SPOKANE, Wash. – Hundreds of Amazon Accounts have been closed, seemingly with little warning or reason, including some in the Inland Northwest.
A man from Spokane said his account was suddenly closed last weekend and he has been fighting ever since to get it reopened. He is also looking for an explanation from the company.
He said his account was shut down Sunday and he was never notified as to why. He called Amazon and was told it would be forwarded to an account specialist and that it would take up to 48 hours. After 48 hours, he was told he still could not make purchases.
Then on Thursday, he got a generic email from the company saying the account was deactivated for one or both of the following reasons: That reviews were posted in exchange for compensation or because the account was used for commercial purposes.
He said he did post a review after a company told him they would give him a $5 gift card, but he said he had no idea that was against Amazon rules. As of Thursday night, his account is still shutdown.
“It’s a lifetime ban from my understanding, and they can track if you create another account, they keep track of all your IP address ranges you’ve used, they keep track of your Mac addresses you used, if I open it on my phone it says this device has been banned from, you know, everything,” the man told KREM, KING 5’s sister station in Spokane. “I never have a chance of having an Amazon account again. It just blows my mind that this is happening. My Echo and all that stuff is totally rendered useless; you can’t use it without an Amazon account.”
Several other national news outlets have covered this story in the last few days. So far, Amazon is not saying much, except that the accounts are being reviewed. But as of Thursday night, hundreds of people said their accounts are still unusable, with no indication of when, or if they will ever be reopened.
