AP/Stephan Savoia
- Amazon shoppers are flooding social media with complaints after the company deactivated their accounts.
- Soon after Business Insider published its story on the account closures, Amazon sent what appears to be a mass email to customers who had lost access to their accounts.
- The email says that the deactivations were due to customers breaking the company's review policy or using the account for "commercial purposes."
- Some customers say that explanation is "bulls---."
Amazon is trying to calm angry customers who lost access to their accounts.
Hundreds of Amazon customers say that the company closed their accounts with little or no explanation over the last week. Customers have taken to social media to complain about the deactivations, organizing online campaigns and forming Facebook groups to discuss the loss of their accounts.
Soon after Business Insider published its article on the closures, Amazon sent an email to a large number of people whose accounts had been closed. The identical email informed recipients that their accounts had been deactivated for breaking the company's review policy or because they had used the account for "commercial purposes."
Amazon bans users from posting reviews in exchange for perks such as discounts on the item in question or "review swaps," in which people agree to leave reviews of each others' products.
More than 50 individuals in a Facebook group about Amazon account closures said that they received the exact same email slightly after noon ET on Thursday.
Some people in private Facebook groups admitted to violating policies through activities such as leaving good reviews in exchange for a reward, such as gift cards. Some said that they may have committed acts, such as reviewing products that they had received for free or at a discount, that they did not realize were not allowed. And others say they have no recollection of violating the company's policies.
Tina White, whose account was canceled last Thursday, called the email "new bulls---" from Amazon, as she said she has only received gift cards from the company itself as compensation for issues such as "screwed up orders."
Here's the full email:
Hello from Amazon.
Thank you for contacting Amazon Customer Service. We have reviewed your account and confirmed it was deactivated for violations of our Community Guidelines and Conditions of Use.
Your account has been deactivated for one or both of the following reasons:
-- Your reviews were posted in exchange for compensation, such as gift cards to purchase the product, product refunds, review swaps, or free or discounted products; and/or
-- Your account was used for commercial purposes.
We have submitted your account for re-consideration and will advise in the next 7 business days if your account is eligible for reactivation.
In the meantime, if you have made digital purchases (e.g. movies, audible.com, books) the content is now available to you.
Thank you.
Amazon
