted that I couldn't initiate a refund without access to the account.
From early December until this week I have made 17 calls, got told that same thing each time, and have yet to get a response letting me back into the account. On the day that would've been the cutoff for January S&S, I knew this was going to happen all over again, and Amazon again said not to worry and wait 48 hours for the Authenticator to be lifted. They already had me send copies of my ID and things to verify it was me. I called my bank and told them what happened and they were pretty shocked. They asked me for the last purchase I actually made back in November, they shut down the card and disputed every charge after.
That got a response from Amazon. They emailed me that since there are disputed charges I needed to have my bank clear the dispute and give them my banking info to pay for my purchases.
In those first 17 calls, that I made and that their FB team told me to do, it was the same thing every time. On the 18th call I spoke to a supervisor. He told me my account is on hold pending my bank info to pay for my purchases. I said I need access to my account before anything else happens and again explained what had happened. He told me there was nothing showing about anything except the Amazon hold for banking info. He said there was no notation at all about lifting the Authenticator and he needed info to submit the form. Nobody had mentioned a form before.
It took three questions before I asked if they didn't already have that info, and he said he needed it exactly as it appears with my bank. He was trying to trick me into giving permission for the bank to stop the dispute. I asked him if that was what he was aiming to do, and he hung up.
Sorry to be so wordy, but this is where things stand now. Amazon is pushing me to have my bank drop the disputes and they have not allowed me access to my account, so if I gave them that info, they can continue to charge my account to infinity and there is nothing I can do about it because I can't edit S&S if I can't access my account, and clearly that isn't going to change. The shady supervisor was beyond the last straw.
Any thoughts on how to resolve this? All the S&S is still boxed up and untouched. I am pretty sure as cut-throat as that supervisor was they will likely come after me legally one way or another.
Any thought or ideas would be greatly appreciated.. thank you.
1) Cooperate. Stop arguing with customer service and stop disputing payment for things you've signed up for. Pay Amazon. If you receive something later that you didn't sign up for, you can return it.
2) Amazon will likely restore your access if you're nice about it. If you continue to pick fights with them, you probably will be banned.
I got into it with Amazon once and I learned very very quickly not to go up against them. They will jam you up, lock you out, shut you down and there's nothing you will be able to do about it. Please remember that their customer service is a call center somewhere in India. They have limited ability to help you with tech or hacker issues or even policy issues. Just pay them and consider it a lesson learned.
1) Cooperate. Stop arguing with customer service and stop disputing payment for things you've signed up for. Pay Amazon. If you receive something later that you didn't sign up for, you can return it.
2) Amazon will likely restore your access if you're nice about it. If you continue to pick fights with them, you probably will be banned.
I got into it with Amazon once and I learned very very quickly not to go up against them. They will jam you up, lock you out, shut you down and there's nothing you will be able to do about it. Please remember that their customer service is a call center somewhere in India. They have limited ability to help you with tech or hacker issues or even policy issues. Just pay them and consider it a lesson learned.
In Subscribe and Save you have to go in and approve or skip the items. I don't have that ability and it doesn't look like they plan to lift that block they used initially to secure my account. If I give them my information they just get to keep charging me. I am not trying to make trouble here, I had 17 very polite calls with no issues. They simply did not restore my access and there was no other way to keep them from sending stuff I don't necessarily need, stop them from doing it, or return the items.
If they want to ban me at this point, they can. I offered to pay multiple times with a gift card but they said that since the issue is on their end, likely they would not require payment. S&S has a cutoff date monthly where you either accept or skip the items. I still offered to pay despite not having the access to skip or accept, but via gift card. There is no way they are getting my banking info without me having access to the account. I haven't tried to be oppositional with them at all, and I asked them that if they can access which clearly they can, can they just remove all the S&S and they couldn't. They can only take money not make adjustments. And clearly after 17 people promised I would get access back, that isn't going to happen either. I have made my peace with losing Amazon, which I ordered heavily from, but I am not just handing them my bank card to keep taking money for items I don't order on my own.
If they want to ban me at this point, they can. I offered to pay multiple times with a gift card but they said that since the issue is on their end, likely they would not require payment. S&S has a cutoff date monthly where you either accept or skip the items. I still offered to pay despite not having the access to skip or accept, but via gift card. There is no way they are getting my banking info without me having access to the account. I haven't tried to be oppositional with them at all, and I asked them that if they can access which clearly they can, can they just remove all the S&S and they couldn't. They can only take money not make adjustments. And clearly after 17 people promised I would get access back, that isn't going to happen either. I have made my peace with losing Amazon, which I ordered heavily from, but I am not just handing them my bank card to keep taking money for items I don't order on my own.
Admittedly, I'm one of few people on earth that doesn't buy things through internet, so I don't know much about how Amazon works. I still use "old school" ways...in shopping AND reporting if the company doesn't want to resolve an issue, particularly if I don't care to ever do business with them again. (And, with some of the other shopping sites, groups -- whatever the term -- it may be something you've considered.)
** Having said that, if they have a physical address, in addition to the BBB, I'd also report them to that state's Attorney General AND the Secretary of State of that state as well as your own state's AG and the federal AG (& anyone else I think might even remotely care & possibly help get it resolved).
** If you want to add others to the list, there's always writing a snail mail (I doubt they get many paper letters anymore, so it SHOULD make it stand out) to the CEO & maybe the CFO of Amazon, and if you can find out their Board members, letters to them as well. I usually let them know the events and my frustration (much as you did in the OP) and let them know if creating this aggravation and poor customer service is what their business plan entails, then they are performing at the TOP of their goals!! but, did they also consider their customers' reactions and alternatives? However, if this is NOT their goal, they may wish to review the process.
I include dates, times, # called, who I spoke with, what they said, length (minutes) of conversation (& HOLD times if it is over 5 minutes, which is MORE than generous time). If you have access to your phone records, I'd download the info on calls to them and either also print & send that, or offer to provide it should they request it. With all this info, they can search their records.
You MIGHT want to try the letter to CEO & Board members first and let them know you considered involving outside entities, but wanted to give them an opportunity to assist you in resolving this issue before doing that.
...Something to that effect. Have a friend read over it to be sure emotion is removed. That it's "the facts and just the facts" as some old show used to say. No aggravation, anger, etc & that you don't go off on tangents (as I tend to do) & stay on target! THEN set it aside 2-3 days and re-read it & make sure you want to continue.
There are several ripoff complaint or review type sites you can check & read info on & include those links in your complaint to the state officials & BBB to see if this is a pattern of business the company uses, which might have a ripple effect through the agencies if it is.
Also, if you have any TV consumer reporters, might contact them....I'm sure Amazon would LOVE more free publicity.
Sorry for the word count, but hope it helps! (she says fading back into the lurking obsurity world)